Season 2 episode 4 of The Killing (“Ogi Jun”) starts with Linden and Holder on stakeout, going through Rosie’s backpack, just like I am trying to sort through this mess of a television series.
The Larsen boys are asking about Belko and their dad is lying to them, saying he’s sick, not at the morgue. Stan Larsen, you are not doing anyone any favors, especially with Tommy acting out, putting little brother Dennis in the trunk of the family car, and of course yelling at his aunt Terry “You’re not my mother!” I don’t care. Turns out that years ago, Stan had to kill some dude in order to get out of the Seattle Polish Mafia. Holder and Linden go talk to the man’s widow Monica.
Meanwhile Darren Richmond is being a big whiny baby and a total meanie, just because he’s lost all use of his legs. But he’s about to start physical therapy and so Jamie calls Gwen at her brand-new DC job for some details of Darren’s daily routine. Oh of course, Gwen gets emotional and through tears, she tells Jamie that the only thing that will get him out of bed is “being Darren Richmond again.” Shortly thereafter, Jamie tries to help move Richmond from his bed to his brand-new wheelchair and they both fall on the floor. Oopsy daisy. Powerful stuff.
And then the Mayor swings by the hospital to be magnanimous: “This isn’t how either of us pictured this ending, Darren.” And so Darren Richmond is depressed and wants to resign from the mayor’s race and he and Jamie get into a fight. This is all very zzzzzzz.
Linden gets a call from a lawyer, as her husband is suing for joint custody. “Your continued & consistent neglect and failure to meet your child’s basic needs as a parent” sums the situation up nicely.
Holder and Linden go talk to stupid Sterling–a character there’s no reason to care about, since we last saw her in the fourth episode last season–who quickly offers up that a guy with tats who had been in jail was hanging out in front of the Larsens’, watching Rosie. Thanks for that information now, Sterling!
And introducing Benissimo Lee, the famous juvenile detention tattoo artist, who remembers giving the Ogi Jun tattoo to one “Giffs,” the nom de juvie of Alexi Giffords, a foster kid whose latest home was three blocks from the Larsens’ place in Ballard.
Stan Larsen goes to the morgue to identify Belko and take care of the funeral services. But wait! Janek Kovarsky has done so already. TWIST. Stan goes to the sad-ass send-off for Belko Royce and Janek’s the only other person there too. But uh oh! Poor Tommy is getting bullied at school, and so Stan drops by to tell him that the next time some guys are talking shit about his whore of a sister, he should hit the biggest one. Father of the Year advice right there. And when Stan finds arson evidence in his van (which Kovarsky and his “friends” have been borrowing), he knows the mob was involved in the Beau Soleil fire. So Stan confronts Janek and is told to forget about Rosie and focus on the children he still has. Them’s fighting words–not Lane Pryce-Pete Campbell fighting words, but fighting words nonetheless.
Whilst taking a piss, Holder sees the Ogi Jun tattoo (on a guy with a sweet silver chain necklace), and he runs after him, but Alexi gets away. Then Linden violates a citizen’s civil liberties by illegally accessing Alexi’s foster records via a friend of Regi (remember her?) while Holder searches the guy’s apartment. Turns out Alexi Giffords is actually the son of Piotr Michaelski, the man who Stan Larsen killed. Piotr’s widow shows up just to tell Stan that he “got what he deserves.” But oh wait, Alexi had drawn a picture of Rosie and then scribbled on it!
So of course the killer is not going to be Alexi Michaelski–in fact, it will likely turn out that they were star-crossed lovers, so I’m going to jump one step ahead: how about if Rosie’s dad killed Rosie? She was found with her hands tied in a trunk of a car at the bottom of a pond, while Stan’s victim was shot in the head, bound, and put in the trunk of a car before sinking to the bottom of a pond. And why the hell not at this point? We’ve had every other suspect thus far. TWIN PEEEEAAAAAAKKKKSSSS! Boom, drop the mic.