Even after being warned by everybody on the show -- from his father-in-law to Sarah Linden herself -- Stan Larsen still can't quite believe that randomly offering a $12K reward was a dumb idea... Until he gets suckered by a psychic, who offers to act as a medium for his dead daughter, at which point he realizes he has done yet another crazy thing out of grief. Step One, Stan: Buy some lightbulbs. Maybe open a window or something. You can't change the Seattle weather, and I understand that, but you can change the fact that your entire bummer family is Gollums.
Jamie is adamant that Darren Richmond come clean about where he was the night Rosie was getting murdered, but I guess he's still thinking the stigma of mental illness outweighs the stigma of being a killer of little girls. Darren threatens the Mayor about the leaked photograph, and suddenly the Richmond storyline starts crossing back over into the waterfront projects/Wapi Tribe stuff. Also, Ben Abani is on the case as far as who leaked the fake photo, so that'll get scary at some point. Or I guess scarier, since we already know this crosses back to the Polish restaurant guys.
Gwen sets up a meeting for Darren and Chief Nicole in the morning, he and Gwen have a mostly legit squabble about some things, and Jamie finds a gun in Darren's drawer. Hopefully he will remember to bring that with him to the meeting with Chief Nicole, because I don't know if you noticed this yet but that lady is hardcore.
To wit: Holder's missing, right, so Linden leaves Jack at his apartment and immediately gets the Carlson Veto on a search party. After screaming at her boss for the obligatory five minutes of every episode where she does this, she heads back to the rez and gets more nonsense from them. While she's pointing out to Roberta that a dead detective will make this whole situation federal, Carlson shows up with a search team after all, and locate Holder's Pez dispenser.
Then I think there's a ghost or something. Some little girl ghost like you know Linden is always secretly seeing and just not talking about it. Just shoving it down and covering it with gum. Just as Chief Nicole's arriving, lawyered up, to stop the search, they find Holder: Tied to a tree, like Keylela, broken and suffering from exposure. Linden calls Jack to tell him Holder's okay, which is thoughtful! I must admit we were curious too!
Holder's assface sister gives Linden the matchbook from last week, just in time for her to make the appointment. We learn from the maid, Mary, that Rosie also worked as a maid at the casino, and that she was in that elevator the night she died even though she wasn't scheduled to work at all, and then after that they all got their tenth floor keys taken away.
Back at HQ, Linden gets fired for the millionth time so she goes to Holder's, where the cops strong-arm her out of there. Where's Jack? Hanging out at Regi's boat, where he ran when the cops showed up, because this is his life now. Linden finally -- finally -- realizes she has to make a choice between her obsession about this case and her duties as a parent, so she -- you guessed it! -- ships poor Jack off to Chicago so he'll stop distracting her from this whole Killing thing.
Just kidding, this whole part of the episode was actually really moving. I mean, the acting is always good but they don't really have a lot to emote about except for the Larsens and the complete hash Sarah makes of everything all the time, so the fact that they actually got have family discussions about real shit, and Holder is okay and was all up in that business, well, it was very touching and well done.
After making amends to his nephew and getting discharged, Holder runs to Linden's side to say goodbye to Jack and see him off. Thinking they are about to have an actual human conversation about feelings or her childhood, or her child, or getting super-for-real fired, or some shit like that, Holder is ruefully unsurprised when the words out of Sarah's mouth are, "We gotta that key to the tenth floor!"
week: Darren v. Chief Nicole, that suspenseful and titillating waterfront construction storyline you've been gagging for all season, and I think maybe some Mitch. Meanwhile, Sarah Linden continues to detect crimes, even though she is no longer a detective, and then not solve them anyway, because that is not what she's about.
PREVIOUSLY
Stan decided what his prostitution- and insanity-rich family needed was more creeps bugging them, so he co-opted a Richmond "presser" and offered twelve grand to whatever mobster or fake psychic or general lowlife Rooster and Lily St. James that might wander along with details of Rosie's death or life. The Mayor faked a photograph that seemed to prove Darren was responsible for the murder, and even though he's been acquitted the Mayor's still trying to squeeze that stone whenever he can. Linden's son finally had that nervous breakdown he's been working on, while Holder -- before his death at the hands of Native Americans -- had a strange run-in with one of the maids at the Casino. At this point people are just handing them red herrings.
