Cool Shit 11/18

What is the fascination with this show? The first few episodes of season 1 were decent, but it went to poop after that. And now it's coming back for a 4th season? What pictures does Veena Sud hold?

Meanwhile AMC is going in the opposite direction, looking for fare that will push the boundaries. Preacher is definitely that show. While this news suggests it will get made, I wouldn't hold your breath. This comic book series has a long history of almost getting made. If you're unfamiliar with the comic book, here's a quick summary of what it offers.

Everything you knew about eating apples is wrong.

There are so many awesome things going on with this video of The Bar Kays performing "Soul Finger," the best possibly being with nothing plugged in, the entire band is simply pantomiming the performance...



It used to be just the simple mention of the word "shark"would be enough to keep people out of the ocean. But now I think I would take an army of sharks over this squid type creature they have found in the Gulf of Mexico.

A down economy means black market food items. Here's a look at recent thefts of hauls. Of course, I have no idea where one would pick up black market nutella, but if you have a source, I'm all ears!

Thelonius Monk. Paris. 1969. Listen.

Cool Shit 6/17

Unless you're an astronomer, or an alien, you haven't seen these images for Mercury.

I enjoy Patton Oswalt not just because I think he's a funny comedian, but also because he speaks smartly and has a very grounded real-world view. He doesn't force his opinion on everyone, and can look at a subject from different angles. Take this thoughtful (if long) essay on a variety of things including hecklers, joke stealers and rape jokes.

I'm offended that the title of this article makes a poor joke at Michael Winslow's offense. Yeah, I get it not many people would recognize his name (I don't count myself in that number), but why take the pot shot. Regardless, I aim to get a recording of the performance.

HBO has a new show coming out soon called True Detectives. Based on a true story, it looks like the season will follow one case of a murdered girl and the 17 year investigation.

Do you think HBO watched The Killing and were like, "cool concept, let's do it but be successful with it!"



Ok, so it looks a bit salacious, and as far as documentaries go, that's probably a bad thing, but darn it if I'm not still intrigued by the mystery of JD Salinger.



If you told me in 1989 that Mike D. would have a house like this, I'd say you were wrong. In fact, I bet if you told Mike D. he would have a house like that he would say the same thing.

Cool Shit 3/20

Want to see what the George Saunders hoopla is all about (he's an author)? Check out ten of his stories here.

While I agree right now that television is really kicking out the jams, another police procedural about a woman who gets really tangled up in the case so soon after The Killing has me worried slightly.

In just a few short years, Jimmy Fallon went from the guy who couldn't keep a straight face in an SNL skit, to the hot commodity in late night television. And he did it all with a smile.

The drug gangs of Mexico have implemented many ideas in order to get drugs into the US. And I'm sure however they're doing it now is just as creative.

Oh yeah? I once skipped breakfast like 3 days in a row!

Cool Shit 1/16

The last sketch of the night on a typical Saturday Night Live show is usually one of experimentation, and certainly doesn't play to the masses. Here's a list of the top 10 of them.

I know it's only January 16th, but I'm not sure I will see a cooler video all year. Not just for how it was shot, but for showing some of the lengths the people had to go to get the shots.

Brief summary - the video is about kayaking. But kayaking in the way you haven't seen before.

Going to a fancy garden party and afraid you don't know enough about wine? Here are a few tips so you might not sound like such an uneducated ass.

So yeah, about the canceling of The Killing...it so didn't take.

Today's weird trailer: Upstream Color, from the creator of Primer.



Jam of the Day

Robert and the Roboters - I Follow the Sun

The Killing: Days 14 & 15

Like all of you at the end of last year’s final episode of The Killing, I wanted to strangle a plant. Led down a path that suggested we would know who killed Rosie Larsen by season’s end, instead we were given nothing but a pile of red herrings – and I don’t even like fish. In a nutshell, (and from my shoddy memory) we had to deal with:

Richmond, an idealistic mayoral candidate revealing a startling dark side involving underage hookups

Richmond then being shot by Belko Royce, a friend of the Larsens who also has a criminal past and a wee bit of instability

Detective Holder’s redemptive arc throughout the season destroyed in the last 30 seconds to get a cheap thrill out of the audience, planting evidence to suggest the creep Richmond, while still a creep, might not be the murderer.

Linden getting yet another excuse not to go to California.

(I think the last one was the worst, simply because the California plotline dragged everything it touched down to the ground completely, with no rhyme or reason to exist. Seriously, why did this murder investigation need the back drop of Linden potentially moving to California? Also, it set it up so early in the season that we knew she was never going to go – she was the star of the series! It offered no dramatic tension whatsoever.

It was all of those reasons, and many more (the terrorism angle one episode had! The teacher who didn’t kill Rosie Larsen but was involved in immigrant smuggling, but then got beat up and wait where is he now? The Larsen’s grief that played out in real time on the show! Etc.) that made me so frustrated with the show. Gone was the eerie suspense the pilot episode created; in its place came a combination of an average Law and Order episode (pick anyone sans Jerry Orbach) a bad Choose Your Own Adventure Novel (not the Bigfoot one though).

But, in the end, I decided to come back to The Killing’s universe…some because I’ve invested enough of my time to want to see how they’re going to piece together a storyline that leads to Rosie Larsen’s killer, but mostly because my choice for the killer is suddenly back in play. Yes, that’s right I have been given a stay of execution to continue harping on Tom Drexler as being the killer! Obviously last year, when we all thought the season finale would give us closure on the murder investigation, it wasn’t looking good for Tom being the big bad guy, since he was on screen for a total of about 12 seconds. But now that we have another entire season to play around with and sculpt a trail right to his basketball court, I can’t see any reason not to list him as the prime suspect. At least until next week, when he’s shot.

…but I just couldn’t recap the 2 hour premiere (which was really just two episodes played back to back. Oh sure, I watched, and dutifully took notes, but in the end when I sat down to write, I realized I couldn’t get into it. It was taking too long to go into too much detail about stuff that was too boring and not important. Because what has happened is they have completely backed themselves into a corner, introducing the conspiracy angle. We now have 12 more episodes to trod through to get to the answer, and knowing that, we also can assume the first 6 episodes are designed to throw us off the track of finding out who the real murderer is. And knowing that doesn’t make me feel like writing too much about it. So instead of the all too in-depth recaps I normally throw out there, I’m going to layout some stray observations/feelings/throughts about the first two hours. After that, I’ll reassess my state of mind and see what I’m up for…

DAYS 14 & 15

Richmond.

He’s in the hospital, paralyzed. We have been led to believe both that he did it, and then didn’t do it. Of course, now that he’s been cleared of Rosie’s murder (because he was going to commit suicide to honor his wife or something) I now have to ask what his value is to the show? Why should I care about his character? I just want to know who killed Rosie, and now that he’s apparently off the list of suspects, I don’t care about his plight. Yes, I understand that peripherally, he’s still involved, now that we know his opponent, the current mayor had at least something to do in framing him (something that is so stupid, since to be framed, they had to know about his hooker history, and seriously, wouldn’t leaking that be enough to ruin him?) so I guess he’ll be along for the wheelchair ride to close up that plotline. But other than that, the guy is a creep (remember, he’s been visiting hookers and asking if they know what it’s like to drown) but not enough of a creep to murder a hooker.

Sigh.

The Conspiracy.

It’s good at least that we know one of the moving parts behind it (the current mayor). Of course, I’m sure that’s not the really big moving piece behind it. But I’m also willing to bet there will come a point during the show where we find out the mayor (and his cronies) simply took advantage of the situation of Rosie’s murder, and didn’t actually have her killed. I realize this doesn’t make too much sense right now (since Rosie’s body was found in a campaign car of Richmond) but if it simply comes out that this was a convoluted plot by the mayor to win the election, well…it’s stupid. The other stuff that is stupid: How deep this conspiracy goes…meaning it seems the entire Seattle police department is in on it, save like 3 people. And I have no idea what to make of the new lieutenant. Is he there to keep the conspiracy going? Is he there to clean up a corrupt police force? Is he good or bad? All of his actions are mired in a stew of ambiguity and ambivalence.

The Larsens.

Mitch isn’t there, so now we get to watch domestic life with Stan and Terry, Mitch’s sister. It’s not all that different, unfortunately. Oh and I almost forgot, remember when Stan was arrested and all that? Yeah, neither do the writers. Rosie’s backpack shows up and Stan is all “Yikes!” at least enough to get his old crew back in the picture (which I’m sure will go smoothly) and badmouth the cops…oh and get Belko killed. Yeah, that’s right. Belko commits suicide after talking to Stan. Presumably (and this is me presuming, but I could be way off base) because he was looking for Stan’s approval of shooting Richmond and taking the law into his own hands. Only Stan doesn’t give him the approval he’s looking for. So he shoots himself. Which pushes Stan down the road of taking the law into his own hands. The logic has the twists and turns of a pretzel. A gross, sewer laden pretzel. That was left out in the rain.

Linden.

I’m shocked she didn’t go to California!

I’m also shocked at some of the decisions she is currently making. Mostly to do with her son. I’m counting down the episodes to when she finally just ships Jack off to his father’s so we can be rid of this boring, do nothing plotline. It has to be coming soon, right? Please tell me.

Anyhoo, Linden sorta kinda bullies her way back on the case with the new lieutenant by the show’s end, which yeah, I didn’t get it either. But there’s a lot I don’t get with this show, and by this point I’m just following along trying to figure out if it will start making sense again soon. So Linden is back in Seattle, for good, trying to solve a case and also find a place for Jack to hang out, that’s not a hotel room. Along the way she peels away a couple layers of the conspiracy onion (great band name suggestion – thank me in the liner notes please) and figures out that Holder’s sponsor, Gil Sloane, has at least something to do with framing Richmond. Of course, in the process, we realize the onion has many many layers, as while she is surreptitiously following Gil Sloane meet up with the mayor’s advisor at the waterfront construction area, she is being surreptitiously followed and photographed. By who we have no idea.

