To the dismay of many fans (but probably to the relief of our recapper Aaron, who’d grown frustrated with the show towards the end), the AMC network drove ‘The Killing’ out to the woods this week, dropped it to its knees, and put a bullet in its heart.

Oh, right, spoiler alert. Sorry.

This is actually the second time that AMC has pulled the plug on ‘The Killing’. The network also announced a cancelation after the end of Season 2, but the programming chiefs later changed their minds and decided to give the series one more run, hoping that promises of a brand new storyline would reignite viewer interest. Unfortunately, ratings failed to improve in Season 3. Another last-minute reprieve seems unlikely.

Sadly, this leaves the show’s narrative in a pretty bad spot. Although I’ll be the first to admit disappointment with the recent season finale’s big plot twist revelation of the killer’s identity (which I don’t feel holds up to logical scrutiny), the very final scene was incredibly powerful and shocking, and potentially a game-changer for the characters.

(Again: Spoiler Alert in case you haven’t watched the whole season yet.)

Linden point-blank executed their boss Lt. Skinner in front of Holder. There’s no coming back from something like that. That action will change the relationship between these characters forever. Further, she did so even though nobody else knew that Skinner was the serial killer. By acting so rashly, Linden set herself up in a position where it would be nearly impossible to explain what she had done. Given the trouble that she and Holder had already been in with Internal Affairs, and given that Skinner’s wife and daughter knew that she’d been having an affair with him and drove off to the lake house with him, who would possibly believe Linden’s story?

This development could provide fertile ground for a fourth season’s storyline. Would Linden go to prison? Would Holder be kicked off the police force? Could he ever forgive her for putting him in this position?

I guess we’ll never know.

On the bright side, stars Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman will surely bounce back from this. Both currently have thriving film careers. Enos was just in the summer blockbuster ‘World War Z’, and Kinnaman is the new ‘RoboCop’. They’ll do fine.

[Source: Deadline]