“I was the monster,” cried Kyle, kneeling over his dead sister’s blood stain after he confessed to Linden that he is indeed the killer in The Killing season 4.
The finale episode starts with Linden jogging around the woods and stop gasping for breath. She looks up and saw a lake, before her a woman is half-buried. She approaches the corpse, kneel down and someone point a gun at her head and shot her! It was a bad dream and Linden survives.
Linden and Holder visit St George after getting the search warrant, but before they can scan the area, two shots were heard from Col. Rayne’s office. There lay AJ and Lincoln who Rayne killed after the cadets resisted her plan to wait and see. Rayne told Linden she is guilty for the Stansbury murder. Linden tackle the matter like a pro after recognizing the toy soldiers in Rayne’s office cupboard; the same one’s she saw at Kyle’s room. Kyle thinks they were gifts from his father, each for his birthday he said to Linden, but he was mistaken. It was from Rayne who is his mother. After we see Rayne confessed to the affair in Truth Asunder, it’s easy to put one and one together.
After fleeing St George, Kyle called Linden for help and stayed at her home. However, after Col. Rayne’s confession, Linden understood the situation and approach Kyle at his old house. Continuation of the flashback scenes: Kyle sits on the bathroom floor, masturbating to the picture of his mother. AJ and Lincoln stand beside him, laughing proudly at their silly hazing ritual. Little do they know that Kyle have hatred in his heart; the worst kind of emotion. Kyle roared loudly and asked his cadet brothers to join him to kill his family rather than doing child’s play. Off they go to the Stansbury residence, killing Kyle’s parents at first. The murder suddenly becomes too real for AJ and Lincoln that they flee from the house, leaving Kyle alone who was in a psychotic trance. He killed Phoebe next, who hides under the table. Kyle looks satisfied for a moment, before Nadine comes out from her bedroom and asked him “Are the monsters gone?”. Kyle told her to close her eyes and promised it will not hurt. The confession scene was not easy to watch, but nonetheless was directed perfectly by Jonathan Dame.
Kyle was hand cuffed, escorted by the police from his house and putting an end to the murder case. However, Linden knows she has another unfinished business to mend. Back at the police station, she then confessed to Reddick about the murder and surrendered. Despite the bleak situation, her prayers are eerily answered when Mayor Darren Richmond (played by Billy Campbell from season 1) rolls in and informs Linden that she’s off the hook; the coroner ruled Skinner’s murder as a suicide. Surprised? Not really, since it’s wise not to let the public know their senior police officer was a child mass murderer! Holder watch the scene behinds the one-way mirror outside, where later we see Linden’s badge on the table, concluding her life as a detective has come to an end.
Fast forward five-year or so, we see Holder dropping off her daughter to a school bus. He told her he will visit at her mom’s. Holder is now a divorcee and works as a mentor in a NA group. While taking a break, he then sees Linden – looking fresh and wears a blue scarf – outside and they play catch up. Linden said her sorry and Holder asked her to stay in Seattle, but knowing Linden, she said no claiming Seattle is “city of the dead” and drives off. Before the credit rolls, we see Holder again coming out of the building and Linden stands there waiting for him. She gives him a half-smile, insinuating anything can happen between them and thus ending The Killing once and for all.
Eden is griping and a well-made episode as The Killing’s finale, minus the awkward and invisible chemistry between Holder and Linden. I know I am not alone, but we just have to agree to disagree with the writers in this one. The Killing season 4 has been one hell of a ride; I am one satisfied fan.
“Ohhhhh snap! 1-900-LINDEN, dial and you shall receive!” – Stephen Holder
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