Dexter 5.05 First Blood
Oct. 25th, 2010 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Dexter valiantly tries not to imitate Batman, and various subplots progress to my satisfaction.
First of all, am I ever relieved about LaGuerta. I mean, she still didn't have a decent subplot for several seasons now, but her doing police work is infinitely preferable to her being blackmailed for sex. I had a feeling the show was going for a bluff/reveal when Angel found the message, but still was very glad to be proven right. Even better, this actually turns out not to be a random attempt to give Angel and LaGuerta some screentime with a mediocre jealousy plot but is connected to main events. Via Quinn, no less, who justifies his own existence by actually doing something that's different from back when Doakes was investigating Dexter. Quinn has been using skeevy methods when we met him, so the fact that he's using the pwned cop's resentment against LaGuerta in order to carry on his Dexter investigation while making nice with Deb in the meantime comes as no surprise.
Mind you, the Deb/Quinn fuckbuddies thing also produces an unexpectedly sexist momnet in Dexter. "Bad influence on Harrison?" For real? Are you kidding me, Dexter Morgan? I'm trying to assume here he can't tell Deb what's really been bugging him about Quinn (since that would lead too close to his secret) so has to find a lame excuse.
Meanwhile, it seems Deb's new protegé cop is called Sierra, not, as I assumed last week, Manzon (or both?), which has unfortunate Dollhouse resonances but never mind, I continue to love the new team ofCagney and Lacey Deborah and Sierra. You better not kill her off before the season is over, show. Actually, I don't think they will, because one way or the other Quinn is going to exit Miami the way this is going, and then they can promote Sierra to fill his place in the station.
Speaking of leaving Miami, or not: Lumen, as expected, wants revenge in order to deal with her trauma. Dexter tries not to play Bruce Wayne and thinks he successfully avoids making her into his Robin, but of course, things are never that simple. It occurs to me that as opposed to Miguel or Lila, Lumen is not told about the Code (naturally, since Dexter thinks he has successfully sent her out of his life); his argument as to why she shouldn't kill is basically Yoda's line about the dark side (he all but says "forever will it rule your destiny"). As she still has the wrong idea why he killed Boyd, she doesn't know that if she were to turn lethal vigilante, she'd qualify as prey. But again, I don't see how they can do that without being incredibly repititive, so I hope for another narrative solution for Lumen. So far, her reactions have been played believably and without vilifying her, including her response to being body searched at the airport, and as opposed to earlier examples, she might be the character able to turn away from killing - not because Dexter tells her, but after she worked through what happened on her own.
Dexter (and Lumen both) nearly killing the sex offender is a good reminder of Dexter jumping to a premature conclusion a season earlier, with the creepy photographer who was a jerk but not a killer, and then knowingly kill a pedophile-but-not-killer; this time, Dexter's inner Harry makes him notice the full implications of the rapist-on-parole's status quo first, and he stops himself, and later, Lumen. To a degree, it answers what I've been wondering since the season opener, i.e. whether the kill-to-fell-better-about-Rita would lead to more not-code-covered killings. Not so far. Hm.
Harrison, baby suspected of scratching: you know, so far I love what they've been doing with Harrison this season. At the start of last season, the Dexter-as-exhausted-father gag ran dry quickly (and was played a bit unfairly towards Rita who for some reason never looked as exhausted despite logic saying she should), but this time I like all the Harrison scenes. Not since Maya the offspring of Nate Fisher have I taken so much to an infant in a tv s how I like.
First of all, am I ever relieved about LaGuerta. I mean, she still didn't have a decent subplot for several seasons now, but her doing police work is infinitely preferable to her being blackmailed for sex. I had a feeling the show was going for a bluff/reveal when Angel found the message, but still was very glad to be proven right. Even better, this actually turns out not to be a random attempt to give Angel and LaGuerta some screentime with a mediocre jealousy plot but is connected to main events. Via Quinn, no less, who justifies his own existence by actually doing something that's different from back when Doakes was investigating Dexter. Quinn has been using skeevy methods when we met him, so the fact that he's using the pwned cop's resentment against LaGuerta in order to carry on his Dexter investigation while making nice with Deb in the meantime comes as no surprise.
Mind you, the Deb/Quinn fuckbuddies thing also produces an unexpectedly sexist momnet in Dexter. "Bad influence on Harrison?" For real? Are you kidding me, Dexter Morgan? I'm trying to assume here he can't tell Deb what's really been bugging him about Quinn (since that would lead too close to his secret) so has to find a lame excuse.
Meanwhile, it seems Deb's new protegé cop is called Sierra, not, as I assumed last week, Manzon (or both?), which has unfortunate Dollhouse resonances but never mind, I continue to love the new team of
Speaking of leaving Miami, or not: Lumen, as expected, wants revenge in order to deal with her trauma. Dexter tries not to play Bruce Wayne and thinks he successfully avoids making her into his Robin, but of course, things are never that simple. It occurs to me that as opposed to Miguel or Lila, Lumen is not told about the Code (naturally, since Dexter thinks he has successfully sent her out of his life); his argument as to why she shouldn't kill is basically Yoda's line about the dark side (he all but says "forever will it rule your destiny"). As she still has the wrong idea why he killed Boyd, she doesn't know that if she were to turn lethal vigilante, she'd qualify as prey. But again, I don't see how they can do that without being incredibly repititive, so I hope for another narrative solution for Lumen. So far, her reactions have been played believably and without vilifying her, including her response to being body searched at the airport, and as opposed to earlier examples, she might be the character able to turn away from killing - not because Dexter tells her, but after she worked through what happened on her own.
Dexter (and Lumen both) nearly killing the sex offender is a good reminder of Dexter jumping to a premature conclusion a season earlier, with the creepy photographer who was a jerk but not a killer, and then knowingly kill a pedophile-but-not-killer; this time, Dexter's inner Harry makes him notice the full implications of the rapist-on-parole's status quo first, and he stops himself, and later, Lumen. To a degree, it answers what I've been wondering since the season opener, i.e. whether the kill-to-fell-better-about-Rita would lead to more not-code-covered killings. Not so far. Hm.
Harrison, baby suspected of scratching: you know, so far I love what they've been doing with Harrison this season. At the start of last season, the Dexter-as-exhausted-father gag ran dry quickly (and was played a bit unfairly towards Rita who for some reason never looked as exhausted despite logic saying she should), but this time I like all the Harrison scenes. Not since Maya the offspring of Nate Fisher have I taken so much to an infant in a tv s how I like.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 11:46 am (UTC)Dexter <3 Bechdel! Although I suppose they're discussing generally male killers. I loved the throwaway flirting with Deb and M at the tattoo parlor too.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 12:05 pm (UTC)And yes, the search scene was a great and intense visualization of how Lumen must perceive the world now.
Generally male killers still do not disqualify Bechdel, imo, since it's work they're talking about. (I see a difference because discussing a man in the sense of talking about that person re: how does he feel, how do you feel about him, how do I feel about him etc., and discussing the killer who happens to be male when it's the job to catch same.)
no subject
Date: 2010-11-20 11:21 am (UTC)