selenak

I knew it, and have the earlier reviews to prove it: Miguel Prado moves into the Harry position of lawman deciding to use Dexter as his own personal vigilante/executioner. (Plus the Rudy/Brian position of brother, but I'll get to that later.) If I were Dexter, I would start to wonder whether Miguel hadn't been playing me from the moment he first mentioned the cruising wife killer, but Dexter has a tried and true record of being blind to being manipulated by a) Rudy/Brian and b) Lila until it was really glaringly obvious. To clarify: I do think the guy was guilty - Miguel didn't make any of this up - but I also think Miguel, if not already knowing Freebo was far from Dexter's first kill, had a very strong suspicion and tested it by telling Dexter about the case. The fact that he apparantly didn't consider the possibility Dexter could just kill him to get rid of a witness either points to overconfidence (a la Lila) on Miguel's side or on him having another ace in his sleeve in case Dexter turns against him.

Now, given that Miguel at the end has positioned himself as the answer to Dexter's prayers if he ever made them - the lawman who instead of committing suicide like Harry (and it's interesting yet entirely sense-making that the knowledge of this and the way this feels like rejection to Dexter wipes out the previous comforting awareness of trust), the brother and friend who isn't a threat to the other people Dexter cares about like Brian but helps them - it's a given that there is a snag. The most obvious and dissappointing possibility would be if Miguel were revealed as the new serial killer in town, the skinner. So I hope and have some confidence the show won't make it that easy. (On the other hand, I've started to suspect Deb's nemesis, our new IA-suspected cop might be. Because it has to be someone already introduced in another identity, and the third option is Anton, and they wouldn't do that to Deb again, would they?) And will instead after positioning Dexter and Miguel like some bizarre version of Batman and Jim Gordon do more of the dissection of vigilantism they already started in s2. Confronting the audience with their own approval: with their rooting for the "death to pedophiles/wife killers/ other criminals" principle by showing just where it leads, them and the characters. The LaGuerta subplot already showed the audience, though not Dexter, that Miguel is ready to ignore evidence if it doesn't support someone's guilt: how long before either he or Dexter decide death is warranted on suspicion alone?

There is also the ticking time-bomb of Dexter having been the one to kill Oscar, not Freebo, and someone - Ramon? - watching Wendell (who can place Dexter chez Freebo before Oscar Prado died). It occurs to me that given Dexter killing Brian as the climax of s1 , we have something of a mirror structure of siblings here; just as Dexter then was positioned between a brother and a sister - with his biological brother regarding the bond to his sister as fake and ursurping - Miguel Prado now has a biological real brother on a quest and a declared brother in Dexter. Hm.

I still find it amusing that now that he's embroiled in filial bitterness of the "you rejected me by killing yourself, so now I'm rejecting you!" about Harry and no longer seeking refuge in sepia-coloured flashbacks, Dexter has given himself a Head!Harry to argue with in the present. (Go, writers, for finding ways to keep James Remar on the show.) This episode coming complete with Head!Laura Moser, to show that Dexter is also still seething about the adultery issue and to make an interesting point. Head!Harry, who is, after all, not Harry but Dexter himself compares Dexter's serial killer existence and his life with Rita to a wife and a mistress, without assigning positions as to which is which, though stating that Dexter is "cheating" on Rita by killing people implicitly already makes Rita the wife. At the end of the episode we get a namechecking of the not metaphorical but literal mistress, Lila (though I suppose Dexter tells himself he didn't cheat then because technically he didn't have sex with Lila until Rita kicked him out the first time, ignoring that his reaction to learning about Harry/Laura was to immediately go and have sex with Lila which definitely makes an equation there), but Dexter could literally dispose of Lila. It's arguable whether or not he could dispose of his kiling urge. (Last season proved he could interrupt at least, though it didn't exactly result in a personality improvement.) He's definitely big time in denial if he thinks giving up his apartment is solving the basic problem his inner Harry pointed out.

The Masuka subplot: made the running gag of his article into a genuinenly affecting character point. Go, show. Meanwhile, what's his name (why can't I ever remember? Quinn?) makes himself increasingly suspicious by sabotaging Deb's investigation with Wendell while she's charmed enough by Anton to be disappointed to discover he has the proverbial woman in the shower. While Agel gets the prospect of a date with the woman from Vice. This makes me absurdly happy, on the principle that Angel deserves some happiness and I liked her debut last week. And LaGuarta handing over material to the lawyer apparantly has already results, since Miguel mentions offhandedly having to deal with "some fire" she caused. I like all these people so much that the announcement Dexter will have two more seasons really has me torn, because on the one hand I don't think they can credibly keep up the basic premise for that long and on the other I really, really love this ensemble. (If not Dexter himself. Sorry, Dex. Still no change there since last season.) And don't want to leave them. Hm.