OFFICER DOWN
Linden: "Policemen! My vehicle is obstructed by a passing train and so I cannot solve this issue myself, but I just received a phone call in which my partner could be heard having the living shit kicked out of him on a reservation. Search for him immediately."
Coworker: "Officer, I can't just do that..."
Linden: "Then proceed through the chain of command in a timely fashion!"
Jack: "Mom, what's going on? What horrible thing is going on now?"
Linden: "Progeny. Return to sleeping. Or to crying uncontrollably."
Jack: "What's going on with Holder?"
Linden: "Nothing, Progeny. He is being abused by the Native Americans, as in a myth typical to their people. I will deposit you at his residence so that you will stop talking to me. For I crave the silence."
Jack: "I don't want to stay at Holder's apartment! I want to go with you! Or to Regi's! You keep leaving me places and then I keep getting almost taken away from you! I have had it!"
Linden: "You have had it. I see your point, Progeny. This Killing. It is pushing us all beyond our limits."
Jack: "Could you just this one time let the cops do their jobs?"
Linden: "A laughable suggestion."
Coworker: "Lieutenant Carlson has denied your request for a search party."
Linden: "But an officer is down. I have told this to you."
HQ
Linden: "An officer is down. I am feeling anxiety, Superior."
Carlson: "You should try knocking some time. It makes people react better when you do that, instead of just rushing in with your whole intensity thing."
Linden: "I understand your suggestion and will mull it. But later. Now, you must search for my partner."
Carlson: "The Stan Larsen thing has everybody running in circles. Imagine that, a bunch of red herrings causing the entire Seattle PD to freak out and be useless. On this show!"
Linden: "Understand that my partner was screaming on the telephone."
Carlson: "I can't even believe that, really. It seems more like you're lying, again, to get onto the reservation, again, and cause me more ass-aches, again."
Linden: "I do not tell lies about things like this, Superior. Internal Affairs will be interested to learn of these events when my partner's body is found."
Carlson: "Oh my God, just go home. Or whatever cardboard box or barrel with suspenders you call a home these days. Anywhere but back to stir more shit on that reservation."
Linden: "I am going home. It is called Stephen Holder."
Linden: "I understand your suggestion and will mull it. But later. Now, you must search for my partner."
Carlson: "The Stan Larsen thing has everybody running in circles. Imagine that, a bunch of red herrings causing the entire Seattle PD to freak out and be useless. On this show!"
Linden: "Understand that my partner was screaming on the telephone."
Carlson: "I can't even believe that, really. It seems more like you're lying, again, to get onto the reservation, again, and cause me more ass-aches, again."
Linden: "I do not tell lies about things like this, Superior. Internal Affairs will be interested to learn of these events when my partner's body is found."
Carlson: "Oh my God, just go home. Or whatever cardboard box or barrel with suspenders you call a home these days. Anywhere but back to stir more shit on that reservation."
Linden: "I am going home. It is called Stephen Holder."
DAY TWENTY-ONE
Linden: "Menacing Native Americans. Where is my partner. On his phone it is only a grotesque outgoing voicemail message in his wigger language."
An Armed Roberta: "He got on the ferry and went away, I guess. But please stop being so intense and everything, you know the cops don't have jurisdiction here."
Linden: "I am not here as a policewoman detective, I am here as the woman who will destroy you. Show me Stephen Holder."
Roberta: "Do you not remember that whole story about the girl that went too far..."
Linden: "You will save this story for the Federal Agents that will arrive if harm comes to either myself or my Coworker. Understand that the Coast Guard, Seattle PD, and a host of other individuals may or may not be arriving shortly."
Nothing happens, and of course neither of them can move because Roberta actually did some shady shit a minute ago with Holder, so they just kind of awkwardly stand there... And Carlson actually shows up!
Carlson: "Turns out 'Internal Affairs' was the only thing that would shift my ass. I'm here to save Holder, unexpectedly. Now Linden, what they're saying is that he was conducting an illegal search..."
