Dexter 3.03 The Lion Sleeps Tonight

[selenak]

I wonder whether this one could be called The Shape of Things To Come?



The fact there is a new serial killer in town - since Freebo didn't kill Teegan, either, as opposed to what Dexter had assumed last episode - was played decidedly low key; he was hardly interested, because of what was really occupying him: Miguel and the pedophile. Looks like my guess from last week - about Miguel possibly stepping into Harry's role with Dexter - gets more fodder. The bonding scene about fathers certainly points in that direction. (Sidenote: it also says a lot that the thing Dexter can't forgive Harry isn't the way he was raised or the silence about Brian/Rudy or the Harry/Laura tryst but the fact Harry committed suicide because he sees it as a rejection from "the only god I've ever known".) At the same time, the subplot with LaGuerta makes sure that the audience, though not Dexter, is aware of another side of Miguel. But is covering up for Dexter killing Freebo and being willing to condemn a man to prison for twenty years based on false evidence really that different? They're both putting his own judgment and/or ambition (in the case of the second) ahead of justice. (While the show also makes clear Miguel isn't entirely a fraud in this regard, since he worries about the police wasting time looking for Freebo instead of the real killer.)

Which is what Dexter does all the time, of course, except he used to adher to a code putting certain limitations on his choice of victim. No longer. If Doakes was the first whose death he was morally, though not physically responsible for and Oscar the first he killed directly, though accidentally, there are no more excuses in this episode's case: a non-killer, killed deliberately and with full pre-meditation. Now the show picks someone they can be certain most of the audience will want to see dead - pedophiles being the criminals most despised by just about everyone - but given all the backstory, it's impossible not see this as a deliberate step downwards for the titular hero. Compare this to how Dexter responded two seasons ago to another perceived threat to Rita and the children who did, however not match his killer criteria, to wit, Paul. He didn't kill him; he framed him to make sure the man was back in prison. That, among other things, would have been an option with the pedophile, too. There would have been any number of options other than killing him; a complaint about harrassment from a member of the Miami police department, given the guy's previous conviction? Definitely would have done the trick. But no. Dexter decreed the man must die before he could do any harm, and so the man died. Now that he's branching out, whom else will he condemm as death-worthy if there is no more code? I remember the self justification scene in which he told Doakes that his life was more valuable because Doakes' bad relationship with his family.

Now, it really depends how long they intend to prolong this show. If this is the last season, they can end with Dexter either going to prison or dying. If there are more, then someone else has to take the fall. Miguel - who just gave Dexter evidence to implicate himself - is the obvious choice, and they could also reveal Miguel as the new serial killer, but I don't see how this would not be a repetition of previous storylines, both with Rudy and with Lila. So - I have no idea where they're heading if not towards Dexter's final fall.

I found it interesting that in the previouslies, we got the "no, Deborah, for being an honest cop" clip. Given that the person for whom this seems to be set up as an immediate challenge isn't Deb but LaGuerta. LaGuerta has been presented to play dirty herself in some regards - including my least favourite subplot on this show, the one with Esme at the start of last season - but not when it came to sending people to prison wrongly. On the contrary; she originally lost her position as Lieutenant because she told Matthews the man they had arrested as the Ice Truck Killer couldn't be guilty, and proved it. So - given what she has now observed about her old friend Miguel, will she let it lie, or will she put justice first? We'll see. Especially since the other person who knows is Angel, who went through his own "do I implicate a friend, or do I lie?" dilemma re: being an honest cop in season 1.

Deb and the snitch: Spanish-speakers, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't "puta" mean "whore", and "mala" witch?

Comments

[viggorlijah.livejournal.com]

The 20 year sentence guy could be construed as not necessarily ambitious - it was made clear that he was a career criminal, but this was one particular crime they could't pin on him.

The other thing is the pedophile murder - Deter didn't ritualise this murder at all. He had no kill bag with him, no needle - he was I think going in there in order to threaten the guy or without fully understanding what he was going to do. It took him as much by surprise at the force of his emotions when he saw Aster's photograph. He says *my children* for the first time taking Cody and Aster completely inside the circle of Deb and Harry, of his family. I think with Paul, he had a relationship witht he children who loved him. Dexter didn't want to hurt the children by killing their father, but the pedophile was simply a direct threat.

I <3 Dexter!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The 20 year sentence guy could be construed as not necessarily ambitious - it was made clear that he was a career criminal, but this was one particular crime they could't pin on him.

Which would go with the Harry parallels, since Harry originally got his idea of making his son into a vigilante out of frustration with genuine criminals not being condemned in court.

he was I think going in there in order to threaten the guy or without fully understanding what he was going to do.