Holder

Holder is the small fish who thinks he’s big. And his bowl is about to get a lot smaller. I’m glad to see he’s not really a big part of the conspiracy, only a pawn that is being moved around on the conspiracy chessboard. Because, while it would have been a ballsy move to make him be more involved, it also would have cheated the audience out of the satisfaction we got from his redemptive arc last season. Holder is currently the most interesting thing The Killing has going for it, and to destroy that for a cheap thrill would have been lousy.

Still, we have to wade through some pretty awful stuff to get where we are right now. While Holder knew the picture was doctored, he also thought it was just a nail that was needed to ensure the real killer was caught. Also, he wanted a promotion. But now there are pieces that aren’t adding up, and he’s starting to question his role in the whole thing. Unfortunately for him, that’s not how things are supposed to work. First, his lieutenant turns on him. Then, his sponsor turns on him. But the final straw comes when Linden turns on him. Holder’s always in a state of fragility, and this realization that he has screwed up isn’t going to help his psyche.

So there you have it. A mish mash of nothing that has pretty much caught us up on the murder investigation (or lack thereof) that has introduced a conspiracy that at the moment, seems like it’s being run by the current mayor to ensure a victory and get his waterfront property deal through. Of course, I suspect there will be one or two other reveals to suggest he is nothing more than a minor player in the whole thing and that Rosie’s killer is not who we think it is right now. Unless you think it’s Tom Drexler. Because that’s who I think it is. And it’s obvious that a bigger player has to be involved since the conspiracy runs deep.

Finding Bigfoot Part 1: The Introduction

After the maddening ending (or, according to how you think the non-ending) of AMC's The Killing (and I will always add the AMC part there because they're the ones that ultimately let us all down) I've been absent-mindedly flipping through the television channel lineup wasteland, finally knowing what Moses must have felt like in the desert. While the Philadelphia Phillies usually keep me going, along with the hate watching of Food Network's Next Food Network Star and Chopped, they can only satiate my television appetite for so long.

It got so bad, in my darkest hour, I briefly contemplated watching Treme. But just as I thought all was lost, on my way toward flipping over to the revamped Lingo (yech!) I stumbled across quite possibly the greatest television show in the history of the world...

I'm of course talking about Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot.

Before I go into more depth, I have a confession to make. I was (and let's face it, since I'm actively watching a show based in the genre, still am) a UFO/ghost/Bigfoot/etc. fan. I even started the UGM Club, back in fourth grade to study and get to the bottom of the mysteries of UFOs, ghosts and monsters. My favorite book as a seven year old was a comic book devoted to true stories of UFO encounters (which included an encounter that happened mere miles from my home).

As I've grown, my rational mind has matured, and logically speaking I can't speak to the authenticity to any of these things. While the stories still intrigue and entertain me, I don't blindly accept the existence of any of them. I like to be open minded, but also cynical when it comes to any "evidence." I guess you could say I have the heart of Mulder, with the mind of Scully (at least until before the third time she was attacked/groped/kidnapped by a supernatural creature yet still would obsessively demand a logical explanation and ignore the empirical data in front of her face).

So, a show purportedly looking into the legends of Bigfoot, as well as investigating current sightings with rational, skeptical minds, sounded like a good idea to me.

That Finding Bigfoot is the absolute opposite of that makes it that much better.

I have watched exactly three episodes of Finding Bigfoot - not because I'm plodding through the show, but because I want to savor them, breathe them in, rewatch them in all their splendid, possibly unironic joy. I want to take the same journey that Cliff, Matt, Ranae and Bobo are taking in real time. I want to savor each episode, in each state (who knew Bigfoots routinely showed up in not just the Pacific Northwest, but instates all over our union? I mean, besides the crew at the Bigfoot Field Research Organization, or B.F.R.O.).

I want this show to go on forever.

The show follows 4 "researchers" in the B.F.R.O. travel to a different area each week to follow up on a Bigfoot sighting. At least that's what I picked up watching my first episode. Honestly, I was so perplexed watching it for the first time that I may have missed some of the subtleties of the show. But there are two things I definitely did not miss...two things that I feel are the show's heart and soul.

1. The "reconstructions"

Pretty much every show starts with the team heading somewhere because they heard about a recent sighting. This first show was based in Georgia, following up on a policeman's dashcam video of something running across the road. After seeing the video, the team decides to "recreate" it using a human. You can watch the whole thing here:

Aside from the complete lack of regard for accuracy in recreating these things, (and the fact that I believe Bobo is only around as their Bigfoot model) the thing I love about these "reconstructions," is the validity the entire team puts into them. It's as though running across the road at night proves the existence of Sasquatch! Not only that, to hear most of the members of this team talk, you'd think Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) are about as common and real as deer. There is no doubt in my mind that there is any doubt in Cliff's mind (the de facto leader of the group) that Bigfoots (or Squatches as he loves to call them) exist. And that only stokes the fire of my enjoyment that much more.

2. The Growl/Howl/Screech

This really can't be described. It must be witnessed...

My favorite things from this clip?

• It seems each "researcher" has their own distinct howl, or at least thinks he/she needs a couple of different calls for different situations?
• Everyone involved also seems to think these howls have any effect on a Squatch, going so far as to suggest they heard a howl in response!
• It appears that the preparation/planning leading up to this bellow is quite intense. I wonder if Cliff was just a little mad when he was interrupted before he got one off, much like a pitcher gets annoyed when the umpire calls time in the middle of his windup.

This being the first episode of Finding Bigfoot that I've ever seen it's easy to say that I'm hooked. So much so that tomorrow, in Part II, I will give you a rundown of the best things I heard while watching my second ever episode of Finding Bigfoot.

Until then...

The Killing: Day 13

Apologies in advance if I skip over things in this recap. For previous recaps, my routine would be to watch it once for the enjoyment/pleasure, and then go back and watch it a second time and take notes. For last night’s episode however, I really didn’t feel like going back and watching it again.

I will reserve overall opinions about this episode and the series in general until the end.

Orpheus Descended (sounds like a classy porn title), starts off immediately where last week’s episode left off – with Linden caught red handed in front of Richmond’s computer. Aside from the “Orpheus” exposition (seriously, it’s like the writers never watched Lost and have to hit us over the head with their oh-so-clever naming conventions) the scene developed genuine tension, even though I’m pretty sure we all knew Richmond wasn’t going to kill Linden and roll her up in a carpet.*

*Semi-quick aside with no relevance to the story at hand – whenever I bring up bodies being rolled up in a carpet, I can’t help but think back to the story my mom once told me. My mother plays tennis roughly 75 million hours a week, and has standing court time with a specific group of women. When a woman couldn’t play due to a prior engagement or whatever, they would call a sub to make sure the other ladies could still play (if you didn’t already know, it takes 4 people to play doubles on a tennis court).

One morning, 3 ladies, including my mom, met at the courts as usual, and waited for the fourth to show up. Only she never did, and apparently no sub had been called. So the three ladies begrudgingly played Canadian doubles (something no tennis player ever wants to do) for awhile before calling it a day. My mother, annoyed that she had to stoop to such a level of substandard tennis, and also waste an otherwise beautiful morning, decided to get to the bottom of the missing player, by leaving a number of messages on her the offending woman’s answering machine. And yet there was still no response.

Until the next morning. When my mother opened up the newspaper.

It seems the woman, over the weekend had gotten into an argument with her lesbian lover (“I didn’t even know she was a lesbian!” was my mother’s first response) and been bludgeoned, stabbed, and then rolled up in a carpet.

My mother’s second response?

“Well, I guess that’s a good enough excuse to miss tennis.”

The moral of the story, (other than you should at least come to a better understanding of the way I am), is you really better have an excellent excuse of why you missed tennis/didn’t get a sub when playing with my mother.

At the height of the tension, Linden gets a call from Holder, and smartly lets Richmond know he is on his way over, in case Richmond was thinking of any chicanery. And as much as I’ve been down on the whole campaign storyline and mayor in general, I really think Billy Campbell pulled off the duality his character would need to portray a mayoral candidate who cares about the city by day/hooker hiring serial lover pedophiliac murderer by night thing. Definitely effective, and I stupidly thought we might finally get the payoff we’ve been waiting for.

Linden slinks out and meets up with Holder. Together, they start the process of linking Richmond to the murder. They start with the campaign car, a decent place to start – ON DAY ONE! Seriously, they’re just starting this now? Stan might have put Bennet in the hospital, but I’m thinking the detectives better shoulder some of the blame. Unless Bennet winds up being the killer.

Anyway, Linden notices the gas tank and figures out that it Richmond must have stopped to get gas during the night of the murder. A clever clue that again, SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIGURED OUT ON DAY ONE! Day two at the latest. It seems if you want to commit a crime, Seattle might be the place to do it.

Meanwhile, for whatever reason, the Larsen family storyline is still going. Terry drops Stan off at home, and while some people suggested a romantic tryst between those two (something that might have been interesting), nothing like that seemed o be brewing here. Which means some pivotal plot point will pivot on exactly that completely out of the blue in season 2.

Terry advises Stan to go inside and hug it out with Mitch, but Stan instead jumps in his truck and drives away, while Mitch looks on derisively from their apartment above. And it pains me to continue writing about all this, since what does all of this have to do with anything anymore?

The police chief is less than thrilled his detectives are looking at a now popular mayoral candidate as a murder suspect. He suggests to them they get their ducks in a row before bringing them in, and also says maybe they should do some actual detecting. Ha. Apparently the chief is now the greek chorus of the show.

