Very good episode! After a bunch of intellectually challenged killers, it was exciting to have, once again, in front of Bill and Holden, an allegedly serial killer who they were unable to shake down and push into a corner. Did he do it? Didn't he do it? That, somehow, became irrelevant, since the important thing was the thrilling of the chase and the excitement of the investigation, of closing in on a suspect, the nail biting tension of interviewing him. That was what enabled this episode to be one of the most tense ones of the whole season. Closure became a mere accessory in this season finale, it was the whole journey to where they got that was worth the watching.
Too bad Wendy was pretty much a useless character throughout the season, contributing jack shit for the ending (or even for the investigation of the main case). The writers clearly didn't tie things together nicely in a pretty package as they did with the first season. Still, Mindhunter managed to close two excellent seasons, with the prospect of an intriguing third season following suit, hopefully bringing back the focus on interviews with murderers rather than giving in to the more common (and not as interesting) procedural type of show.
I really loved the acappela opening credits song, it brought out the raw humanity that reeks throughout the episodes, serving as an eerie reminder that this is a show about humans trying to understand other humans who murder their own kind.
Review by HaibaraBlockedParentSpoilers2019-12-25T17:02:59Z
I have some mixed feelings about this season. In general I did enjoy it and watched it within two days, but some smaller things weren't really my cup of tea.
- Wendy's relationship story seemed as pointless as Holden's story in the first season. I do want to know more about the private lives of the main characters, but somehow that story didn't work for me. I guess Wendy learned that even people who seem free and careless aren't? Not sure what to take from that story. To me it mostly just feels like they tried to give her a story because she would have been stuck in the basement with paper work otherwise.
- Holden's panic attack was so prominent - At first it was a cliffhanger at the end of season 1, then it seems to be a huge deal in the first one or two episodes of this season. It really seemed like he has to learn how to cope with panic attacks and find some balance in his work life. But... there was nothing? Bill and Wendy kept talking about it at first, but the issue basically vanished into thin air. Did the writers forget about it? I would have liked to see some struggle or connection to that once in a while.
- The Atlanta murders were awful and it hurts to know that most of them are still unsolved. I admit that a part of me feels disappointed by that ending (especially after most of this season was focused on this case), but they really stuck with the real story in all their cases, so I guess that's just the dark reality.
- Something I'm really disappointed by is that we got less of the interviews. They were the highlights for me everytime and I really missed them in the last episodes. It was like the special spark was missing. The interviews are something that make this show special for me, so I really hope they'll do more of them in the next season.