The Killing is the kind of show that requires patience. It’s a slow burner, very much in the style of Swedish and Danish films and television (it’s based on the Danish hit Forbrydelsen). Dark and gloomy, The Killing is various shades of grey and it’s backdrop of Seattle makes for a fitting setting. Seasons 1 and 2 of The Killing, centered around the mystery of who killed Rosie Larson, a sweet but troubled teenage from a loving family. When the mystery of Rosie’s murder wasn’t solved by the end of Season 1, fans of the show were left frustrated. Season Two was a bit of a slog, the tension seeping out of the story like an old air mattress with a mysterious leak. There were too many characters whose motivations were unclear, and too many subplots that just weren’t all that interesting. (City Hall, I’m looking at you.) The Killing was not originally renewed for Season 3, but in miracle of redemption, it was resurrected.
There is a new mystery in town, this time centered on the death and disappearances of street kids in Seattle. Gone are the Larsens and Darren Richmond and his cronies, replaced by a grittier, edgier supporting cast. As before, Linden and Holder are the heart of the show. When we last saw them, Linden had become obsessed with solving Rosie’s murder, and in her nonstop quest, managed to lose custody of her son, her job and a little bit of her sanity. Holder, freed of his addiction and bad boy reputation, stayed on the force without her.
The first episode opens with a shot of the rainy evening streets of Seattle. A strange car pulls up to a young girl, who gets inside with a smile. This can’t be good.
Holder and his new partner Reddick, who is a grade A asshole, arrive at a crime scene. Holder is looking good, all spiffed up in a suit and tie. As soon as he opens his mouth, you know it’s the same old Holder. You know, the guy who punctuates most of his sentences with “bitch.” They come across the body of a young girl and from the looks on their faces; it’s a gruesome scene. She’s been nearly decapitated and left in a pool of blood.
In the next scene, we see a teenage girl, climbing over the side of a bridge. For a moment, you think she may jump but she grabbed and pulled back over by a petite punk dyke, named Bullet.
Bullet screams at her friend, whose name we find out is Kallie. Kallie tells Bullet to chill; she was just trying to look at the water while it was pristine and beautiful, before people and garbage ruin it. Foreshadowing much? The two friends complain about getting kicked out of their squats. Apparently police have been raiding their regular crash pads forcing them all into the street. Bullet knows where they can get bacon and eggs and maybe a bed.
Back at the morgue with Holder and Reddick, the coroner tells them that their Jane Doe had been stabbed repeatedly, her spinal cord intentionally nicked, and brutally raped. She also suffered defensive wounds and a broken finger. Reddick complains about this dog of a case, and wants to pawn it off on another cop, named Jablonski. Jablonski offers them a drug dealer case in trade, and he and Reddick bump fists. Holder holds on to the Jane Doe case file, because he’s a decent guy and there is something about it that feels familiar.
Bullet and Kallie are walking the streets, discussing Bullet’s major crush on fellow street kid, Lyric, she of the perpetually greasy hair. Bullet managed to swipe a blue ring to give to Lyric, because it is similar to one that Lyric’s grandmother had. Kallie breaks the news that Lyric’s playing house with a guy named Twitch, and Bullet goes all Paige McCullers on a trash pile. Kallie calms her down and takes the ring, telling Bullet to snap a pic with her phone (yes, they all have cell phones).
When we finally lay eyes on Linden, she is not wearing one of her trademark oversized wool sweaters. She is wearing the orange vest of a transit authority worker. She makes eyes at a young guy working across the dock. Later, she retires to a small white house. She brings in the mail, where she finds a letter from the Dept of Corrections addressed to her. She leaves it unopened. The house is sparsely decorated, and feels very much like the home of someone who has had to start all over. In the kitchen the guy from the dock grabs her from behind. They scream and giggle and kiss. The guy, Cody, wants to take Linden out on a real date, but she’d rather just get it on before her next shift, so after a brief hesitation, he carries her upstairs.
In a small concrete room, we get our first glimpse of convicted killer, Ray Seward. Linden had worked Sewards case, and has been haunted ever since by the drawings of his son, Adrien. Adrien had been trapped in the house with his murdered mother for nearly a week, and in the 4 years since, has bounced around the foster system. Seward is told by prison officials that he will be executed for his crimes in 30 days, and is moved to a maximum security block specifically for death row inmates. There he meets the tough as nails CO Becker, and requests a meeting with the Chaplain.
Holder is not quite willing to give up on the Jane Doe, so he drops in on Linden. She’s all smiles and encouragement, but there is no light behind her eyes. Knowing full well that isn’t just a social call, she asked Holder what he wants.
What he wants, is access to her old Seward case files. She plays dumb, telling him to keep searching the records room for them. Holder thinks there might be a connection and mentions the post mortem broken finger. Linden quickly turns sour and shoos him out. Before he leaves, Linden tells him, “Not every victim is worth it. If you start caring, you’ll end up like me. Making minimum wage on a ferry.”
If it wasn’t obvious before that something had broken inside of Sarah Linden, it is now. Holder intentionally leaves the case file behind.
Kallie and Bullet are trying to figure out how to buy cigarettes and get a warm bed for the night, when Holder shows up on their turf. He asks the girls if they know anything about the dead girl, and called Bullet “Little Man.” Bullet spies Lyric close by and decides to act tough, taunting and even threatening Holder. He loses his patience and grabs her by the scruff of the neck telling her to watch herself lest he “wipe the floor with (her) baby butch bitch ass in front of your little skank ho girlfriend.” Bullet, clearly humiliated, tries to shrug it off and after watching Lyric get into a strangers car, walks off with Kallie.
Bonus lesbians!!! Regi, Linden’s old social worker and good friend, has found a new lady love and Linden is giving a speech at their engagement party. Linden seems wistful and distracted, and possibly medicated. Her son Jack is in town for a visit, and asks her to move to Chicago to be closer to him. He then asks her, why the hell is she still in Seattle if everything around her is such a painful mess. And just like so many other broken hearted grown women, Linden has no answer for him.
Since Jablonski is doing such a bang up job on the Jane Doe case, and Reddick is much more concerned about the UW Football team, Holder finds out the dead girls identity and has to break the news to her parents. Her name was Ashley Kwon, and she was only 14 years old. Her parents give Holder a picture of Ashley, and he notices she wears two rings that were not found with the body.
In a dingy trailer, we meet Kallie’s mom Danette. She’s changed the locks so Kallie can’t come and go as she pleases. There is a lot of animosity between the two, but Kallie is tired and desperate and needs a place to stay. Her mother says maybe another time, but she’s got a man coming over tonight. Kallie says what every teenage says at least one in their lives; about being sorry she was born. Her mom responds in the most heartbreaking way, by agreeing that she is sorry too.
Back at the prison, the Chaplain comes to talk to Seward. Seward says he doesn’t need or want absolution nor does he want to confess. We find out, what he really does want, is to smash the Chaplain’s head into the bars of his cell repeatedly After assuredly getting a beating himself, Seward tells his lawyer, no appeals with the governor. Also, he doesn’t want lethal injection. He wants to be hanged, old school style. This guy is a piece of work.
Lyndon is out for a run when the normal Seattle drizzle suddenly turns into a downpour. She ducks under the eave of a rundown stable to stay dry. As she looks around, she notices that the yard and stable are filled with dead cows in all levels of decomposition. Some are just bleached bones, others have skin and tissue. Out of the corner of her eye, she notices one emaciated cow that is still breathing and most certainly suffering. She runs home where she finds Cody looking through her case file. She doesn’t even speak to him, but runs upstairs and comes back down with a gun. She drives out to the abandoned stable and puts the dying cow out of its misery.
