Once again, Peter Sarsgaard stole the show tonight. The man’s ability to play Ray Seward is uncanny — he shows regret, remorse and pain, but also teems with empathy and compassion. He lets his friend Alton hang himself, and even walks him through it. It’s abundantly clear that Seward wants to die and get it over with, although he does find time to pay a visit to his father, who’s also doing time at the same facility. Their conversation is awkward and short, and there are references to Seward’s hard upbringing.
All this time, Seward has given the impression that he’s right where he wants to be. However, he proves us wrong in a scene towards the end of the episode, in which Linden also appears. She asks Seward about Joe Mills (who’s on the run as of this episode), and consequently tells him she knows he didn’t kill his wife. Seward loses it, as any man would — and then he finally reveals his true feelings about his current situation. Obviously, the guy doesn’t really want to die. I mean, come on, he has a kid, he’s young, and perhaps most importantly, he’s innocent. Does he know the killer’s identity? Who is he trying to protect?
The episode ends with Holder and Linden realizing that Pastor Mike might somehow be involved with the murders. But really, who’s going to believe that?
All in all, this was an outstanding episode. Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos brought their A-Game as Holder and Linden, respectively, while members of the supporting cast all turned in wondrous performances. Lyric’s “main character” status continues to baffle me, but luckily she only had two scenes, whereas Twitch only made a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance. The dialogue flowed quite naturally too, especially in the scene where Linden and Skinner discuss whether the similarities between Trisha Seward’s murder and the missing girls case are mere coincidences.
Everything just worked so well in this week’s episode and I simply cannot wait to see what we get next week.
What did you think of last night’s episode of The Killing? Let me know in the comments below.