When a show spends multiple seasons building up to a defining moment, its needless to say the moment better pay off. Breaking Bad‘s done it twice – in both the season 3 and 5 finales, to varying successes – and The Wire did it masterfully a number of times, among many others. But after two seasons of frustrating twists, overly ambiguous writing, and lots of synthesizers, there wasn’t a whole lot for The Killing to do except lay its cards down on the table with a dull thud – a surprising choice for a Patty Jenkins-directed season finale, but “What I Know” is just that, somberly closing the Rosie Larsen case with dramatic television’s biggest shoehorning techniques, surprisingly coherent but overwrought and full of unnecessary scenes.
In the end, The Killing proved exactly what it couldn’t do: primarily, exist as an original police drama that didn’t really on cliches and unrealistic story lines. Jamie’s confession just happened to coincide with Richmond’s celebratory rally, which also happened at the same time Linden and Holder realized who they were going after. On top of that, the SAME night proves to be the night Jamie’s credibility is finally shot to shit by a character we’d never thought about before this moment (Jamie’s grandfather). Then he pulls out Chekov’s pistol we saw sitting in Richmond’s desk a few episodes ago, pulls it, apologizes to everyone, and takes a bullet somewhere in a killing region (we don’t actually see him get shot). Lucky coincidence, huh?
But that wasn’t all. After waiting over a day (I think, the show abandoned the day count, along with most of its plot lines in the final two hours) to inform the Larsen family, they stand in the garage and we watch Sud again apply Chekov (this time via tail light) on the back of Terry’s car. Just like The Killing‘s been alluding to the whole time, Rosie was in the wrong place, at the wrong time – and died in one of the most selfish, disturbing things I’ve ever seen on TV (we’ll get back to that).
Doesn’t it all just sound like a really long version of Cold Case? Take out the 20 episodes in between the premiere and the finale, and all we’ve got is a moodier, more time sensitive version of it (ripped off from a Dutch version of the show, no less). There’s murder, mystery, plenty of twists and misdirections, and the entire murder plot explained by the two people responsible near the end. It’s the same formula every episode of every cop procedural the last 30 years have made careers of… and personally, I’m insulted this shit was peddled to us as a show that could be respected for being unique and worthy of a time investment. EVERYTHING reeks like her old CBS piece of shit, all the way down to the flashback video with grainy quality that represents our look into the victim’s life, personality and everything that was ‘robbed’ from them.
We all knew Rosie had dreams. But The Killing never defined those, and never painted Rosie as anything but a underage sexually active girl stereotype (season 1) and then, a martyr for everyone who wanted to hit a reset button on their life (season 2). So why end her story like that, with the most presence she’s had in an episode in the show’s short history? Those scenes are emotionally manipulative, trying to distract us from the reality that The Killing‘s been fisting our brains for the last 24 months.
So it was really never about horny teachers, Polish mobsters, or anything directly related to anything Darren Richmond did. His path to redemption is completed this season by winning the election, and being absolved of any wrong doing to the audience and the police, thanks to Jamie’s all-revealing speech of truth (which in real life, NEVER WOULD HAPPEN, and really is just deceiving us into thinking he killed her). No; Rosie Larsen ended up dying because Terry wanted Michael Ames to leave her husband, so she thought the best way to protect that future was to kill some girl she didn’t know.
Why would Terry do that? We’ve never been shown anything that she was in any way mentally disturbed. Desperate for love and pathetic? Sure… but that self-serving and wreckless she would just kill some random girl to impress the boyfriend who just said he was going to dump her? Talk about shitting on your audience. There’s no rhyme or reason to believe Terry would intentionally kill someone – and if she’s going to end up being the most important character on an “anti-cop cop show”, she better be motivated in some fashion other than some shithead Mexican telenovella star.
Which brings me back to Jamie: why did he want to die? He knew shooting at the police would end his life, and there’s no plausible reason why a guy who hid the truth for three weeks would suddenly spiral in complete psychosis in a matter of 5 minutes. But then again, we have nothing to judge Jamie’s character by, except that he’s loyal to Richmond. Fans of this show are going to say “Of course! That’s why he did it!” Great, but why is he so loyal to Richmond? If he really feels the way he says he does at the end, why would he kill for him? And all to protect a conversation that would probably be able to be hidden by Ames, a guy who has police in his pocket?
