Recap: 'Killing Fields' - 01/19/2016

One of the most difficult things to successfully convey on any real-life crime TV series are the long periods of boring, relentless slogging. Interview any homicide detective about their job and they always talk about the long periods of time when they're grinding away on the case with little to show for it. There are dozens of phone calls that don't pay off, door-to-door canvassing that is a waste of time or seemingly hot clues that are in the end nothing but vapor. The process is even more daunting on a cold case, where new clues can be few and hard to find. Solving a cold case usually involves a lot of retracing steps and re-interviewing witnesses. All in the vague hope that you uncover some small detail that was missed during the original investigation.

That's certainly the case in episode three of KILLING FIELDS, which focuses on a small fact that was overlooked the first time around. Episode three begins with the note that it's been 21 weeks since the new effort to discover the killer of Eugenie Boisfontaine began. There's a recap of the clues uncovered so far and they are still more vague and random than enlightening. A new DNA test shows that the DNA of more than one male was found on her clothing. She apparently had a new boyfriend named "Robert," which none of her friends had met. But she seems to have had a date with him the night before she died. And during a new search of the area where her body was discovered, police found a heavy metal ring which might be the murder weapon.

We skip forward a month to 16 weeks ago and the investigation centers on whether or not that metal ring could have been responsible for the damage found on Boisfontaine's skull. After a
fair amount of whacking on a pig skull, it turns out that the answer is "no." But it does seem likely the death blow was inflicted by something with a small flat surface, similar to a hammer.

It's a week later and Detective Rodie Sanchez is talking about buying a house with his new wife. As he sips a drink in the dark, he talks about the fact that he's owned a lot of houses in the area and been married a number of times. He admits he has a good woman, but that she's not happy with him coming out of retirement to try and close this case. He's lived with this unsolved murder for 18 years and he knows it has cost him in his personal life. He talks about his new partner Aubrey and he says that as important as this case is, he doesn't want Aubrey to make the same mistakes he did. He wants Aubrey to put his family first.

That theme plays out throughout the episode and its one of the compelling things about the show. Being obsessed with a cold case has real consequences and there are a lot of times when Rodie's obsession with the case threatens to overwhelm everything else in his life.

Rodie and Aubrey reach out to Bruce Bennett, the original detective on the case. Bennett mentions that he had interviewed Mike Becnal, a local man who mowed Eugenie's yard every couple of weeks. He had told Bennett that he had seen the woman the day she went missing. When he's interviewed now he doesn't remember that, but recalls another time when he saw her dressed in a man's shirt, wearing no underwear. He also remembers that he had an employee named Brent Rushing who also worked on Eugenie's yard. Becnal tells the detectives that he recalls Rushing used to mow her lawn while wearing no shirt and that she seemed to be "very interested."

The detectives interview a reluctant Rushing and it seems like another dead end. Rushing doesn't recall much and what he does say is contradictory. But there's no evidence he's done anything except act a bit creepy.

Rodie and Aubrey then get sent on a rare non-Eugenie case. Someone at a local church says there is a terrible smell in the field behind the church and it looks like someone has recently buried something in the area. There's some distracting talk about the location of the church in relationship to where Eugenie's body was found. But other than being a great tease into the next commercial, the "smell" seems unlikely to be related to Eugenie's case. And in fact, it turns out that someone had buried their deceased dog in the field, stuffed into a small bag. Weird, but no crime.

The relentless trudge goes on. Bruce Bennett's original case files arrive and the detectives realize that Bruce had interviewed a local cab driver who apparently frequently drove Eugenie around town. Despite some clever editing, it's quickly apparent that he isn't a viable suspect. He doesn't remember much, but he drops the bombshell that another man was also driving his cab at the time. A man named Robert. Robert Allan Barber. Could this be the same "Robert" that was reportedly dating Eugenie at the time of her death?

As Rodie begins his search for Robert, he enlists the help of his former police partner, Mike Sparks. Rodie says he needs the help and Aubrey is taking a couple of days off to drive his son to a tournament. Sparks isn't just Rodie's ex-partner, but also his ex-brother-in-law, because at one point they were both married to a set of sisters. As the episode ends, Rodie and Sparks close in on the mysterious Robert, who promises to be an interesting break in the case.

In the end, episode three was pretty compelling. Although it probably could have easily had ten minutes trimmed away without missing much. Much of that is due to the constraints of airing a complex story around the commercial breaks. The breaks force a certain unnatural pacing to the story and there's a certain amount of recapping that has to take place to account for people tuning in mid-show.

So far KILLING FIELDS is fulfilling its initial promise. Though there's a case to be made that it would be interesting to let the producers recut the footage when the show is sold to SVOD. There is a streaming version of the show which might feel very different than the cable TV version. A more bingeable, more flowing presentation of the investigation.

Based on the previews, next week's episode is focused on the confrontation with Robert. It's interesting to see this investigation play out in real time and I'm curious as to whether it will ultimately lead to charges in the case.

Until next week....