‘The Missing’ Review: ‘Concrete’ is Fittingly Heavy

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SEASON ONE EPISODE REVIEWS:
Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8

The Missing is readying itself for the home stretch. With the exciting announcement that the show has been picked up for Season 2, which will feature a similar theme with a new cast and circumstances, Season 1 nears its conclusion. Episode 5 showed us Tony’s frantic attempts to cover up Ian’s murder, details emerging in Oliver’s case, and a former detective revealing his violent nature.

The Missing‘s latest showing starts with the clear acknowledgment that Ian is indeed dead. Tony’s repeated smashing of his head left no chance for survival. The troubled father puts the heavyset Ian in a tarp weighed down by rocks. After traveling through the sea on Ian’s boat, Tony dumps the body into the water and wipes down the crime scene. The episode’s title comes into play when Tony pushes his bloodied shirt down into wet concrete on Ian’s property, but this mistake resurfaces later in the show.

Emily had been waiting as her husband committed this act of murder. Tony eventually picks her up from the train station and attempts to hide his recent sin. While driving away, Emily confirms that the mayor and detectives on Oliver’s case looked into Ian as a suspect, but the construction boss was found to have no connection with the boy’s disappearance. Ian was placed at a different location when the kidnapping occurred. Regardless, Ian was a cruel monster who ruined the lives of innocent children, he just wasn’t the monster who took Oliver. This news troubles Tony greatly. He’s likely happy to have a human embodiment of evil gone in Ian, but he’s now at another loss for answers concerning Oliver.

After spending time showing plot points from the past, The Missing shifts to Tony and Julien’s current investigation. Rini’s help from last week proved vital as the investigative pair have finally tracked down the elusive and criminally connected Karl Sieg. An unsettling, white-haired figure with an odd sense of humor, Karl is approached by Tony and Julien at his bar. When pressed about Oliver’s case, Karl responds that he will speak for a price. Tony attempts to reach an agreeable amount, but Julien denounces the idea and escorts the father from the bar.

Once again in the past, detectives search for Ian. They find the videos of him abusing upward of 50 children and conclude that perhaps this sick habit resulted in his disappearance. Julien’s investigative eye realizes that a spot in the concrete is somewhat askew, too much for a professional worker of Ian’s quality. Julien then visits and questions Tony about his whereabouts the night Ian went missing, but Tony plays relatively calm and non-verbally urges Emily to support his phony alibi. Once the detectives leave, Tony confirms he murdered Ian and Emily appropriately freaks out and storms off.

Then another odd exchange between Suri and Ziane unfolds. Suri reveals that his deceased father drove him to report on crimes such as Oliver’s, while Ziane offers key evidence in order to get Suri off his tail. Ziane states that he won’t process the evidence for 24 hours as Suri uses it to his reporting advantage. These two are key characters in the show, but their screen time also appears to come awkwardly. If there’s one criticism of The Missing, it’s the handling of these two characters. Suri also plays a vital role later when Vincent agrees to speak with him. We don’t hear exactly what the two discuss, but Suri clearly considers this important in understanding what happened to Oliver.

We then find out that Emily has put up the money Karl desires. A figure of 15,000 euros is deemed enough for Karl to open up. When meeting with Tony, Emily, and Julien at lunch, a meeting that was absolutely against Julien’s wishes, Karl digs into his past. The white-haired figure was basically a utility man for the crime world’s underbelly. In Oliver’s case, he was called to clean up a crime scene at the house that held Oliver. A masked figure let Karl in and had him clean up the evidence. This knowledge isn’t exactly groundbreaking for The Missing‘s viewers, but it informs Tony and company that someone was murdered or harmed where Oliver was kept. Karl also reveals that he intentionally left the childish drawing produced by Oliver, doing so because he didn’t feel like erasing every memory of the boy.

This feels like a good place for the show to stop, but more heavy punches land themselves. In the present day, Julien explains to Tony that he knew all along about the bloodied shirt hidden in the concrete. Since the investigation of Ian was called off in order to prevent the public from realizing Ian’s sinister misdeeds, an action decided by the morally absent mayor, Julien had little choice. Nevertheless, he tells Tony that the troubled father has been imprisoned since the moment Oliver disappeared, so what good would it do to have him fingered for murdering a pedophile?

The episode takes us back to the past one last time. Suri betrayed Ziane with that damning evidence, something the foolish detective deserved for failing to properly process it in the first place. With Suri’s decision to send the evidence directly to Julien, Ziane has his back pushed against the wall. As Julien goes to his car with the envelope in his hands, a masked individual assaults him in a graphically violent manner. With punches to the head and repeated slams of the door against Julien’s leg, we learn two things. First, we see that this blindside attack is how Julien developed his severe limp. Second, once Mark intervenes and apprehends the figure, he’s unmasked and shown to be Ziane. The desperate victim of Suri’s blackmail displays his violent nature in its truest form. Many plot points and heavy developments occurred. With only two episodes left, a resolution to this gripping case feels close.

The Missing airs at 9:00 p.m. on Starz. You can also watch the series at Starz online.

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Tyler is the Editor-in-Chief for Hardwood and Hollywood's pop culture section. He has an unrelenting fascination with Lisbeth Salander and Omar Little. If you're looking to work on a writing project with Tyler or to be interviewed, reach him at [email protected].

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