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“ | You'll get bored with her. You'll never get bored here. I'll make sure of it. Neither of you will ever be bored again. | „ |
~ Aaron offering Villanelle to work for him. |
“ | It has to be perfect. There is no point if it isn't perfect. | „ |
~ Aaron to "Billie Marie Morgan". |
Aaron Peel is the main antagonist of Series 2 of the TV series Killing Eve.
He was a sinister businessman and the owner/CEO of the Pharaday UK tech-company, while secretly being a serial killer and a cybercriminal planning to sell a weapon that could access information on any person in the world. To that end, he hired the Ghost to kill his father and his colleagues, which drew the attention of MI6.
He was portrayed by Henry Lloyd-Hughes, who also played Mark Donovan in The Inbetweeners.
Biography[]
Past[]
Aaron grew up with a younger sister Amber to their father Alister, who was the owner of tech-company Pharaday UK, in which Aaron was the heir to. Aaron grew up being intelligent but also paranoid, not having any lovers or friends, and even having people monitor Amber whenever she went to AA meetings in London. At some point in his life, Aaron became a fan of snuff films and secretly started producing his own by luring countless women to his personal residence in Rome whilst wearing clothes he prearranged before murdering them in their rooms, and recorded their deaths via hidden cameras so he could watch them again afterwards.
Inheriting the Company[]
Wanting to expand his potential outside of Pharaday, Aaron plotted to build a cyber-weapon that would be capable of digitally monitoring any person on the planet for the means of blackmail and extortion (via emails, S&Ms, phone calls, online accounts, etc.), and then sell it on the black market to the highest bidder, while also selling the company as well. Needing access to Pharaday's technology and its vast amounts of sensitive information, Aaron hired an assassin called the Ghost to perform several contract kills over the course of a few months and made them look like accidents so they wouldn't look suspicious. First, he sent her to kill the company's CEO Gerard Lee, and he officially died of a reaction to insulin since he was type-1 diabetic. Four months later, he had her kill his father's ex-girlfriend Susan Harris while she was on holiday and the official report says she died from anaphylactic shock as she had a shellfish allergy. Eventually, around one or two months later, he had her kill his father and made it look like a heart attack, therefore making him the owner and CEO of the company, so he could now secretly develop his weapon.
A few months later, he and Amber were visited by MI6 operatives Eve Polastri and Carolyn Martens at their personal residence. Peel commends Eve on stating how the house doesn't look very billionaire-like despite how rich the family were. After introducing the agents to his sister, the Peel siblings were told that their father's death was in fact a murder, not an accidental heart attack, which has prompted them to investigate. After being asked if their father had a beautician, Aaron confirmed that he had some to make his company less boring. Eve then showed them a mugshot picture of a woman and asked if they recognized her as the beautician, which they both denied. Afterwards, despite knowing that MI6 was investigating, Aaron remained confident that since agency has not as much access to information as Pharaday does and that the company was somewhat above the government, he could continue with his plans. He then had the Ghost kill his father's godson Jonathan McVey and made it look like a heart attack.
A week after McVey's death, Aaron was arranged a meeting with Eve and her colleague Jess at the Pharaday UK building. Wanting to continue looking less suspicious, Aaron complied and attended the meeting, asking them if they know who killed his father. They tell him that it's not why they came and he started to berate them for not having solved the case. They explain that they came to talk about the sale of the company and after Aaron wonders why it's their business, Jess answers that they think it's connected to the deaths of his father and his colleagues. Aaron coldly answers that his father employed 20,000 people and that people do die regardless. After Eve further pushes for an answer on the sale, Aaron summons his lawyer by clicking on his tablet, who says that Aaron declines to answer their questions. The two agents get up to leave, seeing that it was going nowhere and Eve says people are dying due to whatever Pharaday's selling. Aaron then mocks them and says intelligence and secret services are finished because companies like Pharaday own more information than the Pentagon and MI6 combined, prompting the two to leave insulted.
