The Killing - Recap: Good Cop, Bad Cop

However, the show was always compelling enough, for me, that I could overlook those deficiencies. But between last season and now, the show has taken more of a hardline approach to character development, to where interest isn't tied solely to the rise or fall of the investigation. The result is an episode like "Head Shots", which doesn't move the investigation very far (at least not until the episode's closing moments), but which remains engaging throughout. The cast is really bringing it this season, beyond what might be expected, or even called for. In many ways, actors like Enos, Kinnaman, Peter Sarsgaard and the young actors portraying the transients are all delivering at a level above the material. And it has the byproduct of elevating the material. "Head Shots" isn't the best episode of the season so far, but it gives me confidence that the show will be able to handle the downtime in between peaks in the investigation, and that's a huge plus for a series as deeply entrenched in the business of detective work as The Killing.

Credit: AMC

Linden and Holder discover that the place where the creepy, pornographic videos from last week (featuring the killer's victims) were shot happens to be the derelict motel run by Mama Dips (Grace Zabriskie). Dips tries to take credit for being the voice in the videos just so the cops will quit riding her; at the very least, it's clear she knows the videos were being filmed in her motel, and that she doesn't particularly seem to care either way. This brings Linden and Holder no closer to discovering the identity of the killer, and the trajectory of the investigation takes a turn as Linden grills Kallie's mother (Amy Seimetz) about her daughter's prostitution. "It's just a phase," the mother insists, as if trying to really display just how little she knows/cares about her own kid. Linden forces her to watch the video with her daughter, and though Kallie's mother claims not to know the voice that's asking Kallie all those creepy questions, her fidgety nature says otherwise. But Linden doesn't have enough to press further, and she really can't get any more out of Kallie's mother than her constant, starry-eyed yammerings about her boyfriend, the nucleus of her entire world at this point.

Credit: AMC

Things aren't going much better on Holder's end of things, although he's at least making headway with Bullet (Bex Taylor-Klaus), who's no longer as adversarial towards him as she once was. Some of the best moments of the episode are the ones putting the eclectic pair on-screen together, as Bullet jokes that the carrot-eating Holder is like an albino Bugs Bunny, prompting Holder and Bullet to exchange interesting factoids about rabbit biology. This helps round out Holder's character considerably. He basically becomes a more nuanced detective through the ways in which he's able to connect with people. This was something for which Holder had always been shown to have a knack, but here, it's brought to the fore in a more distinctive fashion. His sticking up for Linden also helps further endear us to his character, and provide an illustration of his moral compass. When Reddick (Gregg Henry) complains about how Linden isn't fit for this type of investigation, Holder goes to bat for his former partner. Reddick continues to grouse about Linden, and it leads to Linden putting Reddick in his place, in a mild, deliberate tone: "22 years of experience, and all you are is in the way,” says Linden, in the best burn of the series. Linden has never really been someone who will abide being pushed around, but this episode really fleshed out her determination, not only to win the respect of her colleagues, but to remain diligent in her work.

There are lots of other developments in the investigation, both major and minor, though neither really feels like progress. Holder and Reddick tail Goldie (Brendan Fletcher), in a lead that doesn't really pan out. To make matters worse, Goldie goes to the media to complain about how the police are harassing him, saying that not only are they trying to pin the murders on him, but there are far more victims of this "Pied Piper" than the public actually knows about. Skinner (Elias Koteas) quickly blows a gasket at how Goldie has hijacked the investigation and given the serial killer a nickname. Reddick astutely observes that it was Skinner who ordered them to release Goldie in the first place, so this mess isn't exactly his and Holder's fault. But really, as it turns out, the cops aren't exactly wrong to be targeting Goldie. We learn that, at the age of 15, Goldie raped an 11-year-old girl and then threatened to cut her throat, and while this hews eerily close to the M.O. of "The Pied Piper," the cops still have no evidence that ties him to any of the victims. And so Holder and Linden play good cop/bad cop with Tiffany, a woman who'd once been in one of the videographer's pornos. Holder gets to utilize his rapport-building skills to get Tiffany, who has a young daughter, to open up to him, while Linden tears her down with insults about how old and fat she's gotten. It's an interesting approach for both characters and illustrates the effectiveness of their investigatory skills, as the lead pays off: turns out the guy they're looking for has been under their noses the entire time -- it's Mills, the boyfriend of Kallie's mother.

Credit: AMC

While this is the most substantive twist of the episode, from an investigation perspective, there are plenty of engaging storylines strewn about the rest of the episode. Twitch (Max Fowler) learns that his drug test came back dirty, and his prospective return to juvie means he won't get to travel to LA to become an actor/model. However, Twitch's parole officer offers him a way out. He unzips his pants. “I don’t do that,” Twitch declares. “I’m not gay.” To which the parole officer responds, “Neither am I.” He orders Twitch into the backseat of his car, and suddenly Twitch has a lot more in common with Bullet than just their mutual affection for Lyric (Julia Sarah Stone). Twitch spirals out of control, dealing with his rape by numbing himself with drugs. Bullet finds him and tries to snap him out of it, for Lyric's sake, but it's no use. Twitch goes to the local skate park, gets into it with some thugs, and has his ass handed to him. Bullet takes him to the abandoned flat he calls home, where a concerned Lyric promises to take care of him by offering to run to the drug store to get him bandages and, because these are still kids after all, popsicles. It's kind of heartbreaking, the way Twitch sobs into Lyric's arms and then tells her not to get the orange popsicles because he hates those. At the end of the day, these kids play tough, but they are still just kids, marginalized by the system and cast off to the fringes of society. It's no real surprise that this is the best they can do.

As for Seward (Peter Sarsgaard), he develops a bond with his adjacent cellmate, Alton, who nicknames Seward "Spartacus." Seward initially gets into a bit of an argument with Alton, as he rationalizes that Alton must be guilty of the crime for which he was convicted, since he never shuts up about his innocence. For Seward, an innocent man doesn't need to proclaim his innocence all the time, it's simply enough that he knows it himself. But that isn't good enough for Alton, who says that talking about his situation is the only way to keep hope alive. "Hope’s the same as faith," says Seward. "Bitch’ll get you killed faster than this place ever will.” From there, the episode expands upon their bond, to the point where the jaded prison guard that accosted Seward last week decides he's going to make an example out of Alton, after Seward refuses to take his medication. The prison guard beats on Alton with a baton, mercilessly and with considerable brutality. Faced with watching his companion get an undue beating, Seward takes his medication. The beating stops, and the prison guard thanks Seward for seeing things his way. Alton, however, is disappointed in Seward. He says he could have taken a lot more, and that Seward shouldn't have allowed the guard to win. Seward responds, "They won a long time ago." And if that isn't one of the most defeatist (if not outright tragic) lines ever uttered on the series, I don't know what is. Sometimes, there's just no fighting the establishment.

"Head Shots" keeps up the trend of solid outings for The Killing. While the investigation was pretty much stalled until the final moments of the episode, it certainly didn't feel that way, as the episode managed to maintain the illusion of progress while further developing the characters about whom we should be caring. It's a deft narrative stroke, and I was impressed all the way through. But more than that, I was interested to see where the investigation would go next, and how these characters would respond to the shift in their circumstances. That's simply good storytelling.