The Killing: Day 7 - Vengeance

Day 7

So here we are, at the end of day 6 and falling into day 7, and seriously I don’t think this case is any closer to being solved than after day 1. In fact, you could argue we’re farther away from knowing the identity of Rosie’s murderer, especially with the final scene’s revelation.

But there’s stuff to talk about before we get there…

Stan and Bennet are still in the car, and by this time Bennet at least knows he isn’t just getting dropped off at home. Nor are they heading to Pike’s Market. Pulling up to the docks, it seems as though Stan is wrestling with what to do with his new found knowledge that Bennet is a person of interest in his daughter’s murder.

Meanwhile, the detectives are doing everything they can to make sure their suspect remains alive. Linden heads over to Bennet’s place and gets his wife to open up and keep trying to call Bennet, while Holder, and his usual awkwardness is at the memorial service, stumbling through questions and pissing everyone off. I think the Holder character is played very well, especially in this scene; he’s obviously not very good or tactful when questioning people, but also shows he has a knack/ability for ferreting out people who are hiding something. His poor interaction with Mitch is balanced nicely with his accusing interaction with Belko. So at least there’s a reason he was promoted to homicide.

Stan and Bennet get out of the car. Bennet stumbles through his proclamation of innocence in the pouring rain. Whether Stan believes him because he thought he was being genuine, believes him because Stan’s the actual murderer, doesn’t believe him but also doesn’t want to kill him and revert back to his former ways, is never really clear. Probably because then the rest of the show would be deemed irrelevant.

Linden gets inside Bennet and Amber’s house and softly interviews Amber about the events on the night of the murder. Here’s what we learn:

· Amber is jealous of Bennet’s students.

· Amber is not allowed to life heavy things because of her pregnancy. So it probably wasn’t her lifting the “body” that night.

· There’s a third person that has a key to the house; Mohammed! Not the prophet. A friend of Bennet’s from down at the mosque. And Mohammed doesn’t seem like a friendly guy.

Before Amber can admit she murdered Rosie, Bennet comes in, soaked to the bone and with a chip on his shoulder. He’s not thrilled that the police have put their cross hairs on him, and tells Linden she now has to go through his lawyer. And I always wonder when people say things like this – does he really have a lawyer? A trial lawyer that he can call upon to be his spokesperson? I don’t currently have a lawyer. If the police came and accused me of a crime, and I said, “You’ll have to speak to my lawyer,” all they would have to do is say, “Fine, what’s his/her name?” and my bluff would be called. Which leads me to my next point…should we read in to the fact that Bennet has a lawyer, or did I not get a lot of sleep last night and am simply grasping at straws? Anyway, Linden leaves with no further comment, but with a copy of the Quran that had been sitting on the table…complete with an address to the mosque.

And now, finally Linden is off to Sonoma leaving the case in the “capable” hands of Holder. Or at least she’s off to the airport to miss her flight – a red herring of such inconsequential proportions, no one cares. Jack speaks for all of us when he off handedly suggests his mom owes him 15 million dollars.

Stan and Mitch in bed, talking about everything and nothing, casually falling into the deep embrace of sex, before their son can throw cold water on the situation with a bad dream. Who hasn’t been in that situation? Of course, the suggestion of sex here, is the suggestion that the family is attempting to move on. The interruption of it obviously means they aren’t going to do so easily.

And here’s our first look at the stuff no one really cares about in this show…Campaign HQ! And it looks like there needs to be some damage control. Richmond is, for whatever reason, on his high horse. Gwen and Jamie want to distance themselves from Bennet, but Richmond refuses to convict an innocent man. I understand that there are people in the world like Richmond, and that his idealistic views on things need a mouthpiece. But then why does he give up his principles when it comes to ensuring the Union leader’s husband will get the contract he needs, and with allowing Jamie to be a mole in the mayor’s cabinet? Why is he selectively idealistic?

Gwen seems to have forgiven him because we are going to get some hot booty campaign HQ action. Seriously, this tryst began with Jamie about 15 feet down the hall. Let’s hope he didn’t forget a pen. Just before we can get hot and heavy though, the television cuts to the incumbent mayor’s latest commercial highlighting Richmond’s and Bennet’s closeness.

What’s this…Mitch’s grandparents? Out of the blue. I didn’t see them at the memorial service…were they still going through Ellis Island? An extra in a Mel Brooks movie isn’t as much of a stereotype as these 2 are! They stay in scene long enough to throw Terry under the bus, as well as every ethnicity that you can categorize with a color. Nice!

Jamie and Gwen bicker like children. I only bring this scene up because it reintroduces my favorite suspect Tom Drexler back into the mix, as much as mentioning his name twice can do that. Oh and we also get an opened envelope from a women’s correctional institution.

