By Lady Lola
Day 13. News breaks that Richmond had a slew of affairs after his wife's death. Linden and Holder double-task, tracking down the former mistresses as well as security footage of the toll booths on the way from the casino to where Richmond ostensibly dumped Rosie's body. In the midst of this, Stan has an unintended run-in with Amber Ahmed (thankfully she doesn't realize who he is). After Linden and Holder's search strikes out, Holder does some math and realizes that it's more likely that Richmond filled up at a gas station that just so happens to be three miles away from the park where they found Rosie. She calls the canines on the scene, and they find Rosie's other shoe.
Though she is unaware of this, Mitch is in the processing of wallowing permanently in her grief -- to the point that she actually leaves her family. Convinced that Richmond is guilty, Linden confronts him, and overhearing their exchange convinces Gwen that not all is right. She meets up with Linden and collapses Richmond's alibi. Add that to security photo Holder scores of Richmond on a bridge leading back from the casino back to Seattle, and Richmond is arrested. As Linden boards the plane to leave for Sonoma, she learns that it's not possible for Holder to have secured such footage because the security cameras on that particular route have been out for months. As she sits trapped on the plane, Holder meets with an unseen figure and says smugly, "The picture worked." Also, Belko goes to Richmond's perp walk and pulls out a gun. Cut to black.
Previously: Linden and Holder discovered that Rosie may have been involved with an escort service called Beau Soleil. What's more, they learned that one of Beau Soleil's patrons, a john by the handle of Orpheus, has a drowning fetish. Linden sent an e-mail to Orpheus in the vain hope she might strike gold. Little did she know the e-mail would go to Richmond -- when she was in his house...
We rejoin Linden in Richmond's home office. From the eerie shadow of the doorway, he stares at her ominously, asking, "What are you doing?" She says calmly that Orpheus is an interesting screen name. He tells her the myth of Orpheus, which has particular resonance given the whole "obsessed with my dead wife" thing. Just as Richmond lowers his voice to the creepiest, breathiest register possible, Linden's phone rings. It's Holder telling her just slightly to late that Richmond is Orpheus. Linden announces stolidly that Holder is en route to Richmond's house and then slowly, steadily makes her way past the councilman. But not, of course, without a dramatic standoff on her way out. Credits.
Outside, Linden tells Holder what just went down. As usual, Holder wants to jump the gun and bring the councilman in immediately. Linden reminds him they need solid evidence linking Richmond to the crime before they can formally arrest him. They formulate a game plan to attack Richmond's alibi from all angles and see what they can come up with. Linden tells Holder to assign a unit to watch Richmond, then meet her at the impound lot to take a second look at the campaign car in which Rosie's body was found.
A little later, they meet up. Linden thinks aloud as she maps out Richmond's path to killing Rosie. Holder doesn't think it makes sense that he would use a car that could so easily be traced back to the campaign, but Linden notes the tinted windows meant that Richmond wouldn't be recognized. She opens the door and sits in the car, looking the driver's seat over once more. She tells Holder to get the gas records for the vehicle.
Meanwhile, Terry drops Stan off at the house. He is hesitant to go home, but Terry thinks it will be the best thing for the family to smooth things over. He thanks her for helping him. She says, "We're family, right?" She drives off as Stan lumbers across the street. He looks up at Mitch in the window, and they share a gaze. He walks to his car and gets in.
Back at the impound lot, Linden pores over the gas records and discovers the tank is actually fuller now than when it was checked into the campaign parking lot. They discern that Richmond must have gotten gas and, as such, there is likely video footage of him somewhere between the casino and Seattle or a credit card transaction that can be traced back to him. Linden seems genuinely excited for the first time in...well...ever.
Day 13. Stan wakes up in his car at the cemetery where Rosie is buried. Back at home, Mitch cries as she looks through pictures of Rosie as a baby. There are also pictures of Mitch when she was younger. Mitch's father comes in and tells her that Rosie once found them in her grandparents' house and asked to keep them. Mitch looks through her old scrapbook, full of plans to go to foreign countries that she never ended up visiting. She looks over the sad, blank pages as her father tells her, "You had so many plans. Rosie did, too. She was so much like you." The words pierce Mitch's heart as she thinks over her the blank pages, her unrealized life.
SPD. None of the leads have panned out so far. Holder notes that the math isn't adding up between the actual distance between Seattle and the casino versus how many miles were clocked on the car's odometer. There are 100 extra miles that are unaccounted for. Linden speculates that Richmond may have taken a more roundabout route so that no one would have noticed him. The only route passes over Desolation Bridge north of the island. She tells Holder to requisition the footage from Friday night and Saturday morning.
