Dexter 3.11. I had a dream

[selenak]

In the immortal words of Kitty Pryde as rendered by Joss Whedon, Yesbutwhat?



Now given the fake-out with last week's cliffhanger, which I admit was clever, and fairly set up with all the talk of the bachelor party in the last episode - and one commentator to my review last week guessed it, go, you! - I suppose we could open next week with the Skinner dramatically entering at which point we discover Dexter only mostly killed Miguel, not completely. Desdemona hangs on long enough after being strangled by Othello to say last words to Emilia, so I'm trained to accept this kind of thing when it comes to stranglings. But say Miguel is genuinenly dead and won't breathe any more last words, then I still think the Skinner is outside (though instead of dramatically entering, he'll wait to get the drop on Dexter at another point), because there has to be a narrative purpose to Dexter making the confession about Oscar Prado. No one could tie Dexter to this death except himself, and I could see the Skinner trying to use that information once he's caught.

And speaking of confessions: Dexter also tells Miguel he killed his brother. And he told Deb about Harry having had an affair with a CI. Even before we saw Deb showing up in the archive, I was pretty sure where this is leading. To wit: this season's cliffhanger, my friends, will be Deb finding out. Not about Dexter's serial killer career - they can't do that before what they know to be the last season, and the network gave them two more, not one - but once Deb comes across Laura Moser's file, she'll remember Rudy's real name, Brian Moser, will be able to verify that Brian was Laura's son - and that he wasn't the only son. This won't let her automatically conclude Dexter is the other, but it will make her wonder whether the Laura/Harry affair was why "Rudy" singled her out. Then the captured Skinner will say something along the lines of being innocent of Miguel's murder, and that Dexter was the killer, just as he killed Oscar. This will sound insane to everyone, so the Skinner adds - "and his own brother" in desperation, at which point his credibility is competely shot to shreds because everyone knows Dexter only ever had a sister, not a brother. But Deb might start to put some things together (because why would the Skinner invent something like this last detail?), including Rudy/Brian's behaviour towards Dexter. And we end the season with the wedding celebration, and best man Deb having an awful, awful suspicion as her brother tells her once again that he trusts her more than anyone else...

End of speculating, now on to what this episode actually showed. I was glad Maria did indeed follow the clue she saw and tricked Miguel into making it possible for her to find evidence, and slightly frustrated that Dexter asked her for some time before issueing a search warrant, and not just because Miguel already knew by then LaGuerta was on to him and thus was a lethal danger to her. I really wanted her to be able to arrest Miguel. But I suppose this is the problem of supporting characters; they don't get to bring down the villain of the season. Dexter speeding up his plan to kill Miguel when he realized Miguel would otherwise kill Maria was a welcome proof of the code being firmly back in place; Maria LaGuerta isn't Deb or Rita, he doesn't do this because she means something to him but because he can't let Miguel kill another innocent.

Head!Harry has made a fascinating transformation now that Dexter has come to the conclusion his father was right about some (though not all) things; instead of critisizing, he's now understanding and supportive. Apparantly Dexter doesn't feel the need to rebell and accuse in his head anymore, but he still can't let Harry go, he just now has made him into support again.

The Deb and Anton scene was very touching, and I'm really slow, because while I did write on earlier occasions about the Deb/Harry parallel I had forgotten that Harry had asked Laura about intel on the drug lords who then so brutally killed her, and that Harry found her too late to save her. Deb, by contrast, could save Anton, and her relationship with Anton is her own (for starters, Deb is not married). She can choose to get back with him or not, but she'll have to do it for her own reasons, not because of what her father did.

Lastly: what's that about Erik King not being the Skinner's real name? Presumably there is a revelation awaiting if the show went to the trouble of letting Angel declare the Nicaraguan embassy is still withholding it. Hm.

Comments

[kernezelda]

I was interested in the fadeout to black & white at the end. That seemed odd, unless Dexter's being caught on camera.

If the show went with your Deb-investigating plot, I would love that so much.

The fakeout with the trunk made me shout out loud when Dexter punched his kidnapper; and then it was Masuka? Totally fooled me.

This whole Miguel arc has been so exciting; it feels like the stereotypical affair with a fiery Latin lover. Passionate, intense, tempestuous.

I still want Angel to be Dexter's best man!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I was interested in the fadeout to black & white at the end. That seemed odd, unless Dexter's being caught on camera.

This is what made me suspect something more than Miguel dying might happen the next minute in the opening of the next episode.

Angel would have been a good choice, but Deb is a better one. Because she really has been there from the start, and he's still the most important person in the world to her.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

what's that about Erik King not being the Skinner's real name?

They (fake) named the skinner Erik King? That's the creepiest shoutout I've seen in my life. The actor who played Doakes is called Erik King.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

I believe it's actually George King (the Skinner, I mean).

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's better.

[veritykindle.livejournal.com]

We only have one more episode, and I think it's going to mostly deal with reactions to Miguel's death. (And I think he *is* really dead -- after 50+ kills of his own, I have faith in Dexter's ability to know when he's killed someone and when he hasn't.)

because there has to be a narrative purpose to Dexter making the confession about Oscar Prado.

I don't think there was a narrative purpose for that, actually, beyond showing us Miguel's reaction to the knowledge that Dexter killed his brother. I think that it serves the same purpose as Dexter's confession to Camilla about his brother -- it's there more to shed more light on Dexter's character than really develop the plot.

