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A View to THE KILLING: "Super 8"

• Written by Royal Nonesuch on Wednesday, April 27 2011 and posted in Reviews

Intrigue! Intrigue! Intrigue! There is intrigue all around!

Yes, this episode is a few days late.  Sorry about that.

When The Killing premeired, it appeared that it would let its mood and acting do all the heavy lifting of world-building, while the plot kept things basic.  That was then, and this is now, when twists and turns are the order of the day, and much of what has happened in the past of these characters seems like it could be of  interest today. 

Right now, the election storyline is starting to take on more intrigue.  The search for the mole is resolved, after a few false starts (it turns out to be Councilwoman Yutanez, whose nomination Richmond sought with much determination, and who apparently coordinated with Nate The IT Guy).  There is some more lip service given to whatever happened to Richmond's wife, and apparently Gwen has a tendency to sleep around with whoever she works with (and does a terrible job of keeping it a secret...even Yutanez, and oh yeah, her FATHER know she's getting it on with Darren).  Most cinematically, Jamie pumps Mayor Adams for information in a booze-soaked back room meeting lit mostly by fireplace.  The scene reveals some creepiness on the part of the Mayor, as well as an absolute eagerness to do the wrong thing at all times (to top it all off, he doesn't wash his hands after going to the bathroom...because he's EVIL). 

It's notable that Richmond has his first meeting of the series with Mitch Larsen.  He "runs into" her at the supermarket, her first trip there since the murder of Rosie.  Of course, Richmond being there is a part of Gwen's plan to get the Larsens to publicly support the Richmond campaign.  Richmond hates the idea and ultimately refuses to go through with the plan, instead letting Mitch know that "it gets better."   The supermarket scene also shows why we don't see so few of the Larsens' friends during the time of grief.  Mitch actually spots one of her friends there, who then turns heel and hightails it.  Similarly, Stan's clients are cancelling on him, since they just don't know what to say to him.  Of course, they're not the only ones feeling abandoned.  The two young Larsen boys are feeling the effects of the loss just as much as their parents are, and are having just as hard of a time of processing it (or maybe a harder time), but Stan and Mitch don't seem to realize that.  "They don't care about us," observes the younger son, as the older one tries to conceal the fact that he's been wetting the bed.  The only understanding he gets comes from Belko.  The Killing really does take a deep look at grief, and shows how affecting it can be in ways you don't even think about.  These are the moments when the show is at its best.  We finally see Stan have his explosion of emotion in this episode.  After seeing his daughter's corpse dressed for her upcoming funeral, he just couldn't hold it in anymore, despite his best efforts.  Brent Sexton really handles the breakdown scene exceptionally.  The best thing is that as soon as he finishes, he snaps right back to his stoic demeanor, and gruffly demands that Belko use his contacts at Rosie's school to find out who the cops are investigating.

Speaking of our intrepid investigators, they continue to just swim in all the intrigue.  English teacher Bennet is indeed still the top suspect in the murder, and this episode only makes him look more guilty than he did at the end of last week.  His alibi sucks, ammonium hydroxate was found both in his house and on Rosie's body, his excuse for the love (?) note is shaky, and oh yeah...he's married to one of his former students.  His side of the story is that he paid special attention to Rosie because of how smart and studious and eager to learn she was.  As proof of her creative soul, he hands over an 8mm film she made and handed in as a project (is that what the artsy kids are doing these days?  Shooting films on Super 8?).  The film ends up leading us to another corner of Linden's past.  All signs point to her having worked the case of a dead young girl before, and that the case affected her to a very emotional degree.  Her fiance Rick, in addition to his "It's happening again, isn't it?" lament from last week's episode, is now worried about Sarah hanging "a dead girl's pictures on your wall again."  By episode's end, she's hanging still frames from Rosie's film on her wall.  Whatever "it" is, it's happening again.   To add to all the shady stuff, Holder is spotted taking a large sum of money from someone, which he claims are blackjack winnings, and later stuffing them in somebody's mailbox.  Does this have something to do with his secret phone call in the hospital from episode three? 

Intrigue all around.

Written or Contributed by: Royal Nonesuch

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