The Killing: "Undertow"

Season 1, Episode 9

As most of the story falls apart, a few dysfunctional elements actually start to work

The Facts of the Case are These:

·         After some failed attempts, Linden and Holder finally catch Muhammad, who reveals to them that the girl that he and Bennet took wasn’t Rosie, but rather Aisha, the missing Islamic girl, who they are trying to rescue from some of the more extreme Somalian Muslim practices.

·         Linden finds a note with Rosie’s handwriting, which says “Adella, 11:45”

Well, after a reveal like that, it’s hard not to be frustrated with this show. Sure, throwing away suspects and making every lead seem like a way to fill time has been the show’s SOP since day one, but never has it been so blatant as this, considering how many episodes have been wasted covering Bennet and Muhammad (the spelling of which I am still unsure of). I get how Linden and Holder solving another case could be a “win” of sorts, and on the one hand it certainly is great that they solved this case. But that still doesn’t change the fact that the show has wasted so much of my time on a side plot that is useless in terms of the overall narrative.

Okay, mostly useless. I was far more interested in the Bennet side of things for once, as watching him trying to regain his life from a school and a class that doesn’t want him was heartbreaking (since even before Muhammad’s confession I knew he hadn’t done it), and it perfectly encapsulated the theme of how one murder can affect an entire community. I also appreciated the little touches here, like the fact that when the camera panned in the classroom to show the word ‘KILLER’ written behind Bennet, it was obvious that it was written in Sharpie and that someone had failed to wipe it away; it was the perfect visual metaphor of the permanent social label that Bennet would have to carry with him for the short remainder of his life.

Of course, the show’s attempts to truly absolve him of all guilt – by making his illegal ‘abduction’ of Aisha a completely moral act – bugged me, as if the show couldn’t stand having an immoral character who isn’t the killer. Yet there was something akin to poetry in watching Bennet getting beaten to death by Stan, effectively ‘getting his’ for committing some crime, even if the sentence was unfitting and delivered by the wrong judge.

Meanwhile, on the Campaign Trail Less Traveled:

·         Adams denies the rumors that Darren leaked (even though they are in fact true), and Darren’s numbers begin to drop as the public thinks he is running a dirty campaign

·         Darren is accused by the Imam of the Greenlight Mosque of being just like Adams, in that he will fail to keep his campaign promises.

·         Though he claims a moratorium on mudslinging, and he refuses to use his dead wife’s memory to help the campaign, Adams does manage to squeeze $5 million out of Tom Drexler

Early in the episode, after Linden once again approached Darren about some evidence she needed from him, he responded “I’m sick to death of you implications that my campaign had anything to do with that girl’s murder.” Even though I’m sure the show wasn’t aware of just how accidentally meta it was being, I have to agree. The further this story goes on without any definite connection to Rosie’s murder, the more frustrated I get. And even though I keep sensing that this storyline is being used to subtle setup somebody as the actual murderer – though my exact theory keeps changing each week, and it did so here tonight – I still can’t be sure, and I probably won’t find out for another four weeks, so until that time, I keep on thinking, “What’s the point?”.

Yet I can’t say that I totally hated the Richmond plot tonight, because, for perhaps the first time in the series, I actually felt some emotional resonance from the man himself. Though the show has tried to have us believe that Richmond is affected by his wife’s death, that event has been treated like such a far-away event that it becomes difficult to connect it to the action we see on screen. But seeing Richmond struggle with remaining a moral candidate, seeing him hurt as people accuse him of being just like Adams, that plays off of the struggle that we’ve seen over the past eight episodes, and it actually manages to make an impact. I’m not going to say the road to this point has been all that smooth – it hasn’t – and this doesn’t take away from the fact that this storyline is so tangential to the master plot, but it make the storyline feel like it’s its own, fully-developed thing, and it makes watching it a much kinder experience.

And, in the Land of the Forlorn:

How much do I hate Mitch? Just so, so much. Though she didn’t do anything quite as stupid as what she did  last week, she was still playing out the standard ‘irrational, grief-stricken mother’ type that just grates me to my soul. I don’t do well with people whose emotions prevent them from thinking rationally, be it in real life or otherwise, and so this storyline is going to continue to be a drag for me until Mitch starts thinking clearly, which I’m guessing won’t happen until the finale.

But what really bugs me, at least in terms of tonight's episode, it that she brought Stan back down with her. Now, I was down with Stan meting out justice on his own, as it not only made sense, given his violent past, but it also helped to alienate him from his family. But when that role got transferred over to Mitch, it seemed weird/unmotivated, and now the show has used Mitch’s current shrewish nature to get Stan back into the vengeance game, it just seems misogynistic and stupid, not to mention that it erases a lot of what we already saw with Stan letting go of his anger. I get that this is supposed to be an exploration of the moral quandaries involved in vigilante justice, and I’m all for that, but only if the show can give it to us in a way that makes sense.

The end result of all of this was that I was torn in the final scene where Mitch and Belko killed Bennet. On the one hand, I couldn’t help but marvel at the poetry of it all, and final a twinge of excitement for the moral dilemma that Stan was about to face. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the illogical and unmotivated way in which these events played out. The Killing could be a great show, if it wasn’t for all the wasted plot, and that’s what makes it such a frustrating viewing experience.

Quotes, Etc.:

Killer Theory of the Week: For a change of pace, I’m going to guess Drexler, because the show seems to be pushing his presence lately. Plus, he was a total douche tonight, and it was implied he’s made some less than savory storyline.

This Week in Terrible Police Work: Holder tries to use the Patriot Act to get a wire tap on a non-terrorism suspect.

Apparently ex-cops get jobs as security for the Space Needle.

“How many feet of ass is that? It’s like, five feet or something.”

“I suck as this racial profiling. This TSA job ain’t happening.”

“I don’t care if Allah gave you the number.”

“He said you should – ” “Screw you.”