The Killing Season 3 Overview: The Best In The Series

While it took two years to FINALLY find Rosie Larsen's killer, Linden and Holder's next case is thankfully wrapped up in one season. I also enjoyed the plot more overall. Teenage girls are disappearing. It's the work of a serial murderer the press dubs the "Pied Piper Killer".

The audience is introduced to a number of street kids. Kallie disappears after leaving a shelter. She is friends with Bullet (a lesbian teenager). Bullet is excellently portrayed by Bex Taylor-Klaus of "Scream" fame. Lyric and her boyfriend Twitch are also homeless. We see the lengths all the kids must go to in order to survive (and it ain't pretty).

Bullet believes she knows who the killer's identity. She leaves a message for Holden at the police station. Bullet is murdered before she can reveal his/her identity. How sad.

After a number of misdirections (fellow detective Carl Reddick, Kallie's mom Danette's boyfriend Joe, Pastor Mike, etc.) we finally get down to who the real killer is. It all ties back to the pictures Ray Seward's son has been drawing for years. Remember Ray is on death row for the murder of his wife. His son Adrian witnessed the whole incident. Linden doubts that Ray is guilty but can't do much to help now.

Ray tries to reconcile with his son before his execution. Unfortunately too much time is wasted and they dont get to say goodbye. Adrian continues to live with his foster mother. Adrian goes missing on his way home from school. Linden and Holden frantically search for the boy. She goes to Lieutenant Skinner's house.

Sarah realizes James is the killer when she sees Kallie's ring on his daughter's finger. Unfortunately this is AFTER Sarah slept with him. That's a major bummer given how hard it is for her to relate to anyone. She holds Skinner at gun point while they drive to his lake house. He tries to convince her that what he did was valid (he's just cleaning "human garbage" off the street). Skinner says he could change for Sarah. Blah, blah, blah. We all know that's BS.

We not get an idea of exactly what happened. From a treehouse. Adrian witnessed Skinner dumping bodies in the lake. They were all wrapped in pink plastic. This is the why the boy kept drawing the scene for years to come. Sarah;s finding the bodies is the most shocking scene of the series. Very erie and effective.

Skinner eggs her Linden by first saying Adrian is in the trunk, then that he murdered the boy, and then saying he's fine. She shoots Skinner right before Holden arrives. Stephen tries to get her to stop but she finishes James off (and later drives his car into the lake to conceal it).

What are our two detectives going to do now? Will Holder rat out Linder to save himself? Will these two ever conquer their demons?

Grade: 4 3/4 Monsters (out of 5). All in all, an excellent season and my favorite of the series. I continue to be fascinated by Linden and Holder and their journeys in the dirty underbelly of Seattle. My only criticism is the various ancillary story lines. While Peter Sarsgaard (I'm a big fan) does an excellent job of portraying a doomed innocent man, too much time is spent here. It detracts from the momentum of the main event.