Dexter 4.01 Living the Dream
Aug. 21st, 2009 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakShowtime, for some reason or the other, put the season opener on its website on Wednesday night. Naturally, this viewer gladly watched, despite the fact it's more than a month until I'll get to see the next episode...
Dexter has always excelled at giving its title character "everyday" problems to cope with in addition to his serial killer existence - dating, the question of how to relate to other people when I fell like a complete alien, belated adolescence, commitment, etc. It's part of what makes the show addictive in addition to its fantastic ensemble. This season, we get early fatherhood. The black humor the show milks out of Dexter - who already juggled two lives before the baby and now is nearly getting no sleep at all - being at the mercy of a baby who does what babies do while trying to do both his blood expert and his serial killer jobs is great, but if humor was all, we'd be in a sitcom. Last season, impending fatherhood helped Dexter coming to terms with his dead adopted father, Harry. (So much so that he named his baby son "Harrison", it seems. Unless it was Rita's idea and she paid homage to her teenage crush from the 80s.) But he's still bent on having his cake and eat it - being a father and a husband and a serial killer at the same time. At the end of the season opener, you might say he crashes head-on into the consequences.
Each season so far presented a season-long killer other than Dexter himself, who dies in the season finale and keeps the cops occupied. I find it fascinating and logical that this season's other serial killer, whom the returned Lundy refers to as the "Trinity" killer, is with at least thirty years of serial killing to his record not only the most successful killer (i.e. a challenge to Dexter) but also of Harry's generation. We've done the brother with Rudy/Brian. We've done the soulmate wannabe, Lila. Last season the actual serial killer, the Skinner, wasn't of much importance to Dexter personally, but Miguel was, who covered the "buddy/student/rival" department of archetypes. This season, with Dexter now having left emotional childhood and belated rebellious adolescence behind and being a father himself, it's fitting we get a serial killer who might or might not also double as a father figure.
Of course, the Morgan sibling currently dealing with Harry issues isn't Dexter, it's Deb. Deb ended the last season having just found out Harry had an affair with one of his informants, promptly seeing parallels with her own situation with Anton and though overcoming that problem still set on finding out more. In the season opener, she's tracking down the surviving informants. The script plays with the audience and Deb both, showing us Laura Moser's file among the ones she has, but letting Deb seek out other informants first; letting the one she finds first seemingly hint at an affair with Harry (with Deb's mind visibly going "was he a serial cheater?!?) and then refute this by letting the informant confess that while she fancied Harry, he didn't return her feelings. What Deb doesn't know, because clueless brother Dexter didn't see it fit to warn her, is that Lundy who was both her boyfriend and replacement father figure, giving her the approval she craved from Harry, is back in town. Early on, Deb, chatting with LaGuerta, confesses she's waiting for the other shoe to drop as she's so happy with Anton. I think I can see where this is going. At the start of the episode Deb is afraid that Anton will leave her precisely because she's happy with him and because her earlier relationships set precedents, but that won't be her problem at all. Camille's successor asks her why it matters whether or not Harry had an adulterous relationship with an informant. "It matters if my fucking perfect father did it," Deb says. She used to see Dexter and Harry both as epitomes of cop perfection in their different ways; Dexter's not-serial-killer-related flaws were on full display for her in s2. (When finding out Harry and Laura were an item was followed up by Dexter cheating on Rita with Lila.) I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Deb will come into a situation where she could cheat on Anton with Lundy, probably in circumstances paralleling the Harry/Laura affair. Whether as opposed to Dexter she's respond by not following the pattern or whether she won't remains to be seen. (And the big ticking time bomb of the Laura Moser revelation isn't the Harry cheating anyway, but the Laura-Brian/Rudy-Dexter family connection.)
As for Lundy: I'm currently torn as to whether he's back for the reason he names - the Trinity killer - or for the additional reason of still suspecting Dexter. LaGuerta did have him convinced there was something fishy with the evidence implicating Doakes, after all, and he saw her counterevidence as valid. He could be using the hunt for the Trinity killer to try and trap Dexter as well. Or he could be utterly truthful about simply needing Dexter's expertise.
Maria Laguerta/Angel: I'm torn about this. For the most obvious reason that LaGuerta is still Angel's boss, of course, but also because between Doakes, the late and unlamented Miguel and Angel, they've now sexualized every friendship LaGuerta has/had with a man, and I rather enjoyed that she and Angel knew each other from childhood and refuge-from-Cuba times onwards and occasionally had these scenes of raport (as when the little boy was at the department) which wasn't romantic in nature. On the other hand, they do know each other better than anyone else left in their lives, and it's not ooc for either of them.
Big cliffhanger: you know, in the earlier scene when Dexter fell asleep while stalking his prey and was woken up by a cop, I did think of the warning not to drive while tired, but I still hadn't expected the logical conclusion. So, now our (anti)hero has just crashed his car with a hacked up victim in the trunk, and presumably won't be in a shape to hide those body parts before rescuers arrive. You still know your cliffhanger business, scriptwriters. I salute your mean-ness!
