In this second of a two-part chat (check out Part I here), TV Geek Army cohorts Eric (he of self-described “revered leader” status) and Lucas High discuss the end-run to the first season of AMC’s The Killing. The appropriately titled finale, “Orpheus Descending,” airs this Sunday night at 10pm.
Eric: Okay, so let's hear your always entertaining thoughts on who the killer is!
Lucas: You want my prediction for the finale? I've got the whole thing figured out. Stone cold lock.
First of all, the killer isn't Richmond. It's Gwen.
Eric: That's a very interesting guess, and one I don't think I've heard before.
Lucas: Darren isn't a killer, or even a sexual deviant. He doesn't use the escort service for sex, but rather for companionship. We will find out that his wife's death is not exactly what he made it out to be (a simple drinking and driving accident). Instead, she somehow drowned. Possibly in a Chappaquiddick type scenario.
Eric: Wow, you're going full bore into the predictions!
Lucas: Darren is now depressed and obsessed with drowning, thus the strange conversation with Celine, the escort that Linden and Holder interviewed. Remember that she mentioned Orpheus wasn't scary, but "sad and sweet."
Eric: Wasn't the initial description thought to be tied to Drexler? And we found out that he has a taste for youngsters...
Lucas: Yeah, Drexler was initially thought to be Orpheus, but eventually it is revealed that she was referring to Darren. Remember she sent Holder to the street corner covered in Richmond campaign flyers?
Eric: Ah yes... Okay, but Richmond is a red herring in your view -- which I totally buy, by the way. How do we get to Gwen?
Lucas: Oh, I'm getting to that... So basically, Richmond uses this escort service to arrange discreet company, willing to listen to him go on and on about his dead wife and drowning, etc. He hops online to order up a girl. He sends a message to Aunt Terry, but she, for whatever reason, isn't home or isn't near the computer.
But Rosie is.
She gets the message and goes to meet Richmond. Gwen follows Darren and after his rendezvous, she flips her lid and kills Rosie. Here's how the show explains away the "You've got mail" scene from the end of last week's episode.
Eric: Plausible -- but back up and we still have Rosie depositing money at the Native American casino.
Is she working for Aunt Terry?
Lucas: My feeling is that she probably had been substituting for Aunt Terry for a while now. Whether Terry was aware of it or not, I'm not sure.
Eric: Oh, so Rosie was already going out on "dates"? Wow, momma Mitch really didn't know her then!
Lucas: Exactly, they have made a point in recent episodes to have certain characters say things along the lines of, "Maybe no one really knew who Rosie was."
Eric: Right, Aunt Terry said that this past episode. Still, I don't think Rosie would have done that based on the little we do know of her. I like your theory but would tone it down to her perhaps working for Terry and running to the casino to deposit cash from the proceeds that the naughty little business operation is yielding. And then we can tie the expensive shoes that she “borrowed” from Aunt Terry were actually part of her earnings.
Lucas: Maybe so. But, like I said, I hope I'm wrong. I want the big reveal to be something more clever than that.
Eric: I love the Gwen is the killer theory though -- and would even add that Richmond doesn't even know about her involvement, yes? A good political aide protects the candidate.
Lucas: Correct, he doesn't know about her involvement.
Eric: Well, I think that's a great note to end on unless you have final thoughts?
Lucas: One final thought. If Gwen is the killer and Richmond isn't aware of that fact, I GUARANTEE that we will get a scene in the final of Gwen being loaded into a squad car screaming something along the lines of, "I did this for us! She was going to take the whole campaign down!" And Darren just staring in shocked indignation.
Eric: Now THAT is the perfect note to end on.
I really enjoyed the roundtable, fun stuff!! I never would have considered Gwen as the killer, and yet the show has fumbled the buildup so badly that she's just as likely as anyone else. Very interesting guess indeed. But why would she stash Rosie's body in Richmond's car? Not exactly protecting the campaign very well. She also doesn't strike me as a psycho killer or even particularly jealous.
As for Rosie, we've established via photographic proof that Rosie knew Richmond (shaking hands at a campaign appearance) and we believe she volunteered with Bennett at the youth outreach thing sponsored by Richmond, so I really don't see her going through with an escort rendezvous with him or threatening to expose him if she did. Looking forward to some actual closure this weekend.
Glad you enjoyed Steve!
And you bring some great points to the mix. I suppose the body ending up in the campaign car can be broken down as whoever did the deed had to rush the clean up for some reason?
I agree too about Gwen not seeming like a killer, but I'd be surprised if the eventual killer does end up being someone that we've met who does seem killer-ish.
Just to build on this discussion, maybe the killer is Gwen's dad, the senator (somehow)?