Review: Dexter – Hello, Dexter Morgan

(S04E11) "Blood tech, husband, father, serial killer and now, Kyle Butler extortionist? Which one are you?"
"All of them." - Harry to Dexter

It is always fun to watch Dexter struggle over his various roles and purposes in his life. He's become a juggler learning how to add just one more ball to his act even as he's trying to keep them all up in the air.

This season, he's had more than ever before in a single season. He's a heavily armed Rich Little and adding extortionist to his list was a real smart move until, of course, Arthur gets the better of him.

Now that Dexter knows Arthur is hunting him, Dexter pulls the blackmail card out of his deck demanding $50,000 from him or he'll spill his dirty little secret to everyone he knows, including the police. This leads to another innocent death and Dexter doesn't really seem to dwell on it as much as the kill he made in the "Slack Tide" episode when he kills the wrong suspect. Either the script didn't want to get bogged down in more lamenting self-discovery or Dexter has been seeing such deaths as collateral damage. Could this mean that sweet, lovable Dexter is learning how to become a cold-blooded killer?

Of course, the details we are most interested in is how police are going to get Christina to crack and she holds up pretty well on her own. It gives Debra a unique opportunity to bring a plot line back into play that seems to have gone away for awhile: her investigation into her father's CI affairs. Much like the show's title character, she too has learned to deal and move on with the problems in her life and even though it doesn't help get her what she's after, it does give Christina something to pass through her pretty little head before that final bullet.

Now that Dexter wants Arthur all to himself for his kill table, he needs a fall guy and finds one in a prostitute murdering truck driver (Jeremy Clarkson would call that phrase redundant). The setup seems a little too easy, something even Debra noticed just as her brother was there to steer off the right track again. This might be a ways away, but I've got a feeling Debra is going to learn some even more sordid truths about her brother very, very soon.

Meanwhile Christina finally gets a hold of her father who wants nothing to do with her, which he says in no uncertain terms. She spirals and is ready to confess the whole thing but holds back on revealing the identity of her father, the Trinity Killer, when Debra tells her they have the truck driver on their suspect radar. She just had her soul crushed into a ragged little car cube by her evil prick of a father and instead of turning him in for the evil mass of flesh that he is, she confessed to shooting Debra and killing Lundy and then offs herself right in front of Debra's bloodstained eyes. It had me scratching my head.

But all of this confusion pays off in the end when Arthur is walking through the briefing room and marveling at the photos of his kills like a high school quarterback eying his trophy case was downright creepy and disturbing. Then he finally faces down Kyle and learns his true identity with in that slow, gloating drawl, "Hello, Dexter Morgan."

Next week's season finale episode should, hell, must start at the end of this exact moment.

Other observations:
- I know I've ragged on the Batista/Laguerta relationship a lot, so here goes more of that. They were bound to get caught again by the nosy Captain, so this time, they get married as a political ploy. When Laguerta asks why the Captain is gunning for him, he says it's "for arrogance." Is it just me or is it starting to feel like the only reason these two were put together in the plot was to give the nearly absent Captain something to do on screen?

- Rita finally confesses to Dexter that she kissed the neighbor during Thanksgiving dinner. Dexter seems reserved and almost uncaring about the moment at first, but then confronts and punches the neighbor. A lot of critics and reviewers ragged on Rita for being another distraction, but I've always enjoyed Julie Benz's performance and the plot she provides Dexter since he's always struggling with emotions that he claims he doesn't have.

- Once again, Jennifer Carpenter shined as the still-grieving Debra who hasn't completely gotten over Lundy's murder. The scene where she has to almost throw herself at the dry-erase board to erase Lundy's name from the list of unsolved murders was toned down a bit compared to the breakdown she had just after his murder, but just as heartfelt and genuine.

Season 4 Finale “The Getaway” Episode Recap

Big spoilers within. If you have’nt seen the Season 4 finale yet, you do NOT want to read this post, come back once you have!

Whoa.

Dexter & Arthur declare peaceWho saw *that* coming? Not me! A fantastic episode to wrap up the season. Rather than jump to the end let’s get back to the beginning of the episode. As you know last week’s episode “Hello, Dexter Morgan” ended with Arthur right in Dexter’s face on his own turf – the Homicide division of Miami Metro. Dex manages to nudge Arthur towards his office where an agreement is reached, Arthur does’nt want to kill him, does’nt want anything to do with him, just wants Dexter out of his life. Dexter agrees, only to buy him some time and get Arthur out of the office.

