By Lady Lola
Day 3 of the investigation finds Linden realizing once and for all that she's stuck in Seattle until the mystery of Rosie Larsen is resolved. As she reels from the horror of "The Cage" she finds in Fort Washington High School's basement, she learns that Holder is not as shady as previously thought (maybe?) when he explains that he is using NarcScent, which smells and looks like weed -- but isn't weed -- to entice the testimony of impressionable youths. Mighty convenient, if you ask me -- and way less fun... On the grittier side, a video showing Rosie ostensibly being raped by Jasper and his nogoodnik friend Kris takes the investigation to uncomfortable new depths.
All the while, Richmond ferrets out the mole in his campaign: Jamie. Even though his e-mails are traced back to the leak, Jamie maintains his innocence, but Richmond is quick to dismiss him. He's also quick to make sure Councilwoman Yitanes remains on his side -- even if that means stooping to questionable means to keep her there.
And the hits keep coming for the Larsens. Stan is left to take care of the family when Mitch completely detaches from reality. She can't help but listen to a voicemail from Rosie on repeat, then tries to understand what her daughter went through by drowning herself in the bathtub. Needless to say, it's going to be a long, hard road for the Larsen family (and for us).
Previously: Rosie Larsen plunged into a pond outside of Seattle, and she brought the whole town with her -- including her grieving parents, a mayoral candidate whose car became her watery grave, and a homicide detective who just wanted to end her dreary career in Seattle without incident.
Night 2. Richmond returns to his campaign headquarters from the presumably disastrous press conference during which his fellow city council member Ruth Yitanes was supposed to endorse his bid for mayor. That was before Rosie Larsen turned up in one of his campaign cars, and he knowingly failed to disclose this to Yitanes. Hell hath no fury like a councilwoman scorned, y'all. Richmond, Jamie and Gwen exit their car to a flock of reporters asking when Richmond is going to withdraw. He takes the "No comment" route until one of the news hounds boldly asks if Rosie's death reminds him of what happened to his late wife. This rankles Richmond, so he finally tells the press that he is above such crude politicking. He says that his heart goes out to the Larsens and it's about justice being served. Which he may actually believe... or maybe he's just too tired to fight Jamie's cold-hearted strategies anymore and has fallen back to the low-road-masquerading-as-high-road subterfuge that politicians do so very well.
Over at Fort Washington High School, Linden and Holder are surveying the grisly scene at "The Cage," including bloody sheets and walls. Linden looks around in her quiet way until she uncovers a peep hole. Credits.
Linden's boss says it was some party the kids had. He points to the favors -- meth, oxycontin, and booze -- littered around the dank basement. Linden reports that the blood at the scene matches Rosie's type, but they don't know yet whether she was using drugs since the tests are still out. Linden's boss tells her in no uncertain terms, and with little regard for Holder who is lingering nearby, that she must stay on to see through the case. City hall is breathing down his neck and Holder is ill-equipped to handle a sensitive case like this. Linden shakes her head and rolls her eyes as the principal comes in to discover the scene and be horrified anew.
Richmond HQ. Yitanes walks in breathing fire that she wasn't in the loop about Richmond's involvement in the Larsen case. They try to placate her and make excuses about police confidentiality, but she won't be convinced. She rages about how the press goes to town in cases like this, Chappaquiddick, and Chandra Levy, to name a few. She tells Richmond's team that she is done with them.
FWHS. The principal tells Linden and Holder that the cage used to hold sports equipment. She leads them to the other side of the peep hole, a janitor's closet. Linden gets the janitor's name (Lyndon Johnson Rosales) and excuses herself, leaving the principal to look through the peep hole at the ongoing cataloging of the bloody scene.
Larsen homestead. Tommy and Stan argue over dinner as Denny watches Mitch, who is still sleeping off her hopelessness in a fetal position on Rosie's bed. Denny joins the others in the kitchen as they decide to have breakfast for dinner: Chocolate chip pancakes. Mitch bravely tries to maintain an air of normalcy as he mixes up the batter, but the pretense inevitably crumbles after a few seconds when Tommy asks innocently, "How did Rosie die?" Stan stops mid-stir, paralyzed by the question. Tommy notices Stan's agony and says it's okay, they don't have to talk about it.