Linden: "True."
Carlson: "...And they escorted him off the property."
Linden: "False."
Carlson: "Pretty sure I'm going to blame you regardless of what happens , but okay. Let's find us a tweaker."
Cop: "Okay, people, let's go fast. We got until dawn, when the lawyers show up. Linden, you go sit in the car because we have all had it with you, and because you are singularly poor at finding things."
Moments Later: "We found a Pez dispenser on the northeast sector of the island."
Linden: "I will join it in that sector."
Moments Later: "This is his Pez, I know it. For my partner enjoyed Pez."
By pre-dawn, they've found a random junk pile of garbage that would make Chief Nicole cry one single tear. The dogs are stymied, Holder is trash but not this kind of trash, and even Linden's robot body is showing signs of fatigue. Just then, she sees or hallucinates a bunch of little kids playing in the garbage and looking sad, like "sponsor this child for the price of a cup of coffee" sad, and one little girl points off into the woods. Of course, Linden takes this at face value and immediately figures out that he's on the other side of this one stream they didn't cross during the night, and of course he is there.
DEAD!
Just kidding, it's Holder. Kill him and what have you got? I mean, that would be an awesome thing for the show to do -- actually to have something happen on the show, that would be incredible -- but without Holder, I mean, what is there. Then you'd have a cop show which is not only not really a cop show, but it would also contain zero cops. Just this outpatient lady, and her sweaters and her gum, wandering the hillside and occasionally bumping into a horrible family or a paralyzed City Councilman who likes to get choked in bed.
SPEAKING OF
Darren: "Thanks to the sad press of sad Seattle for coming out in this sad rain and just standing here in the rain while I talk about basically nothing and then roll away in my wheelchair in the rain. Allow me to reiterate that thing Jamie's grandpa said about bad luck making you or breaking you."
Jamie: "He remembered that one thing he keeps saying in every episode, that I said! Because we are in love!"
Press: "How come you killed that little girl?"
Darren: "I didn't. question."
Press: "Where were you that night you killed that little girl?"
Darren: "..."
Gwen: "Thanks! But we have to go now!"
"Presser" my ass. More like depresser, am I right?
MAGIC HOSPITAL
Linden: "I am the partner of this man down. How long until he is fully functional?"
Cute Canadian Nurse: "In the real world? Like a month. On this show, thirty minutes."
Linden: "Progeny. Holder is alive."
Linden: "Asking me if I am okay is like asking a Ford Escort about the upcoming mayoral race. It is qualitative, not quantitative."
Linden: "I will notify him of your opinion about his music collection. Once the internet is invented this will be a stupid conversation, but that has not yet happened on this show."
Linden: "My hope is that you will be comfortable staying in his house a little while longer, until I crack this case about this Killing."
Linden: "Yes, I love you also. I am your parent."
LARSEN
Boys: "How come Aunt Terry can't babysit us in our gloomy doomy dark nightmare house? What is going on with my eyebrows? Why do we have to stay with grandpa?"
Stan: "Because I opened a great big fat can of worms."
Mr. Marek: "That might have been a dumb idea, maybe? Because of how you're in the Mob and people are already super weird about her murder and everything?"
Stan: "It is all I have, so I will ignore that truth entirely until it is proven to my face."
The phone keeps ringing, and Stan keeps answering, because he is a goddamn goober.
MAGIC HOSPITAL
Holder's Sister: "Are you Linden? I was told to look for a highly kinetic, anxious cloud of sweaters and gum."
Linden: "You seem harsh and protective of your child. I suppose that you are his sister. Know that he is a good police detective."
Sister: "I think he should try another job, but that's nice. He's never been good at anything before. Besides smoking crystal methamphetamine and showing little discretion about his friends and compatriots, I mean."
Linden: "One thing he is bad at is being African-American. You are awfully judgmental for somebody who always looks like she has been crying in the bathtub all day."
Sister: "Anyway, here's that matchbook. He woke up briefly from his beating coma to tell me that you should have this. I guess it's a clue."
Linden: "This Killing. I tell you what."