There are almost too many holes in it, it feels like taking cheap shots. And I haven’t even talked about the rest of the Larsen family, whose entire arc throughout the series is thrown out the window in service of making them the happy, sympathetic family. There’s no more strife between Mitch and Stan; apparently he’s cool with her stepping out whenever she feels she needs to, leaving him with Angry Tommy and the other little kid. And Stan’s whole I-killed-someone-when-I-was-a-mobster goes absolutely nowhere, completely forgotten as he reconciles his family and cancels the sale on their dream house. Tommy’s no longer angry, and we leave the Larsen family, watching Rosie talk from the dead in the video we’ve been waiting a season to see – another emotional manipulation I might add, there’s no closure like that in life.
Funny enough, the actual police work part of that manages to do a much better job of capturing that feeling: everyone dirty walks away unscathed, and the rest of the world continues on like nothing happened. Holder and Linden go their separate ways (I thought he was assigned as her full-time partner though?) in the show’s final scene, which is actually the best one of the series (probably because there’s no plot involved). Linden’s walk away from the Larsen store and down the street is a fitting ending to the season, the subtle changes in Linden’s face capturing the feeling of ‘moving on’ in a way the Larsen and Richmond story lines failed to do (Richmond and Gwen are just going to get back together? That is so lame).
But we only get to that moment after 25 episodes of the most ignorant serialized drama I watched in a long time. “What I Know” was exactly what we ALL knew about The Killing: it was melodramatic and mostly without logic, burying one or two powerful moments over the most over-convoluted TV murder case in recent memory. I’ll still pour out a 40 on the sidewalk for Rosie, who just never got to see their dreams, thanks to an overzealous political aide and a desperate aunt.
Other thoughts/observations:
- First, I have to address everyone who insists I hate this show because it doesn’t give me weekly payoffs. I don’t give a shit when people reveal the murderers – what interests me is three-dimensional characters and studying the nuances of life and investigations, something The Killing couldn’t approach if given a GPS, a map, a compass, and detailed instructions. Everybody on this show acts in service of the plot, not in service of their character, which means they don’t act like real human beings. Plus, this episode proved that 85 percent of everything the show did in its 26 hours was a complete waste of time, totally unnecessary in the plot.
- so many longing looks in the episode. Holder, Linden, Terry, Mitch, Stan, Rosie… everybody’s got one, go back and check. Even crazy Jamie.
- the political conspiracy flops like a dead fish in the background, a vital part of Rosie’s death, but inconsequential in the big scheme. Richmond doesn’t win because Adams waterfront project gets blocked, he wins because of a fucking internet video and last-minute speech (less than two weeks ago, he had a bullet lodged in his back). Oh, how quickly life changes.
- a smarter show wouldn’t have spent so much time in flashbacks – they make any show seem fantastical, and when done poorly (like here), exist only to reinforce ancillary facts (the film equivalent of saying “Look!!! Everything’s important and meant something!!!”) and remind us that Rosie was someone who wanted something.
- It’s funny how nobody no longer has a problem with Linden. She was toxic two episodes ago, being questioned for her insanity, now she’s being congratulated and given her badge back? Again… how quickly life changes outside of reality.
- if everything not related to what happened in this episode was removed… how much show is left? two episodes are gone from the whole school sex video, the next two focusing on the teacher are gone…
- Terry managed to remain stone-faced in front of everyone for two entire seasons, only to break down in a matter of seconds at the very end. Thanks for not giving us anything we might be able to infer intelligently on… more fucking red herrings, even in the finale.
- did Richmond even celebrate winning? Hard to imagine he just went home right after Jamie got shot, not taking the time to clean blood off his face. Oh wait, nothing’s believable.
- no Jack is almost worth giving it a half-grade higher… but it’s not.
- That’s a wrap on season 2 – in theory, I’ll be back next year for season 3!
