The Killing: Now With Motives!

Last Sunday’s The Killing didn’t do much to advance the murder investigation, focusing instead on the terrorism B-story, the Larsen family’s continuing downward spiral, and some long-overdue business between Linden and Holder.

First, Linden and Holder seem to have resolved their differences, their differences being that I thought Holder was awesome and Linden did not agree with me because she’s stupid. She didn’t trust Holder, because he was flashing wads of cash and having secretive meetings with some guy, and photos of Rosie’s body had been leaked to the press. She tailed him, and it turned out he was in a support group and his sponsor has been doling out his paycheck in chunks because Holder can’t be trusted with money because of whatever addiction he has (maybe gambling?).

Thankfully, Holder didn’t seem pissed that he had followed her. Why was he not pissed? Because, as I’ve said, he is awesome. Hopefully this will all mean they’ll start working together on the case and have some actual conversations instead of just being snippy with each other all the time.

This episode also highlighted a bit more about Linden. First, she’s kind of terrible, about everything. We’ve known she’s terrible with relationships, as she’s still leaving her fiance hanging in San Diego with no explanation, but now we learn that she’s also kind of a terrible cop: she had files about Rosie on her laptop and her stupid whiny son has access to it, and he went and sent all the pictures of dead Rosie to all his friends, which then made it onto the news. And, she didn’t even punish him, so she’s also a terrible mother. This is all okay: I prefer my heroes with flaws, and she’s certainly got her share.

But we saw some good stuff from Linden too! The Feds have taken all her crime scene stuff in conjunction with their anti-terrorism investigation, which led to this totally believable scene:

LINDEN: I need to see my crime scene stuff about the crime so I can solve the crime!

FBI GUY: No way. I’m in the FBI, and I say you can’t see the crime scene stuff, ever! Now, wait here alone with all the crime scene stuff while I immediately walk away to tell someone how obsessed you are with seeing the crime scene stuff that I’m leaving you alone with!

LINDEN: I am totally looking at the crime scene stuff now!

So, okay, that was pretty dumb. But at least it showed that Linden will break the rules when she has to, so maybe she and the lovably unconventional Holder will genuinely team up and get some shit done. Some murder shit.

We also saw the continuing disintegration of the Larsen family. Stan is feeling overwhelmed, what with having to work AND make sandwiches for his annoying, non-murdered children. (I actually approve of the boys being annoying and stupid and not treacly-cute saddened moppets, as they would have been portrayed on most other shows.) Stan’s wife is still in limbo, clinging to Rosie’s memory and unable to function, and now she and Stan are starting to blame each other for Rosie’s death (something that I am certain is extremely accurate in real marriages when a child is killed.) It’s all very harsh and horrible.

The only new clue we got towards Rosie’s death was that Linden saw a shirt at the Muslim safe-house that belonged to Rosie, but it doesn’t mean Rosie was ever there. She may have just donated some old clothes to the Muslim center or something. This is the continuing problem with trying to figure out the show: we still know very little about Rosie herself, what she was into, what she was like, or who she really was. Was she the type of girl to get romantically involved with some of the adults on the show? We have no idea, and that makes it hard to determine what motive some of the adults might have to kill her.

Okay, on to determining what motives some of the adults might have to kill her!

Bennet: In addition to being the prime suspect in Rosie’s killing, he’s now mixed up in some sort of terror plot the FBI has been following. I’m not buying any of the terror plot at all. There appears to be some definite illegal stuff going on with the Muslim safe-house, but I bet it will turn out to be, like, smuggling poor abused Muslim children into the country, or finding new identities for Muslims who have been falsely accused of terrorism or targeted by actual terrorists, or something like that. Illegal stuff, sure, but not murder or blowing-things-up illegal.

Anyway, Holder tapped Bennet’s phone, which immediately led to Bennet talking to someone about getting fake passports (how stupid is Bennet, anyway — you’re a murder suspect, so don’t use your phone to do other illegal stuff, you dope). So, I’m sure he’ll finally be arrested, and his side will all come spilling out, though it won’t be that he’s guilty of murder or of being a terrorist. He is possibly a sleaze, but not a monster.
Motive: He has a motive if he was involved with Rosie, but he’s gotta be just a red herring.
Likelihood: 0%

Amber: Bennet’s wife. I’m still coming up short on means. She’s super pregnant, so I can’t see her managing to chase Rosie through the woods, or being able to throw her into the trunk of a car and push the car into a lake. She would have had to have help, but I can’t imagine from who, unless she knows some seriously shady pregnant women from Lamaze class.
Likelihood: 5%
Motive: Jealous that her husband was taking an interest in a female student, as Amber was one of Bennet’s students as well.

Belko: Weird bearded guy who hangs around with Stan, being weird. We didn’t see him this past week, at all. Are you hiding him from me, Television Show, so I won’t continue to suspect him? Nice try.
Motive: In love with Rosie, tried to get fresh with her, killed her to cover it, tried to get Stan to kill Bennet to cover that.
Likelihood: 35%

Richmond: He punched a mirror and then looked at his fractured reflection. Big mistake. Don’t ever punch a mirror and then look at your fractured reflection, that will indicate to anyone watching that you are broken inside. And a bunch of people are watching because he’s on a murder show. (I once punched a door and then looked at the hole. That meant I had to buy a new door, and then buy four other doors so all the doors matched.)
Likelihood: 30%
Motive: How about: he knew Rosie through the youth center, and she looked exactly like his dead wife, so he got all obsessed with her, tried to get kissy-kissy, she freaked out, and then he killed her to hide it.

Terry: It seemed, for a moment, that Stan and Terry might get it on this week, but instead, Terry just told Stan that Mitch (Rosie’s mom) had almost killed the boys by leaving them in the car with the engine running and the garage door closed. Terry is still suspicious because she shows up in every single episode.
Motive: In love with Jasper’s dad, who was seeing Rosie. Killed Rosie to get her out of the picture so Terry could get with Jasper’s Dad. I have nothing to back this up besides her acting weird around Jasper’s dad. Neither Jasper or his dad have been seen in a while, so I’m not confident.
Likelihood: 15%

Jamie: Richmond’s weaselly aide. He’s pushing hard for Richmond to run negative attack ads. Still suspicious for having more screen time that most everyone else on the show. His big bombshell? The current Evil Mayor had an affair. Whoopee. Still, it shows he’s happy to ruin a young woman’s life if it helps the campaign.
Motive: Jamie killed her because he will stop at nothing to achieve the all-powerful position of being a mayoral aide because mayoral aides get 10% off subs at this one deli near the capitol building. See, Rosie liked butterflies, and she knew that if elected, Richmond would approve an overpass being built right through the butterfly sanctuary which would result in dozens of butterflies being hit by cars. Jamie had to shut her up to protect Richmond’s secret anti-butterfly policies.
Likelihood: 20%

Rick: Linden’s fiancee. He hasn’t been around for a while and isn’t answering his phone… because he’s busy killing people?
Motive: Likes to kill people, and Rosie was a person. Coincidence?
Likelihood: 5%

Rain: Rosie’s cause of death was drowning, which is easy to understand because it’s always fucking raining. We get it. It’s wet in the Pacific Northwest. You’ve made that clear.
Motive: Rosie was an anti-rain activist, knowing that Seattle would get more tourism if it wasn’t raining all the goddamn time. Rain don’t put up with that shit. No way.
Likelihood: 5%

Wow, that’s 115%! That’s just how damn sure I am that Rosie Larsen was murdered. You heard it here first.