The Killing Final Season Review/Reaction
The unbelievable last two scenes (and the fact that I watched all the episodes in one day) have made me forget most of what happened this season, so this entry was really hard to write. It took me two days. Is that sad? I don't care.
This season was incredible. Not only because of the tightness of the story, but because there were a couple of stand-out rock stars this season, and I for once I'm not just talking about Holder and Linden:
First of all, Reddick, and by extension, Gregg Henry, was phenomenal. I know it's wrong but I was kind of rooting for him. Watching him so cleverly put the pieces together and figure everything out was so satisfying. I was holding out hope that when he boldly confessed to Linden that he knew everything, that he was going to tell her that he had no plans to expose her. He just seems like he would be the type to totally be all "fuck that guy" about Skinner's murder after putting the dots together and realizing he was the Pied Piper. While that didn't happen, he just had "good guy" stamped all over his forehead. He really won me over last season when he gave Holder a save at the end of the season, and that affection did not wane, despite the fact that he could have destroyed Holder and Linden's lives. At the end of the day, he was a guy doing the right thing, despite how protective of those two assholes I am and how close he came to ruining everything.
Kyle (Tyler Ross) sort of blew me away in a way that was so unexpected and delightful. I've never seen this kid before and he was in-fucking-credible in this role. I don't really know how to elaborate on why, but he rocked so hard in this role. It was so great to watch. You can see why Linden identified with his guilt in the end. And it felt like she was connecting with him in a way that she couldn't connect with Jack which just broke my heart. And the two were great together in scenes. I could easily see her taking him in, protecting him, giving him a home. But then she really would have been beyond saving, much like Colonel Rayne. Obviously by my post-premiere whodunit guess, I never saw it coming. Someone (somewhere) aptly compared it to Edward Norton in Primal Fear. Watching Kyle's cold-blooded rampage through the house was chilling. Obviously I am a terrible judge of (fictional) character.
Joan Allen was great as Colonel Rayne, which goes without saying. (I think it goes without saying?) But one thing I thought was unnecessary was throwing in the whole "real mom" storyline. I mean, they made it work, but I certainly could have done without it. It should have been enough that she grew up with an equally totalitarian father figure and identified with Kyle in many ways because of it, both with a musical gift and no one to appreciate it because it just wasn't orderly or proper, etc. It would have been more realistic for her to have attached her pent-up maternal instincts to Kyle as a surrogate for the child she lost. But then they had to go and be all literal about it. As far as this story goes I think it's easily the weakest spot.
Speaking of secret family members, does anyone else feel like maybe Mr. Stansbury was also Kat's father? Why else would he have taken her in? That's an odd bit of story that was left unexplained. Unless we're supposed to take it at face value. (Ptsh.)
Do military schools/fraternities etc. really have these sadistically abusive initiation rituals? It just seems so brutal and unlikely that they could get everyone on board to make it work. Maybe it's naivety that makes me feel like this is the least believable part of this season. I just can't believe we live in a world where people still go along with that kind of craziness.
Now let's talk about my babies.
I'll confess I was about as thrilled as Linden was to see her mother show up. After everything she was dealing with this season, I wasn't eager for Sarah to re-open that perpetually fresh wound. If we had to have her there, though, I did expect more from that story. It was satisfying in its own way, with Sarah opening up just enough to ask her to take Jack. But they left it open-ended enough for me to still wonder why they even bothered with it. I would have preferred more time with Jack. It's depressing to think how far apart they drifted. You'd think Linden would be more comfortable with Jack than anyone else, but things with them were always so stilted that throughout the series (not just this season) it was hard to watch them together in most moments.
Speaking of awkward relationships, I know that a lot of people like Regi, but I am not one of them. Maybe it's my over-protectiveness, but so many of Regi's interactions with Sarah over the seasons have come across as judge-y and not at all supportive. Back in season 2, Holder, who had known Sarah for only a couple of weeks, believed in Sarah more than Regi did. So I was basically jumping out of my seat and doing a fist pump when Sarah told her off. Unfortunately it was at the expense of her son, again. But it was well-deserved. I know some of you may not agree.
Again with the family drama, that dinner scene with Stephen and his sister was absolutely unbearable. I suppose we were to understand that Holder was lashing out because of his guilt and fear regarding the whole Skinner mess, coupled with the fact that his sister obviously still doesn't trust him, but he was the least himself in that scene than he's ever been. I can see how that kind of behavior might ruin his already-damaged relationship with his sister forever, just as he had begun to rebuild. It was just painful.
