Endearing eccentric

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Joel Kinnaman had his “aha” moment on “The Killing” while shooting an episode of the AMC crime drama early last season.

The scene called for Stephen Holder, the Seattle Police detective Kinnaman portrays, to chat up two high school girls. Holder was investigating the grisly murder of teen Rosie Larsen, and he thought these girls knew something. So he offered them the joint he was smoking.

“I’m off the clock,” he grinned, glassy-eyed. “It’s not like I’m gonna ARREST you.”

“That’s some crazy sick weed,” declared one of the girls after letting out a lung-full. “I’m SO stoned right now!”

“So are we gonna party?” Holder slyly suggested.

A moment later, they had spilled the information he was looking for, whereupon he dashed off, leaving them bewildered — and not really stoned.

The girls had bought his ruse. So had the audience. Scruffy, gangly and shrewd, Holder fools everyone.

“It was such a great way to present that character, and I was so inspired by that scene,” says Kinnaman. “You ask: Who IS this guy? Do I like him? Do I not? Those are questions I really want asked about the characters I play. It’s so much more interesting to be in a moral gray zone.”

Teamed with prickly, pushy Detective Sarah Linden (series star Mireille Enos), Holder has kept viewers guessing for two seasons (or, in narrative terms, 25 successive days) as the grim investigation ensnares much of the Seattle community, including the mayoral race of Councilman Darren Richmond (Billy Campbell), whose campaign team may be tied up in the crime.

On the season finale, which airs tonight at 9 p.m., Holder and Linden will finally crack the case. That’s not a moment too soon for restless viewers, some of whom thought they were promised the Big Reveal a year ago but got a cliffhanger instead.

“It was a little bit of mismanaged expectations, marketing-wise,” says Kinnaman, “so some people felt tricked.”

Even so, the time has come on this heavy-hearted whodunit to find out Who Killed Rosie Larsen.

But whoever the culprit turns out to be, one thing has been clear since the series premiered: Holder — an ex-narc and recovering addict — is an endearing eccentric infused by Kinnaman with grit, nuance and the lone measure of comic relief in a series that otherwise is shrouded in gloom.

Giraffing over his pint-sized partner, Holder is a blend of hip-hop-spiked elan and fidgety insolence.

Another thing is sure (this hardly rises to the level of a spoiler): Holder isn’t the killer.

Kinnaman scrunches his face dismissively at such a notion: “That would just be stupid,” he says. “And it’s not a stupid show.”

What did he think when he learned who did the deed?

“I was surprised,” he allows. “Yeah, it was cool. It was very satisfying.”

In person, Kinnaman strikes a marked contrast to Holder, a skulking presence forever hunched in his hoodie. Kinnaman is rangy and strapping in a T-shirt, slacks and running shoes, and notably spared Holder’s ghostly pallor.

“When I’m playing Holder, I feel like it affects my skin,” Kinnaman confides. “Even when I was rested and got exercise.”

Kinnaman’s co-star, Enos, summed up his presto-chango act this way in a phone call from Los Angeles: “Off-camera, he’s movie-star handsome,” she said, “and then he shows up for a scene so willing to make himself vulnerable and awkward and scrappy.”