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Dexter 4.11 Hello, Dexter Morgan
In the immortal words of Kitty Pryde, yeahbuwhat?
Okay, on the one hand, that was skillfully suspenseful, keeping the balance between Dexter's human side (being a good brother to Deb) and his monstrous side (putting his desire to kill Arthur personally above the lives of anyone Arthur kills until Dexter finally gets his kicks, now not only keeping his knowledge from the cops but actively misleading them). On the other, there was one thing that annoyed me - if the pay-off to the whole Elliot thing is supposed to be that Dexter vents his inner caveman a little by punching Elliot and that this impresses Rita, we're dealing in awfully trite gender clichés. Especially since the show actually did this kind of thing sans triteness and clichés back in s1, when Paul Bennet was particularly smarmy and obnoxious about Rita and Dexter lost it in uncharacteristic (especially back then when he was far more self-controlled than he is now) fashion, leading to the application of a frying pan and a hilarious "what did I just do?" face. Note that this was not witnessed by Rita and that the show didn't imply she should find it impressive.
On to the good things. I still can't see the grand purpose of the Maria/Angel subplot, but I have to admit, the wedding was inspired and funny, complete with Dexter being drafted as witness. Also very Maria LaGuerta to think of something like that to save both Angel's and her career.
As often this season, all scenes with Deb were golden. Loved that she was the only one who thought there was something odd about the supposed Trinity killer leaving all that evidence around at home. Loved both her scenes with Christine, the early attempt to play good cop and the later confession scene (more about that one in a minute). Loved her scene with Dexter, and that in the end she decided to wipe out Lundy's name from the "unsolved cases" list herself instead of letting Dexter do it for her. Obvious symbolism can be good, too.
For someone who spend much of the season as a cypher, Christine has become amazingly interesting in her last three episodes. The show itself pointed out the parallel to Brian/Rudy (though I would say Christine was much kinder to Quinn than Rudy was to Deb, plus she probably did somewhat care), and I think when Christine asked "can you forgive me?", there was a part of Deb that had to flash back to her awful Rudy experience there, too. I loved the raw honesty of that entire sequence, both in Christine's initial confession and then in her question and Deb's answer. Because of course forgiveness isn't - can't be - that simple. Deb is not superhuman, and at this point also too affected by what's happening to fake it. What I found saddest that after Deb blurted out the wrong name, of the man Dexter framed as the Trinity killer, Christine didn't correct her. Perhaps because confessing her own guilt was more important to her at this stage. Or perhaps because even though she originally wanted to give Deb Arthur's name, his hold on her still was too great, abused child that she was. I wish you had never been born. I do hope Christine's suicide will somehow lead Deb to Arthur, but I don't really believe it. (Dexter framing another man whom he simultanously killed and disposed of is a way for the show to stage an Arthur/Dexter showdown without police intervention or indeed the police questioning Arthur's family afterwards and thus potentially finding out about Kyle Butler.)
Good cliffhanger, of course; again, this is Dexter's own fault, given he not only held back information but now actively misled the cops, which means he can neither reveal who Arthur is nor ask for help. Incidentally, presenting himself as a blackmailer in order to keep Arthur from figuring out he's really dealing with another serial killer was clever, but if I were Arthur, I wouldn't have believed it, either. That Thanksgiving outing was too much of a giveway.
Okay, on the one hand, that was skillfully suspenseful, keeping the balance between Dexter's human side (being a good brother to Deb) and his monstrous side (putting his desire to kill Arthur personally above the lives of anyone Arthur kills until Dexter finally gets his kicks, now not only keeping his knowledge from the cops but actively misleading them). On the other, there was one thing that annoyed me - if the pay-off to the whole Elliot thing is supposed to be that Dexter vents his inner caveman a little by punching Elliot and that this impresses Rita, we're dealing in awfully trite gender clichés. Especially since the show actually did this kind of thing sans triteness and clichés back in s1, when Paul Bennet was particularly smarmy and obnoxious about Rita and Dexter lost it in uncharacteristic (especially back then when he was far more self-controlled than he is now) fashion, leading to the application of a frying pan and a hilarious "what did I just do?" face. Note that this was not witnessed by Rita and that the show didn't imply she should find it impressive.
On to the good things. I still can't see the grand purpose of the Maria/Angel subplot, but I have to admit, the wedding was inspired and funny, complete with Dexter being drafted as witness. Also very Maria LaGuerta to think of something like that to save both Angel's and her career.
As often this season, all scenes with Deb were golden. Loved that she was the only one who thought there was something odd about the supposed Trinity killer leaving all that evidence around at home. Loved both her scenes with Christine, the early attempt to play good cop and the later confession scene (more about that one in a minute). Loved her scene with Dexter, and that in the end she decided to wipe out Lundy's name from the "unsolved cases" list herself instead of letting Dexter do it for her. Obvious symbolism can be good, too.
For someone who spend much of the season as a cypher, Christine has become amazingly interesting in her last three episodes. The show itself pointed out the parallel to Brian/Rudy (though I would say Christine was much kinder to Quinn than Rudy was to Deb, plus she probably did somewhat care), and I think when Christine asked "can you forgive me?", there was a part of Deb that had to flash back to her awful Rudy experience there, too. I loved the raw honesty of that entire sequence, both in Christine's initial confession and then in her question and Deb's answer. Because of course forgiveness isn't - can't be - that simple. Deb is not superhuman, and at this point also too affected by what's happening to fake it. What I found saddest that after Deb blurted out the wrong name, of the man Dexter framed as the Trinity killer, Christine didn't correct her. Perhaps because confessing her own guilt was more important to her at this stage. Or perhaps because even though she originally wanted to give Deb Arthur's name, his hold on her still was too great, abused child that she was. I wish you had never been born. I do hope Christine's suicide will somehow lead Deb to Arthur, but I don't really believe it. (Dexter framing another man whom he simultanously killed and disposed of is a way for the show to stage an Arthur/Dexter showdown without police intervention or indeed the police questioning Arthur's family afterwards and thus potentially finding out about Kyle Butler.)
Good cliffhanger, of course; again, this is Dexter's own fault, given he not only held back information but now actively misled the cops, which means he can neither reveal who Arthur is nor ask for help. Incidentally, presenting himself as a blackmailer in order to keep Arthur from figuring out he's really dealing with another serial killer was clever, but if I were Arthur, I wouldn't have believed it, either. That Thanksgiving outing was too much of a giveway.