Sister: "Just to make it clear, I want you out of here. Like how I always want Stephen out of my life? That's you. At least until he wakes up, and then I'll probably go back to being a bitch to him."
Linden: "That is mostly how I react to him too."
The matchbook said 11 AM tomorrow, which is today, and it's like almost 11. Sarah puts on her Holder costume and heads outta there.
RICHMOND
Darren: "Man, I wish this hospital had overhead lighting."
Gwen: "The Mayor is leading by seven points, thanks to Larsen somehow."
Jamie: "Darren, you have got to stop Adams going after your alibi. Just tell people where you were that night!"
Darren: "I suppose you two would like that. Me telling the truth, and all. But it ain't happening."
Gwen: "Then we'll need a grand gesture. Prove you can lead this city."
Darren: "Maybe I could get us electricity. That would really be something."
THAT BEAUTY PARLOR
Barber: "The only white person I was expecting today was a tall white guy."
Linden: "You have seen through my disguise. It is true, I am a woman detective."
Mary: "...It's fine, Uncle. You're the partner?"
Sarah: "Why am I here."
Mary: "I was the one that creepily left Rosie's bloody backpack on Stan's porch. By the way, she wasn't a hooker. We were maids together at the casino."
Sarah: "Your hands have the same chemical marks as hers. Ammonium hydroxide."
Mary: "Chief Nicole makes us use substandard cleaning products because she is corrupt. I feel like you're hyperfocusing on the wrong..."
Sarah: "Tell me more about Rosie."
Sarah: "Why was she wearing hooker makeup."
Mary: "Sometimes she also worked as a waitress. Chief Nicole liked to use kids because she could pay us under the table."
Sarah: "Because she is corrupt. I see. Was Rosie working that night."
Mary: "She wasn't on the schedule, but she was there. Getting on an elevator, acting real cagey."
I love Mary. I wish Mary was on this show all the time. She's awesome to look at, and I like her acting style. Maybe Mitch can come kidnap her too, and start an army of twitchy doomed young ladies. Mary's like this one spelling bee girl I loved long ago on the TV, who would cough and jam her hands in her pockets every time. Mary just keeps turning around and around while she talks to Sarah, slowly revolving, like she's on a lazy Susan we can't see. It's really effective.
Sarah: "An elevator to the tenth floor. Just as was my partner. Do you go often to that floor in the elevator."
Mary: "We used to smoke up there, but after she died they took away our keys."
Sarah: "What did the key look like."
Mary: "Like... A key? Are you serious? Like a key. Like a key you open doors with."
Sarah: "I have not lived anywhere in a very long time. A boat, a motel, a motel, a drug den. Only one of those actually had a 'key,' as you call it. This key, was it located under a flowerpot."
Mary: "No, it was just a ... normal key. Am I being punk'd?"
Sarah: "Why does a beauty parlor even have matchbooks. Is another question."
CITY OFFICES
Mayor: "Good to see you, other politicians. I'm happy to think that waterfront projects waterfront projects waterfront projects."
Darren, rolling up: "Three things. Number one, stop intimating that I killed that girl because it is really throwing me off. Number two, quote Chief Jackson has you over a barrel with the waterfront. But it's not you she'll be screwing. How much is she taking the city for? And number three, you're linked to that fake photo that got me arrested."
Darren rolls away and the Mayor's eyes bug out.
Ben Abani: "There's no way he could have found out! My contacts are above reproach!"
Mayor: "Clearly not. Get scary, if you please."
HQ
Stan: "Detective Linden! I am actually happy to see you for once! I brought you tons of red herrings."
Sarah: "I can do bad all by myself, Parent of the Victim."
Stan: "Just look at my crazy scribbled lies!"
Sarah: "I will do so, sir. But understand that people are going to eff you for your money."
Stan: "I still can't hear people when they say that. I am too busy grieving."
Sarah: "Your hopeful smile is a dagger in my equilibrium."
Cops: "There goes that Sarah Linden. Cool how she almost got Holder murdered."
Linden: "Superior, why are you in my office touching my files and belongings."
Carlson: "Um, Sarah. We need to talk."
