Dexter 1.08
Nov. 20th, 2006 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakOr, the one in which everybody has sex.
Though it's interesting that Harry's warning to Dexter back in the Prom flashback that women would be able to tell if he has sex because he wouldn't be able to fake true intimacy during sex is seemingly refuted twice over, with Deb and Dr. Ice Truck Killer and Dexter and Rita. On the other hand, is it? Dexter clearly feels something for Rita; his fear of them having actual sex transformed from being afraid she'd see through him and his cover would be blown to being afraid she'd leave him afterwards, and when he returned to her, prepared to risk it, it was as much reaching out (other than to other serial killers) as we've seen Dexter being able to. (And then, he let his mask slip a bit last episode with her when he told her he had a dark side and about not hurting innocent people.)
Meanwhile, Deb thinks she's found love in addition to sex, makes the differentiation between having sex and making love, and even before the final reveal, the audience gets ever surer that her new boyfriend is none other than the ITK. Him measuring her legs must be one of the creepiest scenes of the show. (And no violence was involved; the creepiness just hails from what the viewers, as opposed to Deb, can guess.) I don't think Deb will die, but I can't see how she'll get out of this without realizing both her boyfriend and her brother are serial killers, and that's going to mess her up horribly.
From creepy to creepy and touching: this episode's first Harry flashback. I continue to find the whole Dexter 'n Harry backstory fascinating. Harry teaching Dexter how to garotte someone from behind by providing himself as a model is about the most disturbing image yet of that father/son relationship, and then you get teenage!Dexter beaming at Harry and being delighted with the game, expecting parental applause, and Harry exploding and telling him it wasn't a game or fun but the only way to keep him out of the electric chair. It's so twisted and touching and black humor and emotionally strong, and I love it.
(The final scene, the reveal of the ITK, while expected, was extremely shudderworthy for that reason as well: it was the counterpoint to the first Harry flashback. Because the ITK does play a game with Dexter, and is encouraging the delight that does not care who the victims are.)
(The other flashbacks were interesting, too: figures that Dexter as a boy would not yet have internalized the code and be tempted to unleash the killing urge on people he just hates, and that Harry would have to restrain him from giving in to temptation. And then we get the briefest of glimpses at what I've been wondering about ever since it got mentioned Harry originally picked Dexter up at a crime scene: a toddler, presumably Dexter, splattered with blood and crying. His biological parents having died a violent death and/or killed each other would be an obvious guess. (Does that make Dexter a psycho version of Batman? Wait, thinking about Bruce Wayne, I should rephrase that...)
La Guerta continues to be intriguing. I loved that on the one hand, Neil Perry hit a sore spot with his taunt about the bust that caused her promotion, on the other, she is one smart cop and saw the implication of what he was saying far beyond her personal issues, thus deducing how he got the crime scene photos and that he wasn't the real killer. And now on the one hand, she got the truth out of him, and on the other, her boss and the D.A. both don't want to hear it. Will she be able to let Perry go on trial (and presumably get the death penalty, since Florida is governed by Dubya's brother) despite knowing he's innocent and the real menace is still loose? Hmmm. Also loved getting some more backstory about her and Doakes as partners pre-promotion.
Lastly: was amused to realize I saw the kids being won over by their father, smooth talking Paul the (pretending to, surely?) be reformed wife abuser as betrayal of Dexter (the serial killer). And I continue to believe that Paul will be the test of Dexter being true to his and Harry's code.
Though it's interesting that Harry's warning to Dexter back in the Prom flashback that women would be able to tell if he has sex because he wouldn't be able to fake true intimacy during sex is seemingly refuted twice over, with Deb and Dr. Ice Truck Killer and Dexter and Rita. On the other hand, is it? Dexter clearly feels something for Rita; his fear of them having actual sex transformed from being afraid she'd see through him and his cover would be blown to being afraid she'd leave him afterwards, and when he returned to her, prepared to risk it, it was as much reaching out (other than to other serial killers) as we've seen Dexter being able to. (And then, he let his mask slip a bit last episode with her when he told her he had a dark side and about not hurting innocent people.)
Meanwhile, Deb thinks she's found love in addition to sex, makes the differentiation between having sex and making love, and even before the final reveal, the audience gets ever surer that her new boyfriend is none other than the ITK. Him measuring her legs must be one of the creepiest scenes of the show. (And no violence was involved; the creepiness just hails from what the viewers, as opposed to Deb, can guess.) I don't think Deb will die, but I can't see how she'll get out of this without realizing both her boyfriend and her brother are serial killers, and that's going to mess her up horribly.
From creepy to creepy and touching: this episode's first Harry flashback. I continue to find the whole Dexter 'n Harry backstory fascinating. Harry teaching Dexter how to garotte someone from behind by providing himself as a model is about the most disturbing image yet of that father/son relationship, and then you get teenage!Dexter beaming at Harry and being delighted with the game, expecting parental applause, and Harry exploding and telling him it wasn't a game or fun but the only way to keep him out of the electric chair. It's so twisted and touching and black humor and emotionally strong, and I love it.
(The final scene, the reveal of the ITK, while expected, was extremely shudderworthy for that reason as well: it was the counterpoint to the first Harry flashback. Because the ITK does play a game with Dexter, and is encouraging the delight that does not care who the victims are.)
(The other flashbacks were interesting, too: figures that Dexter as a boy would not yet have internalized the code and be tempted to unleash the killing urge on people he just hates, and that Harry would have to restrain him from giving in to temptation. And then we get the briefest of glimpses at what I've been wondering about ever since it got mentioned Harry originally picked Dexter up at a crime scene: a toddler, presumably Dexter, splattered with blood and crying. His biological parents having died a violent death and/or killed each other would be an obvious guess. (Does that make Dexter a psycho version of Batman? Wait, thinking about Bruce Wayne, I should rephrase that...)
La Guerta continues to be intriguing. I loved that on the one hand, Neil Perry hit a sore spot with his taunt about the bust that caused her promotion, on the other, she is one smart cop and saw the implication of what he was saying far beyond her personal issues, thus deducing how he got the crime scene photos and that he wasn't the real killer. And now on the one hand, she got the truth out of him, and on the other, her boss and the D.A. both don't want to hear it. Will she be able to let Perry go on trial (and presumably get the death penalty, since Florida is governed by Dubya's brother) despite knowing he's innocent and the real menace is still loose? Hmmm. Also loved getting some more backstory about her and Doakes as partners pre-promotion.
Lastly: was amused to realize I saw the kids being won over by their father, smooth talking Paul the (pretending to, surely?) be reformed wife abuser as betrayal of Dexter (the serial killer). And I continue to believe that Paul will be the test of Dexter being true to his and Harry's code.
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-20 08:10 pm (UTC)Also, I didn't see the toddler in the blood as being Dexter, since we saw HIM, so I assumed we were seeing through Dexter's eyes. Plus, he looked like he was mutilated or something... but that could have just been my glance. Still, that was so excellent.
And yes, so much humping. So much sex. I'll admit that I flinched when Dexter got sort of rough with Rita (ie., holding her by the neck)... seems like sort of a lot to throw at a longtime domestic violence and rape victim. But whatever.
I love that show.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 06:02 am (UTC)Sex: which paradoxically and perversely argues that he really did let his guard down (along with control), as opposed to remembering he has to maintain an image. From Rita's side, presumably all those months together and the fact he never was anything but gentle to her otherwise, plus that she chose the time to make the step towards sex helped her to not to feel helpless. Of course there is the irony that she's sure she resisted the temptation of sliding back into her old life (as victim, with Paul), and is not aware that her new life includes one fundamental lie...