"A Soundless Echo" Review
As mentioned, the beginning of this episode is quite effective, picking up moments after “El Diablo.” Sarah and Stephen’s varying interrogation techniques presented some nice variety to the scenes with Kris and Jared. But the actual twist - that the girl in the video was Sterling, not Rosie - actually worked against the pacing of the show. I understand the necessity to add twists and turns to The Killing’s plot, but I felt this particular one didn’t work and actually undermined a lot of the chilling scenes from “The Cage” and “El Diablo.” The explanation that Sterling has nosebleeds felt particularly forced.
One of the reasons that “A Soundless Echo” felt slow was due to the emphasis on Darren Richmond’s story-arc. Don’t get me wrong, I think Billy Campbell is a fantastic actor, but the political aspect of The Killing isn’t particularly compelling, especially when it causes the murder investigation to take the backseat.
There was a bit of a payoff, however, with the reveal that Jamie and Richmond are back together with Jamie doing some investigation into Adam’s campaign. We also got to learn a bit more about Gwen, as we saw a quick and awkward interaction with her father.
Meanwhile, the Larsens are continuing to come to grips with the loss of Rosie. The funeral arrangement scene, where they picked out a coffin was particularly odd. Granted, I’ve never been in that situation (thank God), but the guy talking about the coffins was so damn creepy. At least the priest seemed nice. But on that note, Mitch’s “why would God let this happen?” speech came off a little cheesy. We also got a bit more history about Stan’s past but it’s left intentionally hazy.
The end of “A Soundless Echo” was especially strong with the reveal that Bennet (her English teacher) wrote all these telling notes to Rosie. There was a nice juxtaposition between Sarah finding the letters and Bennet comforting Mitch. It was all very effective with a creepy undertone.
The main concern, of course, is if Bennet will be cleared in the early proceeding’s of next week’s episode. If so, The Killing will have fallen prey to a terrible pattern of storytelling. I’m sure that won’t be the case but we’ll have to wait and see.
-MP