Special Message to Denny Larsen
Whose grilled cheese sandwiches do you prefer now, little guy?
Inappropriate Adjective
I should have been "horrified" by Rosie's "senseless" murder at the hands of the "despicable" Jamie Wright and Terry Marek, but the adjective that best describes my feelings during the season finale was "delighted."
At first I was smug as I watched Jamie acknowledge his involvement in Rosie's demise, but I wasn't satisfied. I had seen it coming, and his long confession was just as lame as I expected. The Jamie we knew would have turned Rosie over to Chief Jackson, who would have convinced our young Larsen that she didn't see or hear anything important, motivating the girl's silence with a wad of extra travel money. Our Jamie, the one with whom we had spent 25 episodes, wouldn't have resorted to violence when fast talk and deal-making could have gotten him through the situation successfully.
So I was smug—and a little disappointed—until we saw Linden poking an exploratory finger past the red tape on Terry's broken taillight—more like a trauma doctor examining a wound—and we realized that that taillight had been a beacon trying to illuminate the murderer for two whole seasons.
And unlike Jamie's unmotivated actions on the night Rosie died, Terry had from the very beginning proven to be a woman who made bad choices and expected things to come easy. And what would be easier than securing her spot beside Michael Ames—whose laundry I'll bet she had never folded—than drowning a "nobody" in a lake? That Jamie couldn't push that car into the water contradicts all of the violence we saw from him earlier in the episode. That Michael Ames couldn't push the car into the lake indicates the boundary where tolerating a nagging conscience isn't worth the financial reward of the bad behavior. It was a brilliant revelation of the murderer, and I was delighted by its unexpectedness and motivated plausibility.
Special Message to Terry
We're all somebody, Terry. You're old enough to know that.
Special Message to the Writers
How did Jamie get a bloody, unconscious girl out of a casino busy with patrons and staff with no cameras or witnesses spotting him? Even Chief Jackson would have stopped him before he got to the car!
Too Invested
TV characters have to do stupid, unmotivated things all of the time: psychiatrists have their unborn babies cut out of their bellies by crazy patients, waitresses keep horses on their apartment patios in New York City, or men risk flash-flood conditions to get tampons for their girlfriends. Usually, I don't care. It's TV, after all, not reality.
The Killing is the first show I have ever watched where I have been invested not only in the characters and story but also in an actress associated with the show. You know, I wanted to see Michelle Forbes score her second Emmy nomination. And when I watched, week after week, her character hobbled by pointless plot, I started focusing on inconsistencies in the series as a whole. These inconsistencies—things that I would have just shrugged off in another show—bothered me so much that they ruined my enjoyment in the second season.
If Mitch had been played by a different actress, I would have just used her scenes to leave the couch or zone for a couple of minutes before the action returned to the detectives. If I try to see things from the writers' perspective, I realize that they needed to get Mitch out of the house. For Terry's involvement in Rosie's murder to completely horrify us, we needed to see Terry entrenched in the Larsen home, helping to hold everything together. And to entrench her, we needed to get rid of the mom for the season. I don't understand why the writers couldn't have plotted a more interesting and revelatory adventure for Mitch, especially since the actress who brought this character to life had gained the series such positive attention in the first season. I guess Mitch's story had low priority as the writers tried to stretch the investigation over another full season.
If I Were in Charge
... I would never have told the audience that Rosie's killer would be revealed in the last episode of the second season. This knowledge ruined the suspense of early episodes because we knew Linden and Holder had to be pursuing just another bad lead.
... I would have solved Rosie's murder in fewer episodes. [Sorry, writers, it dragged a bit in Season 2.]
... I would have hired a continuity editor who made sure that new evidence fleshed out Rosie in a consistent and believable manner. Please explain to me how Jasper and Alexi both thought that Rosie hated her family when her little Super 8 production indicated that she loved them all very much?
... I would have either A) lost the flashback scenes in the finale [Eric Laden and Jamie Anne Allman are both good enough actors that by monologue alone they could have painted the events of that night], or B) had flashbacks as an opening or closing device from episode 1 [Katie Findlay was quite fun to see living].
... I would, though, renew the show. Linden and Holder are fresh and fascinating police, and we now know enough about the folks running the city to make any illegal activities these two cops encounter in the future all the more delicious. What new trouble can Chief Jackson get into? Who will fill Janek Kovarsky's place? Is Alexi about to go all young-wolf mobster, or is he on the run after executing the alpha? Will Gwen go over to the Dark Side like Darth Darren? And when is she going to let Darren know about the baby she's carrying?
Word Count
The number of words Mitch has spoken this season:
"Reflections" = 0 words
"My Lucky Day" = 0 words
"Numb" = 22 words
"Ogi Jun" = 0 words
"Ghosts of the Past" = 108 words
"Opening" = 137 words
"Keylela" = 0 words
"Off the Reservation" = 0 words
"Sayonara, Hiawatha" = 233 words
"72 Hours" = 0 words
"Bulldog" = 0 words
"Donnie or Marie" = 303 words
"What I Know" = 142 words
Grand total = 945 words
Until I get my lazy ass in gear and finish the review for
Homicide: The Movie, it's sayonara, Hiawatha!
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