The Killing - Season 3 Premiere - Recap: Killing'em Softly
Recap and review of The Killing - Season 3 Premiere - The Jungle / That You Fear the Most:
After surviving by the hair on its chin, thanks in large part to a deal with Netflix, The Killing returns for a third season. In many ways, the show has matured in the ways it tells its stories. Gone are the narrative excesses of the Richmond campaign, or the prolonged foray into misery with the Larsen clan. Also gone, seemingly, are the endless series of red herrings that plagued season one, and much of season two. What we now have is a relatively lean investigation with a much more interesting ancillary component: instead of Seattle politics, we have explore the plight of Seattle's juvenile homeless. These kids have been abandoned, neglected by those tasked with caring both for them and about them, and the remaining kids who do have a home would rather spend their days and nights roaming the streets, so harsh and unwelcoming is their home life. Threaded throughout this world is the murder investigation that will propel this season's narrative, as a killer from Linden's past has resurfaced -- or rather, his M.O. has, prompting Sarah to confront her doubts over whether she put the right man behind bars. Complicating matters is the convicted man's impending execution in thirty days, making this the first investigation in two seasons where the show's "one episode = one day" conceit actually makes sense for the story they're trying to tell. All-in-all, "The Jungle" and "That You Fear the Most" aren't appreciably different, tonally, as episodes. They really play out like one two-hour movie, but this is to the premiere's strength, as it takes a while to get back into the groove of this relentlessly bleak (and rainy, always rainy) world. But once I was situated into the rhythms of the show, and became acquainted with the new story, I found myself gripped by this premiere. In many respects, it's the same show it always was, yet the show is much better at doling out information at a comfortable clip, without feeling as if it's stringing viewers along. In addition, the performances remain uniformly terrific among the familiar faces returning. And the new faces acquit themselves just as well -- particularly the wonderful Peter Sarsgaard. But we'll get to all that in a bit...
Credit: AMC
A year has passed since the close of the Rosie Larsen case, and a lot has changed in the world of the show. Linden (Mireille Enos) works security at a ferry, enjoying a relatively mundane existence with her handsome, young boyfriend/co-worker, Cody. However, she doesn't get to see her son, Jack, nearly enough. When Jack comes out to visit, he asks why she doesn't move to Chicago, and Linden doesn't have a better answer than that she doesn't know anybody out there. It's a far cry from the Linden who put the entire Rosie Larsen investigation on hold to scour the streets, searching for a missing Jack. Yet she's been worn down by the Larsen case, and the subsequent end of her career in law enforcement. It isn't that she doesn't love Jack, but that she's emotionally wearied. Of course, with the fall of Linden's career comes the rise of her ex-partner's prospects.
Credit: AMC
Holder (Joel Kinnaman) is wearing suits now, and boasting a perfect 7-for-7 case record. Emboldened by his success, Holder is studying for the sergeant's exam, yet he still has plenty of time to crack wise with his new partner, Carl Reddick (Gregg Henry), and spend time with his lovely girlfriend (Jewel Staite). Yet he's plagued by the murder of a teenager who's hacked to bits. Reddick isn't that interested in working on cases he doesn't have much chance of solving, while Linden, soured on police work by the Larsen case, advises Holder that not every victim is worth the trouble. A slightly disgusted Holder tells Linden that he never thought he'd hear those words coming from her, and it's a bold bit of characterization, as it illustrates how traits have been inverted between the characters. Holder is the empathetic one while Linden tries to maintain a cold distance to avoid getting too attached. Yet both Linden and Holder are drawn together again by (what else?) a killing. Back in Seasons 1 and 2, Linden recalled a case in which a child scribbled a forest of bare branches after having been stuck with his mother's murdered, mutilated corpse for six days. Though the woman's husband, Ray Seward (Peter Sarsgaard) was captured, convicted and sentenced to death row for the killing, the murder of a 14-year-old named Ashley has Holder coming to Linden for help with the investigation. Galvanized by the fear that she put the wrong man behind bars, Linden works with Holder to solve the crime.