During the interview with the agents, Aaron had the Ghost take out his last target, his father's secretary Linda, whose death was listed as a heart attack. This means that he could now proceed to move ahead with his goals and sure enough, his weapon was complete ready for selling. According to news article, his actions as CEO started causing controversy as he announced he would sell off percentage of data and sell the company. During an interview, after the journalist asked what he says to the criticism of him controlling vast amounts of private surveillance data gives him too much power and influence, Peel adverted the question and ratted out his usage of his hidden micro camera. He then revealed he knew about the S&M sessions with his wife, adding that there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. He then had the journalist killed, who was lodged in a sewer underneath Farringdon and the official story was "Urban explorer overreached himself". Aaron then set up a meeting with global criminals during his Pharaday conference being held in Rome two weeks from then, so he could sell off his weapon but never told them what it was.
Meeting Villanelle[]
As Aaron moved ahead with his plans, he also met Billie Marie Morgan, whom Amber befriended at her AA meetings and invited for supper at their family home in Richmond Upon Thames. They both ask Billie where she lived and what she does for work, and she replies that she lives in Shoreditch and doesn't work for the moment after having interned at a start-up, which doesn't impress Aaron. She states she couldn't run a huge company like his and that's why he's selling it, confusing Aaron as to how she knew he was, which she claimed was in an article she read. Aaron then starts trying to provoke her, commenting that she doesn't seem like the type to be interested in business, pressuring to answer that it was on the magazine pile at the waxing salon. Aaron then rudely tells Amber in some sort of Ancient Greek language that she's found herself another train wreck friend, and Amber replies that he's not being fair. After Billie excuses herself to the bathroom, Aaron notices and catches her in the library instead. After Billie claims she was being nosy, Aaron redirects her to the bathroom and comments that being nosy is impolite.
Later, the three are playing Dixit, and while Aaron and Amber enjoy it, Billie doesn't understand the rules and asks if the two of them always play games together. Aaron then comments that Billie has the mind of a five-year-old with her questions, and Amber tells him to stop being an asshole. Aaron continues by finding it suspicious for someone who claims to have two philosophy degrees doesn't understand a children's game, and is also puzzled with her whole faux ditz act. Realizing that she was making it up and wanted to call her bluff, he asked her about Anselm's ontological argument (she replied that it was boring) and her favorite refutation, which she takes a while to answer. After ignoring Amber's pleas to stop berating her, Aaron taunted Billie if she knew what ontological even means or how to spell it. He then grabs her a philosophy book from the shelf and tells her to do some research if she's going to lie. However, Billie gets him: he's a bully and she doesn't see the point of trying to have conversation with someone like him, and her dad taught her that there was only one way to communicate with a bully. Curious, Aaron leaned in and asks what it was. Before he could react, she smacks him across the face with the philosophy book and leaves him as his nose starts bleeding.
Although he should normally be angry that someone stood up to him, Aaron now took a liking to Billie and sent her a philosophy book with apology note and an invitation to lunch the next day. At the lunch meeting, he booked the entire restaurant for the two of them, explaining that he doesn't like eavesdroppers. He already ordered her lunch and tells her he wants to watch her eat it, which she does and says the food was amazing. He then asks her why she befriended his sister, thinking that she planned the entire thing just to meet him. Billie laughs it off and says she doesn't like rich men, but he then says he knows she likes money and wonders why. He listens to her explain that she likes buying and own owning all kinds of things and looking at them. She also buys things that make her feel something. Taking a further interest in Billie and invites her to come with him to Rome, further assuring her that he won't touch her. She accepts and he observes her closely as she eats a second plate of the pasta. At some point, he looked up Billie on every database he could access and found out nothing about her, and he began relating himself to her as a mystery just like him.
Rome Conference[]
As Billie arrives in Rome at his secret residence, he greets her and shows her around before having Mrs. Leary show her to her room, which he secretly used to create his snuff films. He is first seen watching her from his control room as she learns that he had arranged her to wear clothes of his choice after replacing her luggage entirely. The two of them later go out for lunch and Aaron compliments how Rome suits her before having her touch the jacket he chose for her, which took hundreds of hours to make, and he softly moans to it. He then leaves to make a call and returns to tell her that they need to head home because he has a meeting, but they'll stop for ice cream so he can watch her eat it. Back at the residence later that evening, Aaron is watching Billie in her room where he notices that she's doing something strange and tries to switch cameras to get a better look until she starts eating bread and sings to One Direction's "One Way or Another". Aaron however remained suspicious. Aaron then meet with Billie in the living room and wasn't impressed with her wearing a belt, making her take it off and that there's no point unless there's perfection. He informs her that she'll be a part of the dinner and knows she'll be bored, telling her that she can because she looks like a painting when she is.
