So...one ep left...who do y'all think did it?

Here's a list of characters for reference:

http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-killing/cast/

6/14/2011 2:13:00 PM

rosie larsen did it! sci-fi murder mystery y'all!

6/14/2011 2:39:58 PM

There are ways to build suspense without the constant red herrings and plot tricks. Even allowing us to get to know and have some investment in the characters helps, which is why I liked the episode with jack missing. Does anyone remember that Bennett is in "critical condition," much less care whether he survives?

6/14/2011 3:19:11 PM

Rosie was heavily into the underground porn scene

6/14/2011 5:39:17 PM

I, too, thought the blank silhouette message board zoom in was cheesy. UNTIL its payoff happened: the money final shot of richmond's silhouette.

I was a bit surprised about no more mention of ahmed.

[Edited on June 15, 2011 at 6:14 AM. Reason : .]

6/15/2011 6:12:50 AM

Just got caught up. The only thing they've done well, imo, is develop Stan Larsen (and a couple of the other side characters) from episode one and on throughout the season. Although, that last bit where Stan was talking about the dream was dumb as shit.

everything else has been red-herrings in the last few minutes of an episode, only to be proven false within 15 minutes of the next episode. No real significant leads for the first 9 episodes - at least nothing that logically lead to where they are now. The dead ends are OK since the story was decent, but throw in some legit leads (found with police work) along the way. They did have a few that were found by luck (the slip that said "Adele 11:30" and Linden noticing that adele is a ferry), which led to a plethora of leads all in one episode. An episode which probably should have been titled "Conveniently Coincidental."


I imagine the discussion amongst the writers went like this:

Episode 1: we'll introduce the story and characters

episodes 2-9: focus on side-characters and sub-plots. don't develop main characters at all minus a few tidbits regarding holder. Present a big "aha" moment at the end of each episode, kill the idea at the beginning of the next episode.

Episode 10: oh shit, viewers don't "know" our two main characters and may not really care about them. let's avoid the main plot and the sub-plots altogether and just focus on giving them some depth. --- And why is it that she couldn't drive her own ass around looking for her kid? Very convenient way to get the two of them to spend time together off the case.

Episode 11 (+ last 3 minutes of episode 10): whoa, there's just one more episode before the finale and the two main characters aren't close to solving this case because they've been beating down bullshit clues and looking for their kid. We better give them something they can really run with... let's just make sure we use this episode to throw all of this convenient info out there at once: Rosie may have been an escort, her aunt was definitely an escort and can provide pivotal information to help the police, the millionaire who contributes to Richmond just so happens to use escorts and suddenly changes to a complete douche (we knew he was probably a little underhanded, but now he's an easy "bad guy." -- talk about jekyll and hyde).

And fuck it, let's make the next step REALLY easy on Linden... let's just have her fucking email the orpheus guy and say something really ambiguous like "I know what you did." Then... then we'll do this really novel thing. We'll have another, random cop send an email to the supposed killer's email address while Linden is in Richmond's condo warning him about the now apparent "bad guy"... and she'll hear a "you've got mail" chime... of course, that will probably be our bullshit last 5 minutes red-herring as usual. Nobody would see that coming and then they'll think he's the killer. Maybe he is, maybe he's just a politician who likes escorts. Maybe someone else used his email account. Maybe someone framed him... I don't know, but we can figure all of that out when we write the finale. Oh.. and we'll throw in pics of Richmond with an unidentifiable brunette just to further raise suspicion. In the end, only the facts that come out in the last episode will directly lead us to the killer. It's not like we bothered to build anything significant about rosie or possible murderers throughout the entire season. It will just all be exposition in the last episode. the audience will be stunned... because there's no way they could guess... because nothing from the first 9 episodes will have had anything to do with "The Killing."

Oh, and Linden is now naive enough to not realize that a hooker would use a fake name.


I'm kinda hoping the brunette in the photos with Richmond is actually his supposedly dead wife. Who for some reason faked her death, and he meets with her every once in a while. And he refuses to "use" her death for political gain because he can't bring himself to talk about her as if she's dead simply because she's not. --- ok, that's ridiculous. But seriously, I really wanted this show to be good... it's not. there's always next season though.

