AMC’s “The Killing” Season One Finale – S01E13 “Orpheus Descending” Recap / Review

The Season One Finale of “The Killing” left me in complete and utter shock…..just what I expected out of this series!

The episode, entitled “Orpheus Descending”, starts with Councilman Richmond posing the question of “What are you doing?” to Detective Linden. When confronted Linden asks Richmond where he came up with the name and he gave her a story of how he was a poet and he descended to hell to save his wife. Linden then receives a phone call from Holder, in which he tells her that Richmond is Orpheus, and Linden proceeds to walk out and go and investigate the campaign car that Rosie’s body was found in. When investigating, Linden discovers a full tank of gas and then goes and gets the gas records that the campaign issued to them on the night the body was found in the car. The records indicate the tank was half full the last time it checked in at headquarters, which means that the driver had to stop for gas at some point between leaving there and putting the car in the lake.

The team of Linden and Holder recognize that the car drove an extra hundred miles than it should have from the last check in. They contribute this to Richmond trying to keep a low profile and going in the opposite direction on the ferry from the casino, looping back around to the city. They set out to gain photos from the toll booth that he would have had to go through going in that direction. Later, it’s revealed that Richmond had multiple affairs over the years and all of the girls who have been recognized for this have the same visual characteristics as Rosie did. Next, the detectives come to the realization that the driver had to stop at a gas station after they got off of the ferry, so they head to a small gas station in that area. The gas station attendant says that he worked that night and he did see a black sedan in the later parts of the night, but he never saw the driver and all he really noticed was the sedan speeding away at the sound of a girl screaming. The detectives look around the station and ask the attendant more questions and learn that he was in the back warehouse when he heard the screams. They search the back of the station and notice that it has a direct route to Discovery Park, which was the park where Rosie’s body was found.

When searching the park the detectives find Rosie’s other shoe and then they discover the car tracks from where she was being chased. With that, Linden heads back to confront Richmond once again, and it leads nowhere.  However, this time Gwen, Darren’s advisor and love interest, overhears the conversation and she waits to talk to detective Linden outside. Upon talking to Linden, Gwen reveals that Darren needed a break from the campaign and the night of the murder he left and when he returned he was soaking wet from head to toe. When returning to the police station, the police chief tells Linden that they don’t have enough information to justify arresting Councilman Richmond, until Detective Holder walks in with camera footage from the toll booth from earlier that puts Richmond in the driver’s seat of the campaign car on the night of the murder. This gives the team all the information they need to go and arrest Councilman Richmond….ironically they arrest him as he is leaving one of his campaign rallies.With the arrest Detective Linden finally decides that it is time for her to head to Sonoma, CA and meet up with her fiancé at their new place of residence.

Adding to the episode we have Stan Larsen getting out of prison and having Terry drop him off at his house but Stan immediately gets in his truck and leaves the house. Later, on the Larsen front, Stan goes to the hospital, where Bennett Amed lays in a coma. When leaving, Stan, unknowingly to both, has a run in with Amber Amed where he gives her parenting advice when he thinks that is the reason why she starts crying in his presence. Next, as Belko is gathering his things to leave the Larsen’s, Terry runs into him and tells him that he is family and he needs to stay. Belko replies with “Family? Look around. There’s no family anymore. Everyone’s gone.” and proceeds to leave the household. Upon Stan’s return to the house, he is greeted with Mitch telling him that she is leaving saying that the boys, referencing her two sons, don’t need her.  Stan comes back with “But, I do” and she also adds that “Every piece of this place hurts me”. Next, they go to a scene of Belko cleaning a gun and the news of Richmond’s arrest and his being transferred to a new location is on the T.V. in the background.

Now getting back to the case, Detective Linden receives a phone call while on the plane stating that they are unable to approve her request for the surveillance photos from the toll booth cameras because the cameras at that toll booth have been inoperable for three months. Next we go to Detective Holder entering the passenger seat of a vehicle stating “The photo worked. It’s going down”. After that we go to Darren Richmond being transferred to a new location with a crowd and then out of nowhere you see Belko walking up to Richmond and holding a gun to his head.

All I can say is…..WHAT THE HELL!!!!!! They seriously left me on that cliffhanger. I could have sworn that this case was over last week but now I have to deal with this until the next season! Every week when they reveal something epic all the details become extremely clear to me and it is just a tribute to the excellent writing that this show has. This show has left me with more than a few questions like: Who was driving the car Holder got in to? Was Gwen lying? Where did Holder get the surveillance photos? Did Belko pull the trigger? and finally Who Killed Rosie Larsen?

I was hoping to have the answer to the last question by the end of this season but this show left me with the ultimate in cliffhangers when they didn’t reveal who killed Rosie. I truthfully thought that we would have resolution to this case by the time the season was over and not be left wondering all these questions for the time until this show returns. Now with all that being said, this show has had its ups and its downs but all in all this show has become by far my favorite show on television. I don’t know what show out there is going to top this show for me and now I am counting down the days until this show returns to wow me over and over again.