Luckily for them, the early edition of the newspaper comes out, and the front page is a doozy…it has the names and faces of all the women Richmond has had an affair with, presumably since his wife died. And they all happen to look like Rosie. This is good enough for the detectives to go chase them down in order to get supporting evidence for their theory. Unfortunately, none of them are too forthcoming, and the one that is (a former campaign advisor), doesn’t believe Richmond is capable of anything dastardly. In fact, so sure is she that she high tails it over to Richmond headquarters to warn him the police are snooping around. But it’s Gwen who finds her, and seriously all this affair stuff comes completely out of left field, feels rushed and stupid, comes across as hackneyed. For 11.5 episodes we’ve been given a look into the character of Richmond (both a public and private look), and none of this has been teased, suggested, or hinted at. So now, we’re supposed to simply buy that Richmond isn’t such a nice guy? It’s a little hard to swallow.

Not for Holder and Linden though. They go off trying to track down the gas station they think Richmond stopped at on the murder night but are having no luck. Linden is getting frustrated and lets Holder know – but Holder has a theory. And at the time, while watching this, I felt this scene really resonated, and showed glimpses that the show had finally hit something of a stride. Sure, there are still plenty of misfires and WTF moments, but to get these two characters locked down is a step in the right direction heading into a second season. I especially enjoyed the “watching you do math is like seeing a dog with a hat on,” comment and I enjoyed that the scene implied that Holder had some detecting skills and that Linden was proud of him.

And yet how simple it is to destroy something you’ve taken awhile to build up.

Belko is back in the picture for a moment as he is cleaning his stuff out of the garage when Terry happens upon him. Terry, doing a 180 from previous meetings with Belko (and acting in a weird way since just the day before the police indirectly linked her to the death of her niece – but why would we want to show any fallout form that?) decides to extend an olive branch to Belko. An olive branch Belko of all people realizes is too late, and means nothing in the now broken home of the Larsens. When Belko is the voice of reason on the show, you know it’s time to maybe change your latitude.

Linden and Holder finally track down the gas station they believe Richmond stopped at. More importantly, the grizzled gas station attendant not only corroborates their theory, he goes one step further and tells them about a screaming girl. A screaming girl that Linden supernaturally realizes escaped the car and ran around back of the gas station – and ran into the woods to meet her eventual demise. This is all just so preposterous at this point that I have to laugh. The only thing that would have saved this scene for me would have been if Max Gail, or Wojo from Barney Miller fame, had been playing the grizzled gas station attendant like I had first thought before seeing his face. That would have given me a better excuse to post this:

... instead of shoehorning it in like I just did.

Unfortunately, the gas station didn’t have a surveillance camera. But that doesn’t stop Linden from calling out the force to comb the woods again. This time they find a shoe matching the other one they found with Rosie. The noose is getting tighter around Richmond’s neck!

Speaking of Richmond, Jamie and Gwen are talking, and Jamie is trying to get a read on Gwen since…really I’m not 100% sure what we’re supposed to take from here. That Richmond was cheating on her? I guess it’s possible, but it wasn’t made clear, unless I missed something. And it’s certainly possible I missed something since I was snorting heroin at this point to dull the pain of this show. Gwen assures Jamie she is a professional and that she’ll continue to do her job. As she leaves, Jamie confirms with Richmond that Gwen is “Ok,” as Richmond twirls his non-existent mustache, and ponders how awesome it would be to tie a damsel to some train tracks.

Linden goes to the chief with all their evidence…and he’s still not convinced the circumstantialness of it all will hold up. And I have to admit I agree with him. But then Holder comes out of the darkness with the smoking gun – a photo of Richmond time stamped the night of the murder from a tollbooth close to where Rosie’s body was found. Whew…for a moment there I thought we wouldn’t get closure and have to wait until season 2 to find out who murdered Rosie!

Linden gets all mad and shows us how much she’s involved in the case by showing up at Richmond’s and accusing him of the murder. They yell at each other some. Gwen hears it all go down. Then she goes and sits in her car in the parking garage. So does Linden. They chat. Gwen admits she was covering for Richmond, and that he was never really with Richmond the night of the murder.

Stan and Mitch finally talk. Well, that might be suggesting more than what happened. I mean, words were exchanged, but not a heckuva a lot was said. Ultimately though, Mitch leaves. Now, her leaving could be construed as some measure of guilt for something, and if you want to keep connecting the dots, it could suggest she knows more about Rosie’s murder. I’d love to say that we can count on the cops to have cleared the Larsens’ whereabouts on the weekend of the murder, but that would be suggesting actual police work was done during this investigation which, I’m sorry we can’t assume anything here. I also like to think that I could establish a decent argument as to why neither Stan nor Mitch could be the murderers, but with the preposterous, illogical plot swings this show has already taken, I’d just look like an idiot.

But wait…all the Larsen stuff is moot right? Because we got the murderer. Linden and Holder go down to Richmond’s speech and arrest him, despite his proclamations of innocence. Thankfully, we don’t have to believe him because we have a mountain of evidence against him. Let’s take a look, shall we?

• Body was found in a Richmond campaign car
• He asked a hooker if she ever wondered what it felt like to drown
• He had a bunch of affairs with women that sorta kinda looked like Rosie
• He knew Rosie
• The woman is currently sleeping with told the police he came home the night of the murder “soaking wet”

Oh yeah, this guy’s Ted Bundy. Lock him up!

Whatever, he’s guilty as sin. Linden and Holder share a nice moment where she unofficially passes the torch to him, before… yes, that’s right GETS ON A FLIGHT TO WHEREVER IN CALIFORNIA. THIS SUBPLOT STILL EXISTS!

And all the while the cops are wrapping things up, Belko, obviously angered that his fake family has been torn apart, is planning a murder of his own. Richmond’s! He’s off to go Jack Ruby him as he is being brought into custody. Unfortunately, the screen goes to black before we know if he succeeds.

And while I know that was the last scene, I wanted to save the following to dissect in a little more detail…

Jack and Linden are actually on the plane to Wherever California (quick aside – I love that Jack was all upset that they were leaving just when he was getting to know his dad. Never mind that his dad lived in Chicago anyway so that it didn’t matter where he was. Apparently the writers ignored that.). Just as Linden is about to sit down, she gets a call on her cell phone…it’s from the someone in the Department of Video Footage Taken at Toll Booths, or something like that, letting her know that her request for the video footage can’t be processed because the video camera has been broken for like 2 months. But wait a minute…Holder already got that stuff, so what’s going on?

Cut to:

A comically framed shot of Holder in the passenger seat of a car (literally, the shot almost was a split screen, they went to so much trouble to conceal the identity of the driver) speaking to a mystery person about how Linden “bought” the fake pictures of Richmond.

And that’s how we end season 1 of The Killing.

Ok.

To say I was disappointed with this episode would be a slight understatement.

Why they chose not only to not 100% solve the murder of Rosie Larsen in this season makes no sense from a creative standpoint, nor from a ratings standpoint. Creatively, the show has already drawn out the case over 13 hours, when 7 would have been enough. The dead ends and blind turns the show took did little more than frustrate viewers; They certainly did nothing to advance the case, nor did they advance character development (And they made me use the word “nor” twice in one paragraph). From a ratings standpoint, I guess the argument could be made that viewers will turn into season 2 to find out who killed Rosie, but in this day and age of the Internet, I think that’s a false hope. I’m much more inclined to read about it, as I’m fed up with how the show treated me for 13 weeks. I don’t want to invest more time because I feel cheated and manipulated.

I think the biggest problem I have is what they did with the character of Holder. With this show, with so many characters, and so many suspects, the two detectives working the case have to be the ones the audience identifies with. They are also the only two characters the show took time to develop (I guess an argument can be made that Richmond’s character was developed as well, but his 180 degree heel turn at the end came out of left field, so really, how was he developed?) and then they go and throw it all away with a 5 second scene that comes out of left field and doesn’t feel like something the character would do.

And really, why exactly would Holder be involved? His backstory worked perfectly. In the beginning he was shady. Had they kept him at that level of shadiness for the entire 13 episodes, then yes, his heel turn would have worked. But they didn’t. They took all the things he did and went the sympathetic route, by turning him into a recovering addict. And then, they developed the relationship he had with Linden and made him a nice guy, going so far as to build him up as a hero (when he forsakes his own family to stay with Linden in her time of need). To then make him a conspirator in the murder case is nothing more than to throw a red herring into the mix to make the audience gasp. Only in this case, the gasp was one of anger.

Holder was the best part of the show. His character felt interesting and went against the grain of normal depictions of detectives on television shows. There was enough interest in him that we didn’t need a schlocky, drive-in movie type twist with him. Never mind the fact that him helping to frame Richmond makes zero sense. Just in the episode before, he was surprised to learn Richmond was Orpheus (we know this because he found that out when he was alone; so there would be no need for him to “pretend” to anyone that he was surprised. In fiction we have to trust the actions of a character when he/she is alone, otherwise the system breaks down. And yes, I understand the irony of saying this about a show that has broken many of the other traditional norms of fiction. Let’s just move on before I throw my computer out the window). So, we have to then assume he was reached by a shadowy figure, convinced and bribed to betray his partner, the police force and his new job in LESS THAN 24 HOURS. Because there’s been no hint before this that would make sense. Even though times he met with people in cars…if he were setting up Richmond then, why wouldn’t have steered the investigation toward him from the beginning? These are the logic bombs the showrunner needs to deal with – and deal with soon. Because season 2 is going to be a clusterfuck from a ratings standpoint.

But I digress.

I’m too tired to go into too much detail about the rest of the episode or even the series. If you want to get really angry about the direction it took, read this interview with Veena Sud, the showrunner for The Killing. I particularly enjoy the part about how he (she?) suggests they had the idea for this ending from the very beginning, regardless of whether they would get a second season or not.

Sure you did Veena.