[Edited on June 16, 2011 at 2:41 AM. Reason : .]

6/16/2011 2:37:33 AM

I cannot stand the voice of the youngest son of Stan. He is like 6 years old but has these deep raspy voice.

6/16/2011 9:15:49 AM

alright bitches - who done it?

6/19/2011 8:16:17 PM

Gwen, Richmond's assistant, did it.

we'll see tonight.

or, maybe Belko comes back in... finds out what she's doing, snaps, kills her and takes the money Rosie had saved. Belko's guilt ridden as evidenced by his punching the rock and doting over the 2 boys and has some issues with his mom being a slut.

[Edited on June 19, 2011 at 8:43 PM. Reason : .]

6/19/2011 8:32:47 PM

WTF

6/19/2011 11:01:36 PM

God dammit

6/19/2011 11:01:59 PM

What a joke of a show this is...

6/19/2011 11:02:49 PM

what a terrible finale and "the twist" is fucking dumb.

Let's make one of the only likable characters unlikable!

6/19/2011 11:03:54 PM

good finale

6/20/2011 12:05:35 AM

at the very end she suddenly wakes up in the hospital... IT WAS ALL A BIG DREAM!

6/20/2011 12:32:02 AM

Assuming the real killer is an actual character we've been following on the show, I find it refreshing that we did not learn his/her identity. Too many shows use the "one villain per season" structure, and it's nice to see a show eschew that.

I've heard people complaining about law and order syndrome; random bit part characters remembering crucial details that they would never remember in reality. I assume the recent bitching about this stems from the gas station owner remembering the black sedan. But you'd would clearly remember a car driving a screaming girl at 1AM in the middle of nowhere.

Stan Larsen is a great character, darren richmond is likable, bennet ahmed was likable, sarah linden is likable, gwen and jamie are highly likable.

As for Holder, how dare they add a layer to his character!

Whether or not "the twist" is "fucking dumb" remains to be seen.

I guess I'm one of the few that will watch next season.

6/20/2011 5:03:53 AM

have fun with that

I'll stick with good shows

[Edited on June 20, 2011 at 8:05 AM. Reason : .]

6/20/2011 8:05:15 AM

Quote :

"I find it refreshing that we did not learn his/her identity. Too many shows use the "one villain per season" structure, and it's nice to see a show eschew that."

are you kidding? not many shows do that anymore. its all about the season-ending cliffhanger now, which i think is a bit silly.

FWIW, the original (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbrydelsen) is much better, and season one has closure. AMC fucked it all up.

[Edited on June 20, 2011 at 10:53 AM. Reason : link]

6/20/2011 10:51:41 AM

I've seen writing like this before on Lost. Throw out the importance of character development and pure storytelling in favor of insane plot twists and cliffhangers to give the show a thinly veiled sense of suspense that theoretically keeps viewers coming back for the next season/episode. It frustrated the hell out of me when I couldn't quit Lost and it's definitely frustrating me now with this show.

While I'm glad Richmond didn't end up being the killer, the dialogue again in this episode was unfathomably cheesy. Such as when Holder got in the car at the end and goes, "PHOTO WORKED, HE'S GOING DOWN." Terrible.

I'm not sure yet if I'm going to watch next season. If they get back to the well-written drama they started with the first 10 episodes, I'm in. If it's back to the corny OTT political conspiracy murder thriller of the last two episodes, I'm out.

6/20/2011 11:00:37 AM

couldn't give a fuck about next season.

as others have said, they fucked up the precedent set by the Danish version by making it stretch to a second season on the same case.

this is pretty typical, as Hollywood and TV usually end up completely screwing up great European tv shows and movies to dumb them down for the average American idiot or to make the most out of the most minimal creativity.

6/20/2011 11:41:05 AM

I love how people enjoy putting down their fellow Americans, as if they (we) need things dumbed down. I'd imagine people that do that have some utopian view of Europeans and think that they're a more elite culture than us Newsflash, there are dumb people in every country (and lots of them).