Parallel to this is the story of Bullet (Bex Taylor-Klaus), an androgynous-looking vagrant who's in love with her friend Lyric (Julia Sarah Stone), and who is best friends with Callie (Cate Sproule), a relatively upbeat girl with a troubled home life. Each of these three girls have troubles: in the immediate sense, Bullet has no home or security in life; Lyric is in love with Twitch, a douchey, wannabe model who uses her for sex and the further inflation of his own ego; meanwhile, Callie's biggest problem is that, by the end of "The Jungle," she's gone missing. Bullet launches an all-out search for her friend in "That You Fear the Most," inspiring Holder to pick up the missing persons report once it becomes apparent that the girl fits the killer's profile. Though the case doesn't have the immediacy of your standard procedural, it's still moving remarkably fast for The Killing. For example, while Holder is combing the streets for Callie, Linden meets with her old partner/lover, Skinner (Elias Koteas), to voice her doubts about Seward's guilt. Interspersed throughout are brief stop-ins with Bullet, and with Seward himself.
Credit: AMC
As Seward, Peter Sarsgaard is the best thing about the premiere. Sarsgaard has long been among Hollywood's more respected yet underrated talents, and he makes more out of Seward than a lesser actor might have. The visceral nature of his performance initially makes it hard to believe Seward could possibly be innocent. He beats the prison chaplain's head against the bars of his cell after asking the man to arrange for his execution to be administered by hanging as opposed to lethal injection, rationalizing that, when they kill him, he wants them all to hear it. His mania only grows deeper throughout the episode, as he coaxes a guard into allowing him one phone call, which he then uses to harass Skinner. When Linden comes face-to-face with the killer, confronting him with his son's drawing of the bare forest, we see him shrink. He's no longer a big, grim monster of a man, but something much smaller, almost a shadow. There's so much to read into his stoic endurance. Is he sticking up for the real killer? Is he truly guilty, yet genuinely remorseful? Or is he an innocent man hardened by the murder of his wife, the loss of his son, and his own wrongful conviction? Seward is neck-and-neck with Holder for the title of the most fascinating character in the series.
Credit: AMC
Of course, this all wraps back around to our cliffhanger that involves the various disparate storylines of the two-part premiere. Bullet is raped by a bearded weirdo who'd accosted her earlier, while Holder hits a dead-end in his investigation. And then, the stinger: Holder finds the denuded forest depicted in the drawing by Seward's son. It's there she finds a pond with several wrapped corpses afloat, in one of the more unsettling visuals in what's been a night of pretty unsettling television, overall. Ultimately, the reveal serves as the impetus for the season as a whole, far more so than the killing that kicked off the premiere, or Callie's disappearance. The presence of these corpses implies that the killer is still out there, which opens up a veritable Pandora's Box of questions concerning Seward's guilt/innocence, Skinner's culpability, and the larger question of motive. This looks to be a fascinating season, all things considered.
Credit: AMC
"The Jungle" and "That You Fear the Most" are dark, but not impenetrably so. There's a lot to like here, from the witty banter between Holder and his new partner, and the camaraderie between Linden and Holder as well. The young actors portraying the transients also do stellar work, with Bex Taylor-Klaus leaving an indelible impression as Bullet. Yet the premiere mostly belongs to Sarsgaard, who is electric all the way through. The Killing was shaky in its first two seasons, but much of what was problematic about the Rosie Larsen case doesn't appear in evidence here. Granted, this case may not have the immediacy or heart of the Larsen case, since only Bullet really seems to care about Callie, as opposed to the entire host of people who were torn up about Rosie. But that doesn't make Callie any less worthy as the subject of rescue, if she's alive; nor does it make her murder any less worthy of being solved, if she's dead. There's a killer out there, and victims who need answering for. This was a solid opening that will, hopefully, rejuvenate the series and help it find a new audience while satisfying its existing fans.