But you want to know the deep, deep truth? My "omg!" moment was overshadowed by glee due to the revelation head!Harry is still around. I don't care how many excuses they use to keep him on the show, I'm just glad they do. It just wouldn't be the same otherwise...
Dexter has always excelled at giving its title character "everyday" problems to cope with in addition to his serial killer existence - dating, the question of how to relate to other people when I fell like a complete alien, belated adolescence, commitment, etc. It's part of what makes the show addictive in addition to its fantastic ensemble. This season, we get early fatherhood. The black humor the show milks out of Dexter - who already juggled two lives before the baby and now is nearly getting no sleep at all - being at the mercy of a baby who does what babies do while trying to do both his blood expert and his serial killer jobs is great, but if humor was all, we'd be in a sitcom. Last season, impending fatherhood helped Dexter coming to terms with his dead adopted father, Harry. (So much so that he named his baby son "Harrison", it seems. Unless it was Rita's idea and she paid homage to her teenage crush from the 80s.) But he's still bent on having his cake and eat it - being a father and a husband and a serial killer at the same time. At the end of the season opener, you might say he crashes head-on into the consequences.
Each season so far presented a season-long killer other than Dexter himself, who dies in the season finale and keeps the cops occupied. I find it fascinating and logical that this season's other serial killer, whom the returned Lundy refers to as the "Trinity" killer, is with at least thirty years of serial killing to his record not only the most successful killer (i.e. a challenge to Dexter) but also of Harry's generation. We've done the brother with Rudy/Brian. We've done the soulmate wannabe, Lila. Last season the actual serial killer, the Skinner, wasn't of much importance to Dexter personally, but Miguel was, who covered the "buddy/student/rival" department of archetypes. This season, with Dexter now having left emotional childhood and belated rebellious adolescence behind and being a father himself, it's fitting we get a serial killer who might or might not also double as a father figure.
Of course, the Morgan sibling currently dealing with Harry issues isn't Dexter, it's Deb. Deb ended the last season having just found out Harry had an affair with one of his informants, promptly seeing parallels with her own situation with Anton and though overcoming that problem still set on finding out more. In the season opener, she's tracking down the surviving informants. The script plays with the audience and Deb both, showing us Laura Moser's file among the ones she has, but letting Deb seek out other informants first; letting the one she finds first seemingly hint at an affair with Harry (with Deb's mind visibly going "was he a serial cheater?!?) and then refute this by letting the informant confess that while she fancied Harry, he didn't return her feelings. What Deb doesn't know, because clueless brother Dexter didn't see it fit to warn her, is that Lundy who was both her boyfriend and replacement father figure, giving her the approval she craved from Harry, is back in town. Early on, Deb, chatting with LaGuerta, confesses she's waiting for the other shoe to drop as she's so happy with Anton. I think I can see where this is going. At the start of the episode Deb is afraid that Anton will leave her precisely because she's happy with him and because her earlier relationships set precedents, but that won't be her problem at all. Camille's successor asks her why it matters whether or not Harry had an adulterous relationship with an informant. "It matters if my fucking perfect father did it," Deb says. She used to see Dexter and Harry both as epitomes of cop perfection in their different ways; Dexter's not-serial-killer-related flaws were on full display for her in s2. (When finding out Harry and Laura were an item was followed up by Dexter cheating on Rita with Lila.) I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Deb will come into a situation where she could cheat on Anton with Lundy, probably in circumstances paralleling the Harry/Laura affair. Whether as opposed to Dexter she's respond by not following the pattern or whether she won't remains to be seen. (And the big ticking time bomb of the Laura Moser revelation isn't the Harry cheating anyway, but the Laura-Brian/Rudy-Dexter family connection.)
As for Lundy: I'm currently torn as to whether he's back for the reason he names - the Trinity killer - or for the additional reason of still suspecting Dexter. LaGuerta did have him convinced there was something fishy with the evidence implicating Doakes, after all, and he saw her counterevidence as valid. He could be using the hunt for the Trinity killer to try and trap Dexter as well. Or he could be utterly truthful about simply needing Dexter's expertise.
Maria Laguerta/Angel: I'm torn about this. For the most obvious reason that LaGuerta is still Angel's boss, of course, but also because between Doakes, the late and unlamented Miguel and Angel, they've now sexualized every friendship LaGuerta has/had with a man, and I rather enjoyed that she and Angel knew each other from childhood and refuge-from-Cuba times onwards and occasionally had these scenes of raport (as when the little boy was at the department) which wasn't romantic in nature. On the other hand, they do know each other better than anyone else left in their lives, and it's not ooc for either of them.
Big cliffhanger: you know, in the earlier scene when Dexter fell asleep while stalking his prey and was woken up by a cop, I did think of the warning not to drive while tired, but I still hadn't expected the logical conclusion. So, now our (anti)hero has just crashed his car with a hacked up victim in the trunk, and presumably won't be in a shape to hide those body parts before rescuers arrive. You still know your cliffhanger business, scriptwriters. I salute your mean-ness!
But you want to know the deep, deep truth? My "omg!" moment was overshadowed by glee due to the revelation head!Harry is still around. I don't care how many excuses they use to keep him on the show, I'm just glad they do. It just wouldn't be the same otherwise...
