On the second day of the investigation, the Larsens identify Rosie's body, and the ripples begin spiraling outward. In between questioning Sterling and Jasper, Linden endures some forced family togetherness with her reluctant son. Elsewhere, the Larsens are falling apart when they have to tell their sons of Rosie's death. Also falling apart: Richmond's campaign as the news leaks that his campaign car became Rosie's watery grave. While the coroner's report offers scant information -- other than confirming that Rosie was alive when the car went into the water -- Holder gets a lead from some high school girls, who take him to a basement where their friends partied after the school dance from which Rosie went missing. Inside the basement is a blood-soaked mattress and bloody hand prints snaking up the walls. As the dark underbelly of Rosie's life begins to reveal itself, it's clear that no one will be safe from suspicion.
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Mitch Larsen rides to the morgue to identity her dead daughter. She spots Stan from the end of the hall and walks toward him, defeated. They embrace, and she collapses in his arms. As they embrace, the mortician prepares Rosie for her exam, her hair still dripping from the lake. Her parents enter the room with Linden and Holder. Linden delicately lifts the sheet as Mitch sobs uncontrollably. Stan gravely looks at this, his new reality. Linden looks at them with compassion, no doubt imagining her own reaction if this happened to Jack.
A bit later, Linden interviews Stan about his last moments with Rosie. He was taking a work order on the phone when he saw her in her garage. He didn't remember her seeming any different than unusual when she waved goodbye. In the room, Holder asks Mitch if she suspects anyone. All she can muster is to whimper that Rosie's fingernails were broken. Linden asks Stan if Rosie was involved in politics. He says no, that she was a homebody. Linden asks about Jasper. Stan says it was a summer fling, then retreats back into his final memory of Rosie. He wishes he had said goodbye.
Later, Linden and Holder's boss gives them the items found on the body and asks for a status update on their contact with Richmond's campaign. Holder says he's going to call them, but the boss thinks Linden would be better to handle it because of the sensitive, political nature of the case. Holder rolls his eyes, and Linden says she's clocked out. The boss tells her she's not clocked out until he says she is and tells her to give him another 24 hours. Holder tries to convince the boss he's up for the task, but it's a no-go. As Linden takes a call from Rick, the boss tells her the car keys were found in the ignition, so to tread lightly because it could be somebody in the campaign.
Linden tells Rick that she has to stay another day. He's sitting underneath a "Welcome home!" banner with Jane Doe's baseball cap on his head. Needless to say, he's disappointed. He deadpans that they should cancel the wedding because he's fallen in love with another woman -- Jane Doe. He tells Linden to get home soon, and they tell each other "I love you" before hanging up.
Linden tells Stan and Mitch to keep the news of Rosie's death within their family so they don't impede the police investigation. Mitch wonders when they can bring Rosie home. Linden keeps it vague and switches topics to tell them a police unit will be coming by to search Rosie's room. Stan wonders why she asked if Rosie had an interest in politics. Linden glosses over it, saying they're investigating every angle. She tells them she's sorry for their loss and advises them to get home and get rest. Stan asks sternly, "Will you find who did this?" Holder says quietly that they will, which displeases Linden. Anyone who's worked in homicide as long as she has knows you don't always get the bad guy.
Meanwhile, Gwen congratulates Richmond on a successful fundraiser. She tells him she has a nice bottle of wine waiting for them at her house. The good mood is interrupted when she gets the phone call from Linden. They re-route their trip to the office as Gwen updates Richmond on the news.
Richmond's office. All three of the campaign team members were together on the campaign trail around the clock that weekend, except for Friday night when Richmond took a break at a local inn. Holder wonders pointedly if the owner of the inn was with Richmond around the clock, too. Linden sends him off to look through the Councilman's personnel files with Jamie. Linden asks if anyone else can verify Richmond's alibi. Gwen reluctantly steps in to say she was with him at the inn. She wants to issue a press release before giving an official police statement, but Linden asks them to wait at least until midnight the day so the investigation can stay a step ahead of the perp.
The detectives leave, giving Jamie and Gwen the chance to jump down Richmond's throat about playing offense in this development. They refuse to let him sit on this news in case someone finds out and leaks it to the press. Jamie again shows his cold-hearted nature by spinning it that incumbent Adams was somehow responsible for Rosie's death because of the rise in crime during his tenure as mayor. Richmond is disgusted by his callousness. Gwen worries that the campaign will sink if it's linked to a murder, but Jamie thinks they can play it sympathetically since he, too, has experienced personal loss when his wife Lily died. Richmond refuses to do so. He tells Gwen to send out the press release by noon, get their private investigator on the campaign staffers, and find out how a killer got hold of their campaign car. After Jamie leaves, Gwen tells Richmond that Jamie's right and advises him to consider it an opportunity to open up to the public about Lily. He thinks it's opportunistic and in bad taste. Gwen gets down to nuts and bolts, saying that Councilwoman Yitanes will withdraw her endorsement if she gets wind of the scandal. He tells Gwen to set up a meeting for noon, and he'll tell Yitanes at the same time the press release goes out. Richmond switches gears and tells Gwen that a reporter was tipped off about the endorsement via an e-mail from Richmond's own office, but he wouldn't reveal his source. He tells her to check his staffers' e-mails discreetly.