Thinking he’s intimidated Dexter, Arthur heads out the office with a smug look on his face. However Dexter realises that this may be the only opportunity to catch and finally kill him, so follows after him. He runs into Quinn in the carpark who has beef with Dexter about a report, Dexter – in no mood for delays winds up shoving Quinn to the ground. The chase begins.

While speeding through the streets, old faithful Harry appears – “What’s your plan Dexter?”. Dexter’s only plan is to follow Arthur until an opportunity arises. Adding to the stress, Rita calls about wanting a honeymoon - unfortunately he should have been concentrating on the road more and swipes a side mirror of another car. Ignoring this he follows his target into a parking garage and watches as he walks towards a bank. A perfect spot to nab Arthur on his return.

Dexter -about to lose it in front of the copsUpon his return Dexter cleanly grabs Arthur and knocks him out with his needle juice. Seems that Arthur was at the bank to close his account and take all the money, which can only mean that he’s planning a getaway. About to wrap things up nicely Dexter notices the guy who’s mirror he knocked off along with two cops, just as he was thinking his luck was finally changing. The conversation with the guy and the cops heats up when the he tries to take a photo of Dexter, who loses his cool and goes for the jugular and is then promptly arrested.

Back at Miami Metro, Deb is ordered to take the day off by Batista as she only just witnessed Christine commit suicide. Rather than chilling out Deb favours using this time to chase up one of Harry’s CI’s. The CI leads her to a scarily familiar place, the home of Brian Moser where Deb was on the cutting table 3 years before.

After Rita bails Dexter out of jail, she drives him to his car. Dexter hopes that Arthur is still unconcious inside, but unfortunately not. Arthur escaped and headed straight for his house to ransack the place for more money, which Dexter had hidden near the van above a light in the garage. Dexter grabs the cash and heads off, now without a clue how to track down Arthur again. Later Dexter talks to Rita about the honeymoon, Dex thinks it’s a very good excuse to get the family out of harms way. Astor and Cody go with their grandparents to Disney World while Rita and baby Harrison leave for the Keys ahead of Dexter who wants to stay behind for the night to take care of Arthur.

To clarify the Moser situation Deb goes to talk to Harry’s old cop buddy who hesitantly opens up and confirms that Dexter is indeed the son of Laura and Brian’s brother. Deb naturally flips out over this information. Meanwhile at Miami Metro things are heating up as they begin to work out that Stan Beaudry is not the killer they’re after. Deb is called in to interview Scott Smith, the 10 year old who was kidnapped by Arthur, Deb opens up to him about being kidnapped and helps Scott to remember the sign on the car he was taken away in. It’s the Four Walls sticker. This leads them to a build where they dig up a young boy, this along with other information leads them to one… Arthur Mitchell.

Debra & Batista open up the Garage to find Dexter already there.As he has no idea how to track down Arthur, Dexter heads to the Mitchell household to find that Arthur was there and desperate for cash. Suddenly Dexter is surprised by noise outside, the house is covered in SWAT. Dexter manages to quickly run and hide in Arthur’s coffin. Arising out of the coffin moments later just as the garage door opens to Deb and Angel and he explains that he rushed to the scene so quickly he forgot his flak jacket.

Once the rush is over, Harry intercedes to lecture Dexter, saying that the harm Arthur did to his family is bound to happen to Dexter’s, “You’ll always need someone on your table”. Deb interrupts this to tell Dexter about Laura Moser, Dexter plays dumb and pretends he never heard of her. Following on Deb tells him that two boys were left behind after Laura died, Dexter was one and the other was Brian Moser – The Ice Truck Killer . Dexter does actually panic a little but turns this into faux confusion and guilt that he was responsible for Deb becoming Brian’s target. In a teary moment Deb dismisses Dexter’s guilt stating that he is the only constant good thing in her life. Dexter takes this well and sees it as a way of differentiating himself from Arthur as no-one saw good in Arthur, but at least Deb and Rita do in him. Right after this conversation Dexter clocks the broken windshield that Jonah smashed with a baseball bat, Dexter looks through the envelope he got off Arthur earlier, he sees a receipt for the GT 500 to fix the windshield…. as well as a respray.

