The Killing: "I'll Let You Know When I Get There"

Season 1, Episode 10

Counting down the episodes until the finale

The Facts of the Case are These:

·         On the night of Rosie’s murder, Belko was in the Larson kitchen without permission. When Rosie got home at 10:37, he hid, and heard her rummage around the house, then race off to meet “Adela”

·         “Adela”, it turns out, is the name of a Ferry that takes passengers (and presumably Rosie) to a Casino, which happens to share the same symbol as Rosie mysterious keychain.

·         There is a video which shows Richmond shaking hands with Rosie in a crowd, thus throwing into question whether or not he actually knew her.

I don’t know how many of you do this, but every week I go and a vote at this show’s Suspect Tracker, because a) I have no reason not to enter a contest where I could win an iPad and b) it’s a generally a good measure of how most people engage with the show. It is interesting to note, for example, that for the first several weeks or so, people tended to vote with whoever was the latest red herring, thus signaling that most of this show’s viewers are in fact buying what this show is selling – but only up to a point. Over the last two or three weeks, as the show began to spend way too much time on Bennet, people began to check out of his camp and started suspecting Belko, almost without reason, perhaps based solely on the fact that he’s a bit off.

And that’s sort of how I felt about tonight’s leg of the story, as the show turned its focus to Belko, almost out of this perfunctory sense to put the token weird guy under the microscope. I know that back when “Super 8” aired, I guessed that Belko may have been the killer, but that was back when he was still noticeably in the background, before I knew who he was as a character. But once I saw how caring he was towards the Larson children – and how off kilter he was – it became quite obvious that he wasn’t going to be the killer. Thankfully, this idea was nipped in the bud in the same episode where it was really addressed (even though I suspect the seeds were meant to be planted last episode, based on how wild he acted in the final few minutes) so that we can just move on already. Yet despite the obvious dead-end nature of this plotline, it was actually kind of good, mostly because for the first time Belko really came to life. There was an intensity to the scenes with Belko and Bev which has been missing for most of the series run, and it really helped make a worthless plotline fell like it was actually worth watching for once.

But what are we left with? Darren is apparently going to go back under the microscope (and I’m gonna lose my shit if it turns out he was the killer), while Linden and Holder finally start doing actual police work – you know, interviewing the family and friends, following up on physical clues, making a timeline – and with the discovery of the casino, things finally seem to be shaping up into a streamlined plot that’s worth watching. (Although there is next week’s episode….) Though it won’t make us forget all the useless roads that the show has taken us down, now is the time that the show could really start to rally and earn some of our trust back.

Meanwhile, on the Campaign Trail Less Traveled:

·         Darren begins to use Bennet’s beating to stage a comeback, as well as an attempt to get the city council to agree to a pay cut; he’s back to being the integrity candidate.

So then let’s pretend – as I always like to do – that Darren isn’t the killer, and that this plotline is actually leading somewhere. Where would that be exactly? Well, tonight’s outing did little to tell us, as Darren continued to play things only somewhat immorally. (Because let’s face it, you’re not totally moral if you use someone’s beating for your political gain.) In fact, the only real development was the fact that Darren may or may not have known Rosie, in a reveal that is apparently just going to sit there for now, and that regardless of the outcome, is just going to frustrate me. Darren either knew Rosie or he didn’t; he either killed her or he didn’t. The show needs to stop yanking our chain with this overly ambiguous middle ground.

And, in the Land of the Forlorn:

Remember when it seemed like a good idea for Stan to slowly devolve into a vigilante? Whatever happened to that? The show has zigzagged Stan back and forth on the morality scale so much over the past few episodes (last week he beat up Bennet, this week we learned he called 911 right after) that it’s become harder and harder to take him seriously as a real character; he’s more like a plot device at this point, but one that takes us places to which I don’t really want to go. What, for instance, was the point of the scene where Stan and his lawyer argue in court over whether or not to plead guilty? Is that really going to be coming up again in the next few episodes? Seeing as how we are three episodes left till we discover who the killer is, it seems like the show should be whittling down the plotlines, not adding more on. If you want to show Stan going to prison as an effect of Rosie’s murder, that’s fine; just don’t expect us to care about anything more complex than that, like Mitch finding out about all the missing money (which I’m assuming is the down payment for that new house).

The same could be said for Sarah. I get that this case is getting too her, and I respect that the show is trying to show that, but, as tonight’s episode proved, it’s much more pertinent to see such evidence on the job as opposed to her home life. At this point, I couldn’t give two shits about Jack or Rick (though I am glad that he’s finally gone for good.) Instead, I enjoy scenes like the one where Sarah interrogated Belko, cruelly playing with his mind in order to find out the information she needed.

You know what? If by some miracle of hell the show does get renewed for a second season, and it comes time for retooling, the producers should just sit in a darkened room for three days with that one scene on an endless loop. Because that’s the kind of show that they should be giving to us.

Next Week: Jack goes missing. Because yeah, that seems like a good use of our time.

Quotes, Etc.:

Killer Theory of the Week: Terry. She gave that seeming ironic speech about good people doing bad things to the Larson Boys, plus there’s still that random dangling thread of her and Jasper’s dad. Though given that she seems to be the new hot guess at the Suspect Tracker, I’m probably wrong on this one.

This Week in Bad Police Work: Sarah and Holder are just now getting around to making a timeline.

This Week in Twin Peaks parallels: Rosie, much like Laura Palmer, visited a casino the night that she died (and more than likely frequented it often).

The maple bacon donut, breakfast of champions.