Downtown. Now that she's in this for the long haul, Linden establishes rank over Holder. She tells him not to make cocky assumptions and to back off a little in his interrogations. Holder wonders why she thinks he can't handle this case. She shoots back, "Because you dress like Justin Bieber and eat pork rinds for dinner." Snap! I like Sassy Linden much more than Beleaguered Linden. More of her, please! They head upstairs in a decrepit building to look for the janitor. He's not there, but his mother who speaks very little English is. Holder distracts the madre while Linden pokes around the house. She ends up in a darkened room in the back of the house and finds a copy of Nasty Cheerleaders magazine. A shadow looms behind her, getting ever closer. A creaky floorboard alerts Linden to his presence. She turns around and is met with a knife jab to the forearm. She tries to assure the janitor that she means him no harm, but he desperately runs and jumps out the window, plunging several stories to the ground.
Hospital. Linden follows the gurney as an EMT diagnoses the janitor's skull fracture. She tells him that Rosales is a suspect in a murder investigation. The EMT brusquely informs her she won't be able to question Rosales until after surgery. After the EMT wheels the gurney to the OR, Linden stops at a TV room, where the news is broadcasting the press barrage on Richmond from earlier that night.
A bit later, Holder rejoins Linden as she gets her arm stitched up. Despite Rosales' appetite for underage porn, Holder tells Linden that Rosales likely ran from them because of outstanding warrants for his arrest. He has a police-accounted alibi because he was picked up for DUI on Friday night and spent the weekend in custody. Linden tells Holder to keep an eye on Rosales and notify her as soon as he wakes.
Linden makes her way down to the marina to pick up Jack. Along the way, she calls Rick to tell him the bad news. She promises she'll be in Sonoma for the party that weekend, but Rick takes the chance to throw it in her face whether they're still getting married. He accuses her of not caring about the wedding (read: him). She promises to make it up to him, but he hastily tells her he has to go and hangs up as she tells him that she loves him. Considering how lovey-dovey they were mere hours ago, it seems like Rick maybe isn't the Prince Charming she wants him to be. He's only there for her if she's all about him. And something tells me that is not a role that Linden will be able to assume easily. This wedding grows less probable by the minute.
Linden heads into Reggie's boat, where Jack is sleeping after a Halo marathon. Linden digs into some leftover minestrone as she settles back into that old song and dance about Sonoma being the greener grass on the other side. Reggie wonders what's holding Linden back. She insists nothing's holding her back, then tells Reggie she can't stay long. She has to shower before heading back into work. As Reggie fetches a clean towel, Linden snuggles up to Jack on the pull-out couch and lets herself doze for the first time in who-knows-how-many hours. Reggie looks at her with maternal concern.
The sun rises on Day Three. Stan idles around his garage, looking out at the rain before he picks up his newspaper. Upstairs, Mitch finally awakes when Rosie's voice trills on their answering machine. Mitch jolts up and staggers toward the sound of her daughter's sing-song cadence. She looks around, hoping to find her daughter, hoping that Rosie's death was all a dream. Instead, she sees the machine and snaps back to reality. She approaches tentatively, then collapses in front of it. Downstairs, Stan splashes the cold water of the rain on his face before finally picking up the paper -- his own jolt of reality as he learns that Rosie's body was found in Richmond's car. He heads back upstairs and finds Mitch weeping as she listens to Rosie on the answering machine over and over again.
Meanwhile, Richmond pays a visit to Mayor Adams. As Adams says goodbye to some associates, Richmond eyes a book by Cicero. Adams wraps up and notes that Cicero could have been even more powerful than he was if he'd bided his time patiently. Instead, he was hunted down, his hands and head cut off to be displayed in public. Adams suggests that Richmond would be wise to bow out of the mayoral race now and try his luck again in four years. Richmond assures Adams he hasn't lost his fighting spirit yet, though it definitely seems to be on the wane as he walks out glumly.
He makes his way to the SPD to take Linden to task for talking to the press when she promised to keep quiet. She insists she did no such thing and basically wonders, "What's to be done now?" He tells her angrily to make the arrest.
