Back to Square One on The Killing

If you haven’t already, hie thee to the Grantland podcast from last week, which was DEAD ON in their assessment of what exactly is wrong with AMC’s The Killing (starts at 15:30). Case in point: It’s Day Sixteen–is this forever?–and here we are, with all our previous subjects dead or paralyzed or otherwise cleared of Rosie Larsen’s murder.

So Linden is back to the drawing board, investigating the Wapi Eagle Casino and the Beau Soleil teenage escort service, after those threads were long ago abandoned last season. We’re also back to discussing the Mayor’s Waterfront Project, which maybe now can go forward even though the land is a Native American burial ground? Regardless, you just know that this development project is somehow going to be involved in Rosie’s stupid murder conspiracy.

As I predicted last week, Linden learned all about the tattoo glimpsed in Rosie’s Super 8 film from her son, who, unprovoked, launches into the entire manga story of Ogi Jun. The hero avenged his father’s death using the skills taught to him by the sensei who would later betray him, which I’m guessing will end up mirroring the arc of another character on this show.

The shoe place that was acting as a front for Beau Soleil has been torched, but it doesn’t matter, considering all the computer servers had already been moved from the basement. Oh, but of course, there’s security cameras, so we’ll be able to see if it was arson–MAGIC security cameras with images that somehow get clearer the more they zoom in–images which show a Larsen van drive by Beau Soleil right before the fire. And lo, there’s a guy in the van who has the mystery tattoo, thought assuredly this will turn out to be yet another red herring.

Nope, apparently Beau Soleil has relocated and is busy deleting all their files, and of course, they’re somehow involved with the Seattle Polish Mafia. But that’s not what Janek told Stan! He said that they had investigated Beau Soleil and it was entirely composed of Russian girls, not Rosie. He also gives Stan Rosie’s file from the morgue just to rile him up.

After finding out he has been duped, Holder is skipping NA meetings (which apparently now take place in a brokedown shack, complete with handwritten sign), visiting his old meth-head friend Logic to hit his mom and steal a baggie, and boning some junkie chick from NA in his car. By the end of the episode, Holder is totally tweaking and pacing in the middle of the street before Linden comes to rescue him and he takes her to Rosie’s real backpack. Let’s investigate this murder AS FRIENDS.

Meanwhile, Mitch is on the road, driving somewhere between Seattle and Canada, from the looks of the map in her car. She decides to stay at the Motel Olympic and unpacks Rosie’s shoebox of dreams. And while her abandoned family is struggling without her, Mitch is off making bad decisions in her hotel room with a schoolbook salesman, as one is wont to do when grieving over a dead child.

Speaking of, file under Linden being a bad mother: talking on her cell phone while driving, which her son correctly points out is illegal. Linden also almost makes her kid mac and cheese (Jake has to finish cooking for her), which almost counts as real food. File under Linden being a bad cop: Linden has to be told how to download an email attachment.

And finally, Councilman Richmond is still paralyzed. Um, why are we still following this character? He’s no longer a suspect and it’s not like we feel any real attachment to him. Whatever the case, Richmond is completely living in denial about his condition, trying to rush rehab, talking about going to fundraisers, and not taking his morphine. (Take the morphine, buddy–believe me, I’d be using it to slog through this show if some were available.) Richmond doesn’t feel it when he puts a campaign pin in his leg, nor when he gets a seamless catheter change from a flirty brunette nurse. Just his type, ladies. All the while, his former flame Gwen talks to her Senator Daddy Charles Widmore about finding a job for her in DC.

This week, The Killing‘s Killer Attention to Detail Award goes to intrepid hatewatcher Josh Bis, who captured a still from this week’s episode, along with this assessment: “This badge should say Katie, but the producers are as bad as their characters.” Let’s conduct our own investigation:

The credits indicate that this character’s name is Nurse Katie Jordan.

And here’s the badge, screengrab by Josh:

Helloooooo, NURSE. Enhance:

ENHANCE:

ENHANCE!!!:

ENHAAAAAANNNNNCCCEEEE!!!!11!!!!

Alright, I can’t come close to discerning that name, but it looks like it starts with a C or K and maybe the last name starts with a J, so it could say “Katie Jordan” after all. Or that could be the morphine drip talking.