The Killing: "What You Have Left"

Season 1, Episode 6

By elevating itself above mere plot points, the show manages to become gripping

The Facts of The Case Are These:

·         Rosie did visits Bennet that night, according to an eye witness, Bennet and a small woman “carried” her out into the car around midnight.

·         Stan used to roll heavy with the mobsters, had a huge gambling debt, most likely killed people to make it go away

On the one hand, I don’t really know what to do with the information given in tonight’s episode. Look, for the third time I’ll say it: it’s too early, Bennet can’t be the killer, and almost by association neither can his wife, so can we just move on? Luckily I think we will soon enough, as there is something about the ambiguity of the peeping tom’s statement that makes me feel that we’re about to turn another corner and run into another suspect. For one, though Linden seems to think that Bennet carried Rosie (or whatever girl was wrapped up in the blanket) out to the car, it sounded to me as if he walked her out to the car, blanket around her soldiers. Second, the tom said that it was a small woman, so Linden guess about it being Amber being the woman who helped Rosie out also can’t be correct; she’s too pregnant to be considered small and/or for the peeper to not have mentioned it.

And that’s not to mention that stupid serial killer theory that some of the characters keep floating around. I keep expecting this show to take a weird left turn at any moment, so it wouldn’t surprise me if such a thing happened to be the case, though I’m hoping it’s not, especially since Bennet seems too sloppy to have gone this long serial killin’ and not get caught. This anticipated left turn is also why I included the bit of info about Stan’s past. Seriously, I’m so open to batshit crazy ideas at this point that I’m accepting that the show might go ahead and make someone from his past be the killer, in some sort of crazed revenge murder. (It also doesn’t help that I don’t have any other solid leads to comment on, so take all of this with a grain of salt)

Yet despite all of the fact that keeping the focus on Bennet stalls the case aspect of the show, it actually helped to give the episode some focus, as we’ll see in the other two sections.

Meanwhile, in the Campaign Trail Less Traveled:

·         Darren refuses to cut Bennet from his ads (thus signaling his guilt), which causes him to lose the debate with Adams, and apparently the race itself

·         Jamie, who wants Richmond to play hardball, calls Senator Eaton up to give Richmond the what-for. Eaton seems to indicate that he has much bigger plans that involve Richmond’s rise in the political ranks

Early in the hour, Jamie spoke the said “Who are you is five words: Dead girl in a trunk,” and I think that’s the key to making Richmond’s plot work. As long as it relates to the murder, it become far more intriguing than when it seems to exist in its own little world. This week, we got that, not only because Adams words during the debate fit nicely over the scene of Stan driving Bennet out to some mysterious location (it was perhaps a bit too on the nose, but considering the politics stuff actually fit in for once, I’ll give it a pass), but also because it fits back into what was supposed to be the show’s central conceit: seeing how Rosie’s murder affects all parts of society. Seeing Richmond’s campaign – and Richmond himself – struggle with the legal implications of being involved with the main focus (thought not a suspect) of a murder investigation does just that.

But now I have to ask: Is this why we sat through the campaign story? Just see the far-reaching effects of Rosie’s murder? Because while it’s a cool idea, I don’t think we had to spend this much time in order to get the proper effect. And if the Richmond campaign isn’t over, if it keeps going – and I suspect that it will – where does the show go from here? What’s the next point of intersection with the murder case? Will it be the actual killer, or something else before we reach that point?

And in the Land of the Forlorn:

And here is where the show got really good, as Stan driving away with Bennet, and Sarah running down after him, has given us the show’s most gripping moment yet. (And as I write that out, I realize it doesn’t sound all that gripping, but I guess you had to be there, man.) As the show plotlines continue to collide, all of this set up seems worth it, and the show has renewed my faith in it, at least for another week.

But since that moment took place at the end, and really only matters based on what happens next week, it’s more important to focus on the other emotional beats that played out tonight, which were fairly good, with one exception. Tonight was all about the funeral, at least from the Larsen perspective, and the show did good work here, opening with the creepy shot of the fake nails being applies to Rosie’s corpse, and then transitioning to the somber funeral procession later in the episode. This storyline was all about mood, and the show hit it right on the head.

It was also engaging to see the Larsens barely hold on to their sanity, as Mitch starts fights over who remembers what correctly, and Stan goes about lifting crates by himself just to feel useful in one aspect of his life. We also got to see Belko try to be an uncle of sorts to Stan’s kind (which was kind of charming), while their actual aunt Terry flirted with Michael Ames (Jasper’s dad), which just felt off. Here’s a tip: if you viewers have to use The Suspect Tracker to figure out who Terry flirted with, then you’re not telling your story exactly right. (Just ask Henry Brommel how long it took him to fix the sloppy storytelling of Rubicon.) Not only that, but it was weird moment for the show to do right now, as we aren’t quite at the stage of moving into new plotlines yet. It’s a trifle really, but considering how strong the rest of the episode was, it really stood out.

Quotes, Etc.:

Killer Theory of the Week: I’m swinging around to Senator Eaton (Gwen’s dad) who is just way too involved with Richmond’s campaign. Seriously, the dude has a grand master plan. He’s got to be hiding something.

This week in poor police work: Linden uses only Rosie’s photograph to identify who visited Bennet that night, as opposed to the standard spread of photographs.

“We can strategize tonight’s debate, or do we need to indulge in a little family therapy first?”

Well, we finally learned what Reggie’s relationship with Sarah is. Glad to have that cleared up.