Linden and Reggie are sitting on Reggie’s boat, lamenting about missing the plane, what happened in Linden’s past, Jack (that’s Linden’s kid for all of you who don’t care) and what’s been happening in the present. Good lord…can we drop this stuff? I know it’s going to end up that Reggie killed Rosie to keep Linden from moving because she knows about her past. And if that’s the case, I’m cancelling my free subscription to AMC.

Linden is guilty enough to take Jack to some paintball party or something. I realize that most people will think Linden gives Jack advice based on him getting shot pretty quickly in paintball, but I think it’s because she witnessed Jack’s unironic use of an exploding fist bump with some other high schooler. I was happy to see Linden took her son off to the side and slyly showed him how to fire up all his friends. I wish my mom was a cop so she could show me awesome cop things!

I think the Linden/Holder phone call was my favorite moment from the show. Holder, oblivious to the fact that Linden missed the plane, is absolutely loving his freedom, being the lead on the case, even if the warrant fell through, and the chief believes there’s no evidence anywhere. So Holder is completely comfortable acting like an ass, because he thinks Linden is 1000 miles away, instead of probably 4. Which makes it completely awesome when Linden then shows up at the precinct. Fantastic. I definitely enjoy the Holder/Linden dynamic, because I can imagine police partnerships (especially in the beginning stages) go more like this than the buddy/buddy gook we’ve been sold.

Leaving that dynamic, we go back to Richmond, who’s so depressed he listening to what I can only assume is Seattle’s one right wing radio station. Ha ha, just kidding. He’s gotta be picking up some feed from Montana, right? Hey Richmond – invest in some SiriusXM and get your Phish on or whatever you want to hear! Richmond listening to racist radio. Seriously if he got XM he could be jamming out to just about anything. Getting out of the car he stops in and starts filling in his backstory about how the killer of his wife was a drunk driver and now she’s up for parole and did we know any of this before? I have no idea, I’ve literally been bored to temporary amnesia by all of this. Anyway, if it was a simple drunk driver, I don’t see how it can play into Rosie’s disappearance, unless it was the husband of the woman who did it, swore vengeance against Richmond for…well whatever, and tried to destroy his campaign by murdering the girl who was having an affair with the teacher who is an important cog in the program that Richmond is basing his mayoral campaign on. Oh sure, laugh now, but when the real motive comes out, I bet it’s just as convoluted.

I’m really starting to think Mitch’s parents are in prime position to get a spin-off sit-com deal. The Racists who Moved Next Door. What? Like you couldn’t see Martin Moll in something like that!

Stan with the kids and the kite. I call this out because I thought it was mildly interesting how Stan emphatically said a man took her. Not that it isn’t a broad jump to say “man” there, considering he could still think Bennet did it. But it could also mean he did it, if you read a little into it. And it seems I’m reading a little too much into everything.

Mitch confronts Belko about Bennet and how much Bennet knows and we get a MacBeth side of her here. Which I would argue goes a little way to prove her innocence. I understand that both Mitch and Stan have to still remain suspects in our eyes, but their behaviors looking to seek vengeance for their daughter betrays that suspicion a bit, no? And why does Belko always seem to be about 8 inches away from beating someone up. Seriously, he offers it every chance he can get, but physically speaking – is he imposing? Stan – definitely. That guy is ready to scrap. But Belko just seems like the Igor sidekick so far. Unless that’s maybe his motivation…to show Stan that he too can be violent? Or maybe he already has been with a certain, now corpse and wants to throw everyone off his scent?

Linden and Holder head off to the mosque to chase down the newly introduced Mohammed. Linden respectfully takes off her shoes upon entering; I’ll let you guess Holder’s actions on that matter. Anyhoo, a member of the mosque greets them rather icily and to no one’s surprise is not so forthcoming with any information on the whereabouts of this “Mohamed.” And yes, I get it. If I may for a moment, wander blindly into some overarching commentary on American race relations…

I realize that a cliché exists because it’s simply an example of what happens in the world in a majority basis. So when the Muslim coolly interacts with the police, and asks what they are doing about a missing child from their neighborhood, it’s supposed to show that Caucasian problems are taking precedent. And that’s a bad thing. I get that. But wouldn’t it have been refreshing to see the Muslim take a helpful approach? Wouldn’t that message of positivity shown more? The whole scene felt very “ripped from the headlines” Law & Orderish, and I was hoping The Killer would go above and beyond. I’m not saying race isn’t an important part of the show, but there are other ways to show that, no?

Thanks, please join us next week, where we tackle childhood obesity.

After getting rebuffed, Linden starts putting her shoes back on and…wait a minute! There’s a note in there! And it’s an address! As soon as Holder casually discards the other missing girl’s missing poster they are going to track it down! (I may joke, but this was a pretty cool scene; I rewound to see if the note passing was caught on camera and it was! It appeared to be a woman who came out of the mosque at one point.

