[BigRock]

I haven't watched the new episodes yet, but I saw this on another board. Overly dramatic critic, or does this about sum it up?

THE KILLING'S GRAND CONSPIRACY EXPLAINED

Mayor's Aide: Thank you, Gil Sloan, police lieutenant and close friend of Detective Holder, for giving me all the information you're privy to from the Rosie Larsen investigation. We've got mayoral candidate Darren Richmond right where we want him.

Gil: We sure do.

Mayor's Aide: We know that Rosie, the murdered underage escort, was at the island Indian casino the night she died. We know that Richmond hired prostitutes from the service she worked for and that he has no alibi for the night in question. And even though they can’t prove it, we know the police suspect that Richmond was meeting this underage girl and paying her for sex.

Gil: So should I leak this to the press? Or did you want to? I mean, an underage girl! And a dead one at that! Richmond's done for! There's no way he's winning this election.

Mayor's Aide: Hang on, Gil. You’re not seeing the whole picture.

Gil: What do you mean?

Mayor's Aide: We know where the girl's body was found. If her killer drove there from the casino, there's only one route he could have used to leave the casino without taking the ferry. What if we could produce evidence showing Richmond driving on that very route the night she was killed?

Gil: How would we do that? Wait, WHY would we do that?

Mayor’s Aide: To ruin him, of course!

Gil: So is the "****ing underage girls" thing not enough, or...?

Mayor's Aide: Come on, Gil, that’s small potatoes. If we really want Richmond out of the way, he needs to go down for this girl’s murder.

Gil: ...I...

Mayor’s Aide: I'll take your stunned silence as agreement. As as I was getting to, we could fake a key piece of evidence. See, when you’re driving on that route away from the casino, you have to go through a toll booth. We could fake a picture of Richmond driving through that toll booth on the night the girl died!

Gil: I... guess. But we'll have to check into some things first. Like the cameras at the toll booth. I mean, it would look pretty bad if we faked this picture and then it turned out the cameras at the toll both weren't even working.

Mayor's Aide: Nah, don't bother. What are the odds of that? Besides, if anything goes wrong in our attempt to frame an innocent man, everyone from the Homicide department to the sheriff’s office to the lab will immediately help us cover it up.

Gil: Very true. Still, even though this department is filled with people who are either corrupt or incompetent, it’s possible there’s someone somewhere who actually knows what they’re doing. When this picture of Richmond surfaces, such a person might check the camera footage and realize that Richmond was never there. We need to get a hold of the camera footage and delete it. And hey, if it turns out the cameras are broken, we'll find out and avoid the embarrassment.

Mayor's Aide: Gil, you're obsessed with the cameras.

Gil: Sorry. I just think we should check them. I mean, hell, maybe Richmond really did kill her. Maybe he actually was driving through that toll booth that night. Then we wouldn't need to fake anything.

Mayor's Aide: Nah, he didn't do it. I just want to win this mayoral election so badly that I'm willing to frame an innocent man for murder.

Gil: Makes sense. So let me sum up: we want to ruin Darren Richmond. But we won’t tell the press that he’s been hiring prostitutes. And we won’t tell them that one of the prostitutes might have been the underage murder victim who’s been all over the news. Instead, our plan is to make things much more complicated and put ourselves at risk by framing him for the murder, and we'll do it in an incredibly sloppy manner that would immediately expose us if anyone bothers to check into our story.

Mayor's Aide: Exactly!

Gil: I’ve got to be honest... I had my doubts at first, but this is brilliant! I'll head home and fire up Photoshop.