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The Killing: Missing

“Everything makes sense, it's about how you perceive it.”

Are you kidding me? We're three episode from the finale, with so many questions left unanswered, and Veena Sud decides that now is a good time to suddenly drop everything so we can follow Linden and Holder around as they go chasing after her missing son? Huh, good call, Veena, because I honestly thought this was the best episode of The Killing to date. Even if it did feel somewhat misplaced.

This is week eleven, after all. The weeks leading up to this point have been mostly wasted chasing after an obvious red herring. Now is the time to stop dithering and give us some freakin' answers. Instead, the show has suddenly hit the brakes on everything, Rosie's murder, the Larsen family, everything. It is something of an understatement to say that this is more than a little frustrating.

This seems to be typical of the infuriating nature of The Killing, give us a really great episode, but not the type of episode we want at this time. For many this will be a Marmite episode, you'll either love it or you'll hate it. I loved it but I can understand why a lot of people have had such a negative reaction to it. If 'Missing' had aired a few weeks earlier maybe reaction to it would've been a lot less hostile.

But I don't think its fair to take out all our frustrations on this episode. It's a very good episode. My favourite of the season, in fact. This was emotional, purely character driven episode that put aside the Rosie Larsen murder and focuses solely on my two of my favourite characters, Linden and Holder (after that interrogation scene last week, I think Linden has now earned that privilege). This was an episode that gave both Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman the opportunity to act their little hearts out. This was an episode that finally gave us a chance to crack open Linden's stoic outer shell and find out what was inside.

And, above all else, this was an episode that reminded us, once again, of the greatness that is Stephen Holder, police detective, philosopher, sage, vegetarian Jesus freak, astute observer of human nature and author of the New York Times best-seller, How to Be Me.

So it's not this episode's fault that the powers that be decided to place it eleventh when it should've been seventh or maybe ninth.

Notes and Quotes


--Jumperwatch: No knitwear this week. Linden spent most of this episode in her running gear. Oddly, this didn't bother me once.

--Linden arrived at One Eyed Jack's Wapi Eagle Casino and was promptly told to bugger off by the owner and her human pitbull. Well, it doesn't look like they've got anything to hide.

--I'm not surprised that Sud decided to take some time out to focus on just Linden and Holder. After all, she's the main character and he's the breakout star. If The Killing is renewed for another season then it will likely be a whole new case, with a whole new list of possible suspects, but these two will still be at the centre of it all.

--There was little doubt that Jack would turn up safe and sound. His disappearance was merely a MacGuffin to get Linden and Holder to spend some quality time together and put Linden through hell for a day.

--Loved how Holder offered to pay for dinner and then nonchalantly took Linden's money anyway when he didn't have enough.

--Can't say I was sorry to be rid of Richmond for a week but I was surprised by how much I didn't miss the Larsens.

Holder: “And the casino owner ain't sharing?”
Linden: “No, she and her human pitbull are circling the wagons.”

Holder: “Damn, is there one or two days a month you're not PMSing?”

Holder: “Sometimes I think you just runaway just so someone will come looking for you. Staying put, it's a kind of running away, know what I'm saying?”
Linden: “I usually have no idea and this time is no different.”

Holder: “Kick his ass.”
Linden: “No doubt.”
--I loved the little smile they shared after that exchange.
---
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011. More Mark Greig.

7 comments:

  1. This was a great episode of TV, yet a terrible episode of The Killing. Half way through I realised what's been niggling me about this show. It's not The Killing any more. It's just another cop show, with a familiar story-line, and none of the gritty charm of the original. Tonight's episode concentrated on the show's two main protagonists, and the things they did, Lund and Meyer would never have done. They became friends. They connected.

    In many respects, Linden And Holden are the characters least like their Forbrydelsen counterparts. Linden is aggressive, whereas Lund is more passive. Holden you can sympathise with, whereas Meyer was hard to like. Tonight's episode, stripped the show of all its Forbrydelsen roots, and allowed it to forge its own path. As a result, despite being great viewing, it felt alien. I think that's why it went down so badly with fans of Forbrydelsen. It took the characters too far away from who they're supposed to be.

    Oh, and the jumpers are just crap. It's like they're not even trying any more. I'm even starting to miss Chestnut.

    Great review though, Mark. Glad you enjoyed this one. I did, too. Just not as an episode of The Killing.

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  2. I really enjoyed this episode. It was the best hour since the first couple for me. I didn't miss the political campaign or the Larsens or the murder investigation. I really enjoyed just spending an hour getting to know Holder and Linden better and watching them forge a stronger partnership. And it connected with me emotionally for the first time in a long time. I've always been more about characters than plot anyway. Whodunits aren't usually my favorite kind of story. An hour spent on character development is bound to be more satisfying for me than an hour spent getting the plot ducks in a row.

    I get why people are so upset about it coming at this point in the season, but I've pretty much stopped caring about the murder investigation. I honestly don't care who killed Rosie Larsen. The show has utterly squandered my initial investment and completely failed to make me care about what happened to this girl beyond a mild curiosity. At best, I'm sticking with it to the end to see if the creative team can come up with a somewhat compelling ending after all the time I've invested. And, I guess I would like Rosie's grieving family and Linden to get some small shred of peace from putting the case to rest.

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  5. Zob, I missed the start of Case Histories. If the early episodes are still on iPlayer I might give it a try. I'm also wondering whether to bother with Luther when it starts again.

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  6. Excellent episode. I actually started to tear up. And as everyone has already noted, all I could think of was, why the hell didn't they place this one earlier in the season? Great review, Mark.

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  7. I loved this episode, but I've loved mostly all the episodes just because of the suffocating, pervasive sense of dread I feel the entire time I'm watching. This was no exception.

    I think life kind of happens this way...inconvenient, frustrating moments when they are least useful. I don't hate the timing on this one like y'all do, but I see your point.

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