The Killing ’72 Hours’: In Sarah’s Head

Back in season 1 when we met Sarah Linden, it was revealed that she’s had a bit of a history getting a little TOO into her own cases, and 20 episodes later, we finally get to find out why…. kind of. ’72 Hours’ continues the ball rolling towards the revelatory season finale, leaving most characters spinning their wheels as we spend most of our time with Sarah and her emotional time behind those white walls.

How she ends up in a psychiatric ward really doesn’t matter – machinations like these by the mayor’s office are to be expected at this point, and even more expected not to be explained. The goal is to keep her in lockdown until the election is over, and then everyone can just forget about Rosie and that wacky sweater wearing detective getting in everyone’s way. She gets released eventually, but not before we have a lot of long, allusion-heavy scenes about Sarah and her past as both an abandoned child and a wacky cop.

It doesn’t all work for me, mostly because I have a hard time buying into the plausibility of her dedication to cases. Cops in real life do not get all dramatic and teary-eyed like they do on television: being a police officer at the end of the day is a job, one which is needed to pay the bills and continue on in life. When work ends and a detective clocks out, that’s the end of the day for him. There are no off-the-clock dangerous (and unpaid) side missions to casinos to try and find evidence that’s going to be inadmissible in every court in the country.

Anyway, enough about the terrible cop work that’s done on the show, and back into Linden’s psyche. We finally get to hear about what happened to Linden’s sanity and get some info on the case she once worked… and it turns out to be the murder of a hooker, the son of whom is found in a closet after a week of hiding there. The show makes a poor connection between this and the abandoned feelings that Linden’s obviously never gotten over – but we haven’t seen much of until this episode, as she usually pushes people away from her, rather than draw them towards her to keep her alone. It makes her “Don’t leave me here” comment to Holder feel forced – though not insincere, rather it just feels like an added piece to smack us over the head with the “She has abandonment issue” problems.

The rest of her scenes with the condescending psychiatric evaluator were a mixed bag. Most of it felt like Linden was leaving all of her policing skills behind, reduced to a slouched body in a chair whipping useless snide comments to the one woman who was in control of her freedom. Sure it was interesting to finally hear about the case that she previously got obsessed with, but did it justify all the drama? The murder of a hooker would most certainly NOT resonate in such a way to a trained, seasoned police detective – and in all honesty, if it does, she shouldn’t have a badge, because we’ve seen how emotion can lead to idiocy (both in this show, and in the police work we read about in every day news).

With Linden tied up and the episode focused heavily on her mental state, Holder and co. are mostly left on the fringes. Holder’s scenes hold the most importance: he is the explicit mouthpiece for the writers to tell us “YES, it’s all connected, and YES, we’re probably going to have to go there by the end of the season since the previews all say so.” Essentially, he finds out that the NAmericans, Russian gangsters, and political higher-ups are conspiring to turn their waterfront project into a cash cow under the tax-free wing of Chief Jackson, who’s obviously in on the whole ‘lets hide bones on the construction site’ deal. Now that the broad details of the case are finally coming to light, all that’s left is the show to give us a killer and have the news come out so Darren can win the election.

Outside of Linden’s shaky (at best) scenes in the ward and Holder’s running around, everyone else gets the same old shitty time-wasting plot arcs. Stan finally acts like he’s moving past Rosie’s death, attempting to apologize the teacher he beat the living shit out of (remember when the teacher was being a pain in the ass for no reason?). He then proceeds to buy the kids a dog, which appears to be the be-all, save-all for the family. This obviously isn’t true, because with no Mitch, the Larsen family is always going to be broken (and Terry is always going to be annoying).

On the campaign trail, Gwen and Jamie continue their groan-worthy storylines. Jamie is all pissed about everything, and discovers the mayor’s pin in Darren’s office. So Gwen’s got to spill the beans, in a overly dramatic conversation with Darren, where it’s revealed that the Mayor liked to get a little rapey on 14-year olds (which by the way, is the most useless fucking story we’ve had so far on this show. Totally unnecessary… I already know the guy’s a scumbag, I don’t need weird sex deviance to make it melodramatically creepy). Darren in turn, touches her arm, and suddenly, all her idiocy is forgotten. Also, a question: so she had someone make the viral video (which again, was obvious when you see a “cell phone” video that has a voice over)… why hide it? THAT’S HER JOB!!!

’72 Hours’ was the first episode that explicitly defines the outline of events that occurred right before Rosie’s death. Why she was chased, beaten, and thrown into a lake is still to be revealed, but in the large scheme of things, it’s hardly important – in other words, it feels weird that her brutal death is simply going to be the act of a violent political machine. What was once supposed to be a complicated murder mystery has now become obvious political conspiracy, and while it might not be for the better (or plausible in any sense of the word), at least it’s moving toward its conclusion in a focused, less convoluted direction than before.

Overall: D+

Other thoughts/observations:

– great work by director Nicole Kassell, who pulls what emotional intimacy she can from the script into the psychiatric scenes.

– so her fiance was also her psychiatrist? Can you say fucked up… and why the FUCK was this deliberately hidden from us until now (unless I missed something???).

– that key card is starting to piss me off. Why is there blood on it if Rosie was running through the woods later, and who loses their key card after killing someone and doesn’t wonder if they left is somewhere. It’s the most important piece of evidence thus far, and its presence really bugs me.

– week for cameos, as the hubby and the creepy teacher make brief appearances, a reminder of the season 1 we try to forget.

– so if the murder was on 10/5, and there’s three days left until we reach 26, the magic number…. that means it gets solved on Halloween! How convenient!!!!

what did you think of ’72 Hours’? Feel free to leave your thoughts/comments below!!!