… Not revealed in this episode. That may be the biggest twist of all from the season 1 finale of The Killing. After spending 13 episodes wondering who killed Rosie Larsen, fans will have to wait a little bit longer for an answer.

But that wasn’t the only shocking twist. The final five minutes of The Killing featured a number of moments to make you go “What?!?” Let’s look at the three big ones.
Who Does Holder Work For?

After learning that Darren Richmond is Orpheus, the detectives still needed some firm evidence to arrest him. Luckily, Holder has rudimentary math skills and a detailed knowledge of local gas stations. They tracked a few things down, but the real evidence came when Holder got a toll booth photo of Richmond in the car Rosie was found in from the night of the murder.

Or at least that’s what we thought. In the final moments, as Linden and her son finally boarded the plane, she got a phone call revealing that the cameras from the toll booth weren’t working that night. Then we saw Holder jump into a mystery person’s car and say that the doctored photo worked.

Why would Holder fabricate evidence? Did he kill Rosie? Is he working with the killer to frame Richmond? Or is someone blackmailing Holder to ruin Richmond’s campaign? The Killing certainly created a huge mystery on top of the one we already had, and thank God AMC renewed the show for a second season.

Belko Pulls a Jack Ruby

After Richmond’s arrest, Belko polishes and loads his gun while his annoying mother is in the tub, goes to the pep walk and walks right up to Richmond. The camera cut to black before we could see what happens, so we’ll need to wait until season 2 to find out if Belko fired and if Richmond is dead, but it was definitely unexpected. Belko went from a minor character into a major player, but does his assassination attempt have to do with Rosie’s murder or is he just avenging the death of the teenage girl he secretly loved?

Mitch Leaves

The Larsen family went through a lot over the first season’s 13 days, and it all was too much for the matriarch, who abandoned her husband and children, taking off. Why did she disappear now and where did she go? Will Michelle Forbes be back?

What to Expect from Season 2

There are a lot of questions for The Killing‘s second season, but luckily TVLine has an interview with the show’s executive producer to shed some light on the situation. Click here to read the full interview, but here are the highlights.

– We WILL find out who really killed Rosie in the second season.

– There will be another case that begins in the second season at some point.

– Linden and Holder are the only two characters confirmed to return, so the writers are keeping a very tight lid on what and who is going on in season 2.

Sadly, season 2 doesn’t start next week, like I want it to, but probably won’t return until sometime next year. After devoting so much time into the season, I feel a little cheated by The Killing for not giving me an answer, but I admire the show’s willingness to defy convention and not wrap up the mystery with a neat little bow. I thought The Killing was going to be like Veronica Mars, with a big season-long mystery that gets resolved in the finale, but instead, it’s much more complex.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’m torn between admiring the audacity of The Killing and being angry at the show for making me think the murder would be solved.

(Image courtesy of AMC)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.