“So which one did it?” Holder asks Linden as they stare down the two most probable suspects. “Donnie or Marie?”
After last week’s episode it almost certainly looks as if Richmond’s two trusty advisors, Jamie and Gwen, have jumped to suspect numbers one and two. This week’s offering of The Killing zeroes in on Rosie Larsen’s killer and barrels through a lot of loose ends that they never thought about checking.
All of a sudden Linden and Holder connect the dots that the break-in at the construction site was done by Richmond’s campaign and have brought Michael Ames back into the picture. Of course they might have not picked up that Ames was starting a new company, but you would think that a high-level suspect’s personal life would be searched through with a fine comb.
Outside of the investigation, the Larsen family is finally back together, which should have provided intense and harrowing scenes, but left us with lackluster efforts that don’t match previous weeks. Mitch is finally back and while Stan and Terri tell her off, emotions aren’t as high as they could have been. It’s actually the older son’s initial reaction after coming back from trick-or-treating that is the most impactful. There are tears and hugs all around, but he stands distant, old enough to understand she abandoned the family and young enough to hold a grudge instead of being happy she’s finally returned.
But maybe this episode didn’t want to go for emotions like the rest of the series did. There was a lot of mystery unfolding here and clearly the episode was only a set up for the finale that will answer all of the questions the show has raised; most importantly, “Who killed Rosie Larsen?”
The detectives run around Seattle checking off loose ends. Slowly but surely, they bounce back and forth between Jamie and Gwen as the number one suspect. Was it Jamie because he went to the city hall gym at four in the morning the day after Rosie was killed, but didn’t have his keycard? Or it could have been Gwen, who was driving the campaign car Rosie was found in earlier that day. But why would it be her when she has actually helped the investigation directly—by getting a federal warrant among other things—when she didn’t have to? This led me to believe if one of the two had to be the killer, then Jamie was the obvious choice. He has been shady the entire time, but his stories always checked out.
Watching this episode made me feel like if they worked this hard in previous episodes we’d know who the killer is, but as I stepped back I realized that could never have happened because we’ve been taken through a complicated labyrinth to get this far.
Finally, it pays off. Linden’s persistence ultimately lands her in possession of a “lost” security disc that shows Rosie heading up to the tenth floor of the casino’s hotel followed by Chief Jackson, Michael Ames and Jamie. It still doesn’t answer the all-important question. While the three may have followed the teenager up there and most definitely were involved in a bloody fight, Rosie still has to escape the hotel and run through the woods before finally being put into the trunk of a car. There can be one final twist in all of this. Knowing The Killing, the trio probably were going to discuss their off-the-book deal and Rosie Larsen just overheard all of it.
The finale promises to reveal the killer. Let’s just hope they don’t pull another season finale twist and leave us hanging yet again.