So…will I watch the second season? My immediate reaction is to say no, that this first season and its ending was too inconsistent to invest my time. But I’m not so sure that will be my reaction once it comes around for round 2. I’m still invested in who killed Rosie, and would like a definitive answer to that. Obviously, in this Internet age it will be easy to find that out without watching the show, but there are also other plots I would like to see wrapped up. Perhaps it is like a gaper delay on the road, where you can’t turn away from the scene of a car crash – you want to see how bad it really is. I want to see who was in the car with Holder (it almost has to be the other mayor, or it really makes no sense), why Holder would do it, whether Belko succeeded in his Jack Rubiness, and just why Mitch would walk out on the rest of her family.

Though I really have no desire to learn anything about Linden’s ex, current or whatever.

So…hopefully you enjoyed these reviews/recaps and they helped vent your frustration toward the show. I know they did for me. I’ll be on the lookout for another show to do the same, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Suspect List

Everyone. Duh.

The Killing Day 11

(Apologies for getting this up so late. I was traveling Sunday night and only just got a chance to watch this...)

You’ve got to be kidding me! After the charge the series got from last week’s episode, I thought The Killing finally settled into a good groove and despite some inconsistency found in earlier episodes, we’d have a strong push toward the finish line.

And then we woke up to day 11.

Let’s just get into it before I decide not to write anything about it. I’ll share my personal thoughts at the end. And I apologize in advance if you feel I’m blowing through some of the stuff that happens, but…

We of course start where we left off last week more or less, with Linden at the casino, walking through the dregs of society that would be gambling at such an early morning hour. And before you accuse the show of exaggerating the type of character that would be gambling at that hour by showing someone with an oxygen canister on the floor, let me tell you – that is no exaggeration. I’ve seen plenty of oxygen tanks in a casino. In fact, I’d suggest that perhaps the producers of The Killing didn’t go far enough.

Linden wanders through the casino and you can see the possibilities this new lead suggests in her expression. Finally, a big break in this case! All she has to do now is simply get a couple of warrants for the security cameras and she’ll be able to fill in more of Rosie’s timeline and…

Not so fast, says the manager of the casino. Apparently, the Indians who run this casino aren’t so keen to be involved in a murder investigation. And while I can understand that to a degree, it does seem a little strange that they get very standoffish very quickly. Linden is asking for some standard things, and the responses she gets back could be construed as withholding information. Perhaps.

Frustrated with the lack of cooperation, Linden is escorted off the premises of the casino. Frustrated with this current roadblock, she eyes an ATM and gets an idea. She might not be able to get the casino’s camera footage, but the ATM security footage is a different story.

Holder shows up and Linden gives him the lowdown on her plan. Getting the warrant could take upwards of 24 hours, and it seems like Linden is going to wait right at the entrance of the casino, much to Holder’s chagrin. Because, see, Holder has some other business to take care of. He wants to head off to his niece and nephews school parade, as he is trying to get his life back together after the drug problem and good grief! This is episode 11? This is important because…? Look, I understand back stories to characters are important and good to establish, but I’m not sure there’s enough time here to make the audience care. The audience you have cares about the murder at this point. I doubt there are going to be any new people that are going to pick this series up.

Waiting for the warrant, Linden gets a new call – Jack didn’t show up for school. Ok, great. I guess I’m the patsy here because I thought once Regi left the picture and Linden and Jack moved into the hotel, that would be the resolution of that plot line. And I was wrong. So, so horribly wrong. And I feel bad. Because now we have to spend an entire episode tracking Jack down and forgetting about Rosie.

Linden and Holder go back to the motel to find Jack, only Jack isn’t there, but his cell phone is. So Linden obviously goes into detective more in an attempt to find her son. Holder begrudgingly follows along, at least at first. We’ll see as we move down this path how he changes, and how the relationship between him and Linden changes. You can either follow, or fast forward to the last two minutes if you only care about the Rosie Larsen murder. And I certainly won’t judge you.

They head to Reggie’s boat and not only is Jack gone, but Regi’s boat is gone. And really, who can blame her? Linden gets a call from another mother and long story short learns about The Tunnel – a popular place for kids to go when they cut class. And obviously Holder knows about it. So off the two go.

They get there, and no one is there, so they wait. Eventually, a group of kids come down. By this point, I’m begging Jack is one of them so that we can get back to the issue of dead Rosie Larsen, but no such luck. Heading back to the car, Linden finally opens up a bit after Holder’s continued questioning about Regi and we finally learn the secret we’ve all been dying to know – the truth about the relationship between Regi and Linden. They’re not mother and daughter, Regi is Linden’s social worker!

It’s possible that there are viewers out there that want to know the history of these characters, and get some insight about why they act the way they do. I’ll admit, as a Lost fan, I cared more about the secrets of the island and what was going on, and less about the character interactions. So I may be the wrong person to look to when watching this episode, but seriously, all of this is really really boring.

Linden and Holder go onto do way more police work in the next hour than they have for the entire run of Rosie’s investigation. And I get this is personal, but still. It’s a little jarring. They head off to get some food, where we now start to get deeper into Holder’s back story. His current outlook, which goes against his immediate appearance and personality, still rings true. For the character, at least.

Linden calls in an APB on her son.

They head back to the hotel, as it is now about the time that school is letting out. Still no Jack though.

Holder cancels his plans to head to his niece and nephew’s school parade in order to stay with Linden. It’s touching, emotional and real. I have such conflicting thoughts about this specific episode, because it really does a lot with the characters, while doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the show. This episode opens up a lot of avenues, from the slow realization from Linden that she doesn’t want Jack to grow up to become someone like Holder, to her other slow realization that she’s more fucked up than Holder. Not to mention the fact that police work can seriously fuck up the lives of many different people.

Linden directs the two of them to some places that ultimately are not places that Jack might be, but more are places where she can feel some pity for herself. And while that may sound negative, I think it’s exactly what her character needs – a chance to slow down and realize her lifestyle and dedication are not the best things for her son or the people that are close to her. Whether we’re supposed to take any of that out of this episode I have no idea, and I’m not sure if this is trying to set up a second season of this show or not. (And yes, I know I’m glossing over the fight between Holder and Linden, but it’s just another vehicle to show that Holder has his act together (at least a little more than Linden) and Linden doesn’t want to face that.

Sitting at an old playground, they hear over the radio that a child’s body that fits the description of Jack has been found. So off they go, assuming the worst. Again, I’m not sure if I would have been happy or sad if the body had been Jack’s. I guess sad, because that would have been too much of a wrench for the show to handle so late into the season. I mean there’s no way Linden would have been able to continue on with the case after the death of her son. On the other hand, it would have brought all of this oddball plot to a quick resolution, and we also would have gotten Holder leading the investigation so…

Linden and Holder head back to the motel and find Jack. Reunited, Holder is now left to pick up the pieces of his actions (or non actions) of the day with his family. Fingering his AA chip, I wonder if we’re supposed to think he’s headed back to the drugs. Thankfully (hopefully) we can shrug this particular scene off as a simple reminder that drugs always sing the siren song to addicts, as he gets a call that the ATM camera footage warrant came back.

Linden and Jack are back in the motel, and Linden is calmly going over the day’s events for him and asks him where he was. Jack explains his actions. He was with his dad. I wrote that line way before he admitted this. And I’m not saying that as bragging, I say it because it was the only logical outcome.

Holder is back at the station combing through the ATM footage, and he finds Rosie on it, all dolled up. If I take anything away from this episode it will be that the show still hasn’t eliminated Tom Drexler as a suspect. It certainly hasn’t advanced him either, and I’m hanging by a thread, but that thread is still tied to something.

The end.

As I said earlier, I felt very conflicted by this episode. While it did nothing to advance the plot, I did feel it did a lot to develop the characters of Linden and Holder. If only it had happened during day three, and not day eleven, and I feel it would have worked unbelievably well. But to have it show up so late in the series is going to turn viewers off – no matter how strong an episode it is. It’s weird, the show started off as a simple police procedural that focused on the case, to the detriment of the characters. To pull this 180 so late in the season flies in the face of what producers/writers/directors tried so hard to establish in the beginning. And that’s too bad, since I thought the writing of this episode was extremely strong, and it felt very real and human.

Anyway, I’m not bothering with a suspect list, so please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

The Killing: Day 10

Day 10 (or technically the end of Day 9, unless you want to squabble over what time the teacher was beat up) starts on the body of Bennet, left out in the rain, but still alive…barely. Stan did a number on him. He must have been an effective enforcer in the Seattle mob. Also, the Seattle mob? It almost sounds cute!

Anyway, Stan comes home, and Mitch shows him the pink shirt. Again I suggest that if the shirt was what sent Stan over the edge to turn back to his mob roots and beat up Bennet, then he and Mitch aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer. I guess we could have inferred that from the barely successful moving company they run and the repeated hiring of Belko, but still…it just goes to show you that while Stan may have been a good enforcer for the mob, he probably wasn’t going to climb that organization’s career ladder too quickly.

Over at the police station, things aren’t going much better for our detectives. Briefing the chief, Linden and Holder admit that Bennet was the wrong angle to play, and that they’re pretty much back at square one. As is the audience. I mean seriously, we obviously have our theories about who killed Rosie, but nothing has been revealed yet to point us in the direction of a suspect. And I think that’s what has been the most frustrating part of this series. The creators spent so much time giving us the Red herring Bennet, and no time on pursuing (or laying groundwork) for another suspect, and here we are with only 3 and-a-half episodes to go.

The detectives hear about Bennet, and Linden is beating herself up pretty bad over the whole thing; Holder not so much. And I liked this scene because it’s another piece in the evolution of the Linden/Holder relationship. I know I’ve harped on this show a bunch, but one thing I think it has done well is developed these two detectives in a real way. It’s not sickeningly sweet; it’s not horrendously over the top; it’s closer to real.

After a spell at the home, Stan turns himself in. I guess an argument could be made that he is still Rosie’s killer, but it would be tough. This pretty much shows he can’t live guilt of beating up an innocent person, so I have to imagine he wouldn’t be able to function to well if he were his daughter’s murderer.

Linden goes and visits Richmond, presumably at his apartment, which looks incredible. No seriously, Trump is probably envious of this bachelor pad. I guess we finally know what Gwen sees in him. As Richmond opens the door, we see him playing with a basketball, which I guess is the subtle way the director chose to let us know he sank the shot from last week’s episode? In a pseudo apology, she tells him not only is Bennet is innocent, which Richmond pompously says he knew all along (maybe because he killed Rosie?) but also that Bennet is in the hospital because yeah, he got beat up. Richmond stays pompous to the end of course. I guess he can be since he’s 5 million dollars richer.

But wait, we still need to be hit over the head one more time before we can REALLY start feeling bad for Linden. As she heads back to the boat, Regi is there, waiting, tattling on Jack for drinking a little beer and calling Regi a lesbo. At first, Linden is upset and tells Regi Jack is gonna get it, but when Regi starts shining the light on how Linden might have a little something to do with the behavior, she pulls up anchor, gruffly wakes Jack up and heads to a motel. Honestly, probably not the smartest thing to do, but also I would have totally done the same thing. Linden’s got a lot of pressures on her right now, and while her priorities are definitely out of whack, at that moment, I can definitely understand her actions. Now, is a motel a great place for Jack right now? Yeah, probably not.

Richmond, Jamie and Gwen see a golden opportunity in this Bennet situation. They quickly move forward to take advantage of it by cancelling the attack ads they had running, and starting to create the candidate of integrity. A great plan, and I can’t see anything being able to railroad Richmond now!

Linden is at the precinct and she and Holder go back to square one and start going over the evidence they have, all over again. Wow – actual detective work! Trying to tie up some of the more preposterous theories, they go about eliminating the mob connection one.

Linden is off to see Stan at county (I’ve always wanted to say that). She asks about the mob history. He’s not exactly forthcoming, but he also doesn’t give her a reason to think this was mob related. Is he just clamming so as not to be considered a rat, or is he telling the truth. God, I hope it’s the truth so we don’t have 3 episodes of taking down the Seattle mob.

Holder goes to have a little chap with Belko, and let’s just say Belko is not the world’s greatest liar. In fact, on a list of liars, he would be really close to the bottom.

At Stan’s arraignment, he wants to plead guilty, but his lawyer won’t let him. I guess this is a good time to bring up the fact that it would certainly be interesting if Bennet does turn out to be the murderer. We could feel good knowing Stan didn’t beat up an innocent guy (because really, isn’t Stan the most sympathetic character in this whole show? Even Rosie’s brothers are annoying), and it would probably be the one twist that could save a little of the integrity of the series.

Linden talks to a cabbie that picked Rosie up from Bennet’s place the night of the murder and dropped her off back at the Larsen’s place. Linden and Holder watch the cab video and see that yes indeed, she was dropped off at home. Holder suddenly has a Sherlock Holmesian moment and deduces that someone was at the Larsen household when she was dropped off. Seriously, it was as preposterous as Cooper seeing a reflection in the eye of Laura Palmer to deduce she was murdered or whatever in the beginning of Twin Peaks. I’m not necessarily complaining about either of these moments either; I’m just saying both moments were slightly implausible. Whatever, at least Holder is showing off some detective skills other than picking up 16 year old chicks. Remember that? Back when he was pervy and seedy and awesome?

Terry has the difficult moment of telling the annoying Larsen brothers about their father and explaining why he’s in jail. Thankfully the moment is interrupted by Larsen and Holder stopping by. Holder again goes to talk to Belko, while Linden sidles up to Terry to try and find out who could have been at the Larsen household on the night of the murder. Terry can’t get the words out fast enough to make Belko out to be Charles Manson. Meanwhile, Belko wilts even more under the Holder questioning. And only because the symbolism is heavy in this episode, the whole time Holder is questioning Belko, he’s holding a basketball. I’m not sure what the basketball is supposed to represent in this show, so I’ll just choose it’s supposed to pick Tom Drexler and his stadium, because he’s my favorite suspect. Still. Oh sure, like you have a better one based on something the show has offered? I don’t believe you.

Belko’s alibi for the night of the murder is that he was at his mom’s house, which leads to the best scene of the series so far. Yes, Belko’s mom is a caricature of a character – a 70 year old, lingerie-wearing slut who immediately hits on Holder. But, and maybe I’m naïve, or giving this show a lot of leash, but in the moment of the show, she helped create a creepy atmosphere and it somehow worked. And she went a long way toward showing why Belko is the way he is. Sure, Belko is a weirdo, but a sympathetic one at that, having had to live with his mom. Still, they find a bunch of marbles (don’t know the significance) and a bunch of pictures of the Larsens (definitely understand the significance of those) on the ceiling. Notice I said, “pictures of the Larsens,” and not “pictures of Rosie.”

Linden and Holder get into the box with Belko, and here’s another instance of actual police work That’s like three times in this single episode!. They break him down fairly quickly and he tells a story about how much he loves the Larsens; how he often sat at the Larsen’s kitchen table when they weren’t around; how Rosie came home that night when he was there; how he heard Rosie talking to “Adela.” It’s a legitimate story and something I’m not sure Belko could concoct. Quick aside: I thoroughly enjoyed Linden describing Belko’s mom as, “She’s a different sort of person, isn’t she?”

Meanwhile, Gwen and Jamie are watching a girl named Valerie (seriously, they went to great lengths to make sure we got her name) go through video of Richmond shaking hands…specifically with Rosie. This would not be good for the campaign if it ever got out there. Valerie helpfully reminds us all about how her body was found in one of Richmond’s campaign cars and what a crazy coincidence it is that he almost seemed to know her! And just like that, we’ve tied Richmond into the investigation. Which I guess is good, since there has to be at least a slight reason as to why the show has been so involved with the campaign. I just hope he doesn’t turn out to be the murderer. There has been no suggestion he’s been involved in this at all, up until this point. You know what, one more scene with Valerie, and I’m going to suspect her. She probably did it because Rosie called her “Val” one too many times!

Mitch is trying to help run the moving business and she gets a call from the bank about the secret house Stan bought and now she knows and oh no and who cares about the secret house unless that’s where Stan murdered Rosie. Seriously, the existence of this house is the only reason I still have a thread-bare thought still that Stan could have murdered Rosie. We have to assume there’s something about the house that’s involved since it’s been continually brought up, right? So who wants to bet it’s the murder scene?

Holder and Linden, now with the mob theory and the Belko angle (presumably) over, are now trying to track down the “Adela” angle. I only bring it up because yet again there is a basketball in this scene – Holder is playing with a miniature basketball as they’re talking.

Linden finally heads back to home, or more specifically the awesome motel where she left he budding alcoholic son all alone for the entire day. Mom of the year! And look who’s here – Rick. You remember Rick, her fiancé. Or, maybe I should say, ex-fiance. Rick hints that Linden may have been in a psychiatric hospital over a previous case, and gives her an ultimatum: fly back to Oakland with him tonight or… Linden of course picks the “or…” and Rick leaves, hopefully tying up this part of the story. Until he comes back and is the murderer.

Next morning (day 11?), Linden is up early and out running by the sound, where she happens upon a ferry schedule. A ferry schedule for a ferry named Adela. This kicks off the now famous montage scene that ends every episode. We see Stan in prison wistfully looking out the window, Mitch going over the books of the moving company, and Linden on the Adela, heading to an Indian casino which just so happens to share a logo with the thing on the keychain that was found with Rosie.

While I made some jokes about this episode, I thought it was a good one, and moved the plot along. I only wished it happened during day 5 and not day 10. The whole FBI plot line, and Bennet red herring took entirely too long and ultimate went nowhere. Worse, it led the viewer nowhere and now it feels as though we’re starting all over again. So, while the show feels like it’s finally hit its stride, there are only three episodes left. And when you think about it, we only have two leads – the keychain/casino evidence, and Richmond on video shaking Rosie’s hand. Why we had to wait until day 10 to get these revelations, I don’t understand.

Hopefully, the show keeps the momentum going for these last 3 episodes. If it does, I think I’ll be happy overall. But if it stumbles, I can’t imagine I would ever check in for a second season of this show. I enjoy the actors (Linden is especially attractive in her thick yet form hugging sweaters, but I’m biased) and while Holder has dipped a little after the first two episodes, I feel he’s still the best character of the show. I hope the creators have found their direction and stay the course.

Suspect List

Belko – I don’t think he’s capable of getting away with the murder of Rosie, but this episode certainly shined the crazy light on him. I wouldn’t be shocked if it turned out to be him. Not thrilled, but not necessarily surprised.

Stan – I’d like to put him to rest as a suspect. His actions in this episode suggest he knows right from wrong and will deal with the consequences appropriately. Still, this secret house has come back into the picture for some reason.

Terry – Hey, it’s possible. Did Rosie find out she loves Stan more than just a brother-in-law? Will there be any payoff to her and Mr. Aames?

Richmond – A man running for mayor on the concept of integrity almost always has a skeleton in his closet ready to fall out and destroy his credibility. Or maybe it will be a simple video clip.

And now for my Tom Drexler theory…

Why would Drexler kill Rosie? I have no idea. But I’m still holding onto that notion. Look, we know Rosie was found with expensive shoes. I’m going to assume she got them at the casino. If you didn’t know, there are many boutique type stores at casinos, a perfect place for people to throw some of their newly earned money at expensive, frivolous items. So, what if Rosie met Drexler at the casino and they hit it off. At least enough to enjoy a drink or two. But maybe not enough for Drexler’s liking. And I bet Drexler is the type that doesn’t hear no very often. But why would Drexler be at the casino at the first place? Well, as the show’s resident rich person, it would make sense that one of his investments was to help an Indian tribe bring a casino to the Seattle area. And if this basketball imagery that continues to come up throughout the series doesn’t at least moderately involve Drexler, I’ll be moderately surprised.

Having said all that, I hope you enjoy Valerie being your killer.

The Killing: Day 9, Undertow

Let’s get right into this, because if I pause I might start to question why I’m still watching the show…

Linden and Holder are listening to the wire on Bennet’s phone with a translator. Bennet and whomever he is talking to are throwing out a lot of incriminating-yet-vague phrases. Enough of them at least to convince Holder and Linden they should go forth with a warrant and pick him up. Holder goes off to find his sympathetic judge, while Linden is off to make sure everything is on the up and up. Of course, we also need Mitch to get involved again, and talk about how Bennet is still out there…to which Linden stupidly suggests it will be over tonight.

Meanwhile back in the states…The mayor is going on the attack, directly answering the allegations of infidelity the Richmond campaign brought up. His press conference is of course on at the Richmond campaign headquarters, where it seems Richmond is having some buyer’s remorse on the whole thing. It’s at this point Linden rolls in and asks for some of the records of Bennet’s appearances with Richmond. At an earlier point in this series, this nice little connection tying of a suspect to another person of power would be something to note. Right now it seems to simply be filler. At least with the outcome of this specific episode. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Thankfully, once the press conference is done, we immediately get an admission of guilt form the mayor, speaking with his shady assistant. Not only does he admit the affair, but he goes one step farther by doubling what he is paying the former intern, and by getting his medical files falsified to show that he couldn’t get a girl pregnant. I guess that’s actually two steps further, but whatever. He’s certainly cunning and graceful under pressure. I wonder if he could commit and cover up a murder.

Holder meets with the judge. Obviously friendly, Holder goes on to get the judge to sign off on the warrant that will allow them to arrest Bennet and search his house I guess. And of course, this wiretap that was completely on the up and up last week is now completely not, due to the fact that Holder is quoting the Patriot Act in order to have gotten the wire on the house. And that is something the judge is not so cool with. We are in Seattle after all. I really hope no one was shocked by the fact that this whole thing fell apart. This whole get-the-warrant-get-the-evidence-now-the-warrant-is-bogus storyline is pretty much a microcosm of how the show is going.

Now technically day 9 (I assume it’s the morning when this happens), Linden and Holder are getting chewed out by their boss who is becoming less like a character and more like a caricature. In fact, if I were down on the boardwalk at the beach, drawing caricatures, and this guy came up, I’d draw him as a road block, holding back the word, “plot.” In a nice show a small support, Linden falls on the sword and takes the blame for the wire, and also gets a nice dig in at her boss before they leave.

Back at Bennet’s place, Amber, probably a slight bit suspicious with all the police interest and weird phone calls her husband takes, finally takes some action and takes Bennet’s phone to see who he’s been talking to. It’s obviously been Mohammed, and I must say, her sudden turn into Nancy Drew territory couldn’t have come at a better time for the detectives.

A new day means a new round of damage control for the Richmond mayoral campaign. Jamie is being his usual slimy self, trying to get in front of the backlash the campaign is feeling. Richmond has slinked back into, “I should be above all this,” going so far as to cavalierly take responsibility for using the dirt, while of course still blaming Jamie. He also makes a big show of how much he cares about the Somali population in Seattle which is nice in theory, but um, really?

Over at the Larsen household, Mitch and Terry are talking about Rosie’s textbooks. Terry is going to go drop them off over at the school since no one is going to need them right now. But Mitch speaks up and says she’ll do it. Hmmm, this seems like a minor thing to think about and not at all some stupid reason to get Mitch over to the school.

Amber, the guilt of complacency suckling on the teet of her unborn baby, decides to do something about it and calls the police department to talk to Linden, but then thinks better/worse of it and hangs up.

And now comes this week’s most absurd, seemingly non sequitor moment of the episode. Belko and Stan are on a moving job, one I guess that didn’t get cancelled, and Stan takes a moment to help a little girl with her bike. It’s a sweet subtle moment, and one that has no business being shown this late in the series. I guess it acts as a counter to the end of the episode, but really it feels out of place and smarmy. We get it. Stan has a tender, caring side. Belko creepily looks on from the back of the moving truck. And when I say creepily, I mean CREEPILY.

Mitch gets to the high school, books in hand, and wait a minute…what’s this? Bennet is there too? But I thought the principal told him to stay away!

Linden and Holder meanwhile are sitting in the police station feeling sorry for themselves that they can’t catch a break in the case (well, Holder is at least, Linden’s expression hasn’t changed since episode 2 so who knows what she’s doing), when they find something that could be a clue in a...book. A school book? I’m really not sure. But why would it be a school book if Mitch was taken them back to the school. It’s a little confusing here, and while obviously not anything significant, it still felt a little sloppy. Regardless, it’s a note that simple says, “Adela, 11:45.” So now we wait for a new character to be introduced…9 episodes into a 13 episode season. At this point, seriously, while I want to know the identity of the killer, I almost hope we don’t find out in season one, so they can at least justify how slow the pace of the show is going. The police have exactly one suspect, and as we’re about to learn, he didn’t do it. At least I don’t think he did.

Back at the high school, Bennet walks into the teacher lounge as though he’s not a murder suspect. Obviously, everyone treats him exactly like a murder suspect and keeps their distance. The principal comes in, confronts Bennet and tries to get him to go home, but Bennet is having none of it.

Look, I get the concept of “innocent until proven guilty,” and the idea of an innocent person wanting to show everyone around him just how innocent he/she is, but this is mildly ludicrous. Forget the fact that the teacher’s union would have to be involved in every facet of this situation, I’m having a hard time believing a teacher like Bennet, who has been set up as a teacher who really “gets” his students, wouldn’t realize going to school would be a bad idea. But it has to play out, so indignantly heads to his classroom, where the students wait about 5 seconds before leaving, and the camera turns to show the board behind him scrawled with the word, “Killer.” Bennet didn’t see that before walking in?

Richmond heads over to the defaced mosque. The swastikas were a nice touch. All eleven hundred of them. Seriously, there were a lot of swastikas. He speaks to the head of the mosque – and…really there’s nothing worth noting here, except possibly the fact that Richmond and the mosque leader know each other. Here’s another connection that I’m guessing will go nowhere.

Holder and Linden are working on trying to track down Mohammed’s phone number, since I guess they have nothing else to go on. If only someone would come and – hey look it’s Amber. Giving them Mohammed’s phone number, which she got off Bennet’s phone. Well isn’t that a great stroke of luck! And if I may, go slightly off track here…I’m not sure the average citizen, with no experience with the police, would be savvy enough to actually get the phone number. I mean, it feels a little too perfect. The cops need the phone number and can’t get it; the wife gives them the actual phone number. Lazy writing?

Then Mitch comes out of nowhere and shoots them! No, we should be so lucky. She does show up, but just to berate them about how Bennet is still out there and Linden told her he wouldn’t be and…man are they going a long way to suggest Mitch is getting fed up with Bennet still being on the street. Almost too much, no?

In a market in Seattle, which looks extremely not like Pike’s Market, which suggests this is certainly not being filmed in Seattle, because Pike’s Market would be a perfect place to film a chase. Anyway, Holder and Linden are looking for Mohammed here in not Pike’s Market. Since they only have a sketch of him and since the place is pretty crowded, it’s not going well until Linden has the great idea to go up a level and call the cell phone number. Long story shot, this results in a chase through the market. It goes on a bit, and seems fairly well done, and just when you think Linden lost him, Holder gets involved and they corner the elusive Mohammed. Knowing he is captures, he immediately begins to pray. Now, perhaps I’m am conditioned by my sociological surroundings, including the pop culture I ingest, and perhaps it’s also slightly xenophobic on some level, but when he started the praying, I thought he had a bomb strapped to him. I like to think that the FBI plot line led me down that road, and I wonder if it was done purposefully or not. To what end, I have no idea, other than another chance to create suspense. But it was strange, and seemed to be slightly out of place, considering what we learn about Mohammed in the next few minutes.

Richmond in a bar somewhere choosing what may have been the worst song selection out of a jukebox I’ve ever heard. Ok. Second worst. I will still rank my selection of Biko (Peter Gabriel) in a crowded Delaware bar as the worst. Oh sure, my friend will try to tell you his selection of Father Christmas (The Kinks) was worse because the bartender skipped it, but that was only because the bar was dead and I think he specifically didn’t want to hear it. My selection brought the place down. Seriously, listen to it – how can it not bring anyone down?

Anyway, the point is, if Richmond, my friend and myself are all in the same place at the same time, you might want to unplug the jukebox.

Richmond’s selection has some personal meaning with his dead wife and Gwen comes into the bar and tells him to tell the voters about his dead wife and what now? How is opening up about his dead wife going to get Richmond more votes? Because it makes him more personable? WHO CARES? This is a campaign. It’s typical. Dirt is found. Dirt is used. Everything is questioned. Talking about his wife might get him a brief bump in the polls, but win the election for him?

At the Larsen household, Mitch cracks a bit and rips into Stan a bit about the teacher and how he couldn’t do anything when he had the chance. Which I think won’t be the case the second time Stan and Bennet meet.

Then we’re treated to the comedy of errors that is the interrogation of Mohammed. While not played for laughs, with a few tweaks here and there, it could have been an awesome Laurel and Hardy bit. Basically, after some back and forth, it all comes out…Mohammed and Bennet were helping a Muslim girl (the same one who was on the missing flyer at the mosque) to run away so she didn’t get her genitals mutilated, and be forced into an arranged marriage, which some traditional Muslims believe in. Now, I realize that Muslims, even devout Muslims can believe in certain beliefs more than others, but to this point, the show has made Mohammed out to be a very devout Muslim. So for him to be so progressive about these traditional beliefs, while noble, don’t necessarily line up with the character that has been created to this point. And that’s why I have suggested the show has done some lazy writing in places.

And now, here comes my favorite suspect back into the picture! Richmond is at Tom Drexler’s loft, asking for 5 million dollars to help aid the Somalis. And…Tom throws a basketball at his head. Oh sure, there’s talk of a stadium and other nonsense, but then it boils down to Tom saying he’ll give him the money if he sinks a basketball shot. If he misses, he has to bow out of the race. And yes, it plays as absurd as it sounds. And yes, we even get the quick commercial break right as Richmond takes the shot. I assume we won’t get to see the swish until later.

Linden and Holder make Mohammed take them to the missing Muslim girl. So hey, look at that, the mosque and Somalis have to be happy with the police now! Anyway, they of course are now back at square one with their original case. And then Linden gets a call…Bennet never came home that night.

The reason why? He’s tied up in a van with Stan and Belko. Looks like Stan took Mitch’s words to heart about not doing anything because for the next five minutes, he and Belko fuck Bennet’s shit up.

And of course as that is going on, Mitch is doing the laundry and found the pink shirt that she falsely ID’ed as Rosie’s. So…um, yeah – my bad. She picks up the phone and I was hoping it was to Linden to basically say as much, but it was to Stan, in hopes of stopping the beating and torturing of what is now looking to be not only an innocent man, but an innocent, pious man who is anti-female circumcision. Oh boy.

We also get a quick shot in the now famous montage shot The Killing ends every show with of Richmond holding Tom’s basketball at a desk. So technically we don’t know whether he made the shot or not, but it’s pretty obvious, right? I can’t imagine at this point in the show Richmond would drop out of the race.

And the last thing we’re left with is the continued beating of Bennet, as Stan continually beats him about the face, while Belko stands off in the near distance, mimicking the beating to a bush, in a strange creepy almost sexual way. And I’ve gotta admit, that act alone pushes him up on my suspect list.

Suspect List

Well, as Stan made his face a big pile of mush, I think we can officially take the teacher off the suspect list. You had a good run Bennet, but go now and have that checked out by a doctor.

Tom Drexler – Admittedly, he’s a long shot at this point, but he certainly has shown he has a short temper and a quest for ambition.

Stan/Mitch – I continue believe neither Stan nor Mitch could have been involved in Rosie’s murder, based on what I’ve now named “The Alone Theory.” Basically, it’s the idea that a guilty person wouldn’t act certain ways when alone or having conversations with other people that may have been involved. Mitch, would not have acted the way she did when she found the pink shirt. And Stan interacting with Bennet seems to show his innocence as well.

Belko – Well, if he doesn’t rocket up to the top of people’s suspects lists based on his Wild at Heart moment during the beating of Bennet, I don’t know what to tell you.

Richmond – There’s enough circumstantial evidence to connect him somewhat loosely to Rosie, so it wouldn’t be completely crazy to reel him into this mess. But still…

So here are at day 9, pretty much back at the beginning, save one new clue – this Adela lead. And while I am enjoying the performances on the show, and looking forward to watching it every Sunday night, I’ve been disappointed in the structure of the show to this point. I mean, there have been so many plot points that have led nowhere so far...Off the top of my head:

• Stan’s criminal past
• Terry’s level of discomfort seeing Michael Ames at the memorial
• Any of the high school kids/friends of Rosie
• Rosie was found in one of Richmond’s campaign cars
• Gwen’s senator dad
• The expensive shoes found with Rosie
• Tom Drexler’s existence
• FBI terrorism investigation

All of these things so far seem to be on the periphery of the investigation, and yet we know so little about it all. And with only four episodes to go, it seems like some of it will be completely forgotten. I don’t need everything tied up in a nice bow, but it would be nice to get at least a little more information on some of these things.

Ultimately, I’ve been disappointed with this show after a real strong start. It almost feels as though the writers don’t know where they’re going, which is strange since it’s basically a remake of a Danish show. I’ll certainly continue watching as I’ve invested too much time already, but unless it starts picking up rapidly, I think I’m going to be disappointed.

The Killing: Day 8, Stonewalled

Day 8

I preface this recap by saying that a comment on last week's suggested the identity of the killer based on some internet sleuthing. While the commenter didn't know if it was 100% legit, the reasoning was sound, and so I deleted the comment. I know AMC has said their version of the sow will be different from the Danish original. How different, I'm not sure. I do not know if that means it will be a different killer. I will say, I'm will continue writing these and offering my theories as if I didn't read it.

We start off on images of things you would most likely find in a teen girl’s bedroom, and I wonder – are we flashing back? Are we about to head into the Black Lodge? No, it might actually be considered weirder, as we find ourselves in the meat locker where we last saw Holder and Linden and the FBI. Well, there goes my slaughtered pigs theory. Apparently, the FBI have been looking at this Mohamed guy as “a person of interest” in a terrorism sting. Of course, with the meat locker set up less like a terrorist hideout and more like the set of To Catch a Predator, maybe they’ll rethink things.

Thankfully, Linden and Holder, once established as detectives and not terrorist sympathizers, come are let go, and we see that their trespassing has the entire FBI and Seattle police force outside. If I may take a moment here – for all the complaining the FBI will be doing about how their case may now be compromised, I really think there may have been a better way to handle this. Remember, Linden and Holder simply broke into this place, seemingly unobserved by this Mohamed. And it’s almost certain that the FBI had the place under surveillance – but they couldn’t just send the guys in, take Holder and Linden down (even though wouldn’t they let two people they didn’t know go in and see where they led them in case they were part of the terrorist cell?) get their credentials and let them on their way without the huge police presence outside?

I realize one you begin applying logic to a storyline, it’s a slippery slope down into unveiling how illogical shows can be, but seriously, this isn’t a Monday night NBC offering; this is AMC, and we hold that network to a higher standard.

But I digress…

Linden and Holder’s boss meets them out in the alley, and he’s none too pleased with his detectives.

Linden makes a Goren leap (see last week’s recap for explanation) about a t-shirt on the bed in the meat locker being Rosie’s. I mean obviously it’s possible, buy simply focus on the shirt? You’ve just stumbled on a girl’s bedroom set up in a meat locker…that’s not bizarre enough?

Linden heads back to her boat. Or Reggie’s boat. Let’s just all agree not to care who’s boat it is. She calls the tech at the station and asks for the Rosie Larsen case files, telling a small lie in the process, so she can work on them at night. So now we’re starting to at least see some of her obsession, and not just hearing other characters talk about it. We are then “treated” to a phone call to Rick, her fiancé, (I feel I need to clarify who Rick is every time I mention him since I frequently have to check AMC’s website to remind myself of his name and reason for being on the show), but he doesn’t pick up. Some woman named Emmy does, and it’s clear she’s not a fan of Linden. And it’s also clear that Rick is either having or going to have an affair with her to give Linden the out she needs. Hopefully that scene happens on the phone…off screen…in last week’s episode.

At the Larsen household. Stan is trying to get things back to normal and having a rough go at it. So much so he spreads horseradish on the sandwiches he’s making for the boys. Rather than salvage it with a nice lean roast beef, he gets angry frustrated. Also, did you see the size of the jar of horseradish? I know it had to be similar to a jar of peanut butter or mayonnaise, but you could have bathed in that tub!

Anyway, this is all set up so that we can see Mitch accidentally almost kill her two kids by leaving them in the running car in the garage because she is still caught up in Rosie’s murder. A little melodramatic, to say the least. Thankfully, the kids are fine, as Terry finds them and opens the garage door. And I realize something major needed to happen to lead to what Stand does later, but this seemed a tad melodramatic and severe. In fact, my wife, who hasn’t watched any of The Killing other than 20 minutes of the first episode, was in the room for this scene, before angrily stomping off and heading to bed. I’m guessing she thinks I just lay on the couch and watch murder porn all day.

Things aren’t looking good at Richmond’s campaign headquarters either. With the loss of the All-star program, Adams seemingly has Richmond on the ropes, and the press is now all over the now possible terrorist connections with Bennet. But Richmond comes in bright eyed, bushy tailed and ready to fight back – to a point. He’s ready to go after Adams when it comes to policy, but when it comes to character, he wants to remain on the up and up. All this scene was missing was Jamie and Gwen propped up on Richmond’s shoulders whispering into his ears.

The next morning, Linden heads into the police station to go and get debriefed by the FBI, and sees Holder meeting with his mystery man, getting what we can assume is another wad of cash. And while I realize it would have been absurd for Holder to be getting paid off to keep an eye on the investigation from some shady character, it would have been a billion times more exciting than where this plot string ends. Regardless of that, Linden walks in to see the FBI ransacking her office, and taking all her case files on the Larsen case. Then her boss thrusts today’s newspaper in her face with the crime photos from the investigation splashed all over the cover, suggesting there’s a leak. And who has access to these photos? Why, only Linden, the techs and Holder! I will say it was nice to see even though she obviously has suspicions, she doesn’t throw Holder under the bus as being the leak to the boss, which she clearly believes. Well, at least she won’t have to deal with Holder in the debriefing, as the boss bizarrely kicks him out, saying only the primary detective will get the debriefing. This would be an understandable action, except for the conversation that follows shortly after that we’ll get to in a bit.

Bennet, on his way to school, gets the call from the principal to not come to school. And while I hate the principal character because she seems like such a dullard simply there to move the plot along, I also think, even if this has come down from the Richmond campaign, this idea sounds like a good one. A “person of interest” in a murder and with connections to a possible terrorist is probably not suitable to teach a high school class. Bennet though, is still angered by this perceived slight.

And now, onto the briefing…Blah blah terrorism. Blah blah passports. Blah blah women not Caucasian. I assume the FBI/terrorism link will be followed through a little bit, but this inter-departmental bickering is boring and ultimately leads nowhere.

