The Killing, Season Finale Review

No Spoilers Yet

Season One of The Killing is complete and I am going to give my rating. Overall Season Rating is a B+.  But Josh, you really liked this show, why only a B+? Well the answer to that is quite spoilery so you'll have to read on to see, but the show disappointed me on a fundamental level in the finale. It's not the actors, or even the writers fault. It's not fair to say they did a bad job just because I'm not 100% in love with it. Also, saying that would make me a hypocrite since I've used that as a defense of the Lost finale for over a year now. The writers are telling the story they want to tell, and we can either like it, or not like it, but it's unfair to them to say they made the wrong choice. 

Before I get into the more indepth review I want to give a general review of the season. The Killing is a very good show, and one of the best American detective shows in a long time. In an age where procedural shows like CSI, and Law and Order rule the detective genre it's so refreshing to see a show able to rise above them. In The Killing they don't find finger prints and DNA everywhere by using made up technology. Detective work is very hard, and it's slow, and even boring at times. The Killing shows that aspect of it exceedingly well. 

Before it started many people(including me) said it looked like Twin Peaks. Murdered girl, Washington State, highly serialized, it seemed like a copy. We soon realized there is a huge difference between the two. Twin Peaks was a serialized supernatural mystery that made the characters so memorable, the insanity and collapse of that mythology doesn't even matter when people list it in top 10 lists. The Killing however is very realistic in almost everything it does. The way people look, the way they behave around each other, and most importantly as I said the way murder investigations are run. Unlike Twin Peaks there are no outrageous characters, no dream sequences that leave you wondering what was in your drink, and no people in drag. The Killing is the very real, and very sad story about a murdered girl, people involved in her life, and the investigation. Very simple, but very right. This is the show to watch if you're a fan of detective stories, but are sick of the procedural canned stories we see on network TV. While The Killing is not Breaking Bad, or Mad Men it is just more proof of why AMC is best channel on TV. 

SPOILERS Below the Fold

The episode opens JUST where the last one left off. Linden talks to Richmond after he walks in on her snooping. By snooping I mean figuring out that he's Orpheus. He tells her the Greek tragedy of Orpheus when she gets a call from Holder. He tells her that it's pretty much been confirmed that the killer is Richmond, and she lets him know she's there. She leaves and there's a whole mess of cops outside. She knows they don't have enough yet, and they start working to build a concrete case. They find out that the car Rosie was found in was checked in with half a tank of gas, but now has a full tank. At some point that night, someone(Richmond?) filled up the car. This gets them thinking they can get an image from a gas station. This part confused me a bit. Maybe I live in a more populated area, but I can't imagine any gas station attendant remembering a specific car from two weeks ago. Granted, it turns out it followed a girl's scream, but they didn't know that at the time. 

During the episode we continue to see Mitch fall farther and farther from sanity. Not saying she's going insane, but she's not right, and understandably so. She's looking through an old scrapbook with hopes and dreams she once had., and we learn more about what she gave up to be raise Rosie, and then the two other boys. Meanwhile Stan visits Ahmed in the hospital, and meets Ahmed's wife. Obviously she doesn't know who he is, but I wonder if he knew who she was. He would have no reason to from what I remember, but it was something I considered. I like that this meeting took place in the hospital where it logically makes sense, and not in like a supermarket. How many movies or shows would have them run into each other by chance around town? Too many to count. 

Linden and Holder continue to search for things to nail Richmond, and they decide the math doesn't add up. The mileage is way to much for the distance they thought they traveled, and they discover he traveled through a toll booth. Holder says he'll get the camera footage, but Linden also puts her name in since the DA doesn't respond to Holder very well. They then find a gas station that was missed, and the attendant there says he remembered the car, and it sped off just after a girl screamed. This leads them to search Discovery Park which was right behind the gas station. In the park they find one of Rosie's shoes confirming that she ran through there. Linden becomes upset with the realization that had Rosie turned the other way she would have arrived in a populated area, and probably been found and lived. In a fury she goes to see Richmond again accuses him right there and then. He demands his innocence, and seems only upset that this will hurt his chances of becoming mayor until Linden brings up his wife. They keep yelling and we are given a shot of his aid Gwen. She looks very worried indeed. 

While leaving Linden sees Gwen and they begin talking. Gwen confirms that Richmond came back very late that night, and was wet as if he'd been in the water. I like that it rains there so often, she had to explain it was water wet, and not rain wet. This is enough to have Linden more than convinced and she takes it to her boss. He still says it's to risky until Holder walks in with the toll booth photo confirming that he was driving that car, at that time. This is beyond a reasonable doubt now so they go and arrest him. Case solved, show over right? Well, no not exactly. 

We are shown Stan and Mitch, and Mitch says she has to leave. I think this could be a good thing. She's right, the way she's behaving is not good for the two boys, and maybe some time away will help her heal. The Richmond arrest is announced on the TV, and we see Balco(remember him), with a gun. Balco thinks of himself as Jack Ruby. There's one final talk between Linden and Holder, and she finally is leaving for Oakland. 

Then the "shocker" occurs. While on the plane Linden gets a call saying that there was no toll booth footage from that night, and in fact that camera has been broken for months. The toll booth footage Holder had was FAKE! We see Holder getting in the car with someone saying the picture worked. I'm assuming he got into the car with the Mayor. Since Holder was never pushing Richmond until recently, I don't think this was a long term conspiracy. If it was, he would have been investigating Richmond's background much more. The season ends with Richmond being walked out of the station, and Balco draws a gun on him. We don't hear it shoot, so we don't know if he does or does not. 

This cliffhanger ending was very disappointing to me. As I had stated before I really was hoping the show would solve this case this season, and move on next year. More than that,I hoped for a totally different cast. That is not to be. Season 2 will be about the possible assassination attempt on Richmond, and who set him up. I also wonder if they are suggesting it was NOT Richmond who killed Rosie. I mean pretty much everything points to it being him, and if it's not will we have to sit through this same thing again?

I've heard there are a lot of negative reviews. I want to make clear, I liked the episode a lot, up until the very end. What did you all think?