Back at Metro, the Feds have come in to take over the Arthur Mitchell case, much to the bemusement of the team. The least impressed was Debra who took the opportunity to blame the FBI for not listening to Lundy in the first place, which eventually led to his death. Matthews attempts to defuse the situation but even Quinn steps in to reiterate Deb’s point.

Arthur-CruisingEnjoying his cruise down the highway that afternoon Arthur seems to be very pleased, but later that evening he needs to pull over as the Mustang is blowing smoke and clunking, he pops the hood “Where’s my fucking oil cap?”…. Dexter appears through the smoke, pushes him to the ground “Hello, Arthur Mitchell” (cute) and wrestles him to the ground. It appears that Dexter beat him to the car shop, took off the oil cap and presumably hid in the trunk. Finally Arthur is on Dexter’s table, surrounded by hundreds of photos of his victims. A deep conversation begins, they talk about family, their inner monsters, heaven and acceptance before the merciful Dexter switches on Arthur’s trainset and plays that incredibly creepy “Oh Vera” song, then takes the infamous hammer, claw side down and kills Arthur Mitchell.

On the Slice of Life, Dexter disposes of Arthurs remains and ponders that his Dark Passenger needs to take a back seat to what he really wants now, to focus on Rita and his family. The family which used to be secondary and part of Dexter’s mask has grown into something very human within him. Back at home he glances over the family photos on the wall. His phone beeps, receives a voicemail from Rita, calls her back only to hear that her phone is right next to him. Outside of the room he hears a baby cry, rushes towards the voice… flips on the bathroom switch to see baby Harrison on the floor surrounded by blood, peering around the corner Rita comes into view, lying in the bathtub full of
My two stabs:

Holy shit eh? We all knew a major character was going to kick it this season, but Rita would have been about last on my list! I admit in retrospect it is one of those things I *should* have seen coming. It does make perfect sense, John Lithgow and the Trinity killer could not be just another target for Dexter, it had to be significant. Then with Harrison I do feel bad though, regulars of my little blog would remember a post in which I complained about Rita being so annoying, with an accompanying poll:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I never knew the esteemed writers of Dexter read my blog! ;-) On a serious note I do feel bad about that poll now, but at least 148 (47%) of you agreed that Trinity should take her out too! Thanks for sharing the guilt guys. I will miss Rita though, she was always good Yang to Dexter’s Yin. As well as the character I’ll also miss the gorgeous Julie Benz. I wonder if she will return in Season 5 as a Harry-esque ghost? By the way there has been much net-natter about the whole scene being a dream in which Dexter will awake from in S5, showrunner Clyde Phillips has confirmed that this is not the case.

What do you think is in store for season 5? Big things are going to change that’s for sure, but as the entire cast & crew are off on hiatus even they don’t know where the next season will go. Discuss the episode in the forum, leave a comment and you may want to follow me on Twitter. BTW regarding twitter, please don’t just follow me, talk to me as I’m always up to chat about Dexter!

RIP

Rita Morgan

13th December 2009

Dexter&Rita-Not-like-Paul

“You were the wind beneath a serial killer’s wings.”

View my blog to see more reviews of Showtime's Dexter, such as The Getaway Episode Recap

Dexter Season 1 Review

Visit Dexter Blogspot to see more
Dexter is another great show on Showtime, the cable network.

I started watching the first season recently, after discovering that the first episode of the second season had been leaked. I researched it and thought that the synopsis that I had read were interesting enough to warrant a watch.

The show is like most shows on Showtime, it contains nudity, adult language and situations.

The premise of the show is quite morbid though; a serial killer working as a forensic tech and killing by night? It’s only when you watch the show that you realize part of the irony that the producers have tried to inject into every episode. At the end of it all, Dexter is just trying to be at peace. The only way he can think of doing this is by killing criminals. He obeys a code of conduct, instilled into him by his foster father Harry.

Some parts are comical but most deal with how a sociopath can adapt to life in society.