[Edited on June 20, 2011 at 12:03 PM. Reason : k]

6/20/2011 12:02:55 PM

^ No shit, but if you can't look at the myriad of movies and tv shows that have been altered to suit the taste of American's and realize that they're dumbing it down, then you might be one of the folks I was referring to.

It's terrible.

6/20/2011 12:28:59 PM

^^and most of them are in TKE

sorry, couldn't resist

[Edited on June 20, 2011 at 12:30 PM. Reason : ^]

6/20/2011 12:30:01 PM

"When he came in he was all wet. Soaking wet."

"What do you mean?"

"Like he had been in the water."

[Edited on June 20, 2011 at 12:41 PM. Reason : http://www.fuckthekilling.com/]

6/20/2011 12:31:09 PM

"Get back to me when you've got the nail in the coffin."

[Holder barges in, slams a piece of paper onto the desk.]"I'VE GOT THE NAIL...IF YOU'VE GOT THE HAMMER"

awful awful awful

6/20/2011 12:43:27 PM

in one of the reviews I read last night (I think it was the AV Club) it mentioned how stupid it was that Holden would have actually used Linden's name/number for the toll camera footage knowing that it would blow his cover when it got back to her

just another example of how dumb last night's episode was

6/20/2011 12:45:27 PM

^agreed

Quote :

"and most of them are in TKE"

6/20/2011 12:47:45 PM

Someone connect the dots for me, because I must have missed something...

Isn't the lady that Mr. Larson sees by the vending machines the woman that was married to the teacher that Larson beat the shit out of? And the guy that he confessed to beating the crap out of? And how is it possible that this lady doesn't know who he is? Complete utter bullshit.

6/20/2011 1:38:14 PM

^That scene had the potential to be the most powerful of the episode and they couldn't have possibly fucked it up more. The entire scene was awkward as fuck.

"How many kids do you have?"

LONG ass pause

"Three. I have three." As if Rosie is still alive, awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

seriously, fuck this show

6/20/2011 1:47:20 PM

Quit Calling Me Warren!
Quit Killing My Rosie!

6/20/2011 2:50:02 PM

If only the renewal for a second season was a red herring too.

6/20/2011 2:53:54 PM

The killing fucking blows

6/20/2011 6:51:41 PM

This review is perfect

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/06/the_killing_unsolved_mysteries.html

6/20/2011 9:56:33 PM

Quote :

"are you kidding? not many shows do that anymore. its all about the season-ending cliffhanger now, which i think is a bit silly."

Sure they do.

The most obvious culprit is Dexter.

6/21/2011 3:03:46 AM

and that's part of the reason why i love dexter. a good show doesn't need a season-ending cliffhanger to bring viewers back next season.

6/21/2011 12:33:17 PM

the problem is not the whether or not they followed the "monster a season" model. Many shows have done that well. You can also go the other route and do it well. The problem is that this show just sucked.

My guess is that they'll have this one wrapped up early next season and start a new case. I can't imagine/really hope they don't plan to stretch this one case over two full seasons.

6/21/2011 12:57:01 PM

Quote :

"and that's part of the reason why i love dexter. a good show doesn't need a season-ending cliffhanger to bring viewers back next season."

I find a moriarty more interesting than an ice truck killer/trinity personally.

6/21/2011 2:16:06 PM

AMC is developing a bit of a track record for horrible finales.

6/21/2011 3:06:33 PM

^Which other finales are you referring to?

I thought the Breaking Bad Season 3 finale was stellar. I don't watch Mad Men, but I've been meaning to get into it for a long time.

6/21/2011 3:16:02 PM

The Rubicon finale was also incredibly terrible, but that was a much better show.

6/21/2011 3:18:04 PM

SO I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE BEEN IN A CAR WHOSE GAS NEEDLE WORKED WHEN THE CAR WAS OFF

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

6/22/2011 2:07:12 PM

Don't forget the car gets exactly 16mpg

6/22/2011 2:37:45 PM

Sepinwall agrees

6/22/2011 5:14:58 PM