The Killing
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50 free The Killing trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Killing turned a single murder into a slow-burning obsession. Over four seasons, detectives Linden and Holder chased leads through rain, politics and grief, and the long wait to learn who killed Rosie Larsen became one of the most argued-about stories on television. This quiz covers the whole run: the Larsen investigation and its suspects, the death-row case that followed, the military academy mystery that closed the series, and the cast, writers and directors behind it all. A few questions look back at the Scandinavian original that started everything. It is written for fans who watched every episode and for anyone who half-remembers the twists and wants to test what stuck. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Killing was adapted from Forbrydelsen, a hit television drama first made in which country?
Denmark
Denmark produced Forbrydelsen, which won a BAFTA for best international programme and was nominated three times for an International Emmy.
Q 02The actors behind Linden and Holder in The Killing reunited in 2019 for which Amazon series?
Hanna
Hanna put the former screen partners back together as CIA operative Marissa Wiegler and ex-agent Erik Heller.
Q 03Who revived The Killing for a six-episode final season after two cancellations on cable?
Netflix
Netflix ordered the last six episodes in November 2013, two months after the drama's cable home dropped it for good.
Q 04Detectives Linden and Holder of The Killing work murder cases in which rain-soaked American city?
Seattle
Seattle is the setting, and the first case opens with a bloodstained sweater found in the city's Discovery Park.
Q 05Which future Wonder Woman director won a Directors Guild award for The Killing's pilot episode?
Patty Jenkins
Patty Jenkins, who had made the film Monster in 2003, also earned an Emmy nomination for the pilot.
Q 06Critics likened The Killing, a murdered-schoolgirl mystery in the rainy Northwest, to which earlier series?
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks, David Lynch's mystery about the murder of a high-school beauty, was a comparison reviewers made from the premiere onward.
Q 07On its debut, The Killing was which cable network's second-biggest series premiere, behind its zombie hit?
AMC
AMC had only seen The Walking Dead open bigger; the first episode drew 2.7 million viewers, rising to 4.6 million with two encores.
Q 08Which punk poet landed a cameo as a doctor in The Killing after sending its showrunner a fan letter?
Patti Smith
Patti Smith was invited to watch the final season being filmed, then offered a cameo before she travelled: ten lines as neurosurgeon Dr. Ann Morrison.
Q 09Which Big Love actress earned an Emmy nomination as detective Sarah Linden in The Killing?
Mireille Enos
Mireille Enos, who had played two sisters on Big Love, was also nominated for a Golden Globe for her first lead role on television.
Q 10Why did the first-season finale of The Killing provoke a furious backlash from viewers?
The killer was not revealed
The killer was not revealed: a cliffhanger exposed the evidence against the prime suspect as fake, and the answer waited another year.
Q 11Which Swedish-American actor played Stephen Holder in The Killing before starring in 2014's RoboCop?
Joel Kinnaman
Joel Kinnaman had broken through at home in the 2010 film Easy Money, which won him a Guldbagge Award for Best Actor.
Q 12Although set in the United States, The Killing was filmed mainly in which Canadian city?
Vancouver
Vancouver hosted the production, and Riverview Hospital in nearby Coquitlam supplied some locations for the second season.
Q 13In The Killing's pilot, where is the missing Rosie Larsen found after a search of a lakeside park?
In a car trunk
In a car trunk: the vehicle is hauled out of the water at night and turns out to belong to a politician's campaign.
Q 21Which actor earned a Critics' Choice nomination as death row inmate Ray Seward in The Killing?
Peter Sarsgaard
Peter Sarsgaard said the part, a husband perhaps wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, drew some of the best acting of his life.
Q 22Which star of the 1991 film The Rocketeer played mayoral candidate Darren Richmond in The Killing?
Billy Campbell
Billy Campbell played much of the second season from a hospital bed and joked that he caught up on sleep between scenes.
Q 23Which actress earned an Emmy nomination as grieving mother Mitch Larsen in The Killing?
Michelle Forbes
Michelle Forbes also won a Saturn Award for the part, and was not brought back once the Larsen case had closed.
Q 14Rosie Larsen is last seen by her classmates at which school event in The Killing's opening episode?
A Halloween dance
A Halloween dance was her last known stop; her family had spent that weekend camping out of cell-phone range.
Q 15In The Killing, what business does Rosie Larsen's father Stan own after years as a gang enforcer?
A moving company
A moving company: Larsen Moving and Storage did well enough for his wife Mitch to stay at home with the children.
Q 16In The Killing, which member of Rosie Larsen's family finally confesses to a part in her death?
Her aunt Terry
Her aunt Terry confesses at the end of the second season; she had no idea who the victim was and acted for fear of losing her married lover.
Q 17Across its first two seasons, each episode of The Killing covers roughly how much time in the case?
About one day
About one day passes per episode, so the thirteen episodes of the first season span only the opening two weeks of the case.
Q 18Which writer of two first-season episodes of The Killing went on to create HBO's True Detective?
Nic Pizzolatto
Nic Pizzolatto co-wrote the divisive first-season finale with the showrunner, a year before he sold his own series.
Q 19Which Forbrydelsen star makes a cameo as a district attorney in The Killing's second season?
Sofie Gråbøl
Sofie Gråbøl, famous as the jumper-wearing Inspector Lund of the original, turns up briefly as a district attorney in the episode My Lucky Day.
Q 20Which three-time Oscar nominee joined The Killing's final season as academy head Margaret Rayne?
Joan Allen
Joan Allen, nominated for Nixon, The Crucible and The Contender, was billed as the season's special guest star.
Q 24Death row inmate Ray Seward in The Killing's third season faces execution by which method?
Hanging
Hanging is the method: guards weigh him to work out the counterweight, and the gallows goes up as his last days tick away.
Q 25Which former partner of Sarah Linden is unmasked as the serial killer in The Killing's third season?
James Skinner
James Skinner led the task force investigating murders he had committed himself, and the detectives at first suspected Holder's new partner.
Q 26What does Sarah Linden do to the murderer she exposes at the end of The Killing's third season?
Shoots him
Shoots him, and the final season opens with Holder helping her to cover it up while the pair take on a new case.
Q 27At the start of The Killing, Sarah Linden plans to move to which California wine-country town?
Sonoma
Sonoma was where her fiancé Rick waited, but the flight kept being put off as the Larsen case dragged on.
Q 28Stephen Holder of The Killing became addicted to which drug while working undercover in narcotics?
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine took hold of him on the job; he even stole a prized gold coin from his nephew to pay for it.
Q 29In The Killing, Sarah Linden and her son stay with family friend Regi Darnell in what kind of home?
A boat
A boat moored in a marina is home until Regi catches the boy smoking and drinking aboard, argues with his mother and sails away.
Q 30In The Killing's pilot, Rosie Larsen's bedroom and the necklace found on her body share which motif?
Butterflies
Butterflies decorate her room, and Linden spots the matching necklace as police photograph the body.