‘The Killing’ season 4, episode 2 review: Just give Holder his Crunch Berries

We’re back to continue our trend of daily reviews on “The Killing” until the series finale airs, and with episode 2, it’s starting to feel more and more like we are closing in on … something. If nothing else, we know now that there is at least one person out there very much interested in wanting Kyle’s family dead.

This person is Kat, who arrived near the end of this episode and told him, more or less, that they got what they deserved. Chilling words, but not entirely an admission of guilt, either. She for now has to be lead suspect #1, only a step above Kyle himself and also the creepy artist who had a “special relationship” with Kyle’s sister Phoebe.

Overall, this was another strong episode, but probably just a tick behind the premiere in terms of quality. The only glaring issues that we could find were as follows within the world of the military academy:

• We’ve seen a ton of bullying in these environments, but would you really be so quick to go after a guy suspected of killing his entire family? We’re not quite sure.
• Also, the black-eye makeup on Lincoln after AJ encouraged Kyle to beat the snot out of him was a little too gratuitous.

Otherwise, the only thing we can imagine being thought of as problematic is the mere fact that this show requires you have an immense understanding of what came before. Namely, that you remember finer details of Skinner’s life and death that make Linden appear all the more screwed now that there is an actual investigation into the man’s death happening. She admitted her affair with him, but that was it.

Also, we learned this week that Holder loves Crunch Berries. Him hoarding the cereal, next to him calling AJ “Captain America,” were the two funniest moments of what was otherwise a somber 54 minutes. Grade: B.