THE KILLING Starts Again

So, did you watch the season two premiere last night, or are you still holding a grudge about last season’s finale? This post contains SPOILERS so you might not want to read further if you haven’t watched the episode.

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I wasn’t thrilled about the cliffhanger last June, leaving us with Darren Richmond getting arrested for Rosie’s murder and then shot by Belko, and Holder getting into a car with an unknown person, having just faked a photo that incriminated the councilman. But I also thought not wrapping everything up was a gutsy move, and knew I’d tune in again this season—at least until the creative team exhausts my loyalty.

This isn’t really a recap (I assume you’ve seen it since you ignored the spoilers warning), but some quick thoughts on the two-hour premiere:

• Sometimes Linden is maddeningly uncommunicative. If she’d just talk to people, she might get more work done, or at least avoid distractions. If she’d told Jack not to trust anyone, he wouldn’t have dumped Bible study and left with Holder. Like D.A. Christina Niilsen says, it wouldn’t hurt for Linden to say thanks once in a while; she might have more people on her side that way.
• Linden sucks at surveillance. When she was parked outside Gil Sloane’s place, she was obviously spotted by the cop who stared at her as he drove past. Then she followed Sloane to his rendezvous with Mayor Adams’s campaign director. She didn’t think that the cop might follow her? It doesn’t mean the mysterious person who took her photo was that cop, but she didn’t seem to take any precautions against being seen. And why didn’t she take her own pictures of the two men meeting in a shady manner? She might need evidence to prove they conspired against Richmond.
• Rosie’s brothers desperately need some therapy. Their mom has temporarily bailed on them, and Dad doesn’t talk to them about the terror they must be feeling. The younger, more sensitive boy, Denny, breaks my heart, getting up in the night and listening to his sister’s music box.
• I knew Holder wasn’t all-the-way dirty, just a green detective who went along with stronger personalities because they’d convinced him the councilman was guilty. Mr. PCN and I were debating at the top of show, with him believing that Holder was corrupt while I said Holder just did the wrong thing for what he thought was the right reason. Now that he’s told Sloane about the switched backpack, I wonder what Sloane will do to him, and how Holder will eventually get Rosie’s actual backpack processed for evidence.
• Belko’s meltdown and suicide were awful, but storywise, his death made sense to me. He’s served his purpose.
• It seemed some of the actors were directed to make their faces as inscrutable as possible. When Gwen asks Jamie if Richmond had been faithful to his wife, Jamie gives her a weird look and doesn’t say anything. Later, when Gwen sees that the D.A. has dropped charges against Richmond, she gets an odd expression that looks nothing like relief. I kept yelling at my TV, “What the hell was that look??”
• I got a kick out of being Richmond’s sister. Well, her name is Elyse, anyway. I wonder why she’s incommunicado. When Jamie kept leaving messages for her while Richmond was in the hospital, Mr. PCN turned to me and asked, “Have you checked your voice mail lately?” (No, I was busy watching TV.)

What did you think? Will you stay for the season? Is it a good thing that Stan got back in touch with Janek? Who the Freud killed Rosie??

Photos: Carole Segal/AMC