Linden: "You will actually have to say it out loud."
Carlson: "Fine. Give me your badge."
Linden: "Their attack on my Coworker proves that we were on the right track."
Carlson: "Things are turning into a race riot. So thanks for that. But also, once again, you disobeyed orders, nearly got your partner killed, and ... Honestly? I don't like you. Your weird affect and complete disregard of the rules makes me uncomfortable a lot of different ways simultaneously. Also, you've been a dick to me since I showed up a week ago and you started ruining my entire life."
Linden: "That lady from Forbrydelsen, DA Niilsen, will press charges against the casino."
Carlson: "Yeah, and then the tribe'll countersue us, the city, the county..."
Linden: "Then I will go to the newspapers about that faked Richmond photo."
Carlson: "Which has your badge number on it, remember? Give me your badge and gun."
Sarah notices a messed-with bag in the evidence box that has something with the casino logo on it, which I presume is the key, which I/Sarah got so interested in that I/we nearly missed the thing he says.
Carlson: "I understand you were supposed to get married today. Sonoma, right? Nice place to raise a family."
Dang, Duck. That was cold as ice. Cold as this dreary Seattle weather. The worse things get, the more of that dignity she has. I guess that's the only option. I guess that's how she's survived her life so far. Sarah Linden is taking it in the teeth this week. You have to love her, but man. I wish Holder would wake up and give her a great big hug and make all her problems go away right now. Because what has she got? No home, kid's cracking up, Regi can't even really stand her to any large degree, and now she has no job. All she has is the Killing, and she's been edging off the grid all season, so I guess now she will just be thinking about Rosie non-stop and barely able to do anything about it. For a bunch of people that keep telling her not to get crazily focused on Rosie, they aren't doing much to distract her.
RICHMOND
Gwen: "How about this random idea?"
Jamie: "Think bigger."
Gwen: "Maybe black people."
Jamie: "Maybe. What's going on with the Mayor on TV?"
Mayor: "Waterfront, Chief Nicole, blah blah."
Jamie: "So then I guess his whole campaign is about the waterfront stuff."
Gwen: "So let's keep him from getting it back, and make that our campaign instead."
Jamie: "As long as everybody on this entire show just talks and talks about waterfront construction projects, people will keep watching it."
HOLDER'S APT
When Sarah gets back to Jack, Jack is gone and the place is crawling with cops. Two non-surprises. But the really horrible part is how the cops keep calling her "Miss Linden." It's a name, like a name a person would be called, but when anybody says it to her it's like a horrible weapon. She sits in her car for a second to meditate on Jack's whereabouts, and then figures it out.
LARSEN
Stan: "Okay, crazy. Thanks for your strange lies, hope it works out. ?"
Some Lady: "Man, these crazies that are obsessed with that reward, am I right?"
Stan: "You have established a rapport. I will not question you further about your intentions."
Naomi: "How about I also had a daughter, and she died too?"
Stan: "You are working me like a pro. Continue."
Naomi: "You raised a good girl, Mr. Larsen. You should be proud. Rosie told me all about you. She told me she loved you, despite everything that happened between you, the past. She told me that you were such a special daddy to her."
Stan: Starts crying; the sun comes out.
Naomi: "Yeah. Also, give me some money and I will talk to her for you. In Heaven."
Stan goes from overjoyed and crying to sad again. Just sad for everybody. It's so sad. Like, whether this lady is an asshole -- which she is -- or crazy -- which probably she is -- that was a bad little moment. A dagger in his equilibrium. Hopefully he will drop the tipline thing now.
REGI'S DOCK
Sarah sits beside Jack on the empty dock.
Jack: "I figured the cops were there for me, so I ran again. Thought Regi would be here, but she's not."
Sarah: Nothing, because what do you say?
Jack: "Nobody is here."
Sarah finally comes to a decision. All season long it's felt like the nets were closing on her, on her family, and somebody was going to get hurt, and finally somebody did get hurt. But Jack's been hurting this whole time. And for what? To prove some bullshit point about how she's not crazy? She's crazy. To prove that she's strong? She's not strong. Not as strong as Jack, anyway. Maybe not strong as Holder, who didn't get out in time. How she can take care of herself and her son? She can't. She cannot do those things. She just has Rosie now. The shape of her life finally looks like the shape of her head. She has lost everything that kept her connected to the world, and she keeps losing things, but at least nobody else was paying for it. Until now.