During the dinner, Aaron meets two Russian businessman, Ivan and Gregor, who want to discuss the price but Aaron only accepts blind bids. After Ivan wanted proof what they were bidding on is as good as he says it is. Aaron proves this by telling Ivan that he knows he texted his mother to tell he loves her before the dinner, he had Caprese salad for lunch and a secret packet of Haribo Fangtastics in the back of his car, he told his wife that he was working late while he was actually spending time with his boyfriend Gregor at Hotel David and the times they both had sex, which Gregor will start blackmailing him about based on the texts. He claims that his weaknesses are his mother, daughter, not his son whom he doesn't like, and an old school friend named Philip. He also knows he is self-conscious about his penis six but assures him its average, if a little on the thin side, and since he was going bald, his wife considered poisoning him. Finally, he knows he dreams of ice skating. This impresses Ivan for Aaron to explain what his weapon is capable of. After dinner, Aaron joins Billie in the living room, telling her that Ivan got weepy and makes her spit out the orange chocolate she was eating. He then reveals that he looked her up and found nothing and the two start to relate about how enigmatic the two of them are compared to everyone else.
Death[]
The next morning, Aaron and Billie are having breakfast in the dining room where he explains that he is looking up details on his next potential bidder, and he showed her that it was Raymond Algaron, who was sent to meet with him on behalf of the Twelve. About ten minutes later, Eve Polastri burst in the room with a letter opener, the latter of which he wasn't intimidated by. After "Billie" (now revealed to be Villanelle) starts using her real accent, Aaron is surprised by this and the fact that the two of them are working together despite suspecting a rat. As he is flattered that MI6 is terrified of his plot, Villanelle reveals to both of them that she knows about Aaron's secret snuff films but says that could use more story to them besides the murders. After Eve pleas for Villanelle to leave, Aaron asks the assassin to come work for him and make better movies, assuring her that she'll get bored with Eve and promises that he will make sure she's never bored. As Villanelle contemplates this, Aaron promises to give her everything and tells her to start now by killing Eve. After Villanelle agrees, she asks if he wants to watch and nods that he does. As he sighs when she gets up with the knife, he is taken by surprise when Villanelle slit his throat and drags him to a mirror to force him to watch himself bleed to death. Just before he collapses, he sadistically smiles as he bleeds out.
His death had unexpected consequences as while Eve's boss Carolyn seized the cyber-weapon before it could be sold, she made sure that Raymond could be allowed to kill Villanelle in the most likely event that she would kill Aaron. This of course failed thanks to Eve and the events severed her relationship with Carolyn because of it, as well as Villanelle's with her former handler Konstantin who was in on it. It is unknown what came of Pharaday UK following Aaron's death, but it is most likely that Amber inherited both the control over the company and the family fortune since she was first in line.
Personality[]
“ | Getting someone close to Peel's about as easy as getting a sex offender into a convent. He doesn't have any friends. He's never had a girlfriend, or boyfriend, or anatomically correct sex robot. He's paranoid. It's not like someone can just swan in, in a tight dress. | „ |
~ Hugo describing Aaron Peel's paranoia to Eve and Jess while they devise a plan to get close to him. |
In his outward appearance, Aaron Peel is like any other entitled billionaire businessman: a cocky self-centered prick who sees himself above most others. He views that his tech company as bigger than any other intelligence agency (including MI6 and the Pentagon) due to gaining access to more secret information across the globe than anyone else. Because the company's accomplishment, he would openly rant about how businesses like his are the next thing and that the agencies are finished and outdated. Ultimately, this makes Aaron a bully that feels that it's his right to mock people's accomplishments and compare them to his own, as shown when he would mock Villanelle (under her Billie Marie Morgan persona) for supposedly having two degrees in philosophy but not being able to understand the rules of a simple kid's game. But like all bullies, Aaron was simply a coward who would always hide behind others to protect himself whenever he is vulnerable, such as summoning his lawyer when being questioned, and trying to display a bit of dominance since he feels weak.