At the Beacon House, Kallie, Bullet and Lyric are all hanging out, hoping for a bed. Bullet starts nerding out about animals to Lyric.This apparently works and Lyric tells her she’s cute and Bullet immediately digs for the ring, but is foiled again when Twitch appears and Lyric follows him like a puppy. Bullet is pissed and tosses it. Kallie picks it up and says she will keep it safe. Bullet gets a bed for the night but offers it to Kallie, who refuses. She lies and says her mom said she could stay with her. With that, Kallie gets into a strangers car and disappears into the night.
Finding herself once again haunted, Linden goes through her old Seward case file. She drives out to the crime scene, and then stops by to see Holder and they discuss the case. Holder knows she’s been there because her shoes are covered with crime scene muck. Linden asks why didn’t Ashley fight back. The broken finger connection strikes a chord with both Linden and Holder.
Bullet has been all over town looking for Kallie who isn’t answering her phone calls. She even goes by the police station to see if she’d been picked up overnight. There she runs into Holder who tells her that karma is a bitch. Bullet is concerned and shows him the picture of Kallie. She leaves without assistance and Holder’s spidey senses start tingling.
Continuing on her search, Bullet runs into a creepster pimp named Goldie who tells her that her friend Kallie is likely a Pez dispenser by now. You know, on account of her head being sawed off. Bullet calls him a bitch and a pussy and when he threatens her with his gun, she tells him to whip it out and shoot her. He doesn’t, and she walks away, but you know this confrontation isn’t over yet.
Linden visits her old partner Skinner to talk about the Seward case, and then heads to jail to meet with Seward. He is disappointed to find its Linden behind the glass and not Skinner. Turns out earlier that he conned a guard into letting him make a phone call, and he called Skinner to invite him to the execution.
Linden starts asking him questions about his wife’s murder. He answers like a guilty man, but something doesn’t add up and Linden knows it. She shows him the drawing that his son Adrien did of the creepy trees in the distance. He is visibly upset and calls for a guard telling Linden, “I don’t have a son.”
On a positive note, Holder’s got himself a lady friend, Caroline. (Fan’s of Firefly will be pleased to know that she’s played by Jewel Straite.) They are fun and playful with each other and she appears to be a real yin to Holder’s yang. She gives him an electric toothbrush, so you know its love.
Twitch and Lyric are crashing in an old hotel. Twitch stares longingly at himself in the mirror, convinced he’s going to be a model. He even “invested” all of Lyric’s money in some professional hair dye for his headshots. Bullet pops by looking for Kallie and Twitch sends her to Goldie’s where he heard she might be. Bullet breaks in to the old squat and hears a woman scream. Thinking it’s Kallie, she runs after the noise, but is grabbed from behind by Goldie. He presses a knife to her neck, then tosses her on the bed. She fights with all her strength but she just can’t escape him. He tells her she needs to be broken just like all the rest. She quietly pleads “no,” as he unzips his jeans and rapes her.
Sidebar: In the last few months, I have seen nearly a dozen rapes or attempted rapes portrayed on television shows including American Horror Story, Game of Thrones, Bates Motel, and now The Killing. Each time, I find myself increasing bewildered as rape is used as a plot device. It’s not edgy, it’s horrific. OK, sorry, I just had to get that out.
Linden goes to check in on Adrien, but he is not at home. While in his room, she notices a similar drawing to the one she has, this time including two buildings. She follows Adrien’s drawing to a swampy place that lines up with the picture.
She ventures into the forest and comes upon a large pond. In the pond, she finds a couple of bodies; all wrapped in red cloth in various stages of decomp. Her face reveals the true horror of what she is gazing upon. In the final shot, the camera pans out, up and behind Linden, and we see at least a dozen more bodies floating in the pond.
What did you think of the first episode of The Killing? Do you think Seward is innocent of killing his wife? Do you think Bullet and Holder will find Kallie in time?
The Killing airs Monday nights on AMC.
