“There’s always going to be another case, another body, another excuse not to move forward.” – Rick
All season long, viewers have waited for Belko (Brendan Sexton III) to become The Killing’s prime suspect. That finally happens in “I’ll Let You Know When I Get There”, but like so much on this show, it is glossed over and quickly moved on from. Like Jasper (Richard Harmon), Chris (Gharrett Paon), and Muhammad before him, when Belko fails to cop to killing Rosie (Katie Findlay), Linden (Mirielle Enos) and Holder (Joel Kinnaman) simply release him from the interrogation room and move on. Belko might be a creep with a horned-up septuagenarian for a mother, but a killer he is (probably) not.
Bennett (Brandon Jay McClaren) survives the attack and lands in critical condition after Stan (Brent Sexton) places a timely call to 911. It doesn’t take long for Stan’s conscience to catch up with him and he decides to turn himself in to the authorities. Last week I predicted that Belko would take the fall for his boss, but Stan didn’t give him the opportunity to. Belko admits to being there for the beating but not to participating. I guess for the time being my Wild-Ass Theory from last week doesn’t quite hold up. Drat.
The cops home in on Belko after they learn that Rosie made it back to her house on the night of the murder. They focus on people who may have been in the Larsen house late at night, which leads them first to Terry (Jamie Ann Allman), who basically calls Belko a pedophile. Belko’s interrogation leads the cops back to the clue they discovered last week: the note that reads, “Adela 1145”. It was clear in “Undertow” that the note was going to come back into play. Holder and Linden hypothesize that Adela was a friend Rosie planned to meet at 11:45 and since that is their guess, you know the truth is actually something completely different.
And sure enough, Adela is not the name of a friend, but the name of a ferry. The 1145 refers to the last departure of the day, which leaves port at 11:45 PM. Linden finds the ferry by accident while on a jog, which seems awfully convenient. (Remind me, my memory is a little hazy on this. Didn’t Sarah stumble across another clue while on a run in the pilot episode?) She hops on board and discovers that its destination is the Wapi-Eagle Casino. (Note that the Wapi-Eagle Casino’s logo matches the design on Rosie’s keychain. My guess is that the key chain didn’t actually belong to Rosie and when the cops figure out who the keys belong to, it will lead to her killer).
Much of “Get There” is devoted to Linden’s personal life, and honestly, I couldn’t care less. Linden started off as an interesting departure from the typical brash television cop – she’s quiet, thoughtful and subdued. But what once felt refreshingly low-key has simply become boring. Part of the reason why everyone seems to like Holder so much is because, next to Linden, he’s a regular spark plug of liveliness. Her son, Jack, (Liam James) is a wimpy jerk. Her fiancé Rick (Callum Keith Rennie) is mildly creepy and at his best he’s merely a device to advance the plot and at his worst totally distracts from the larger story at play. Regi (Annie Corley) is OK, I suppose, but I am sick of the show intentionally withholding information about her relationship to Sarah. Is she her aunt? Her mom’s lover? What? Actually, who cares?
On the political side, Darren “The Integrity Candidate” Richmond (Bill Campbell) decides to use the news of Bennett’s exoneration to his advantage. He holds a press conference to broadcast his vindication and hopes that this wave of momentum combined with the influx of cash from Drexler will carry him into the mayor’s office. He doesn’t realize that his campaign could be derailed at any moment if a video of him shaking Rosie’s hand at a rally ever sees the light of day.
Can anyone help me connect the dots a bit. What does the video, and the fact that Darren may have known Rosie, have (if anything) to do with the casino Linden spots from the ferry? We know that Stan has had a history with gambling (we were reminded in this episode), is this related at all to the Wapi-Eagle? Does Stan’s former boss, the mobster, have some kind of stake in the casino? Does Darren?
I think the show wants us to assume that the Larsen’s money troubles are gambling related, but I assume that we will soon find out that the failed real estate investment ate all of Stan’s savings. Although, don’t be surprised if Rosie has something to do with the missing money, she was found with Stan’s bank card after all.
I’m glad the show has been able to move on from Bennett and the suspicion surrounding him, so in that sense “Get There” is a move in the right direction. Watching Holder and Linden do actual police work, like interviewing Belko, is pretty enjoyable (or at least more enjoyable than watching Mitch (Michelle Forbes) cry all the time), however I’m a little disappointed the big break (Linden figuring out the meaning of “Adela”) happens by chance. If this case gets solved by shear happenstance, isn’t that going to feel pretty dissatisfying?
Eye-roll-inducing Scenes of the Week:
- Stan walking into the house with blood on his hands. Literally.
- Belko’s mom, Bev, hitting on Holder.
- The cabbie describing Rosie as looking “kind of like Alanis Morissette when she was better looking.
Belko withholding extraordinarily helpful information from the police because he’s worried Mitch might yell at him for getting crumbs between the couch cushions.
Things We Learned This Week:
- The Larsen’s are broke.
- Linden was hospitalized because of the past murder case that drove her crazy.
- Holder is a vegetarian. (Not to be confused with a vegan).
Some stats and info about The Killing, “I’ll Let You Know When I Get There”
TV SHOW – The Killing
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1 Episode 10
AIRED ON – May 29th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – AMC
GENRE – Drama, Crime Dramas
CREATED BY – Veena Sud
CAST – Mireille Enos, Joel Kinnaman, Billy Campbell, Liam James, Michelle Forbes, Brent Sexton, Kristin Lehman, Eric Laden, Jamie Anne Allman
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.