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“The Killing” recap: Season 3 finale

Season Three of The Killing could easily be its best. The series had become stale and listless, but a new ensemble and set of circumstances breathed life into the rainy drama. It allowed Linden and Holder to be fleshed out as characters and introduced us to Bullet, who was without doubt, the beating heart of the season. Ray Seward was a casualty of sloppy police work, and his own hubris. Linden and Holder have been forced to face their share of demons, and are about to face a few more as the season comes to a close.

Our first shot of the finale, mirrors that of the season opener. Linden is running. Running from guilt, from the noise in her head. She can’t outrun those last brutal moments of Seward’s life and her role in his conviction, and when she finds a solitary tree in a clearing, she clings to it. For the first time she takes a breath, and it doesn’t feel like her lungs are full of broken glass. When she arrives back home, Lt. Skinner is waiting for her. He tells he his marriage is over, because there are just some things about their world he can’t share with anyone else. Linden gets that. She has been so lonely for so long, and while I never saw the chemistry between these two, perhaps it transcends that. The need to be understood pulls them together like magnets and they kiss. In the light of the morning, Linden is all smiles and tells Skinner that she thinks they can change, and be more like normal people, not haunted by the things they’ve seen. Holder attends Bullet’s funeral. The picture by Bullet’s coffin is one she would have hated; all teenage awkwardness and toothy smiles. Danette Leeds is also there, and she and Holder talk about how Bullet just wanted to protect her friends. Holder compares her to a pit-bull, but laments that she was just a kid. Danette tells Holder that when Kallie was little, Danette would close her eyes and count to five but when she’s open them, Kallie would still be standing right there. Lyric, sits alone near the front of the church, tears in her eyes. Holder manages to pull himself together, and finds his girlfriend Caroline to apologize for his behavior and keeping his addiction a secret. He tells her he’s a huge step down for her, and that he only wanted her to see the good stuff. She smiles and tells him, “That is what I see.” His phone rings and because she gets it, and gets him, she sends him off to save Seattle again.

At the prison, CO Henderson cleans out Seward’s cell. His personal effects are few, but include a well-worn copy of Lonesome Dove. CO Becker is cleaning out his own effects when Henderson comes across him. Becker tells him he’s got too much going on at home, and is taking his pension and getting the hell out. He warns Henderson that this life makes you a prisoner in it’s own way.

Holder’s phone call leads him to the scene of a burnt out car and a set of charred remains. Linden joins him and Holder asks if she’s sticking around for good this time. She looks at him with hope in her eyes. Lyric is now working at a restaurant to help pay for her new apartment with Twitch and she seems to have it together. While bussing tables, she finds Danette there who asks her if she knew Kallie. She gives her condolences about Bullet, and Lyric begins to cry. Danette suggests that she stop by sometime and she will do her hair, on the house. Meanwhile, Twitch is struggling to adjust to domestic life. He reaches into his pocket for smokes, and finds a baggie of heroin. On Lyric’s way home from her job, she looks lost and lonely. When an old trick pulls up, she pauses for a moment, then gets inside his car. Twitch meanwhile sits on the roof of the building, the bag of heroin in his hand. He lets the wind blow away it’s contents, and smiles like he’s seeing clearly for the first time.

At the station, Holder runs into Reddick and tries to apologize for his behavior. Reddick tells him he put in for a new partner, and that Linden has filed a complaint against him. He tells Holder that what happened between them will stay between them, because he’s not a rat. In Skinner’s office, Linden is all smiles again when he teases her about her old habit of singing under her breath. He asks her to join him at his lake house. She wants to but she’s working the charred body case and needs to stick around. Holder interrupts them to let Linden know the coroner’s office has some info. Once they are in the car, Holder calls Linden on her relationship with Skinner. When she actually admits to it, Holder is amazed. “You are a human!” he shouts, laughing.

Danette stands in the same spot on the bridge where we first met Kallie in episode one. She hears a girl’s laugher as she passes Danette on the walkway and Danette looks behind her. For the rest of her life, every time she hears a laugh, hope will cause her to turn her head. The inevitable disappointment that it’s not Kallie, and never will be Kaliie sets in. She closes her eyes and counts to five, and opens her eyes to an empty sky.