Aaron is not a particularly social person, which is partially due to his usual billionaire self. He doesn't enjoy the companies of people such as having any partners or friends, as he doesn't trust anyone to the point of being highly paranoid. This paranoia extends to him having someone handle his sister during her AA meetings in London and him setting up surveillance systems around his properties so he knew what they were up to while he wasn't around. He doesn't like humanity as a concept since he considers their lifestyles terrible and opts to not interact with them. These traits is possibly caused by his company having gained access to so much information on people that he decides not to reveal anything about himself, thinking it be better to know everything about them instead. He considers it a joy to be an enigma and considers himself a void that is with people via himself monitoring their daily activities and movements. He also didn't seem to be fond of his father, as he sarcastically asked Eve and Carolyn if he had died again.
Deep down however, Aaron had a more darker and sinister mind behind his arrogance. While most of these characteristics are genuine, he is secretly a disturbing sadomasochist who perversely likes to watch people do every day things such as Billie eating her food and touching her jacket that he picked for her. After it was revealed that he had his father killed along with his colleagues, neither of whom he was fond of anyway, he is shown to be a cruel man who enjoys toying with people's minds, such as when he confronted a journalist for secretly recording him by revealing that he knows about his private life before having him killed. Later, after his secret snuff filming career had been uncovered, he is fully revealed to be a misanthropic, psychopathic and hypocritical serial killer and cybercriminal who enjoys the pain of others. His deep liking of pain extends to him coercing and killing women while recording their deaths so he could watch them again afterwards, and he particularly enjoyed taunting other people by talking about their personal lives that he had uncovered, not being bothered if he upset or disturbed them. In the end, since Aaron wanted to give someone the chance to blackmail anyone in the world by selling them his weapon, he simply doesn't care about the lives he's taken or destroyed both directly and not.
According to Eve Polastri, while Aaron doesn't like people, the only relationship he does have is with his sister Amber. In his first appearance with Amber, he seemed particularly fond of her company and this was repeated when the two played a card game with Billie. However, after his actions had been revealed, it is unknown how much of this is actually genuine. While it is possible that he sees her as his equal, it is also likely that he sees himself above as he would occasionally berate her for her friends and didn't really think much about her well-being since she was a former addict. This is shown by not allowing her to make many social connections with people at the AA meetings and therefore not allowing her to have any friends at all. While he kept on a normal face to keep her from suspecting him as their dad's murderer, it is more than possible that he would've had her killed as well if she did and never went through with it because of publicity to avoid suspicions by investigators.
Upon meeting Billie, he saw her as another one of Amber's train wreck friends and as he suspected that she was lying about her background, he rudely tried to provoke her to confess and offered a philosophy book to taunt her about her intellect. After being hit in the nose with a book, rather than be angered by someone for standing up to his bully-like behavior, Aaron instantly took a fascination to her and wanted to understand her more, making her do ordinary things while he watched in perversion. After learning that her background is false and he knows nothing about her, Aaron starts to see her as his more equal than Amber and considers her a "void" just like him, both of whom get bored by normal things and exist outside of everyday life through the means of enigma. When she was revealed to be Villanelle and working with Eve, Aaron offered her a job to work for him and promised her to not be bored by doing all sorts of "interesting" things such as making his snuff films. However, this led to his death as even she knew that he was a completely deranged psychopath and whose promises couldn't be trusted.
List of Victims[]
- Gerard Lee (Indirectly; via the Ghost)
- Susan Harris (Indirectly; via the Ghost)
- Alister Peel (Indirectly; via the Ghost)
- Jonathan McVey (Indirectly; via the Ghost)
- Linda (Indirectly; via the Ghost)
- Unnamed journalist
- Countless unnamed women
- Matilda
Trivia[]
- Although Peel was revealed to be a secret pawn of Carolyn Martens in Series 2, he is its main antagonist because he had bigger plans than anybody else, especially when Nadia's note from Series 1 had led Eve and MI6 to investigate the death of his father.
- He is very similar to Villanelle since both of them are psychopaths who don't like the lifestyles and behaviors of normal people, and they are both often bored by their everyday life and seek excitement. However, while Villanelle is capable of love and understanding normal life, Aaron isn't as he is incapable of feeling any form of compassion and hates people with a cold passion.
- Aaron is arguably the show's darkest, most evil and disturbing villain to date, even more so than Villanelle.
- He is the only main antagonist in the show with no connection or association with the Twelve.
External links[]
- Aaron Peel on the Pure Evil Wiki.
- Aaron Peel on the Killing Eve Wiki
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