'The Killing' Recap: Holder Finds Dead Body In Trunk, Linden Doubts Pied Piper's Identity

Holder (Joel Kinnaman) hit a rough patch in this week's episode of AMC's The Killing, entitled ‘Reckoning,’ after finding Bullet’s dead body stuffed in the trunk of a taxicab.

But, let’s go back a little bit. Last time we saw Bullet (Bex Taylor-Klaus) alive, she had discovered the identity of the Pied Piper and was trying to get a hold of Holder – who, still not recovered from her betrayal, refused to answer her calls. Instead, Holder works on the Seward case with Linden (Mireille Enos), and the two wait outside Adrian’s school to interrogate him. They were interrupted when Danette (Amy Seimetz) comes home to find her disgusting ex Joe Mills (Ryan Robbins) snooping around the house. He has come to collect his things (camping and fishing equipment, her money and her car) and to beat Danette a little bit. By the time Linden and Holder arrive on the scene, Joe’s long gone, but Danette leads them to his storage unit.

The homicide detectives check out the storage unit: Joe’s clearly been living there, and his cigarette butt is still smoking. Cue the chase! Linden catches up with Joe first, and the two get into an intense fight before, luckily, Holder comes to save Linden. Backup arrives, and Reddick (Gregg Henry) triumphantly finds a box of jewelry in the sweep – trophies from all the Pied Piper victims. Reddick is ready to celebrate. Not so fast – when inspecting the contents of the box, Linden finds a bullet … and then finds Bullet’s body in the trunk of Joe’s taxi. She tries to shield Holder from the sight, but Holder demands to see it for himself.

When the two get back to the station, a seriously upset Holder hides out in the car. His girlfriend comes to see him and tries to comfort him, but it just makes things worse and Holder breaks up with her. She doesn’t understand his past as an addict, and doesn’t understand his tattoo. It’s over.

Meanwhile, Danette confronts Joe at the police station. She demands to know where Kallie (Cate Sproule) is, but he claims ignorance. Needless to say, she’s not convinced, and, for good reason. “Those little girls, they came to me. It’s not wrong. It’s nature. Can’t be helped. They look at me with that ache – that sweet, sweet ache. I was gentle, and I took care of them,” Joe tells Danette.

Later, in a moment of desperation, Holder tries to kiss Linden when she tries to comfort him after he tells her that Bullet’s death is his fault. She dodges him, and he apologizes, but she tells him it’s fine. The two are there for each other, and Linden manages to calm Holder for the time being.

Linden, of course, has other things on her mind. After speaking with Adrian (Rowan Longworth), she’s almost positive of Seward (Peter Sarsgaard)’s innocence – he picked out Joe’s mug shot when she asked who killed his mother – and she plans on trying to use this new evidence to stay Seward’s execution. The only problem is that Danette casually mentions to Linden that Joe was in Alaska three years ago when Adrian’s mother was murdered.

Speaking of Seward, he’s not having a great day either. After desperately trying to get a hold of Linden (she’s not returning his calls), Seward gets in a fight with Becker (Hugh Dillon) and appears to be crumbling under the weight of his imminent death. This is not helped by Seward’s strangely religious neighbor Dale (Nicholas Lea), who manipulates him into breaking down and praying for help in the yard, only to laugh at him. He’s been playing him this whole time, just waiting to knock Seward as far down as possible.

Becker, for his part, has his own problems to deal with. He comes home to find that his partner, Henderson (Aaron Douglas), was called to his home. Why? Because Becker’s son shot a man who was visiting Becker’s wife!

Finally, Holder loses it when he finds out that Reddick had logged calls Bullet made to the station, but didn’t bother telling Holder. He makes his way over to Reddick’s home and gives him a good beating in front of Reddick’s family. As for Linden, she doesn’t seem convinced that Joe is the Pied Piper, or that the Pied Piper killed Adrian’s mother, and she sneaks out four unidentified rings from the evidence found in Joe’s storage unit. Those four rings don’t match any of the bodies they have found so far, but who do they belong to?

As The Killing wraps up its third season with the remaining two episodes, let's hope we find out! The Killing airs Sundays at 8 P.M. on AMC.

Here's a sneak at next week's new episode, 'Six Minutes.'

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong