Seven episodes into The Killing, I’m still as befuddled as ever trying to figure out who was in on Rosie Larson’s gruesome murder. I keep falling for the red herrings that are expertly littered all over the place. It seems like there’s a new one, or six, in every episode as the multi-story installments unfold at a glacially slow pace.
The twisty turns and repeated dead ends remind me a bit of a smarter, darker version of 24, during its better days, only without Jack Bauer yelling, “Damn it!” and sans a frowning Chloe O’Brian. The fact that The Killing’s myriad characters have these layers which are slowly being peeled back, altering how we perceive them, makes for fascinating viewing.
This week we learned that while Stan had indeed been a mobster, his wife had told him long ago that he had to leave that world behind in order to remain with her. Stan credited Rosie with making it “easy” for him not to be a violent person. Therefore, when he was staring at the face of the man who he thought might have extinguished the light from his Rosie’s eyes, standing in the dramatically driving rain on a darkened dock, Stan chose not to beat the hell out of his dead daughter’s teacher. He chose not to go there.
The teacher’s young pregnant wife, who I thought could’ve been involved in Rosie’s case when last week’s episode concluded, was scratched off of my suspect list because of her current medical condition which prevents her from lifting heavy items lest she go into premature labor (unless she’s lying about said condition, which I suppose is entirely possible).
The one character who I find riveting in every scene she’s in — Rosie’s mother Mitch (Michelle Forbes) — continued to be mesmerizing in this episode, especially when she was angrily smoking while looking outside, questioning her husband’s sidekick Belko and chastizing him for not telling her about the suspicions regarding Bennet. Upon hearing that Bennet had brought Rosie into the school’s basement, Mitch’s countenance, which has been anguished, changed to that of a low, insense, angry burn … an apt metaphor for The Killing overall. While Stan the ex-mobster let Bennet go on that dock, Mitch was last seen in this episode sitting in her car in the dark and peering menacingly into Bennet and Amber’s apartment.
I’m convinced that the whole mosque/Bennet-studying-the-Koran-with-“Muhammad” is another false lead, like the loser teen boys were in earlier episodes. While Sarah — who’s officially the most unreliable and indecisive fiance ever — decided to run down this Muhammad lead and wound up face-down on the floor of a warehouse being screamed at by FBI agents, we learned that hapless good guy Darren (until he winds up being a bad guy) lost his wife in a drunk driving accident and that the driver may soon be paroled. If you’re a Once and Again fan, a show in which Billy Campbell used to star, you had to appreciate that Darren’s dead wife was named Lily, the same name as his character’s wife on Once and Again.
What does Darren’s backstory (and the fact that his campaign is floundering because he won’t cut Bennet loose) have to do with Rosie’s murder other than the fact the Bennet is a suspect and Rosie was found in a campaign car? I’m still waiting for more connections between the two because right now, if Bennet is indeed innocent of the murder, Darren will wind up being an unfortunate political scapegoat who also happens to be a widower.
What did you think of this installment of The Killing? Anything new pop up which changed your thoughts on who’s involved?
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on May 09, 2011 @ 13:45 EST5EDT