Elsewhere, Linden tells Jack she'll pick him up the day. Holder returns back to tell her the campaign car was reported stolen Saturday morning and was last driven by a female campaign volunteer the Wednesday before that. The keys were in the ignition because the people in the lot left them there. Linden walks off, disgruntled. Holder asks if she's still mad that he told the Larsens they'd find Rosie. She decides he needs a slap of reality to dismantle his hero complex. She tells him that Rosie had head wounds because the abductor probably punched her in the face before he grabbed her. "You want to tell the parents that, go ahead," she says. Holder has no response.
The morning, Mitch stares out the window, having not slept all night. She eventually walks into the kitchen, into her new normal. Terry weeps as she does the dishes, wondering how this happened. She says the boys have been asking about Rosie, and she doesn't know what to tell them. She offers to pick them up from school now, but Stan thinks they should keep things as normal as possible. He tells Mitch to get some sleep. On her walk to the bedroom, Mitch peeks in Rosie's room, where a wind chime is tinkling, a stark contrast to the ugliness enveloping her world.
Stan trudges into work. Belko asks if he heard anything about Rosie, then mentions that the cops came by and asked all the employees to come down to the station. He wonders what's going on. Sam can do nothing but stand there silently, still unready to say the truth out loud.
Sterling is walking into school, when Jasper grabs her roughly and rages at her for saying she was with him. "I'm not stickin' it to her anymore," he says cruelly. Mr. Ahmed sees them from inside and calls Jasper in to talk to the police. Inside, Sterling nervously tells Holder she drove Rosie to the dance, then lost her. She left without her, figuring that Rosie hooked up with Jasper. She doesn't know whether he was at the dance, but Mr. Ahmed volunteers a video that one of the yearbook staffers took. Holder assures Sterling it's not her fault Rosie disappeared. In another room, Jasper tells Linden he picked up a cougar in a bar called the Blue Moon on Friday night. "She was on her fourth Miller High Life," he says cockily. "It doesn't take much -- ones your age." Linden brushes it off and asks how long Jasper dated Rosie. He says they didn't, only hooked up. He smacks of arrogance and disregard for humanity. And when his high-powered dad shuts down the meeting, you can see where he gets it from. Linden is barely out of the room before Mr. Ames slaps the holy hell out of Jasper, spitting, "What'd you do this time?"
Back at the office, Linden looks over the yearbook video. Holder says he thinks Jasper is their perp, but his only evidence is that Jasper is a douche. True, but won't hold up in court. Linden tells Holder to watch his mouth because Jack's with them today. Not a minute later, Holder's saying he found nothing in Rosie's locker but books that he doesn't give a shit about. Annoyed, Linden moves on to Rosie's cell phone records, which consisted mainly of calls home and to Sterling. She wonders what a "good girl with no secrets" like Rosie was doing with Jasper. Holder points out that Rosie lied to her parents about wearing a costume to the Halloween dance. Then he notices she has expensive designer shoes her parents definitely couldn't have afforded.
The boss interrupts to tell them Jasper was arrested in the past for taking a car for a joy ride. No charges were ever pressed, presumably because of his father's money and power. With his record, Jasper just jumped to their number one person of interest, especially since Richmond's and Larsen's employees' alibis checked out. Just then, the boss gets the tip that Richmond's press release is set to come out in an hour.
Richmond's office. All his staffers' e-mails came up clean. Jamie smugly tells him the good news that their staffers were relieved of suspicion and the car was reported stolen. Richmond is relieved that their connection to the murder seems purely coincidental. Just then, Councilwoman Yitanes makes her grand entrance. She wonders what secret he's harboring to call this meeting. Before he tells her, he butters her up by reminding her how important her endorsement and the union vote will be to his campaign. She curtly tells him to lose his Armani suit before they meet up with the working stiffs. He is just about to tell her about Rosie, when Gwen takes him outside to speak with Linden. She threatens him to halt the press release or be known as a candidate who obstructed a child's murder investigation. He agrees to wait until midnight to go public. She gives him her card and tells him Holder will be taking over tomorrow. As he walks away, she tells him to call off his investigator at the school. He wonders how she knew about that. Fact: She didn't. As Linden leaves, Richmond tells Gwen to call a reporter they know to give him an exclusive that will print right after Yitanes' endorsement is announced. Speaking of whom, Richmond goes back in to break the news to Yitanes. Or, in fact, to chicken out and tell her that he smoked pot in college. She says, "Just don't get caught with some intern's face in your crotch, and you'll be the mayor."
