The second season of the AMC American crime drama television series The Killing premiered on April 1, 2012, concluded on June 17, 2012, and consisted of 13 episodes. The series was developed and produced by Veena Sud and based on the Danish series, Forbrydelsen (The Crime). Set in Seattle, Washington, this season follows the continued investigation into the murder of local teenager Rosie Larsen, with each episode covering approximately 24 hours. The season culminated in the closing of the Larsen murder, with the discovery of those involved with the murder.
Plot Sarah Linden begins the season not trusting Stephen Holder, as she believes he has produced false evidence against Darren Richmond. She again puts her move to California on hold to prove Richmond's innocence. While avoiding Holder, she uncovers the truth about Richmond's location the night of Rosie Larsen's murder. That night, Richmond attempted to drown himself due to lingering grief over his wife's death; a fisherman who pulled him out of the water confirmed his story. Meanwhile, Holder learns he was a pawn in a bigger conspiracy, and his recent promotion to homicide detective had nothing to do with his police merits. The detectives reunite to resume the murder investigation, and trust and rely only on each other. Their focus turns to the casino after Sarah discovers Rosie had worked and spent time there before her death. Sarah gains access to a locked upper floor of the casino that is under construction. There, she finds an access card belonging to someone at City Hall.
Darren Richmond recovers from an attempted assassination. He learns he is now a paraplegic and ponders his political future. Campaign manager Jamie Wright stays by Richmond's side during his recovery, while Richmond's girlfriend and assistant Gwen Eaton has dealt with personal guilt for contributing information that led to Darren's arrest, subsequent shooting, and the discovery that he has been unfaithful. She left Seattle for Washington, D.C. to work for a senator friend of her father's but returned to help Darren distance himself from the murder suspicion. Jamie also steels Darren's campaign resolve by suggesting the current mayor might be behind the false arrest. Darren returns to the campaign race.
Stan Larsen copes with raising his sons Tom and Denny alone, while his wife Mitch has taken time away from the family. Her sister Terry goes through some financial difficulty and, since she has helped tremendously with taking care of the boys since Rosie's death, Stan allows her to stay with them. Terry, in the meantime, tries to save her relationship with married Seattle businessman Michael Ames. He eventually spurns her, vowing not to leave his wife. Mitch returns home after learning Rosie had discovered Stan was not her biological father and had visited the actual one. The man told Mitch that Rosie had spoken of leaving home.
All three storylines merge when the detectives trace the access card, not to the mayor's office, but to Richmond's main office. Two people become prime suspects: Gwen, who had used the campaign car the night of the murder and had lost her access card, and Jamie, who has had dealings with Michael Ames, an apparent supporter of the current mayor. Richmond learns that Jamie has a secret about the night of the murder and questions him about it, while the detectives and Gwen realize the two are missing on election night. They track them to Darren's office, where Jamie has admitted to Darren that, on the night of the murder, Rosie had witnessed a covert meeting between him, Ames, and casino owner Nicole Jackson. The meeting was about an attempt to ruin the current mayor's campaign and seal a Richmond victory. Rosie had accidentally overheard the discussion and was discovered by Jamie, who knocked her out and eventually took her to the lake in the campaign car. He lacked the courage to drive the car into the water and had called Ames to the scene. Ames had planned to leave town with Terry at the time and, instead, Terry drove him to meet Jamie. While Jamie and Ames argued about completing the task of silencing the witness, Terry overheard Ames say he was not going to participate in a murder even if it meant he could not start his own company and leave his wife. During the argument, Terry went to the idling campaign car and shifted it into gear, causing it to go into the lake. Screams could be heard from the trunk of the car.
The detectives learn of Terry's involvement after realizing that her car was the one seen dropping Ames off at home after the fact. They question her in the Larsen house with Rosie's parents present. She breaks down and confesses that she did not know it was Rosie whom Jamie had locked in the trunk of that car.
The season ends with Terry being arrested, the Larsens moving to a new house after viewing a video of Rosie happily preparing to leave town, new-Mayor Richmond accepting the support of Ames and Jackson, and the detectives getting a call about a new case, with which Sarah decides not to help.
Crew Series developer Veena Sud also served as executive producer and showrunner of the second season, she wrote two episodes, the season premiere and co-writing the season finale. The rest of the writing staff consisted of co-executive producers Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin, who co-wrote two episodes together; co-executive producer Aaron Zelman, who wrote two episodes; producer Jeremy Doner, who wrote two episodes; and story editor Wendy Riss, who wrote two episodes. The rest of the episodes were written by freelance writers: Eliza Clark, who wrote two episodes, and Nathaniel Halpern, who wrote a single episode. Kristen Campo served as producer, while Mikkel Bondesen, along with producers from the original Danish series, Søren Sveistrup, Piv Bernth, and Ingolf Gabold were executive producers.
