Dexter 4.04 Dex takes a holiday
Oct. 19th, 2009 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI haven't reviewed 4.02. and 4.03. due to both a lack of time and an uncertainty about various plot elements. This one, however, was an episode I definitely found inspiring.
One of the things I was uncertain about was the impression I got that they went over the top with the "clueless housewife" characterisation for Rita in order to show how chaffed in Dexter feels. Which wasn't the case in this episode. Granted, Rita was only in it at the beginning and the end, but her few scenes made clear family is just as stressful to her as it is to Dexter, and that she recognizes his need for some space and wants to give it to him. (Though she doesn't know what he uses it for, of course.)
Similarly, I had the impression the show as getting too soap opera-ish, with the space given to everyone's relationships versus the crime fighting. On the other hand, this year's arc serial killer gets way more screen time than last year's got, who was more or less just an additional menace; the real threat of the season was Miguel. But this episode tied the relationships to the crimefighting, and thus I feel reassured again. Not only with the obvious mirroring between Dexter and his victim of the hour, who was the most interesting one shot character/villain since Jeremy in s1 (who, okay, was actually a two episode character, but still), but also with Deb and her plot. Mind you, while I had figured out the second Lundy appeared Deb would eventually cheat on Anton with him, simply because this is her year of investigating Harry and that meant her own variation of Harry and Laura Moser (just as Dexter finding out about Harry/Laura went parallel with his relationship with Lila), I hadn't realized the logical conclusion was that Lundy would share Laura's fate until he declared his feelings in this episode. Then I knew he'd be toast.
Speculation: Lundy didn't get to tell Deb about his encounter with the Trinity Killer, but he left a message on Dexter's phone which Dexter only heard the half of; the rest might contain a description of the guy. Also, it might be Deb (who clearly will survive this shooting) and not Dexter who'll bring the Trinity Killer down.
Family is an obvious theme this season; the Trinity Killer's victims - two women and a man, all people with family - are connected with this, Dexter both needs and resents his family, and this episode's villain/victim, Zoe the cop, killed hers because she "couldn't breathe". She also was smart enough to figure out someone was on her trail and ruthless enough to do something about it; it was her misfortunate to stumble across a serial killer instead of a harmless lab geek. Her prediction of Dexter being forced to choose between his family and his serial killer career is nothing now, of course, the show has been playing with this dilemma since s2, but the very existence of Zoe as a Dexter parallel - someone who murdered her own family - makes me wonder. I can't imagine the show going there and letting Dexter harm the kids and/or Rita, because his protectiveness towards them is a big part of what sells Dexter as human despite the serial killer factor, but there is now a tiny bit of insecurity about this that wasn't there before.
Speaking of insecurity: I'm still unsure as to whether or not I like them pairing up LaGuerta with Angel. Mostly because Angel seems to be the last friend Maria has left, and if they break up, she loses him, too. Also it makes the whole subplot about him and the cop from Vice from last season look superfluous. We'll see.
One of the things I was uncertain about was the impression I got that they went over the top with the "clueless housewife" characterisation for Rita in order to show how chaffed in Dexter feels. Which wasn't the case in this episode. Granted, Rita was only in it at the beginning and the end, but her few scenes made clear family is just as stressful to her as it is to Dexter, and that she recognizes his need for some space and wants to give it to him. (Though she doesn't know what he uses it for, of course.)
Similarly, I had the impression the show as getting too soap opera-ish, with the space given to everyone's relationships versus the crime fighting. On the other hand, this year's arc serial killer gets way more screen time than last year's got, who was more or less just an additional menace; the real threat of the season was Miguel. But this episode tied the relationships to the crimefighting, and thus I feel reassured again. Not only with the obvious mirroring between Dexter and his victim of the hour, who was the most interesting one shot character/villain since Jeremy in s1 (who, okay, was actually a two episode character, but still), but also with Deb and her plot. Mind you, while I had figured out the second Lundy appeared Deb would eventually cheat on Anton with him, simply because this is her year of investigating Harry and that meant her own variation of Harry and Laura Moser (just as Dexter finding out about Harry/Laura went parallel with his relationship with Lila), I hadn't realized the logical conclusion was that Lundy would share Laura's fate until he declared his feelings in this episode. Then I knew he'd be toast.
Speculation: Lundy didn't get to tell Deb about his encounter with the Trinity Killer, but he left a message on Dexter's phone which Dexter only heard the half of; the rest might contain a description of the guy. Also, it might be Deb (who clearly will survive this shooting) and not Dexter who'll bring the Trinity Killer down.
Family is an obvious theme this season; the Trinity Killer's victims - two women and a man, all people with family - are connected with this, Dexter both needs and resents his family, and this episode's villain/victim, Zoe the cop, killed hers because she "couldn't breathe". She also was smart enough to figure out someone was on her trail and ruthless enough to do something about it; it was her misfortunate to stumble across a serial killer instead of a harmless lab geek. Her prediction of Dexter being forced to choose between his family and his serial killer career is nothing now, of course, the show has been playing with this dilemma since s2, but the very existence of Zoe as a Dexter parallel - someone who murdered her own family - makes me wonder. I can't imagine the show going there and letting Dexter harm the kids and/or Rita, because his protectiveness towards them is a big part of what sells Dexter as human despite the serial killer factor, but there is now a tiny bit of insecurity about this that wasn't there before.
Speaking of insecurity: I'm still unsure as to whether or not I like them pairing up LaGuerta with Angel. Mostly because Angel seems to be the last friend Maria has left, and if they break up, she loses him, too. Also it makes the whole subplot about him and the cop from Vice from last season look superfluous. We'll see.