No. He did have a garotte with him, and gloves. I agree that he didn't ritualise the murder, but he went with the clear knowledge he would kill this man. And as I said, he had about a million other options to remove this particular threat. This was as unspontanous as it gets.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

"puta" is whore, "mala" just means "(female) bad person", I think.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It certainly means bad in the Latin, but I was uncertain because mediaval Latin sometimes substitutes mala for malefica... I think. Of course, Spanish doesn't have to be the same. Anyway, either way, it's anything but a compliment, which makes a scene in this episode somewhat puzzling!

[kernezelda]

Deb asked a woman standing next to her what it meant - 'skinny mean bitch' in the colloquial. She recognizes the insult then, but it's fair, given what she did to Anton. I'm enjoying their barbed relationship - it's pushy, with aggression and insults going both ways, a so far balanced courtship.

[abigail-n.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting that instances of Dexter bending or outright breaking the code are almost always linked to him coming out of his shell and becoming, on one level, a more functional human being (even as on another level he sinks further into monstrousness). The attack on Paul came after Paul threatened Rita and the kids. The decision to frame Doakes came after Dexter had taken a look at his life and realized how much he had and how much he loved it. And here, he kills the pedophile because of a perceived threat to Astor, and accepts his impending fatherhood as a direct result of that murder. Given everything we've seen thus far, I'm guessing that the show's writers are aware of the irony and reinforcing it this season through the dream sequences with Harry, in which Dexter keeps being told that he can't have what he wants for precisely the reasons we're shown on screen, but it's hard to escape the allure of a happy ending for the character, especially when, as you say, the writers are stacking the deck so heavily in his favor as they did in this episode.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Which is why I'm curious how they'll play it with the next person Dexter kills for reasons other than a murder record. As I said, pedophiles are just about everyone's most despised people, no matter where they come from. But what if Dexter peceives a neighbour leering at Rita as a threat, or a boy who gets into a fight with Cody and beats him up?

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

"mala" means bad - skinny mean bitch is a "nice" translation of what he called her. As for this not being a compliment, I am pretty sure this is meant as teasing on his behalf - just not very nice teasing, since he obviously was angry she put him in prison. But I definitely feel all of this is played as courtship mixed in with hostility. Like they are into each other, but don't want it because of the circumstances, which makes both of them aggressive.

[kernezelda]

If Dexter is going to continue to kill, the sphere of damage will continue to expand - first Paul, who was a threat to the status quo but not to Dexter's safety, and then Doakes, who was a personal threat, and also far more important to Dexter's community of policemen. Next, it was Oscar Prado, who's even more linked to law enforcement via both his brothers, and by the efforts going forth to find his killer.

Dexter is definitely being more careless, more preoccupied, distracted. The more human he allows himself to become, the more he loses control. His rigid code isn't evolving, it's decaying.

When I started watching the series, I was deeply disturbed by Dexter the happy murderer, even though his actions kept other killers from harming anyone again. In the second season, his blithe acceptance of Lila's murder of Doakes (not me, I'm safe, life is good) was like a cap to that tendency - the final dissolution of his self-preserving code from Harry, the false god. Now he's floundering, keeps thinking he's still clinging to the code, when really he's flailing in deeper water and is going to either drown (evidence of his crimes bringing him to conviction) or clutch the Prado lifeline and live at the expense of drowning Miguel in his place.

As abigail_n says above, we're encouraged to root for Dexter happy ending with Rita, kids, 'normal life', while we're shown at the same time how he's fast becoming what Brian wanted him to - a killer without reason or remorse.

I don't think a second arc that brings down a law enforcement officer will be as effective again, so I'm hopeful they'll go in a different direction, but I'm eager to see how this all plays out.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Dexter is definitely being more careless, more preoccupied, distracted.

And he allows more and more links that can be made between him and his victims. Miguel noticed Dexter was reading up on Oscar Prado even before Dexter killed Freebo. Both Astor and Rita are aware Dexter noticed the pedophile; if the later's body is found and identified, and that makes the papers, at least Rita might remember.

The more human he allows himself to become, the more he loses control. His rigid code isn't evolving, it's decaying.

That is the very word - decay. Crumble. Yes.


As abigail_n says above, we're encouraged to root for Dexter happy ending with Rita, kids, 'normal life', while we're shown at the same time how he's fast becoming what Brian wanted him to - a killer without reason or remorse.

It's a fascinating dichotymy, and I am intrigued where they'll go with it.