Jamie and Gwen have been looking for Richmond…his all-star program is about to be defunded by the city council. And who’s behind it? Why that sneaky, no-good mayor and his…aiehg gihv[-rw u…I’m sorry, that was me banging on my keyboard because I don’t care.

Meanwhile, over at Chez Larsen, Stan is trying to rekindle the flame that got distinguished the night before, while Mitch only has eyes for Bennet…dead! I’m guessing here, but her grief will not be alleviated by nookie; she wants revenge.

And now, at the 57^th minute of the show, we finally get something interesting and new. Holder and Linden have been attempting to track down Mohammed’s place, but since “106 R” is kind of a weird apartment number, they’re having some difficulty. Obviously Holder is done with this frivolous search, which means Linden is about to make a Goren leap* and find something.

* The Goren Leap was coined by my wife, after I forced her to watch every episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (my favorite in the Law & Order series, and yes, I know I’m in the minority on that one) and she noticed that every episode had Goren (brilliantly played by Vincent D’Nonofrio. Yes, even the fat years) made some ridiculously wild, yet 100% correct assumption based off a hair or a look someone gave him.

Linden tracks down 106 R, which looks less like an apartment door, and more like a door to a place where Satanists would go. But alas, it’s locked, and while Linden does go over proper police procedure, citing the lack of probable cause they have, Holder is all about not playing by the rules. And let’s be honest – Linden’s protests were half-hearted at best.

Inside, we’re treated to a spooky, white tiled hall that leads up to what I guess I would call a meat packing plant or factory. It had a bone saw and a conveyor belt of hooks. I assume the directors of the next Saw movie were furiously taking notes on this location. Spooky doesn’t do it justice. And as Linden continues to look around, Holder, who has already established that he hates locks, finds another one to bust – this one on a meat locker.

And while all that is going on, we cut over to Mitch, who is casually sitting outside Bennet’s house, plotting his death, and the city council is voting down Richmond’s all-star program, all because he wouldn’t throw a guy bus. I assume Bennet’s completely innocent here (except for maybe being a creepy student stalker) and that will somehow revitalize Richmond’s campaign and make him win, but I’m really too bored to be bothered to even see that through.

Holder finally gets wise and stops using his foot and starts using a meat hook to break the lock. I guess shooting it wouldn’t have been the greatest idea, but then Holder has few great ideas, so why not? The lock comes off, and the detectives head inside to find…

Well, we don’t know. But it stops them in their tracks. And that’s when the FBI shows up. Seriously, you’d think I was kidding, because 90% of my short stories end with the line, “And that’s when the FBI shows up!” but that’s exactly what happens. Holder and Linden get taken down, and presumably arrested, which I bet means a lot of red tape and stern warnings not to leave the state of Washington for any place named Sonoma. We also should take a moment here to remember way back in episode one, when we were introduced to Stand and Belko, that they were called upon to get some pig carcasses out of a Muslim owned something. I honestly don’t know if it was a drug store or restaurant or something else. If anyone does know, please drop a note in the comments. Anyway, the point is, I’m going to guess that Holder and Linden stumbled onto those pig carcasses. Certainly a shock for two detectives searching for an elusive Muslim, but nothing so shocking as to spin us into new territory with this show. And I’m really not sure which way I want the show to go. Yes, this could now dive deep into a terrorist cell investigation, and there are many connections to be made, but so far, Rosie has not been tied to anything like that other than with Bennet, who may or may not be a martyr in training (I doubt it, since he has a kid on the way) and that connection feels weak at best. So while the FBI coming in out of nowhere feels a tad schlocky, I’ll stick with it for now and see where it leads.

But are we also supposed to believe that the person who gave them the address is an undercover FBI agent? Because that doesn’t ring too true. Aren’t these policing organizations very territorial? It doesn’t seem like an agent would send the local police to a place the FBI had under surveillance. And if not, then who is the person who gave them the information?

And also…who’s laughing now about my analogy about this show being a U.S./Middle Eastern relations analogy I made back on day one?

Suspect List

Mohammed – The new guy we haven’t even met yet. They’ve suggested he looks down on women; maybe he killed her because Bennet IS a martyr/suicide bomber but was getting too cozy with her? But then what of his wife? This theory I just came up with is preposterous. Pretend you didn’t read it.

Bennet – He has to be involved a little, no? Nothing so far has exonerated him and new connections keep tying him to Rosie.

Stan/Mitch – Still not buying either of them being involved. Their moments during times of aloneness don’t allow for it.

Belko - There's something going on with him. I just don't know if he had the wherewithal to pull it off.

Amber (Bennet’s wife) – We have confirmation of her being pregnant, but also that she’s jealous of her husband. She’s still in the mix.

Anyone else? Have any new theories? You guys are gonna owe me a beer when it turns out to be Tom Drexler!

As always, tell me what you thought in the comments below…