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'The Killing' Season 1, Episode 8 Recap
by Maureen Ryan, posted May 15th 2011 11:00PM
['The Killing' - 'Stonewalled']There was a riveting scene in this week's episode of 'The Killing,' which chugged along with its usual low-intensity hum. The scene, which took place at a 12 Step meeting attended by Detective Holder, was not only well-acted, it provided a great deal of illumination about his background and personality.
When 'The Killing' began, it held out the promise that we'd get that kind of interesting texture and detail every week, along with new developments in the Rosie Larsen murder investigation.
In recent weeks, a good chunk that promise has fizzled out. On the investigation front, things have sometimes dragged, and there are still clues that the detectives seem stubbornly uninterested in following up. (Just one example: What about the expensive heels Rosie was wearing? Can there really be that many shops in Seattle selling those high-end stilettos? Get your 'Law & Order' on and look into that, detectives, for goodness' sake!)
And on the character front, 'The Killing' has seemed strangely uninterested in delving too deep with Linden, Holder and Rosie's parents. Veena Sud, the show's head writer, comes from 'Cold Case,' and by this point I have the sense that she thinks that doling out character background in tiny, controlled doses, as CBS dramas normally do, is enough to sustain this show.
Those doses might be enough if the cops were solving a new case every week, but they're not, and the tiny bits of character development aren't quite enough for this show, which has asked us to wait three months before finding out the killer's identity. If we're going to wait that long, shouldn't we get more incisive and compelling stories about the people in this world before we finally arrive at the denouement? Is it wrong to want that?
I sound more irritated by the show than I actually am; I actually found this week's episode more or less OK. Once I reduced my expectations about how far or deep the show would go in any direction, it became less dissatisfying, but it's a shame that, after the show's well-paced early episodes, I had to reduce my expectations in the first place. Ah well.
Thing is, I don't think Sud and her writers have a firm grasp, at this stage, of what constitutes a satisfying reveal and what doesn't. Once Linden followed Holder and his mystery friend into that basement, I knew she'd find her partner at a 12 Step meeting with his sponsor. The identity of his friend wasn't exactly an engrossing mystery. (Having said that, I'm still in the dark about that envelope of cash Holder received. Clearly the house he delivered the money to was that of his sister, but why was he getting envelopes of cash in the first place? Will that ever be explained?)
Holder's scene was so terrific that it brought to mind some all-time great scenes of a key character from 'The Wire' talking at 12 Step meetings. Even if 'The Killing' hasn't developed into the show I thought it would be, it has still brought Joel Kinnaman's talents to a wider audience and if he sticks with the small screen and doesn't head straight to the film world, I very much hope he'll find a TV vehicle suited to his many talents.
I also knew that the show wouldn't kill off two more of the Larsens' kids -- this is cable, but my goodness, this isn't the Darkest Show Ever Made. So the would-be Big Moment of Mitch leaving her kids in the garage with the engine running wasn't exactly suspenseful, but the outcome of that moment did determine a new direction for Mitch and Stan's relationship.
Now that the couple is emerging from the horrible shock of Rosie's death, they're beginning to explore the next phase of their lives. Recriminations are emerging, not surprisingly. Mitch is clearly still wallowing in Rosie's life, which is gone, and is clearly unable to cope with the pressures and demands of the life (and the children) she still has left. She has the look of someone who'd happily take out whoever killed her daughter. So what if she'd go to prison? Whatever she has left isn't really enough to live for, in her eyes.
Stan, on the other hand, is trying to take care of the kids (and the business) the Larsens still have, but if it weren't for Mitch's sister Terry helping out, the household probably would have ground to a halt, and Stan's patience with his wife is starting to run out.
Though she's better at keeping a lid on her emotions (she may be too good at it, in fact), Linden's entire life has fallen apart. She shut Holder out of the investigation, but then was told, in so many words, to take a hike by her boss. And thanks to her irresponsibility, photos of Rosie's murder hit the newspapers. If she hadn't already left the department, surely she would have been fired if her police superiors had traced the photos back to her son, who's a more or less an unsupervised loose cannon at this point.
Still, despite the FBI's lack of assistance, she was able to determine that there was a link between the mysterious Muhammed and Rosie, and she also eventually patched things up with Holder. She realized that Holder, another damaged cop with broken relationships in his past, isn't all that different from her.
To be honest, I never quite understood why she hated him that much. Sure, he is a bit of a blowhard and not an experienced murder police, but why would she assume that he was a bad cop and an unreliable bribe-taker without hard evidence of that? In any event, with those two working together, instead of at cross-purposes, there's a chance they might uncover valuable new evidence in the case.
Speaking of characters experiencing breakdowns of sorts, cracks began appearing in the perfect facade of Darren Richmond (cue the mirror scene). Underneath his calm exterior lurks a man capable of rage and revenge. We don't know if the woman who killed his wife will get parole (I'm guessing not), but we do know that he doesn't forgive her. And after punching that mirror, he decided to go nuclear on his opponent and reveal that the mayor has been keeping a mistress on the side.As he watched the mistress' life slide into infamy, was Richmond's face showing regret? Relief that he still had a chance in the mayoral race? It wasn't easy to tell, but at least now we know that he's not the choir boy he first appeared to be.
I don't think he's the killer, but at this point, I'm thinking the murderer has to be someone we've met. Here's quick look at the suspects we have at this point (and if I'm leaving anyone out, do sound off in comments):
Jasper or Kris: They probably didn't kill Rosie but I still wonder if they know more than they've told the cops.
Bennet Ahmed: His talk of passports and fleeing doesn't make him look exactly innocent.
Gwen: Could Richmond's aide have been the blond woman spotted at Ahmed's apartment? Then again, the neighbor who allegedly saw people outside Ahmed's appears to be an unreliable witness.
Belko, Stan's employee: He was absent from this episode but still has some 'splaining to do.
Am I missing anyone? How would you feel if the primary suspect -- or the confirmed murderer -- is not someone we've met yet? Or what if Rosie died on accident and the detectives are really investigating a coverup? Thoughts on either of those scenarios? Do sound off in comments.
'The Killing' airs 10PM ET Sundays on AMC.
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