The Killing Season 4 Poster Reminds Us That The Past Can't Be Washed Away

Following up on a first look image at Joan Allen's character in the fourth and final season of The Killing, Netflix has released the key art for the upcoming drama. It gives us a look at the familiar sight of Mireille Enos' ponytail as she looks out at a stormy skyline. Murder and bad weather await, and "the past can't be washed away."

The Killing was cut loose at AMC and Netflix has since picked up the drama to air one final season, which will pick up immediately following the events of the Season 3 finale. Season 4 will have detectives Linden (MIreille Enows) and Holder (Joel Kinnaman) struggling to manage the fallout from their choices and actions at the end of Season 3 as they're assigned a new case. A seemingly perfect family is murdered, with the son -- Tyler Ross's Kyle Stansbury -- surviving the ordeal, having been shot in the head. Joan Allen will guest star in the season as Colonel Margaret Rayne, the headmaster at the all-boys military school that Kyle attends. As we mentioned, we recently got a look at Allen in uniform, keeping a bunch of boys in line.

As for what's ahead for Linden and Holder, the tagline on the poster, added to the description of the season, offers more than a few hints that things that took place in Season 3 will play their part in the events ahead. Building onto that, TVLine spoke with The Killing's creator Veena Sud about how the events of the end of Season 3 will impact the new season. That includes -- Season 3 spoiler alert! -- Linden shooting Skinner. The fallout from that ordeal will apparently play a part in what's coming up. "This final season is this bullet train towards the end of the story of Sarah Linden," Sud revealed. "Not only is she dealing with the massive fallout from her own actions, but she’s dealing with a case that is going to bring up the guilt that she harbors because of what she did. There’s no escape for her."

The past can't be washed away!

Sud reveals that the personal stakes will be higher in Season 4. "This is really the endgame for our two detectives," she notes. They'll be chasing down another killer while also dealing with their own personal choices. And they're "closer than they've ever been" because they're tied together in their secret. But that may not be a good thing for the direction of Linden and Holder's relationship, as Sud says, "They’re partners on this very intense investigation, but the trust between these two will start to chafe and there will be cracks in their friendship and their partnership because of this secret."

Sud wouldn't give much away about the prospect of a romance between Linden and Holder, but it sounds like that possibility will linger. Whether or not it amounts to something remains to be seen, but fans will know one way or the other when the final season arrives on Netflix.

The Killing Season 4 premieres August 1 on Netflix.