And next comes what I have labeled, “The weirdest scene on The Killing ever, and that includes having a little girl’s room in a meat locker”

Jamie and Tom are hanging out at what appears to be an underground, illegal bare-knuckled fight club. Two bare-chested men grope one another in a chain-linked, fenced-in boxing ring in some warehouse. Jamie’s trying to get Tom Drexler to fund more of Richmond’s campaign. But Drexler is having none of his BS political yammerings. Instead of cutting him a check, he gives Jamie some much needed dirt on the current mayor. When Jamie asks Tom why he never went public with it, he replies hilariously with, “Even I have scruples.” Hilarious because he’s at an illegal gay romp disguised as an illegal fighting club. Honestly, I have no idea what we’re to take away from this scene. We’ve been given hints through the episodes about Jamie’s possible homosexuality, and I immediately thought the dirt might have been going down that avenue at first, because seriously, this was a weird scene. Caligula didn’t throw as weird a curveball than The Killing did here.

And regarding Tom – while I have half-jokingly listed him as my prime suspect, and his lack of screen time is spitting in that theory’s face, why is he involved here? There has to be something to be taken out of this scene. But I just can’t figure out its significance. So I’m assuming it points to Tom’s guilt and I’ll leave it at that.

Linden and Holder meet up after the debriefing. Both seem to have a legitimate beef here (well, Linden’s is a little weaker, but I can see why she might be mad at Holder for not disclosing a little more), and take it out on each other. Holder is rightfully annoyed he’s getting shut out, especially since technically he’s supposed to be the lead (Linden is supposed to be gone!).

Linden rolls out, after giving Holder a verbal beatdown, only to run into Mitch Larsen, who’s upset about the crime scene photos. The confrontation leaves Linden speechless.

Richmond HQ. You know, I think I’ve come to peace with the fact that The Killing is simply gong with two storylines: the murder of a teenaged girl, and an insider’s look at running a mayoral campaign for a mid-level city. Yes, I understand that the murder has sent ripples through the campaign and they have had to deal with that, but not in a major way. Remember when the body was found in a car registered to the campaign? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, this discussion is all about how Jamie has the goods on Mayor Adams, but it’s character stuff, and not policy stuff. And to everyone’s (ok, not everyone – just Gwen at this point) Richmond is considering using it!

Linden is off the rails. I find it funny that had this be the first episode we totally would have thought this was something Holder would do. She pulls the ol’ “hey, I just need to see some evidence, and it’s totally ok and authorized” trick on the FBI agent overseeing the evidence. But he isn’t buying it. Not at all. In fact, he’s so completely not buying Linden’s obviously made up story that he’s going to leave his post and get his supervisor to check things out and…ooops. Linden gets what she wants (a picture of the shirt she pegged as Rosie’s after seeing it in a weird, staged meat locker girl’s room) and rolls out of there before the FBI agent (and other FBI agents who are just standing around) can stop her. You know, like grab her arm or something!

The Benet household is chilly at best. He comes home and tells his wife that he’s been suspended. But apparently some time has gone by since the principal called him, because his wife asks where he was then, if not at work. And he has no real explanation, other than to yell at her. So, just in case there wasn’t enough evidence to make him the red herring of the show, they are now giving him unexplained periods of time for us to ponder about.

Linden heads over to the Larsens to ask Mitch about the t-shirt. Mitch takes a look at the grainy picture on the 2 inch screen of Linden’s camera for about a second and dives into a story about how, yes, it was Rosie’s shirt. A pink shirt that has “GRAND CANYON” written on it. Sure, that’s good enough for me. Case closed!

The one interesting thing Mitch brings up in her story is something to the effect that she thought Rosie “had lost it” (the shirt) which we could take to mean that the shirt was missing before Rosie was. Of course since we’re supposed to believe the shirt has been identified as Rosie’s off a grainy, digital picture, I might be reading a little too into this.

Based on the extremely circumstantial shirt identifying Linden got from Mitch, she heads off to get her boss to get the shirt back from the FBI and run some tests on it. But the boss is having none of it; in fact he tells Linden to drop it entirely. But he doesn’t stop there. He asks how Holder is coming along, since she was supposed to be training him. She brings up her concerns about Holder, to which the boss suggests maybe she should be moving on to that California sunshine.

Now, I have two problems with this…

1. This is the same guy that demanded she stick around with this case. So this dogged pursuit she is showing is his fault.

2. If he didn’t really want her around anymore, why was he so quick to keep Holder out of the debriefing? If Holder is going to be taking over the case, shouldn’t he be kept abreast of all these developments?

It’s these minor questions, and slight inconsistencies that keep The Killing from being a great show. I can look past some of the more convoluted plot points, or at least have some faith that they will all be tied up in the future, but when they have established characters performing uncharacteristically, it chips away at the realism.

If there was ever a more appropriate time for Randy Macho Man Savage to come along with his “snap into a Slim Jim” shtick, I haven’t seen it. Calling Rick again (really?) and getting no response, she’s about to light a cigarette (I will admit I haven’t been keeping track if she smoked before in this series to see if she’s going back to a vice because she’s stressed, or she’s been smoking the whole time) she notices Holder heading off with his mystery man and she decides to follow them.

At the Larsen household, Terry breaks down and tells Stan she found the kids in the car earlier that day.

Linden follows Holder to some weird back alley place, a beat up looking building, and gets out and walks down the stairs to see Holder standing at a podium in front of a bunch of people. And since the audience was tipped off to this a couple episodes ago, it’s not really a surprise that Holder is an addict or that the mystery man is his sponsor to us. But I sure bet Linden feels bad. Not bad enough to spy on his “anonymous” meeting, but still. And while I the scene is powerful (including the story about Holder hitting bottom), I feel slightly cheated that he’s not just a prick with a bad attitude. A prick with a drug problem is too sympathetic.

Richmond stops in at the parole hearing for the drunk driver that killed his wife. Keeping with tonight’s theme about forgiveness and who can give it and who can’t, he listens to her ask for it, but wanders into a bathroom and smashes a mirror instead. This sudden, burst of violence kinda comes out of nowhere and is mildly surprising. I wonder if it’s enough to suggest he would turn violent suddenly if, say, a teenaged girl didn’t give him his way?

Back at campaign headquarters, good cop Gwen and bad cop Jamie are arguing about the dirt they have on Adams and whether or not they should use it. Gwen is sure Richmond won’t go for it. Jamie suggests he can get it out there, but Gwen is having none of it. Just when the argument is about to meet a crescendo Richmond calls and says to run it! Our golden boy politician is getting his hands dirty! I wonder what other activities he’s gotten his hands dirty in?

Jack is the crime photo leak! Since Linden had the pictures sent to her computer, Jack saw them and sent them to all his friends. And while I know there is trouble between the two, his cavalier attitude about it seems a little disingenuous. I certainly believe he would send the pictures out to his friends – that’s believable. But his lack of feeling when his mom suggests how it made the family of the victim feel. Was startling. You almost have to be a sociopath to not feel sympathetic when given that scenario.

Speaking of weird feelings and actions… it’s not much better over at the Larsens. First, Mitch comes in talking about how the police are close to arresting Bennet, which, yeah I didn’t get that at all during the two times Linden has spoke with Mitch today. But she soon forgets what she was saying when she realizes that Stan has boxed up all of Rosie’s stuff. And yeah, Mitch isn’t thrilled with this decision. They turn on each other, each accusing the other of screwing up; Stan because he let her stay home instead of going camping with them, Mitch because she’s too strict. And, if I may interject here…while I certainly understand where Stan is coming from, and he’s reacting to the boys in the garage incident, Mitch is correct in pointing out that it’s only been a week since Rosie was murdered. Everyone grieves differently, and cleaning out her room probably wasn’t the right move.

So at last we find out the dirt Richmond has on Mayor Adams as we all watch the local news run with the story: the mayor once slept with an intern and paid for an apartment for her. Obviously a scandal, but this was the story Tom was sitting on, and the one his scruples wouldn’t allow him to use? It’s practically a rite of passage for a politician these days. On a scale of 1-10, I rank this scandal a “lame.”

Richmond watches the news as the former intern poorly handles the media’s eye, and I’m thinking he’s going to realize he made a mistake with this, or at least feel he’s gone too far. I can almost see the meeting between him and the intern.

Linden heads back to the docks and Reggie’s boat with Jack, and runs into Holder. It’s a cool scene that recognizes when two people who don’t know each other dance around important issues. Holder then gets down to more important business and mentions he legally tapped Bennet’s phone. Seriously, he goes into so much detail about how he spoke with the judge and did this all on the up and up that it’s almost certain to completely fall apart when they have something.

We’re left with a brief snippet of Bennet on the phone talking to someone about passports and that the police don’t know what’s going on. And while that’s great to be getting yet more possible evidence on Bennet, it also leads to one or my major gripes about the show. There has been a lot of time investing into Bennet. Way back when he was first listed as a suspect, it was almost a joke to say he was the murderer, since there was still so many more episodes to fill. But now here we are on day 8, of what I believe is a 13 day run, and the police have no other suspects. In fact, the show has focused more on Bennet, but wrapped him up in a much bigger case, involving the FBI and terrorism. Yes, this mysterious “Mohammed” is definitely a suspect, but we haven’t even seen him. It seems that there are many pieces that have been introduced, but only in one direction. And while I still don’t believe Bennet murdered Rosie, we are no closer to knowing who did. There are no clues or foreshadowing to suggest it was anyone else, and we only have five days to go.

So, while I enjoyed Stonewalled, and thought it was a step up after the previous two weeks, I can’t say I think it’s helping the overall series. Unless they just run with this terrorism angle to the end, and Bennet/Mohammed were the killers, the reveal of the real murderer is going to be rushed, and possibly a little convoluted.

Suspect List

Honestly, other than Mohamed and Bennet, and possibly Bennet's wife, there has been no evidence for anyone else. A few allusions here and there (with Richmond in particular), but that's it.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. What are yours? Let me know in the comments, but please refrain from spoiler discussion.