So, an entire episode of just Villanelle trying to bond with the family she barely remembers? No other regular on display? Just Villanelle being Villanelle in the Russian countryside?
I can live with that.
Yeah, Villanelle wants some love and acceptance or something along those lines, so why not go find her long lost family? She apparently didn’t know where they were, but Konstantin gave her an address or something. And since she’s Villanelle, going willingly by her birth name of “Oxana” for what I am guessing the only time in the entire run of this show, she just walks in and waits for everyone to come home. There’s her young kid brother who turns out to be a big Elton John fan. There’s a full brother who’s kind of a nervous loner but who remembers her a bit fondly. There’s another half-brother with his snotty girlfriend who thinks he’s cheating on her again when she sees the mystery blonde in the house. There’s a step-father who doesn’t know what to make of her. And finally, there’s her mother, and she’s, well, surprised.
See, apparently, Mama Tatiana had dropped young Oxana off at a orphanage for some reason and never looked back. Villanelle would like to know why. She does have fond memories of her father, but Tatiana doesn’t seem interested in talking about him. In the meantime, it does seem like a normal family reunion. There’s stuff like looking at old photo albums and recalling old times before Oxana went to the orphanage, and there’s a trip to a harvest festival.
About that harvest festival…I have never been to a harvest festival, especially a Russian one. I don’t live in a rural area or in Russia. I have no idea what those things look like. But this one looked kinda…sad and weird. Was that because this was Russia? Is it because this show’s budget couldn’t legitimately afford to a fake harvest festival that would look convincingly Russian? I mean, I don’t know whether or not this show filmed on location all over Europe or not. Sure, I could look it up, but it’s a moot point. Besides, Villanelle is surprisingly good at a lot of carnival games…granted, that seems to be the sort of stuff her skillset would work out well for. I mean, she probably would do well at anything involving general marksmanship…
So yeah, it sure is good to be home. Wait, that sounds weird for a show like this. Why would anything work out for Villanelle like this? She’ll never go back to Eve or the Twelve if she’s happy in this small Russian town. Besides, it’s not much of an episode if she doesn’t kill someone. Most of her family isn’t exactly all that good, though the stepfather’s crime seems to be that he’s remarried more than once and implies he will again. Plus, he’s not Villanelle’s birth father. She really misses that guy.
That is until Tatiana decides to tell off a self-confessed murderer and reveal that she took her to the orphanage because she was a scary child that both of her parents feared.
Still, the recluse and the kid brother were nice to her. Villanelle won’t let them die. She’ll leave the boy enough money to see Elton John in concert. Plus, she’ll make sure both of the nice brothers are in the barn when the house blows up.
Not sure concert tickets make up for becoming an orphan. Then again, that kid got off lucky compared to the last time Villanelle tried to do something nice for someone through murder. He didn’t have his neck snapped and left as a corpse in a French hospital.
You really can’t go home again. You probably shouldn’t meet your heroes either.
More Stories
Weekend Trek “Ship In A Bottle”
Vikings: Valhalla “Pieces Of The Gods”
Noteworthy Issues: The Amazing Spider-Man #52 (September, 1967)