Leary Elementary School. Stan and Mitch pick up the boys to take them home. Belko calls to tell them the cops are searching Rosie's room, so they decide to take the kids out to bide their time flying kites. Denny is excited, but Tommy -- who witnessed his mother's breakdown on the phone the night before -- senses something is up. He hesitantly gets into the car.
Meanwhile, Holder has found Rosie's wig from the Halloween dance in a dumpster downtown. The two of them go back to the school, where none of the kids admit to seeing Rosie at the dance.
Out in the districts, Richmond pays a personal visit to one of his supporters. After he speaks with her, Jamie calls him out for lying to Yitanes earlier. Richmond is hedging his bets that Yitanes will have already made her endorsement when the news comes out, but Jamie isn't so sure. Richmond returns to the supporter he just visited, saying what a strong person she is and what a hard time she is having receiving support for her disability. He is committed to helping her and people like her, even if it means a few white lies to other politicians. And with that he closes the Yitanes subject.
Beach. Tommy wonders where Rosie is, and Stan doesn't think they can put it off any longer. They gather the boys together to tell them that Rosie is gone to Heaven with their grandma. Denny innocently wonders when she's coming back, and Tommy explodes on him, saying that Rosie isn't coming back. She's dead. He runs away screaming. Mitch catches him and wraps her arms around him fiercely. Stan's voice cracks as he asks Denny, "We're gonna be okay, right, son?"
In a parking lot, Richmond meets with Nathan Patrick, the private eye. He says he checked all the e-mail accounts. Richmond asks if he checked Gwen and Jamie's. He didn't. Richmond tells him to check them and report back to him.
Back at the high school, Linden washes her face in a mirror. The name Rosie is etched into it, then X-ed out, one letter at a time. She's ready to leave, but Holder wants to stay and do some more digging. They wish each other luck, hoping they're never going to see each other again.
The Larsens get home to find that the cops left an unholy mess in their search. Mitch helps Terry clean up as the boys go off to play in their rooms. Because she can't stop herself anymore, Terry asks why Mitch didn't call Rosie all weekend. Mitch has no answer.
High school. Some soccer girls walk up to Holder, giggling. He's smoking pot, and they take a couple hits from his joint once he promises not to arrest them. He gets all up in one of the girl's business when he notices she doesn't inhale, sticking his finger on her mouth until she gets a nice buzz. He asks if they want to party, then how old they are. When the answer comes, "Old enough," he threatens to leave. He says there's nowhere to party. One of the girls says she knows of a place -- the high school basement. The kids call it "The Cage." Having gotten his information, Holder bounces for real. The girls are left in his wake, going all, "Wait? Are we gonna party?"
Holder makes his way to The Cage. It's a damp, dripping place, and his eyes widen as he sees what's been left behind.
Meanwhile, Linden is revisiting the dance footage as Jack tries to convince her to stay through the end of the week. She says Rick is waiting for them. "For you maybe," he says. She promises things will be great in Sonoma, but he's not in the mood to hear it. He heads to the bathroom, snarking that he wants to get to the airport early so he can "snag some duty free cigs." Linden's boss comes in to deliver the coroner's report. Cause of death: Drowning. Time of death: Sometime between Friday and Monday. No evidence of rape because of the water. What they do know is that Rosie was alive when the car went in the water. Her nails were ripped off -- as Mitch noticed -- because she tried to claw her way out of the car. Linden announces she's not staying to finish the case, and he doesn't put up a fight. She walks out and sees the CSU guys leaving for the high school.
Stan's work. A radio announcer declares that Adams has a small lead over Richmond. Stan clicks it off and turns around to notice a picture Rosie drew of the family when she was a kid. He sinks into a chair and looks at it sadly for a spell. He finally goes home and finds hungry kids and no sign of Mitch.
In the car to the event, Richmond preps for his endorsement announcement with Yitanes. He gets a call and gives a stiff-lipped, "No comment." Seems the news that Rosie was found in his town car has hit the media.
The Cage. Linden couldn't resist riding along with CSU. She's missed her plane again. Holder fills her in that his "is where the real Halloween party went down." She looks around at the dank basement. It's covered in graffiti. There's a mattress lying on the floor, and it's spattered with blood.
As Linden surveys the gruesome scene, Richmond rides to his sure-to-be-disastrous rally. Stan turns the knob to Rosie's room to find Mitch curled up in a fetal position in Rosie's bed. A bloody handprint is slapped against the wall of the cage. The wages of war, the wages of grief, the wages of murder.
Read up on the first episode here, discuss the two-hour premiere in our forums, then check out our guide to other event shows that tried and failed.
What are people saying about your favorite shows and stars right now? Find out with Join the conversation now!