What I’m Watching: The Killing

The Killing: Season 4, Episode 4 “Dream Baby Dream” (B-)

I think that this show is the darkest show on television. Recently, I’ve considered that maybe it was “The Bridge” or “The Leftovers,” which live in miserable places, but I think this series takes the cake. Watching what goes on in military school is so immensely disturbing, as an already distraught Kyle is forced to watch a violent slapping game and then be its victim when he refuses to take part, and then to be locked in his room by his sympathetic headmistress when he tells her that he found a gun and a suicide note on his desk. Since we saw his sister, it’s hard to know what’s real, but I do think he’s very much in danger. It’s not as if Linden and Holder are going to help him much now either since their situation has imploded in a terrible way. Carl’s source put the whole thing together for him, and, while he does deserve some credit for asking Skinner’s wife the uncomfortable question about him liking young girls, he pretty much had it handed to him. The sight of all the bodies lined up by the water was a horrifying sight, but not as disconcerting as the car with Skinner in it slowly being raised from the water, somewhat reminiscent of the show’s own watery beginnings when Rosie was a much more innocent victim. With Linden having family problems and Holder falling back into bad drug habits, is there any way that the two of them make it through this and manage to protect Kyle and solve that case in the process? I’m not optimistic.