RICHMOND
Gwen: "Hey, buddy! I had a brainwave, you're going to steal Chief Nicole away from the Mayor. You'll be the waterfront campaign, not him."
Darren: "Problem number one, she is the worst. She makes Drexler look like a better bedmate*. Do you have any ideas that don't come with total corruption?"
Gwen: "Are we really talking about that?"
Darren: "No! We are talking about how you told the police I disappeared that night and came back wet, and that got me arrested, and that got me shot."
*(And how!)
Gwen: "I guess we could use some work on our communication skills. Like, how you lied to me. About a lot of things. Your dead wife, your suicide attempt that night, all those women, the choking thing..."
Darren: "What I hear you saying is that I deserve to be in a wheelchair."
Gwen: "What I am saying is, I have to go meet with our advertisers now. I'll be back with some more good ideas you can scream at me about later, okay?"
MAGIC HOSPITAL
Holder: "My nephew! My favorite person and the symbol of my lost innocence as well as the debt to family I can never repay, due to my history of addiction and self-loathing!"
Nephew: "Does it hurt?"
Holder: "No, I still have some organs. Hey, here's a gold coin like the one I stole from you long ago to finance my drug use."
Nephew: "That's always been a bigger deal to you than to me, because I'm too young to understand any of those concepts. I'm just as happy playing with like an empty box or some string. I can have myself a killer day just pretending a sandwich is a gun or my shoe is a magic potion. I'm a child, you see."
Holder: "Well, know this, because I may have sent you some mixed messages in the past on this subject. Your mom is a good mom. She makes the hard choices. And now, I will endeavor to be a better uncle. Now that my only addiction is enabling Sarah Linden's addiction."
Holder's phone rings a few seconds into their bonding, and he makes a worried face.
GOODBYES
Linden: "Helo will meet you at the airport in Chicago, of course, but I would appreciate a telephone call on your arrival. A mother worries."
Jack: "How about you just come with me?"
Linden: "I do not have an answer for that. This is just temporary. I will see you soon. If there's one thing we know to be true, it is that I am able to get on an airplane and go places."
Jack: "Okay, well. Bye."
Jack trudges off toward the gate, and she jumps up and chases him down. Time for some stellar acting. In a whole story about losing your child, losing your parents, odd horrible living arrangements, the thousand things we do to our kids... Nobody ever got to say goodbye before. She makes the best of it, her chance.
"Listen to me. You're strong. You can do this. You are so much stronger than I was when I was your age. And no matter what happens, you will get through it, because you are my boy, Jack. You are my baby."
Jack gets to the gate before he finally turns and gives her a smile, and once she can't see him anymore she just stares at the airplane, shaking. Framed against a big, grey sky.
When Holder arrives, Sarah barely even has to turn around -- she just knows he's there. He touches her back, like you would a stray animal. From far way.
Stan ignores the flashing light on the answering machine and heads to bed.
Darren watches the Mayor on TV, talking about his opponent's physical therapy, and in the other room Jamie finds Darren's gun, hidden in a drawer.
"This is the whole problem," the Mayor's saying. "He says he's not guilty, and yet when he's questioned about his whereabouts on that particular night, he refuses to answer..."
It's a quiet drive, back from the airport. Until Sarah says, without prelude, "We need to get that key." Holder thinks about answering her, asking about Jack, asking about anything, but he just keeps quiet. This is how she deals with pain. Sarah spares a look at the sky, and then focuses on the road ahead of her. Again.
JACOB CLIFTON is a freelance writer and critic based in Austin, Texas. He currently recaps Gossip Girl, The Good Wife, Pretty Little Liars and True Blood for TWoP. Jacob can be found online at jacobclifton.com, on Twitter, and on Facebook. IRL work appears in BenBella's SmartPop series of anthologies, most recently A Friday Night Lights Companion and Fringe Science.