High school. Everyone's back to normal -- save Jasper and Sterling. Some guys watch a stupid video on a phone, which Mr. Ahmed quickly confiscates, mumbling that these kids never cease to amaze him. He addresses Rosie's death and tells the students that grief counselors will be in the gym all day to help students. Sterling runs out in tears, with Jasper following close behind.
Linden returns to the hospital as Holder has a hush-hush conversation about easing into the department. He abruptly hangs up, then reports that Rosales is conscious but doped-up on morphine and can't have visitors. Linden sends him to work his magic on the nurse so she can slip into Rosales' room to question him. She shows him a picture of Rosie from the Halloween dance and asks if he saw Rosie in The Cage on Friday night. His heart escalates as he confirms that he saw Rosie with Jasper. A nurse comes in and tells Linden to leave, but not before Rosales points to a picture of Jasper's jackass friend Kris. That information secured, Linden is ready to leave. As she walks out, Rosales coughs and sputters, "El diablo."
Meanwhile, Richmond gives his staffers a pep talk, saying the campaign will go on as planned. As the staffers head back to work, Jamie and Gwen update Richmond on press engagements they've arranged. They assure him the controversy will blow over. Richmond leaves mysteriously. He rendezvous with his private investigator, who tells him that no e-mails about Rosie were sent from Jamie or Gwen's computers. He does hand him an e-mail leaking the Yitanes endorsement. Richmond looks it over and gravely thanks the P.I. for his work.
SPD. Holder gives the brief on Kris Echols: He's a meth dealing skater punk who dropped out of high school and has been reported as a runaway by his mother. He's also Jasper's best friend. Linden has returned to the video footage of the dance. She says it doesn't make sense for Rosie to be friends with a dealer, but Holder assumes she's one of a number of cheerleaders and suburban moms who are tweaked out these days. Theories aside, their boss thinks Linden should speak to the Larsens to see if they can shed any light. Holder volunteers to talk to them, but Linden relegates him to questioning the Echols. Before he heads out, Linden points back to the dance video. With Sterling and Rosie is a person in a devil mask. El diablo.
Kris is skateboarding downtown. He goes through a dumpster and finds the paper with the headline about Rosie.
Elsewhere, Gwen and Richmond watch a news conference in which Adams triumphantly announces a waterfront renewal project. Richmond is resigned that Adams has got the upper hand for now, but Gwen thinks it's a good sign that Yitanes has withheld her endorsement even after their falling out. She tells Richmond to stay on message, but he's distracted. He shows her the papers the P.I. handed him earlier. The papers that prove Jamie is the mole. Gwen rationalizes that it must be Jamie's attempt to get an appointment from Adams if they don't win. She asks what they should do. Just then, Jamie walks in nonchalantly, suggesting they send flowers to the Larsens in their time of mourning. "No. No flowers," says Richmond. "Flowers die."
Larsen house. Linden informs Stan and Mitch that Rosie drowned. Stan, however, is angrier that they weren't told about Richmond's connection with the case. He wants them to make an arrest. Linden assures him they're working on it. She asks about Kris. Stan says he lived down the street and played with Rosie when they were growing up. He mentions Kris's problems with drugs, and Linden wonders if Rosie ever drank or used drugs. This horrifies Mitch and angers Stan. Linden readies herself to leave, but the clipped atmosphere is suddenly charged as Mitch drops a glass on the floor. She gasps, "Did she suffer?" Linden says impassively it looks like Rosie was unconscious when the car hit the water, so no.
Meanwhile, Richmond plays basketball with some inner city kids in an attempt to highlight his anti-gang initiative. Naturally, the newsers are still focused on Rosie's murder and Yitanes' endorsement. After they wrap up, Jamie coaches him again to let the speculation burn out. Richmond says that won't happen and reveals that he knows there's a leak in the campaign. Jamie pushes it off to the cops and Yitanes herself. "Everybody's playing both sides," he says without a touch of irony. He says they have 23 days to turn things around.
