With 13 episodes in the season and only one murder to solve, The Killing isn't a show which will reveal much each episode. The writers know this and acknowledge the intelligence of the viewers by not constantly trying to make us think they have the killer. Instead, bits of information, relevant to the murder or not, are dispersed throughout the episode. They may or may not be pertinent in the end, but they give an overall structure and progression to the show as the murder investigation and election campaign goes on.
Linden and Holder make some progress, finding a video showing Jasper and Kris with who appears to be Rosie and brings us one step closer to knowing the answers. We see Holder get a little rough with Kris and Linden has to pull him back, so there seems to be a dark side to him. Meanwhile, Linden is staying for a only couple days (and for narrative purposes, she has to stay until the end) while Rick is frustrated by her delay.
The mayoral campaign is rocked by the press getting hold of the murder story, implicating Richmond, and he ends up cutting a deal with Yitanes. Jaime is caught with an incriminating email of the leak, so we'll see what happens from that. Also affected by the news are the Larsens who are still dealing with the tragedy. I'm not sure where the writers are going with this, but it seems like the Larsens are there to provide the emotional backbone and familial drama instead of anything plot-related.
"El Diablo," being the the third episode of the season, reinforces much of what we saw last week, while also introducing a few wrinkles. There is nothing groundbreaking, not that it should be expected this early in the game, but the episode keeps us on our toes with powerful scenes from Brent Sexton and Michelle Forbes again and the plot moving forward.
Score: 8.8/10