I really enjoyed the first season and it ends with a lot of surprises. These events trickle into the second season when Dexter is confronted with new unforeseen problems that he has never faced before. I recommend this show.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

* * * * *

Dexter Morgan is a special boy.

At age three, he was taken in by his foster parent Harry Morgan and raised with his natural daughter Debra.

Fast forward thirty years later, and Dexter is a forensic tech and blood splatter specialist in Florida, in the Miami Metro Police area. He works with blood. His sister is trying to get into homicide and keeps bugging him for his special insights that he has on killers.

His girlfriend is psychologically damaged; she was raped and beaten by her husband and now has intimacy issues, especially when it comes to sex.

What they don’t know is that Dexter is a serial killer. He kills perpetrators of violent crimes that in his eyes have escaped justice. Since he was a small boy, his father noticed that he was different. He instilled a code into his foster son, making sure that he was able to blend in to society, even though he was a sociopath. The only person aware that there is something wrong with Dexter is Detective Sergeant Doakes, who is always very suspicious of Dexter.

It has worked well and as his side job, he has gotten rid of some undesirables.

Things get complicated when Dexter gets involved in the investigation into the Ice Truck Murderer, a serial killer who drains the blood out of his victims and dismembers them.

The killer is playing with him, leaving him special clues and seeing his work. At the same time, Dexter is tantalized by his new playmate and his professionalism and genius in his eyes. Dexter actually finds out that the killer visited his home. Since then, the killer has been using pictures and events from Dexter’s past to stage his murders.

The investigation to find the killer is brought to a halt when Neil Perry confesses. Dexter knows that he is a fake, since Perry doesn’t recognize him and the Ice truck killer has been sending special messages to Dexter since the beginning.

The killer has taken it upon himself to make Dexter experience his past, even though Dexter doesn’t want to. Dexter learns that his biological father died. He was actually killed by the killer, but Dexter doesn’t learn this until the very end, when the killer gets sloppy and starts to clean up loose ends.

The killer has a plan and he is sticking to it. The killer is actually Rudy Cooper, an expert in prosthetics who is dating Dexter’s sister. Rudy plans a special celebration for Dexter by killing his foster sister Debra.

Dexter discovers this in the 11th episode of the season. He connects the dots. The question is, how will he be able to tell the cops about this without arousing suspicion? We also learn that Dexter was discovered in a pile of chains awed bodies when he was three, in two inches of blood. The killer recreated this scene in one of the last murder scenes, where he emptied 60 liters of blood onto the floor. The scene is gruesome enough to send Dexter into a haze of total recall about what happened to his mother.

Angel is attacked by someone after he starts making enquiries about a prostitute with the same nail job as one of the ice killer’s victims. He survives, but the killer has time to clean up lose ends. He has already disposed of the body of the prostitute by the time they realize that Perry isn’t the killer.

At the same time, Lt Maria LaGuerta gets herself into hot water by working around her captain. She should have followed the chain of command, but she didn’t realize that the old’ boys club of the captain would prevail. At the end of the 11th episode, she gets relieved of her duties and becomes a detective again in the squad.

Rita’s husband also makes a comeback late in the series and Dexter is forced to deal with him by using the law against him. He goes back to jail. Dexter, thanks to a murdering psychologist whom he killed, was able to overcome his intimacy issues and have sex with Rita, who herself has overcome hers.

The times that Dexter fails to follow Harry’s Code, he gets into real trouble. Once, when he killed Amber Castillo at the same time as her husband for killing Cuban refugees and another time when he tries to get Jeremy, a young killer who escaped him before.

Dexter feels a kinship with the ice killer, but the killer is just manipulating him. He only sees this at the end of the 11th episode, when he realized that the killer is actually his sister’s boyfriend.

Dexter’s mother was cut up with a chainsaw. Discovering this changed Harry. In the last episode, Dexter remembers that he has a brother named Brian, who is the killer. Their mom had her nails painted in the way the killer liked.

Angel discovers that the killer’s name is Brian Moser, thanks to a hit off a mental institution. In the endgame, Dexter is able to save his sister and rid the world of his brother, a true monster.

However, Detective Sergeant Doakes, who was already suspicious of Dexter before this, is now really suspicious and plans to keep a more serious eye on Dexter.