I completely agree with you that this season's cliffhanger is going to be Deb finding out about Brian Moser being Dexter's brother, though -- I just don't think it'll be the Skinner doing the explaining. (Even aside from the fact that I don't believe he heard Dexter's confession, the Skinner doesn't strike me as the sort of person to volunteer information even to avoid going to prison, *and* I don't think he'd care enough about Oscar Prado's death to know to use it as a bargaining chip in any case.) I think Deb will figure it all out on her own -- considering that we know there are tapes of Harry interrogating Laura Moser with little Dexter present, I think she has enough information to put it together. I am really, really looking forward to seeing the fallout from that, too. And honestly, I agree with you that Deb can't find out about Dexter being a serial killer until the last season, but I've got to admit that I don't see how she can *avoid* figuring that out. At the very least, I think she is going to end the season suspecting that Dexter killed Brian. And given how expertly Dexter set that scene up to look like a suicide, that's got to make her start wondering about some things!

I *loved* Deb being able to read Dexter well enough to force him to tell her about Harry's affair, too. Dexter is an amazing liar when he is paying attention, but he is giving away more and more when he is *not* specifically paying attention, especially with people that he cares about. I also love how protective of Deb Dexter sounded, and how the *reason* the information about Harry came up in the first place was that Dexter didn't want Deb to keep building Harry up at her own expense. Harry is no longer Dexter's god, and Deb's well-being is more important than Harry's secrets. The thing is, I think Dexter *does* trust Deb -- he trusts her to be a good cop ("Cops don't come any cleaner than Deb," he told Miguel in the last episode), and to do what's right. (So he trusts her to turn him in if she learns the truth, which is why he can never tell it to her.)

Apparently Dexter doesn't feel the need to rebel and accuse in his head anymore, but he still can't let Harry go, he just now has made him into support again.

And just in time for Deb to start her own rebellion, I think! It should be interesting to see Dexter forced to start defending Harry again, when Deb inevitably starts getting bitter toward him as Harry's various misdeeds start to surface. (I think Deb would be much more angry at Harry for abandoning Brian than Dexter and even Brian were, for example -- both Dexter and Brian were seeing it simply as a matter of Harry separating the two of them, but *Deb* would see it as Harry abandoning a little boy to become a serial killer.)

what's that about Erik King not being the Skinner's real name?

I think that's George Washington King, isn't it? (Which isn't really important to the point you are making -- I only mention it because apparently, Erik King would have a meaning I am not sure the writers intended. *g*)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I don't think there was a narrative purpose for that, actually, beyond showing us Miguel's reaction to the knowledge that Dexter killed his brother.

Okay, it did clear up whether or not Miguel had figured that one out on his own, which I was always wondering about.

I think Deb will figure it all out on her own -- considering that we know there are tapes of Harry interrogating Laura Moser with little Dexter present,

Nitpicking: though they aren't video tapes, they're audio tapes. (I know we the viewers saw that scene in black and white, but Dexter didn't; he was shown listening to audio tapes.) If Deb listens to those same tapes, she'll get proof this wasn't just a cop and a CI but there was indeed an affair, and that Laura had children, one of which she brought along (though wasn't little Dexter quiet?), but she won't see Dexter-as-a-child. (Which would be the fastest shortcut ever, since presumably she has memories of Dexter looking not much older.) But anyway, we agree that the cliffhanger won't just be Deb having realized that Rudy/Brian was the son of the woman Harry had an affair with but that Dexter was, too.

I agree with you that Deb can't find out about Dexter being a serial killer until the last season, but I've got to admit that I don't see how she can *avoid* figuring that out. At the very least, I think she is going to end the season suspecting that Dexter killed Brian. And given how expertly Dexter set that scene up to look like a suicide, that's got to make her start wondering about some things!

Well, he is an expert in crime scenes (in his day time job, I mean), so that's not THAT difficult to explain, especially given she loves him and thinks the world of him, so I'd buy her to be in denial for signs pointing out that Brian wasn't the only serial killer in the family for a while longer. Plus realizing Dexter killed his brother to protect her is going to make her feel massively guilty, which also would lessen the likelihood of her thinking anything ill about him. Just remember how she reacted when Doakes wanted to interrogate Dexter in the s1 finale. But subconsciously, something will be nagging, and depending on how the next season goes it probably will end in her confronting something she can't ignore at the end which will make for the plot of the fifth and last season.

Re: Deb and Harry: well, she already worked through most of her Daddy issues via her relationship with Lundy last season; I think she'll get over discovering his sins better than Dexter did, actually, though yes, finding out about the not raising of Brian will make for a strong reaction. (I wonder whether we'll get more of an on screen explanation to that one; I mean, Doylist-wise, it was necessary for the plot to unfold, and I'm told there is something more of an explanation in the first book, though still only a guess of Brian's, but I still would have preferred a bit more information. Too bad Camille is dead, who might have actually talked to Harry about it.)

Name of Kings: I clearly misheard! Sorry.

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

I completely thought Dexter was caught by the skinner and the two would find a sort of "mutual bonding". But I guess I missed it completely.

It does appear that Deb is going to start putting things together and I wonder where this will take next season.

I'm glad there was no quarter given once he had Miguel on the table. No matter what he said Dex was going to take him out. He stepped out of line and paid the consequences.

But I still wonder where the skinner will fit in. I think veritykindle brings up some good points of where Deb might go. Wouldn't be surprised if they all come to pass.

Only one more episode. it's going to be hard waiting will next fall...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It definitely will be...