TV Review: The Killing 2.5, 'Ghosts of the Past'

Last week’s installment of The Killing held a lot of promise...

By Cole Zercoe /

rating: 2.5

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Last week€™s installment of The Killing held a lot of promise. It made moves toward fixing the show€™s narrative focus, added much-needed character development, and, perhaps most important of all, it put Linden and Holder in a position in which they did actual, effective police work. If this all sounds like stuff that should be inherent within an hour-long prestige drama as opposed to stuff that should be commended, to be fair, it is. But the reason I (and I€™m sure a lot of other critics) haven€™t completely abandoned the show, despite its constant failure to get a grip on the fundamental ingredients to telling a good story, is because it still feels like a work that could be really special if it just got its shit together. I€™ve already outlined the many successes it does have on more than one occasion (atmosphere, strong leads, excellent acting), but that€™s not enough for it to skate by on forever. Inevitably, the longer the show fails to improve, the slimmer the odds of it ever doing so become, and the substantial amount of second chances the show€™s been given are going to start to feel increasingly undeserved. If €œOgi Jun€ was a glimmer of hope, €œGhosts of the Past€ does quite a bit to ruin it, and at this point, it€™s starting to feel like we€™ve been running in circles for far, far too long. I feared that a twist was coming that would undercut all of the progress we made last week, and unfortunately, €œGhosts of the Past€ has a whopper of one. Almost nothing else in this episode does much to offend €“ there isn€™t as much to like as there was in last week€™s installment €“ but progress is made, plot threads are expanded (in particular Linden€™s unraveling of what is left of her personal life), and despite a fairly sharp turn in the investigation (Alexi was a friend of Rosie€™s, not her killer), everything here keeps the good stuff from last week in place. Then we get to the final moments of the episode, where Sud and co. decide they€™ve had enough of letting things play out naturally and decide to drop another out of nowhere, stupid plot twist into our lap. If Alexi is to be believed, Stan Larsen is not Rosie€™s real father, and it is here that everything you hated about The Killing returns with full force. Why would the show feel the need to inject something like this into its plot when it€™s finally got a bit of momentum and focus going? By layering plot twist upon plot twist into the narrative, The Killing is achieving the opposite of what it wants to do €“ instead of adding intrigue or depth, it is distracting from and undermining its strengths to the point of utter audience frustration. This has always been the show€™s worst tendency, but what makes it sting this much more in particular is, thus far, season two€™s shown a surprising amount of restraint in this area. To be fair, there€™s still a lot here that remains in play €“ the mob angle is fairly intact and there€™s still plenty of opportunity to expand on the character development threads (all of which are this season€™s strongest element). But this latest twist still feels like a particularly bad omen. If the Larsen reveal signals anything, it€™s that the show has been unable to shake its worst habit from season one, and in turn, everything else that needed to be done away with is suddenly very much back in the realm of possibility. Five episodes in, the show is standing at a crossroads, and more than ever, it€™s one that can take it in one of two directions. On the one hand, there€™s still time for things to even out and fix themselves. On the other, it would only take the slightest of leanings for The Killing to fall back into a territory it can€™t save itself from €“ one in which plot takes precedence over character, until ultimately, the whole thing falls apart. Again.