Phil Abraham, Ed Bianchi, and Nicole Kassell, each directed two episodes for season. The rest of the episodes were directed by Agnieszka Holland, Dan Attias, Brad Anderson, Kevin Bray, Keith Gordon, series developer Veena Sud, and "Pilot" director Patty Jenkins, who directed the final episode of the season.
Cast
Main Mireille Enos as Sarah Linden, the lead homicide detective Billy Campbell as Darren Richmond, politician running for mayor of Seattle Joel Kinnaman as Stephen Holder, Sarah's homicide detective partner Michelle Forbes as Mitch Larsen, Rosie's mother Brent Sexton as Stanley Larsen, Rosie's father Kristin Lehman as Gwen Eaton, Darren's lover and his campaign adviser Eric Ladin as Jamie Wright, Darren's campaign manager Jamie Anne Allman as Terry Marek, Mitch's younger sister and Rosie's aunt Liam James as Jack Linden, Sarah's son
Recurring
Production The series was renewed for a second season on June 13, 2011, after the twelfth episode aired. Production began on the 13-episode second season in November 2011. Series developer Veena Sud confirmed the Rosie Larsen murder investigation would be solved, and a second case would be introduced. Mark Moses joined the recurring cast as Lt. Carlson, the detectives' new boss overseeing the Larsen investigation. Originally reported as a potential recurring character, Marin Ireland appeared as Holder's sister in an episode of the season.
Mireille Enos (Sarah Linden) spoke about the differences between the series' seasons: "It's been a continuation — we picked up right where we left off. Last year was exciting because it was new, but there was also the anxiety of like, 'Well, did it work?' This year we know that the formula works and there is kind of a calm about that. There haven't been any surprises about working together and letting the story unfold, and I think the writers have done a really incredible job this year."
Joel Kinnaman (Stephen Holder) spoke about the limits he has had with his character portrayal: "Until the eighth episode of the first season, there was an architecture in the storytelling where they didn't want the audience to know if Holder was a good guy or a bad guy. That was very limiting [both in terms of] what they put in the edit and the direction I was given. It wasn't until after the eighth episode that I felt I could be the character 100 percent, that I was allowed to react freely to situations. After they revealed that he wasn't a bad guy, it gave him some more space. It doesn't feel like I've been shooting more material, but it's been a little bit more about Holder's journey in the second season."
Brent Sexton (Stan Larsen) spoke about portraying his character from the first to second seasons: "I don't know if there's anything [different] in terms of the performance, but the conflict is different, and obviously Stan is going to be different. Last year Stan was a bit frozen in inaction. This year, he's trying to take action and get resolution on his past, his present, and his future, but to gain resolution on one of those creates conflict on another."
Billy Campbell (Darren Richmond) spoke about having to play his character from a hospital bed or a wheelchair this season: "It's actually kind of liberating in a strange way, acting-wise. There's not as much blocking to remember, you really can't futz around too much, and it sort of distills everything in a way. And practically speaking, it was actually a little slice of heaven because I came to work and got to lie in bed for eight hours! There were plenty of days when it came to be lunchtime and I would say, 'OK guys, see you later, wake me up when it's time for the scene after lunch!' I was hooked up to a lot of wires and it was a five minute process to get unhooked, so I did a lot of sleeping."
Eric Ladin (Jamie Wright) spoke about portraying a political operative: "I read some books and tried to track down and speak to some political advisers and strategists. There's one book in particular called How to Rig an Election by Allen Raymond — it's a good example of somebody who learned at a young age what it's like behind the scenes of a political campaign. I took specific stories out of that book and spoke with the author briefly over the phone, and I tried to translate them into Jamie's life and shared a lot of them with Veena [Sud] and the entire writers' room." When it was finally revealed to Ladin that his character was involved in Rosie's death, he reflected about the entire character portrayal: "I give a lot of credit to the writers. They did a great job of putting things in and adding to the story line and the back story to facilitate me with what I needed. I went back and reviewed things. I think if I'd known at the very beginning, I would have done some things different. That's probably what they were nervous about. They didn't tell me or Jamie Anne Allman for that reason. They didn't want it to influence our performances."