Elsewhere, Richmond is at a community meet-and-greet slash pick-up-basketball game. Reporters ask him about the accusations that he had several affairs in the wake of his wife's death. He claims the allegations are groundless and the product of his political opponents. He shifts to a victorious tone as he announces the re-opening of the Seattle All-Stars. He steps aside from the crowd to do damage control with Gwen, who is less than pleased to learn of his former dalliances. He assures her it was a passing phase that stopped when he started up with her. He grabs her by the shoulders and pleads, "You know I'm telling you the truth." She tells him they'd do well to get through the day.
SPD. Linden's boss tells her to tread carefully with Richmond, since he is the presumptive mayor of the city. Linden assures him they're doing things by the book. He curtly tells her to get back in touch when she has done some "real detective work." He heads off, and she gets a phone call from Jack, who is staying with his father for a little while. Holder interrupts to show her the newspaper article detailing all of Richmond's post-widowed trysts. There's a distinct pattern of pretty brunettes fitting Rosie's general description. They decide to check in with the bevy of ladies in hopes that one of them can shed light on Richmond's more tawdry proclivities.
They head to a local park to speak with one of the women named Meg. She insists he's a good, noble, generous man who is afflicted with a deep sadness. She thinks Richmond's ability to compartmentalize his grief is what makes him a great leader. I think it's what allows him to want to drown women. Linden asks why she resigned as Richmond's campaign adviser. Meg chokes up as she says it hurt too much to stay, then runs off.
Elsewhere, Stan makes a truly unadvisable visit to Bennet Ahmed's hospital bedside. He lingers but a second before heading out, where he spots Amber struggling with the vending machine. He helps her retrieve the snack she's bought, and comforts her when she starts to cry. He promises her that having a child is the greatest thing that will ever happen to her. She asks how many kids he has. He pauses, then says, "Three... I got three children." She says he must be a wonderful dad. He backs away, telling her good luck, before he too dissolves into tears. And neither of them is any the wiser to whom they've just spoken.
Meanwhile, Mitch watches her mother and Terry playing with the boys at the beach. She lingers taking in their carefree happiness, then purposely, consciously walks away.
Later that morning, Linden strikes out with another gas station owner along the route near the campaign parking lot. Holder realizes that it's unlikely that Richmond would have filled up anywhere near there since the tank was more than half full. He guesses that Richmond filled up just south of Desolation Bridge. As it happens, Holder knows of a gas station past the bridge that's just five miles from the park where Rosie's body was found.
Gwen returns to campaign headquarters to find Mistress Meg there. She tells Gwen that the police questioned her about her relationship and seemed adamant that Richmond is guilty of something. Gwen says coldly that his former indiscretions have nothing to do with where he is now. Meg stifles a weary laugh: "Former?" Gwen tells her to leave, and she obliges. But before she gets all the way out the door, she tells Gwen not to take things too hard because, "No one can compete with a dead woman."
Linden and Holder arrive at the gas station near the park. The grumpy attendant says he's the only thing they've got in the vein of security footage. He does remember seeing a black sedan, particularly because the driver high-tailed it off right after a girl screamed. Unfortunately, that's where the trail goes cold with him because he didn't see the driver or the girl. Holder asks why he didn't call the cops, and all the guy can do to contain his grizzled annoyance is to say, "Why would I? He paid." As he staggers off, Linden notices a door in the back of the garage. She realizes that the attendant might have heard the scream from the back of the station, not from the front where the pumps are. She walks to the door and outside, which has a direct pathway to the park three miles away.
The crime scene team arrives. They scour the area, and Linden imagines Rosie's state of mind as she was running from Richmond into the dark, forbidding woods. She wagers it took all night in the cold as Richmond hunted her.
Back in town, Jamie finds Gwen watching campaign coverage. He insists that he didn't know about Richmond's affairs and tells her he respects her for hanging in and doing her job. "How wonderful for me," she says sardonically. He tells her he knows what it's like to feel unappreciated and says Richmond is "complicated." Gwen says she's going to go home, take a bath, get some sleep, then return to do her job. "I'm always good for that, right?"
Larsen moving company. Terry finds Belko packing up his things. She asks him not to leave, telling him Mitch didn't mean what she said to him. Moreover, she apologizes for telling him at the wake that he wasn't part of the family. She asks him to stay, but he is disheartened. He tells her to look around because, "There's no family anymore, everyone's gone."