The coroner informs Holder and Linden that the body was killed execution style and the teeth were removed post mortem. Holder notices the body is missing it’s ring finger, and when the coroner reveals that the injury is a few weeks old, a sickening feeling sinks in. The detectives know that this body belongs to Angie, the only survivor of The Pied Piper. Joe Mills is being charged with the murders later that day, but Holder and Linden now know it wasn’t him. Holder tells Linden that the murdered must be a cop. Only a cop would have known all the details, only a cop would have had access. Linden voices concern for Skinner’s career and Holder asks if she wants another innocent man’s blood on her hands. Holder suggests the killer would have gotten his first taste of power on the job, so they go back to the first known dead girl, Bridgette, and talk to her family.

Bridgette had indeed been arrested by an undercover cop for solicitation. While Holder questions the parents, Linden looks at their wall of photos. There she sees a familiar face, staring back. Reddick. Turns out that Reddick uses to be the dead girl’s neighbor, and was the one to tell her parents about her death. Outside, the detectives try to figure out what Reddick’s connection to Trisha Seward was. Linden sees a tree house, and a light bulb goes off in her head. She and Holder drive out to the lake where the bodies were dumped, and Linden finds what she is looking for; a tree house, overlooking the lake. The killer didn’t go to the Seward house looking for Trisha. He went looking for Adrian. Adrian, who was being followed by a grey car, is now missing. Linden and Holder begin a frantic search for him. Skinner picks up his daughter from ballet, and she is not too pleased to see him. She confronts him about his affair, and tells her he can’t be what he’s not. Mid-speech, he gets a call summoning him to Adrian’s home. The detectives tell Skinner that Joe Mills is not their guy, and try to explain their thinking to him. He tells them that he will track down Reddick.

En route to the station, Internal Affairs cuts Holder off at the pass, and takes him in for questioning. Linden heads in alone and a cop hands her over the traffic cams, showing Adrian being followed by a sedan. Holder finds out that he is being questioned for harassing Reddick and his family. Linden rushes off to Skinner’s house, where she finds him packing. He tells her that he is leaving his wife, and yells at her for not doing thorough police work. She follows him down the stairs, where they awkwardly run into his wife and daughter. Skinner hugs his daughter goodbye, and when he does, Linden sees Kallie’s blue ring on her finger. Her world becomes slow motion and you can almost hear the blood roaring in her ears. She looks at Skinner, and he can see by her eyes, that she knows. Linden whips out her gun, and Skinner says that if she ever wants to see Adrian again; she’ll come with him. Holder is crawling out of his skin on the small office, screaming that he needs to help his partner. When he finds out that it was Skinner that filed the complaint, just moments before he was picked up, he knows that Linden is in real danger. He makes up a story about planting a bomb in Reddick’s car. Reddick reluctantly comes to the rescue, but not before punching Holder. Holder knows he deserves it, but he implores Reddick to help him find Adrian. Holder goes to Skinner’s house where he gets the location of the lake house from his wife. He speeds down the highway in an attempt to catch up with Skinner and Linden.

In Skinner’s car, Linden sits with her gun drawn. Skinner asks why couldn’t she just walk away. He thought he could change for her. He tells her that the first murder happened by accident, that he was just trying to protect his career. It was the look on his victim’s face that became the thrill for him. It was a look past pain and terror, and there was nothing else like it. Linden calls him a monster, and he agrees that perhaps he is. He says that he didn’t want to kill Adrian, and that he doesn’t kill children. Linden screams that all his victims were children but Skinner doesn’t’ t see it that way. He says that deep down, she knew he was up to something. She starts hitting him, and they nearly crash into another car. Linden climbs out of the car and vomits, her horror punctuated with sobs.

When they get to the lake house, Linden asks if Kallie is there. Skinner tells her that many girls are there, and other places where no one will ever find them. “It’s the loneliest feeling in the world, waiting to be found,” she laments, knowing that feeling all too well. Skinner admits to planting the rings and Bullet’s body in Joe Mills’ car. He snickers that Bullet thought she was being clever. When Linden asks where Adrian is, he hints that he’s in the trunk. He’s lying however. Reddick finds a note in Adrian’s things that lead him to the cemetery. There, Adrian is hiding near his mother’s grave, scared but very much alive.

Skinner and Linden are at a standoff. He says that murdering those girls was easy, but killing Adrian was difficult. She shoots him, and Holder comes running toward the sound of the gun. Holder tries to talk him down, all the while Skinner taunts her. Just as Holder tries to convince Linden that this is just what he wants, she fires a second shot and kills Skinner. Holder paces, devastated, knowing what this means for Linden. The last shot is of Linden’s face, lost. Completely lost. What did you think of the finale? The show left us pondering Linden’s fate. Where do you think season four would take us?

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