The Killing Episode 9 Recap

“Undertow” seemed to conclude the middle arc of the series in which Bennett Ahmed (Brandon Jay McLaren) was the prime suspect in Rosie Larsen’s murder. It was a well executed hour directed by prolific Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland (who’s directed episodes of Treme and The Wire over here) that essentially cleaned the slate of the murder investigation for the final four episodes while it complicated things for the Larsens incredibly. Let’s take a look at the various plots from the tense “Undertow.”

The Larsens For the first time since the beginning of the series the Larsen’s plot focused more on Mitch (a very Emmy worthy Michelle Forbes) than Stan (an equally worthy Brent Sexton). Mitch called Larsen to apologize, and Larsen thinking she was getting a warrant any second told Mitch that Bennett was being arrested and the catharsis came over her like a wave – but when she when to the school the next day to return some of Rosie’s textbooks and saw Bennett at work as usual, Mitch lost it. Sje lost it on Linden and later she lost it on Stanley, questioning his masculinity, drawing a correlation to between Bennett being free and alive and him not being a man. She said she shouldn’t have let him go when he had him and with that the leash that Mitch once had on Stan was gone and he had her permission to exact revenge on Bennett. So Stan and Belko take Bennett (who by now we knew had nothing to do with Rosie’s murder, but more on that later) to a secluded area and began to beat him senseless, ignoring his cries of innocence. Back at the Larsen’s house Mitch takes some clothes out of the laundry and found the same pink t-shirt from the mosque that she identified to Linden as Rosie’s, and in that second she knew that she had made a terrible mistake and tried to call Stanley, who I guess doesn’t keep his phone on when he’s beating his daughter’s suspected killer to death. Does anyone doubt that Stanley didn’t kill Bennett? I guess we’ll have to really wait to next week to know for sure, but this is pretty much going exactly how I predicted without the cheesy Lady-Macbeth twist that Mystic River had. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this will play out for the next few episodes, regardless of if he lives or dies. 

The Richmond Mayoral Campaign This plot seems to be going through the motions of a campaign but without the depth and bravado of Carcetti’s in the Wire (but it’s not really fair to compare any series to the greatest series ever forged), all of Richmond’s struggles seem like a plot placeholder until it’s the characters in his plot that become the central suspect, which I have a feeling might be the third/end suspect arc of the season (the first being Kris/Jasper, and Bennett being the second). Last night Richmond uneventfully sunk a basket in exchange for 5 million more campaign dollars (from that Billionaire guy who wants a stadium where the incumbent Mayor Adams precious waterfront project is) which he needed because he lost the support of yet another group, due to backlash from association with Bennett. At least the Ruth Yitainas plot had Lee Garlington. I just hope next week that this plot begins to tie into the murder more. 

The Murder Investigation Linden and Holder were set to arrest Bennett, like Linden promised Mitch earlier, but a warrant hold up from a judge Holder said would be in for sure stopped them in their tracks, it turns out shadily talking about a “girl” and “passports” on a wire isn’t enough to get a warrant. It wasn’t until Mrs. Ahmed came into the station and gave them Mohammed’s number did they catch a break. They were able to track him to a market and a tense and well edited chase ensued. With Mohammed in the tank we discovered that yes he’s involved in hiding a girl, but it’s Ayiesha, the missing Muslim girl we heard about two episodes ago. Her parents were planning female circumcision in anticipation of her arranged marriage and Bennett and Mohammed were hiding her. When they brought up Rosie, Mohammed said that yes she stopped by to drop off the book, but then she left, leaving it wide open…

Who killed Rosie Larsen? At this point it’s hard to think it’s not some one associated with the family or the Campaign and seeing as how she was found in a campaign car (albeit a stolen one), I’m leaning towards the latter and my prediction of Jamie, who was barely seen this episode, still works for me. I have a feeling that the files that Linden requested from Richmond are going to steer the investigation towards the Campaign and more showdowns like the one Linden and Richmond had last night. AMC’s blurb for next week says that someone unsuspecting comesforward… I wonder what that could mean? Till next time…

Who do you think killed Rosie Larsen?