Dexter 4.07

[selenak]

You know, for most of the episode I was thinking "okay, this is treading water and redundant, haven't we done this before?", especially when Dexter's inner Harry told him to kill Trinity instead of what's his name and Dexter refused, citing real Harry's various misjudgments, only to find his new friend flawed. Because, well, that was much of season 3's Miguel arc. Same with Deb and the informant - given that the previous sources she tracked down all denied having had affairs with Harry, I don't expect what this one said to be literally true, but it was obviously a way for the writers to deter Deb because she can't find out about the Laura/Brian/Dexter/Harry connection yet; I fully expect the woman to return in the season finale and tell Deb "oh btw, I lied about your father and myself, and he also didn't screw every informant in sight, but he DID have an affair with this Laura Moser person", so Deb is in a position to restart her research next season. Which makes this season's screen time for same wasted. So all in all, I was somewhat grumpy, and then the show went and justified this particular episode and the stalling by the ending.

I had actually suspected the photographer to be innocent for about half the ep because he was that blatant; surely, thought I, if he were the kiler, he'd bother to fake sadness about the model's death and put up a nice guy facade. But then I thought maybe I was overcomplicating it and they just used the case so Dexter would have an excuse not to kill Arthur. Nicely played, show. Mind you, Dexter is splitting hairs if he thinks he's not guilty of the death of an innocent before (yes, Lila was the one who killed Doakes, but Dexter both had put him in a position to be killed, and was fully intending to frame him to be killed by the state), but this particular scenario is still new. And highlighting one of the problems of vigilantism. Dexter is judge, jury and executioner. He concluded the photographer was guilty based on circumstantial evidence and of course didn't listen to the guy's defense; and Dexter, trained investigator or not, is no more infallible than your usual cops and judges are. Sooner or later, he was bound to make a misjudgment.

So, let's see how he'll handle the follow-up.