The Killing: "Missing"

Season 1, Episode 11

Oh, come on! We’re this close to the end!

“I don’t when that changed, Jack being happy.”

-Linden

I’m going to dispense with the usual format that I’ve been using for these reviews, for the obvious reason that there was very little of the case addressed this week, and that we saw nothing of the Richmond campaign, and ended up with the most moving and frustrating episode that the show has yet to throw our way.

But let’s back up. Back in the spring of 2010, just as Fringe was revving up its master plot concerning the world Over There, it did a curious thing by taking a breather with the episode “Brown Betty”. A hour devoted to a fictional story told by one of the protagonist, it did little to advance the plot (and spent a surprisingly large amount of money doing so), but it somehow ended up being one of the best hours Fringe has ever done, considering both the high entertainment value the story had, and the way in which the hour played nicely with the emotional beats of the season’s arc. In fact, “Brown Betty” comes from a long line of ‘breather’ episodes, hours of television that are meant to serve as the calm before the storm that would be the season finale, and for the most part, these were great hours of television, sterling examples of how to tell good stories in a long-term format.

Yet try as it might, “Missing” does not belong to such a pantheon. Now don’t get me wrong; there is a lot to love about this episode, and it may be the best episode that the series has done. (A lot of that depends on how well the pilot holds up, which I’m guessing has been effectively ruined for future re-watches based solely on the knowledge that that hour just leads to a lot of narrative wheel-spinning.) Even if “Stonewalled” effectively covered a lot of the same ground on the Holder-Linden relationship (and just three weeks ago, may I remind you), “Missing” dealt with it far more effectively, if only because there was no case to distract from the character development going on. Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman absolutely nailed everything that the script asked of them (especially Holder’s phone messages to his sister), and they also led to the very interesting (though likely never to be explored again) twist that placed Linden in the role of anti-hero and Holder as the moral upstanding of the two.

But the central problem remains that The Killing has yet to earn the right to do such an episode as this one, and that took away a lot of the momentum that the hour was trying to achieve.  We have spend so many weeks on so many obvious dead ends that for the show to throw yet another stall tactic in our direction – however good of a stall tactic it might have been – becomes instantly grating. Admittedly, I could see an alternative version of this show where this episode wouldn’t be out of place, the type of season where all of our distractions from the murder case took the form of moving character development set-pieces. (And given that the show’s cancellation is concrete yet – the show could still rally if enough people tune back into the finale just to learn who the killer is, or is the writers come up with a good enough pitch for season two – this might be something that could be considered for a hypothetical second season, preferable one that ran for only six episodes or so.) But as is, it’s just another week of stalling, complicated not only by the fact that it’s just retreading the format that we’ve seen the past few episodes, but also by the fact that we are so close to the end that the pieces are starting to fall into place, and the show probably could have used this hour to wrap up the case and nobody would have cried foul.

The other major issue behind tonight’s episode is the obvious plot machinations – the one-day waiting game for the search warrant (brought about by the show’s insistence that each episode span more-or-less one day of the investigation), the fact that Jack so easily returned as he was just spending the day with his dad – that had to go one so that Jack could disappear for an episode and yet not wreck what little narrative momentum the show had as regards to the season arc. But for me to continue to harp on such things would be an exercise in frustration, so let’s just leave it at this: “Missing” was an episode that was great at its core, yet one that will never be considered great based on the surrounding status of the season. And that is perhaps the saddest, most tragically ironic thing about this whole ordeal.

Quotes, Etc.:

Killer Theory of the week: Well, it’s not like we learned anything new, so….Terry? I realize that the casino’s locale probably crosses her of the list, but it’s not like I have a more educated guess, and at this point I can’t shake the feeling that the final killer’s reveal is going to be ridiculous to one degree or another.

“Thanks. I’m sure you needed the backup.”

“Damn, is there one or two days a month you’re not PMS-ing?”

“Okay, I’ll wait right here. Don’t worry about me, Linden, the limo’s ready whenever you’re ready.”

“’Hey, thanks for staying Stephen.’ ‘No problem, Sarah. That’s what friends are for, yo.’”

“You know what I’m sayin’?” “I usually don’t, and this time is no exception.”

According to Holder, he can be a vegetarian and still eat pork rinds, because they “are junk food, they don’t count.

Jack’s password was “Funyuns”. Some kids have no imagination.

“Kick his ass.” “No doubt.”