If there's one thing that this scene cemented, it was that Linden's relationship with Regi is not unlike Holder's with his sister. Both acted as surrogate moms to this pair of orphans, and both can't seem to let go and accept them for who they are now or forgive them for the mistakes of the past.
I feel like the storyline with Caroline and Holder as a couple and as parents-to-be brought some mild lightness to the season (which, holy hell, was desperately needed). But at the same time I feel like Caroline's sweetness marked a true disconnect between her and Holder. Sure, she accepted him as is, but at the same time I don't think she understood his darkness. I am curious as to what she was thinking when he half-confessed to her. And I thought it was brilliant that the thing that brought him to tears was the idea of having to chose his life over Sarah's. Even if Caroline had allowed him to explain what that meant, I don't think she would have understood. When she tells him they're having a child and that's all that matters, she's essentially telling him to betray Sarah no matter the details. After that I kind of knew they weren't gonna make it. I didn't know the show would confirm it, but obviously I'm glad they did. After he watched Sarah confess, and clear his name in the process, I have to wonder if he and Caroline ever married at all. Maybe that beautiful girl and a failed engagement is all they ended up sharing.
As far as the breakdown between Holder and Linden... I have to say it was gut-wrenchingly painful to watch them go through that. Usually I live for angst, but these kids are just too close to my heart for me to be able to enjoy that in the slightest. Watching them being tested all the way to their breaking point and then Sarah finally crushing them. The look on Holder's face is devastating. And later when he's staring at her through the glass, the resignation that there's no repairing their fractured relationship is palpable. I looked at the timeline, knowing it wasn't the end because there was still too much time left in the episode for this to be the true ending, but at the same time, watching Sarah pack up her stuff, find the shell casing, and drive off... I had no idea how they were going to recover from that. I honestly didn't think it would happen. There was time, but there wasn't enough time.
Thank god for time jumps right?
Stephen: So why are you here? For real.
Sarah: I never had a real house to grow up in, you know? A home. I never belonged anywhere. And all my life I was looking for that thing, you know? Thinking that it was out there somewhere and all I had to do was find it. But I think, maybe, that home was us: it was you and me together in that stupid car, riding around, smoking cigarettes. I think that was everything. I'm sorry. I should have known that you were the one person who always stays. And you were my best friend.
Stephen: Why don't you stay? ...stay.
Sarah: I think that this city is the city of he dead for me, it's...
Stephen: That's a matter of perception, ain't it? Close your eyes.
Sarah: What?
Stephen: Just close your eyes.
Sarah: No, you're weird.
Stephen: Just close your eyes. Just give it a try. And maybe you'll see what's really there, standing right in front of you. It ain't ghosts, Linden. It ain't the dead.
Me: Now, kiss!
Let's get this out of the way. Holder as a dad is pretty much the most adorable thing ever. I like to imagine him doing Kalia's hair that morning. (Stop yourself from imagining it, I dare you.) And second of all, the time jump was the only way these two were going to walk away from this season healed, and whole.
I know there are some reviews saying the romantic "slant" and happy ending was not expected and not worthy of this show. To that I say, first, there's no "slant" here. This wasn't a "stay in town and be my bff" plea. This was as close as a verbal confession of deep love between these two characters as we were going to get. And as for the happy ending being unrealistic for this show, there's absolutely no way that Veena was going to let these characters crash and burn or end up in prison. She loves them far too much for that. If you've never seen an on-camera interview where Veena talks about these two, and especially these two as partners and friends? It's beyond obvious. As for the decision to end it the way she did, romantically speaking, in every pre-season interview she gave leading up to the finale she has said that the way the show ends is how she envisioned it from the beginning. So it turns out that all that potentially romantic subtext was actually text the whole time. She was always bringing these characters together, one awkward moment at a time. And I am so, so grateful for what we got.
I'm not going to lie. I will perpetually be screaming "now kiss" in my head when I re-watch that scene when the screen fades to black and doesn't give us what we really want in that moment. But it even if it got left on the cutting-room floor, it looks like they did film it after all. An on-set peeper took shots of them filming the last scene (it happened to be the last scene they shot) at this site.
And here's one, incredibly blurry shot that pretty much cements the romantic "slant" beyond all question:
As I said to someone else, I'm just hoping that cut footage finds its way to my eyeballs sometime between now and when I die.
FINAL RATING? A+++
Originally posted here: http://krickets.dreamwidth.org/964169.html You can comment anywhere you like!