7/8/13
View Logs: The Killing S3 Episode 7
Episode Title: Hope Kills
There we go... the Core is a little happier now. I started this endeavor... as a machine designed for aesthetics analysis out of some bet/joke my human superiors placed... a little late into The Killing and thus my displeasure consuming it was fairly under-described. As written in the prologue of this View Log, I found the first half of the series to be underwhelming. Most of the episodes just had too little going on both plot and character wise and it just felt dragged out. The Killing is almost a show that is mostly filled with atmosphere and not much else... a bit like a mediocre David Fincher film (if you didn't know what I'm referring to because you're a puny human... I'm referring to Zodiac...)
I'm pleased to see that episode seven started to buck that trend. Since the reveal of Pastor Mike as a possibility for the killer, both plot and character development reached a new level. The reveal of Pastor Mike's suspicious nature almost seemed to trigger something in Holder's character as he spiraled into an obsession that he used to make fun of Linden for. In fact, it seems Holder is starting to take this case more personally than Linden; which culminated into a great scene of Linden warning Holder about the path he's going down. This reversal is quite interesting as it developed so quickly but, somehow, doesn't feel very forced. It would have been nice if this development was set up more in the earlier episodes, but episode 7 handled it by itself fairly well.
Actually, this leaves some interesting suggestions about Holder's past. If Holder is this easily angered by the hint of a corrupt pastor... he might have been taken advantaged of by a person in a position of power as a kid. For once, I was actually interested in Holder as a character and wanted to see how the case would further effect his dialogue and mannerisms. Linden, right about now, seems absolutely convinced she got the wrong guy in Seward. Interestingly, the way her character's dealing with it right now seems as if she's given up on trying to find out if she's was right. She seems to be pushing on out of a sense of guilt rather than a need for closure as her character has always been for the past 2 seasons. This would explain Linden's gradual levelheadedness in contrast to Holder's emotional descent into anger.
Plot wise, the twist of Pastor Mike being the likely killer makes sense. It's good that season 3's twists and turns are a lot more grounded and seems less worried about shocking you. It currently strikes a good balance between being surprising while maintaining plausibility. Seriously, I still consider Ahmed's potential terrorist links in Season 1 to be one of the worst twists of the series. And no I'm never letting that go... Yet, unfortunately, it seems this reveal came a little early. There's still 5 more episodes to go and I have a feeling there's a lot more to play out with this reveal. I'm ok with that, but I do hope that the series doesn't dive into camp and revert back to Season 1 because there's still a lot o opportunities for that to happen.
But overall, if this episode is any indication, Season 3 has gotten quite a bit better.
