“So, your mother is a different sort of person.”
Lo and behold, there was an abundance of personality in tonight’s episode, and real forward movement towards an actual solution to the mystery of Who Killed Rosie Larsen?
It’s an interesting dilemma; I liked this episode better than Arthur did (we watch together) but he now likes the show more than I do. Without a writing commitment, I might well have dropped The Killing from my roster, while Arthur still finds it compelling, yet I’ll Let You Know When I Get There was a thoroughly satisfying hour of television, with some unexpected byways.
I had no doubt, after last week’s beat-down, that Stan was going to jail, but I was shocked that he turned himself in, and indeed, that he was the one who called 911. I love Brent Sexton, who showed no particular depth as a cop on Life (a show I loved); here he is kind of an ache in my heart. Yes, there’s “misery porn,” as TLo say, in watching his arrest and imprisonment, but it seems to allow him a kind of voice.
The title indicates people making connections, and this episode is all about missed connections; people not arriving where they should, or arriving when they shouldn’t. They can’t connect, they can’t let some person back home know where they are. So, Stan goes to jail and cannot connect to his sons, leaving Mitch to get an unexpected (and insanely inappropriate) phone call because no, he won’t be home soon. (No, Veena Sud, banks do not give out that kind of information to just whoever happens to answer the phone.) Sarah has more or less given up trying to get to Rick, and Rick’s arrival can’t repair the connection; he won’t let her know when he gets back home. Bennet won’t be home in time for the birth of his child, and Richmond’s connection was exactly what it shouldn’t be. Finally, we learn that Rosie made a connection of her own: The Adela.
I knew last week that Adela wasn’t a person and assumed a place. Of course, Sarah should know her city well enough to have recognized a place-name; a boat is a satisfying alternative.
Mireille Enos outdid herself this week, and I do feel I’m coming to know her. Her nearly-in-tears facing of her own inadequacies; her mistakes with Bennet and with the Larsens, her apology to Richmond, these were stunning and revealing scenes. Her scene with Rick was the first meaningful one in the whole drawn-out affair of “I’m going to California, PSYCHE!” Sitting there pouting, refusing to let go, refusing to admit that she won’t let go, was stunning work. And what’s that he said? Staring at a hospital wall? What the hell happened to her?
This show has made a lot of mistakes in not letting us get to know our characters sooner, especially when an actress like Enos conveys so much with so little—guys, just give her the little she needs!
Arthur and I disagreed about Belko. He thought it was another red herring: “Look, it’s a suspect! No, it’s not!” I thought it was the interrogation of a “person of interest” in a manner appropriate to the investigation. Guy knows something, so let’s find it out. Sure, that sort of makes him a suspect, it also makes him a person who was there, a person with information, not unlike the cabbie (but way creepier).
I feel like Belko is miscast; the guy never seems creepy to me, just ordinary. The actor playing the cabbie was actually creepier, but ohboyohboy did he make up for his ordinary looks when questioned. The whole sequence was a bit cliché, oh, look, it’s Norman Bates (again) (but not the killer) (again). Like Telescope Guy, he’s someone we’ve seen in murder mysteries before. But the whole thing was marvelously executed. I love the “different sort of person” line—let’s not be delicate with a potential killer—I love the way Linden worked to gently freak Belko out. What a great scene!
I’m having a love-hate relationship with the boat to the casino. Love as in, “at last we’re getting somewhere!” Hate as in, I absolutely saw this in Twin Peaks; Audrey (Sherilynn Fenn) crossing the border into Canada to visit a casino/bordello is not very different from Rosie going to an Indian reservation for a casino and who knows what? Love as in, now at last we find a Richmond or (I betcha) a Jasper’s dad connection (or both). Hate as in, Sarah’s a detective in Seattle for how many years and doesn’t recognize the insignia of the local Indian casino?
The shoes came from someone at the casino. You know it. I know it. I think Jasper’s father, but I’m wrong more than I’m right around here.
The best thing about the Richmond campaign this episode was that there was very little of it. I’m glad we’re seeing a direct connection to Rosie, but I think it was presented in a heavy-handed manner. Hi, Asian intern who replaces Nathan! Why not show us a clue and then leave us to our big empty office where no campaign workers are ever seen?
Unsolved mysteries and unanswered questions: Who was the woman who called Richmond in the first episode and said she’s been questioned by reporters about traveling with him? What else is Richmond hiding? How does it connect to Rosie? Who was paying for Rosie’s expensive wardrobe? If Rosie was at the casino, how and when did she get back to Seattle and into Discovery Park?
Geez, guys, let’s answer some of these. There are only three episodes left!
This episode finally avoided being dumb until the last two or three minutes, when Linden spotted the Adela ferry and casino logo. Why is it that all of the breaks in the case have come from the random visual identification of things, and not actual deductive reasoning – y`know, stuff that a detective would normally do? Sud and her writers have failed to demonstrate what makes Linden a supposedly great detective.
Still angry that they postponed Breaking Bad four months for this.
I love this show. This was easily the best episode since the premiere, and we finally got to see a little of how well Holder and Linden actually work together…when they were interrogating Belko? Perfection.. Also, anyone else find it weird that Rick just sat in the hall while Jack kicked it in the room? Also, just putting this out there, it seemed the sister was a little quick to cast Belko as a pervert, and just because there has been zero suspicion cast on her, I think we’re going to find out she was somehow involved.
Did you watch Justified? Brent Sexton appeared in a few episodes Season 1 (as a local sheriff), and was central to the story in one of them, and he was amazing. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say that in a couple of scenes he conveyed shame/grief/desperation with an overlay of bravado that he knows Raylan knows is about an inch deep. Great stuff.
And this was my favorite episode since I can’t even remember. Yeah, stuff actually moved forward. Although Jody was pointing out that these are leads they should have been looking into at least two weeks (days) ago.
Didn’t see Justified. I agree with Jody, but this is still very good TV.
Netflix Justified–it’s great stuff. (I’ve only watched most of Season 1 so far, but everybody says Season 2 is even better.) Funny, tense, brutal, heartbreaking–it’s Elmore Leonard all the way.
I think the shoes are from Jasper’s father. I think Aunt Terri murdered Rosie because she was jealous of her connection—maybe real, maybe not—to Jasper’s father.
This ep was more like it, picking up the pace a bit. Still not much fun had by any, other than schadenfreude.
The pacing and character development are losing me. So many bad / obvious moves, random clues brought in just enough to keep some interest going—story be damned. HUGE credibility gaps in a show that begs to be taken seriously.
I feel like I’m watching American Idol where you have to sit through 3 commercial breaks between the last performance and the result. It reminds me of an expensive concert or restaurant where you need to keep justifying the investment by saying, well it ain’t Mickey Dees’s….
I’ve invested this much, and hold out hope to be taken for a sweet ride in the final 3. C’mon, team!
I agree with Elias that it’s possible the sister (Terri) was involved. Just feel there’s more to her than meets the eye–she’s always there for the family but has a darker, rough-around-the-edges way of talking when she’s on her own (like talking to the detectives). Also, that scene of her breaking down crying a few weeks back–that seemed like more than just anguish over her niece, and also, there was that scene with Jasper’s father– she said hi to him, and he pretty much ignored her?
AMC’s description of Terri (Terry?) starts out this way:
I remember one of my acting teacher saying, “Be suspicious of the playwright.” Meaning if something is in there, it’s there for a reason. Seems Terry could have been written as a straight-laced totally goody-goody girl if they wanted her that way. Hanging out in “bars and clubs” could mean a connection to other things, like casinos and knowing people there.