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Review: Dexter - Hungry Man

(S04E09) "Everything is exactly the way it should be. Perfect." - Rita Morgan

The season is almost over and that means things are bound to ramp up as Dexter moves in closer to kill the Trinity Killer. But this week, we get treated to a special Thanksgiving episode. Think of it as a sordid cross between the "Thanksgiving Day" episode from Father Knows Best mixed with the director's cut of any episode of Twin Peaks.

After explaining his identity, background and own "Dark Passenger," this week's episode dove head first into his family who aren't as Norman Rockwell as Arthur Mitchell might want Dexter and the rest of the world to believe. It turns out they are probably the most interesting aspect of Mitchell's twisted life and could turn out to be a huge asset to bringing the man down, now that he no longer has them in his upper hand.

Once again, Dexter finds himself torn between his need to dismember and destroy and the needs of his family. Since he's just gotten out of the doghouse with Rita, he has learned to make compromises without compromising what he needs. So for Thanksgiving Day, he fakes a quickie overtime job to spend more time with his latest target and his family after catching the eldest child (or so we thought) smashing his super cool Mustang, one of the hardest scenes to watch because (1) he opens up to Dexter and tells him about the unrelenting abuse he suffers at his father's hands and (2) that car is a classic. Seriously, a 1968 Mustang convertible is my dream car. Oh well, all the more reason to hate Arthur Mitchell more.

Dexter worms his way into the Mitchell house for Thanksgiving dinner and soon learns just how twisted the rest of the clan truly is: the wife is constantly afraid but unwilling to face the evil, the daughter is a shut-in nympho whom Arthur keeps locked in a room that's way too young for her, and the son is slowly growing tired of explaining his bruises and broken bones to his teachers and coaches. We even get to see Arthur inflict a rather painful broken finger on his poor son in a very visceral and powerful scene. This sets up an interesting scenario for Dexter: should he help himself and go back to his family or stay with the Mitchells and help someone else? His character has really come a long way from the first few seasons and shows he's sticking to the Code, even if it failed him in the past.

Meanwhile, back to the family nest. The lonely neighbor is horning in on Dexter's home life, from spending time with his kids to spending more than a little time with his wife. This week he makes his big move and plants a wet one that Rita reciprocates. It hasn't caught Dexter's attention yet, and how could it? The man is more emotionally frozen than a cryogenic Dick Cheney. But Masuka, Debra's "wingman," spotted them smooching and will definitely tell Dexter about it since the two are such close lab buddies. It will be interesting to watch Dexter's reaction and serve as a good test to whether or not he sees his family as someone special to him or just another mask.

Then the whole thing takes a big dive when Arthur Mitchell knocks on Christina's door after spotting her byline in the local fish wrap and she utters those two shocking words: "Hi Dad." What the hell just happened? Linking her to Lundy and Debra's shooting would have been enough (a big ol' "good call" goes out to the commenter who called it) as a desperate reporter who needs a bleeding lede for her paper, but this is just ridiculous. All this time, Quinn's reporter chick has been working both sides of the street for the villain? That really felt like a big letdown after the initial shock wore off. Sure it made for a nice twist, but now that it's been rolling around in my mind, it's formed into bad tilapia for the brain and it's not sitting well with me. Something tells me the show just dug a big hole for itself and no amount of bodies can fill it.

Other quick observations:

- The Batista-Laguerta relationship is now stronger than ever and so is my wishing it would just end. At this point, not even a solid link to Dexter's life or the Trinity Killer case can save it. If the writers just wrote it out of the script and never brought it up again, I wouldn't miss it.

- Now that Dexter has shown Arthur his dark side, just how is he going to get at him and how will he protect himself from Arthur, a seasoned killer who may be unstable but has been doing this a lot longer than our hero? Say what you will about Dexter not being as good as time goes by, but it can still bring home a good mystery.

- I've always enjoyed C.S. Lee's portrayal of Masuka as the brash and bawdy lab guy who thrives on keeping his twisted and tawdry reputation at full crazy, but he really did a nice job of stretching into more dramatic territory after he catches Rita and the neighbor making with the face sucking and has to spend time playing defense for Debra at Thanksgiving. There is more to a man than just his truck.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2009/11/23/review-dexter-hungry-man-recap/