Dexter 4. 10 Lost Boys

[selenak]

First of all, something that has nothing to do with the episode itself. I've been staying away from the Dexter message boards but by now various people on lj mention that Rita gets called "a slut"... for one kiss (in the last episode) which she didn't invite and didn't reciprocate. Fannish misogyny can be unbelievable. Grrrrrr. Arrrrrrgh.

Now, on to what was going on on screen. We see both Morgans pursuing a trail. But Deb enlists the help of her colleagues in following up her suspicions of Christine. She asks Angel to watch Christine while Deb and Christine are talking, she asks Masuka to test Christine's DNA, she asks Quinn for the toothbrush. By not relying solely on herself, and acting as a cop, not a vigilante, Deb comes across more than she suspected, and finds out that Christine isn't just implicated in the shooting of Lundy, she's related to Trinity. Meanwhile, Dexter considers and dismisses the possibility of pointing the police in Arthur's direction for just about two seconds. It's still unthinkable to him, and he almost arrives too late to save Scott because of this. Dexter does enlist help, though, that of Arthur's son Jonah, and this makes me wonder more than ever what will become of Jonah, Rebecca and Sally at the end of the season if they're not conveniently killed by Arthur himself. Dexter tells Jonah he could break the cycle, which could work in more than one way - Arthur's cycle, but also the cycle of abused becoming abuser in the fullness of time - and at the same time, we see Christine as an example of how messed up an adult child of Arthur can become. Christine's story of being in the car when Arthur killed in Miami thirty years ago makes her around 34, 35, I guess; if she was with Arthur that night, one assumes no mother was available, which means Arthur's last attempt at having a family can't have lasted long. What I want to know is why, if Christine evidently didn't turn her back on him but still loves him, his current family doesn't know about her. Could be because Christine's mother came to a ghastly end herself, but maybe there are other reasons.

Christine being unable to look at the photo of Lundy reminded me of Arthur freaking out over the deer.

Dexter prioritizing saving Scott over killing Arthur is a shift towards greater humanity, but the true test as to whether his priorities really have changed would be, imo at least, not whether he pulls out a child from that child'd death over killing his prey but whether Dexter is ready to blow up his own cover if this were the only way to stop further killings, and that's not something we've seen yet.

A note about the title: "lost boys" evokes the ones from Neverland, Peter Pan's followers, who as long as they're there never grow up. The fourth victim in Arthur's cycle, the one Lundy missed, is always a recreation of himself, a young boy, "whose innocence will be preserved". You could say both Dexter and Arthur in some ways remained forever the children they were when their initial trauma happened to them, though Dexter did grow in some ways, and so far has managed not to recreate himself (Miguel is a borderline case but was already violent and a bastard before Dexter taught him his methods; Lila became in some ways Dexter stripped of everything that makes Dexter endearing to the audience but that wasn't deliberate on his part). But als long as he continues killing, he hasn't "broken the cycle", either.

All the family photos and emphasis on Arthur's cycle make me very uneasy for Rita and the children again. Three children, not two as in Arthur's reconstructions, but that doesn't help. Especially since they've already done the "season villain threatens Aster and Cody, Dexter saves them" with Lila.

Here's what I think will happen with the mini Masuka subplot: either Masuka or Rita herself tells Dexter about the kiss. Dexter doesn't react murderously but he does react, prompted by still being shaken to the core regarding the Arthur-the-abusive-father revelation, by concluding Elliot the normal nice guy is clearly better for Rita and the children, and leaves her. (The "nobody will hurt you, especially not me" to Harrison at the end of this episode points in that direction.) He won't respond to Rita's next phone call which is precisely when Arthur will have managed to track "Kyle" down and have found their house...

What's her name the ex informant showing up again to somewhat revise her statement was what I expected; mark my words, she'll show up briefly in the finale again to finally name Laura Moser out loud, leading Deb into the next season.

The shipping container as Dexter's newest version of a shelter: this makes me suspect we'll end the season there with a repeat of the image that triggered Dexter's state of mind: two children, blood, corpses, someone opening the container. But which two children, that corpse better be not Rita, and will the person opening the container be Deb or Dexter?

I'm getting ever more anxious over here...