Back at Richmond and HQ. The councilman shares a single malt with Jamie. They gloat over how well the campaign has recovered from its stumbles. Jamie assures Richmond that Gwen is fine and Richmond promises to make it up to her after the election is over. Jamie gets a somber look in his eyes and asks seriously if there is anything he needs know about. Richmond insists there is no reason to worry.
Out in the park, Linden walks the grid and notes tire tracks along the fire road to her left. She then looks right and sees a seemingly endless expanse of woods. Holder approaches and she tells him to mobilize the crew in that patch of woods.
Stan visits the house he bought for his family, the symbol of failure and sadness that has now come to represent exactly how the last 13 days have ripped his former life apart. He goes to the backyard to find a swing set. Only two of the swings remain. The third has been ripped from its chains. He stares at it long and hard, struggling to catch his breath.
Night falls and the searchers find a shoe identical to the one they found on Rosie's body. Linden walks away, clearly shaken. Holder asks if she's okay. She says with a wobble that if Rosie had only turned the other way, she would have come across a neighborhood. She would have made it. She would have lived.
Linden takes her righteous rage straight to Richmond HQ, where the councilman is preparing for his rally that night. He's in a rare moment alone and Linden takes the opportunity to unload all of her anger on him. She asks how it felt when the car was sinking into water and Rosie was begging for her life. She unleashes a torrent of disgust as she notes that all the mistresses looked like Lily. But they weren't Lily, were they? She asks, "Is that why you killed her?" They get in each other's faces, screaming at one another. He rages right back that he will not put up her with her trying to interfere with his destiny when he is so close to claiming it. He explodes, "The things that I have had to do...!" She sees an in and tries to coax a confession out of him. He sees her ploy and backs off, saying, "Look at me. You know that I am telling you the truth." Out in the hallway, Gwen overhears these familiar words and is shaken to the core.
Linden heads outside into her car. She slams her hands onto her face and lets out a primal grunt. As is the case with Linden, this impulse is only allowed for a second before she gets back to work, noticing Gwen in a car across the parking lot. A bit later, they're talking to each other. Gwen admits that she lied for Richmond. He wasn't with her all night. In fact, he left their romantic getaway around midnight and didn't come back until close to dawn. And he was soaking wet. Gwen hands Linden a DVD.
As Richmond rallies his supporters, Linden presents the evidence Gwen gave her to the boss. The DVD shows footage of Richmond meeting Rosie six months before her murder. The boss is still skeptical, but Holder comes in with security cam footage of Richmond crossing Desolation Bridge at three AM Saturday morning driving the same car Rosie died in. As the rally ends, Richmond notices Linden, Holder, and several policemen piling into the background. Jamie tries to get him out of there, but it's too late. Holder puts the cuffs on Richmond, whose only response is to tell Linden, "You're making a big mistake."
As Richmond goes through intake, Linden casually tells Holder she thinks he can handle the paperwork from there. He asks, "So now I'm okay to do this on my own?" She understates that he'll make a "passable" detective but advises him to occasionally censor everything that runs through his head. They bid adieu with knowing smiles.
Stan finally arrives home to find that Mitch has packed her bags. She tells him that she is no good for the boys in her state of mind. She says they don't need her. Says Stan, "But I do." Mitch is unswayed. Stan says he knows he didn't want any of the life she was saddled with. But for him, it's better than he ever could have hoped. Tears stream down her face: "Every piece of this place hurts me." Stan walks over to embrace her, and she lets him.
Elsewhere, Belko watches the newscast featuring Richmond's arrest and cleans a gun as his mother lolls about in the bathtub.
Linden leaves her office one last time. She and Jack hurry into the airport as Jack complains that they didn't tell his father they were leaving. She promises she'll let Jack see his dad again but says they need to go and jokes that she doesn't have another $50 million to spare.
Terry returns home to ask if Stan's heard the news. She wonders where Mitch is. Stan tells her disjointedly, "She left."
Linden puts up her carry-on luggage as the captain announces that they're cleared for departure. Her phone rings. It's a highway patrolwoman informing her they won't be able to fulfill the request for the security footage on Desolation Row because the cameras have been out of service since August. What in the what now?
Meanwhile, Holder steps into a car and tells a faceless stranger, "The photo worked. It's goin' down." Richmond takes his perp walk as Gwen watches. Linden sits on the plane as the pilot prepares for takeoff. No doubt her heart is palpitating. As she realizes the full extent of what this new discovery means, Belko watches Richmond walking into the car. He pulls the gun from his jacket and points it squarely at Richmond. They lock eyes. And cut to black.