SPD. Mrs. Echols tells Holder about Kris's escalating drug use. She says she doesn't know what Kris has done and doesn't want to know. She wants Holder to tell Kris that he has a mother who loves him and prays for him every night. Holder says glibly, "They all do."
Holder heads to a skate park with his weed and his lothario swagger. He talks to a girl about getting some meth from Kris. She asks if he's a cop, and he pulls the old, "Do I look like a cop?" routine. She admits he doesn't, tells him Kris might be around later, then asks for some of his dope. A couple tokes later, Holder heads back to the car to update Linden. He lets her in on his secret interrogation tool: NarcScent -- looks and tastes like weed but doesn't get you high. He also tells her that Kris is a regular at the skate park, so they'll have to wait. As they settle in, Linden notes that the park is within walking distance of the campaign parking lot, so Kris could have stolen the car.
Richmond HQ. Jamie thinks Yitanes' husband is the way back into her good graces. He's a plumbing contractor but hasn't been pulling his weight financially at their homestead. Yitanes has a teen shelter project that needs plumbing, but she can't hire her own husband. Richmond, however, can. Jamie insists that someone's going to get hired, so Richmond might as well benefit from it. Gwen snarks that Jamie is suddenly really keen on their chances of winning. Before Richmond can shush her, Gwen shows Jamie the e-mail he leaked about Yitanes. Jamie takes one look at it and claims someone hacked his account. He tells Richmond that sex is clouding his judgment and tells them both to fuck off.
Stakeout. Linden calls Jack to check up on his dinner plans. She tries to mother him by phone, which is definitely going to work out. Holder tells her to chill. He says, "I never had dinner with my mom, and look at me!" She snarks that that's comforting. They look back at the park and see Kris across the way. Holder plays bad cop, man-handling Kris and accusing him of causing Rosie to OD. Kris knows they have nothing on him, and eventually Linden tells Holder to let him go. Kris skates off.
Yitanes slaps down a paper on Richmond's desk and wonders why he told the press she's still considering endorsing him. He tells her he has a proposition... for her husband. He gets down to brass tacks, telling her that he'll scratch her back if she'll scratch his. Yitanes is at once disappointed and amused that Richmond has decided to play with the big boys.
High school. The phone Mr. Ahmed confiscated vibrates in his desk drawer. He opens up a file overlaid with loud metal music and looks distressed.
Out in the parking lot, Kris skates up to Jasper and punches him in the face, screaming, "They know we were at the dance, huh? You told them!" He says once again, "They know," then skates off. Pan down to the road below, where Holder and Linden are watching the scene unfold. Linden is certain that Rosie wouldn't have gone into The Cage with Kris. She must have gone with Jasper, only they can't pick up Jasper for questioning because they have nothing against him. Then her phone rings, and they have to respond to whatever Mr. Ahmed saw on the phone.
Larsen house. Stan tells Mitch he has dinner covered as he makes another night's worth of chocolate chip pancakes. He tells her to take a relaxing bath before dinner. She heads off. Stan puts down the plate of pancakes and notices that Tommy has set a fifth place at the dinner table. Tommy quickly snatches up the plate, but Stan says it's okay and to leave it. The boys settle down for dinner as Mitch settles into her bath. She submerges herself completely in the water, waiting to see if fate will take her like it took Rosie. But survival instinct kicks in. She surfaces, gasping for air and dissolving into sobs.
SPD. Linden and Holder see what Mr. Ahmed found on the student's phone. It's a video of Rosie in The Cage. The guy in the devil mask throws her down on the bed and takes her from behind. He stands up and removes the devil mask. It's Jasper, with a self-satisfied look on his face. The camera turns around to show Kris. He passes the camera off to Jasper and heads over to have sex with Rosie, too. The boss tells Linden and Holder to arrest the boys.
Meanwhile, Yitanes formalizes her endorsement of Richmond as Jamie leaves the campaign for good.
Across town, the Larsen men eat dinner while Mitch breathes in desperately.
Back at the station, Linden watches the video obsessively, looking for clues to how Rosie got in that room and how she was taken out.
Read up on the first episode here, discuss the two-hour premiere in our forums, then check out our guide to our favorite dead TV characters.
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