With two episodes left in AMC’s The Killing season 1, Sunday’s episode went off book and almost entirely ignored the Rosie Larsen case.

Instead, episode 11 of The Killing showed the unlikely partnership of Linden and Holder functioning as Linden searches for her missing son, Jack. Like any parent, all previous obligations and thoughts were dropped while Linden tried to find Jack. It was an alarming wake-up call for the Mom who knew she’d been walking a thin line in how she was treating her son. Jack has always been a shrugged aside annoyance in these episodes for viewers, and the impression has been that he doesn’t see his Mom much. To make up for that, the stubborn kid ran off to see his Dad, leaving us and his Mom wondering about him for the entire episode.

In the midst of this ordeal, we (re)learned backstory on Linden and Holder as they become more honest with each other. We also learned things they didn’t share with each other. All in all, it was an important step to bring these two characters together and build some trust between them (the way an emotional entanglement like this will do.)

At the end of the episode, Linden’s theory is proven right – Rosie Larsen appears on an ATM video taken from inside the casino.This gives us a place to go next season. And as for this episode, I feel like we needed it for us to get to a second season and to continue caring past this Larsen case. And I do, you know, hope that we get a second season of The Killing. It may make you uncomfortable to watch (the way the movie Garden State was for some) since the formula’s you know for TV shows are broken and mixed, but that’s the reason I watch it at all.

Talking Points

  • Wasn’t it ironic that Linden says she searched everywhere for Jack, and it turns out he was with his Dad? That’s the one suggestion Holder made, that Linden strongly denied was possible.
  • Rosie looked upset in that video screen cap, did she not? Was she withdrawing money under duress?
  • Was this a waste of an episode, in your opinion?
  • Will Linden and Jack ever end up in Sonoma? Do you particularly want them to?
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