Dexter 5.10

[selenak]

In which the show's writers go fanfiction on me in a way I do not approve of. Otoh, scary villain is scary.



If you've watched Battlestar Galactica, you may remember the season 2 character Gina, a version of the Six model who had infiltrated the Pegasus, had been captured, tortured and gangraped for months until the Pegasus met the Galactica and Gaius Baltar helped Gina free herself. He also gave her a gun which she used to kill the Pegasus' commander Helena Cain who had ordered the torture and rape. Now, two episodes later Gina and Baltar meet again. In the original script, their relationship became sexual. Thankfully, the actress, Tricia Helfer, pointed out to the producers and scriptwriters no woman who had been gangraped for months would want a sexual relationship this soon. The script was modified so that Baltar does make a pass but Gina rebuffs it. Much later in the season, she does have sex with him but is clearly not enjoying it; it's one step towards her suicide. Now, I always thought the fact Tricia Helfer even had to point out the glaringly obvious spoke of a remarkable cluelessness/lack of sensitivity/blackout/however you want to call it on the part of the scriptwriting team. Generally speaking, the Dexter team is far more consistent in high quality than BSG, but good lord – the latest episode was something else in this regard. Sorry, but I couldn’t buy healing sex in fanfiction (and it’s a topic used in every fandom under the sun), and I can’t buy it in canon, either. (Also now that they’ve made Lumen in every aspect Dexter’s ideal, I’m unfortunately more than ever convinced she is doomed and will end up sacrificing herself.) I’d have believed a kiss. But the sex was too much. I don’t care how much Plato imagery of two halves at last joined you use, show, I don’t buy it in this particular context. Not if you want me to take seriously what happened to Lumen.

Everything else, I was on board will, well, other than Dexter being somehow convinced Jordan Chase wouldn't know about his apartment. You know, the one Arthur found without a sweat last season and checked first, before finding the house with Rita in it. This was awfully contrived and the only reason for this stupidity I can think of is that they needed to make it plausible Liddy could install all his bugging equipment which presumably would have been more difficult if Dexter had installed Lumen in another anonymous motel. Bah.

On to the good stuff. Jordan Chase, motivational speaker de luxe, turns out to be an incredibly creepy and effective villain, and his origin story are about the most acerbic and darkest take on the whole self-help/motivational speaker thing so popular in the US I’ve seen. As befits a good villain, Chase also continues to demonstrates smarts, setting his old buddy Alex up for slaughter now that the police is on his back, and setting Lumen and Dexter up to get caught. Most shudder-worthy, though, was the scene revealing he had broken Emily so thoroughly she was even now his obedient slave. As I said, the darkest take on what a motivational speaker can be I’ve ever seen.

Deb putting clues together is as great as ever when the show focuses on what a great detective she’s become. Her repeated lines about understanding what motivates the unknown vigilante is btw the one thing that makes me doubt my Lumen-will-take-the-fall-for-Dexter theory. Because an alternate route I could see is that instead of being confronted with her brother the killer – which the season hasn’t prepared – Deb will face Lumen and will have to decide not in theory but in fact whether she can condone lethal vigilantism and instead of arresting Lumen, let her go. Albeit with the condition that she leaves town and doesn’t return to Miami. It would give Deb an arc of her own this season in retrospect and would avoid the fridging (one way or another) of Lumen, so I would prefer this.

Unfortunately, the Liddy plotline is eminently predictable. With all the evidence not just on Lumen but on Dexter that he’s gathered, he’s dead. Though I guess some part of his footage will remain undestroyed as the season winds up and will be found again in a future season.

Comments

[ide_cyan]

I read the Dexter/Lumen sex scene differently. It worked for me as Lumen being able to reclaim her own sexuality after killing one of her rapists, when she initiated it, and briefly had Dexter's hands semi-bound behind his back with his shirt, and he was passive and she was in control, at least up until the point he took her to the bed and got on top of her, where it unfortunately became more of a typical sex scene. Which is very different from BSG's situation with Baltar wanting to have sex with Gina, although it still feels like a requirement to have the male lead sleep with the Love Interest.

[ide_cyan]

(And another difference from BSG is that Lumen's had a lot more screentime devoted to her dealing with her trauma and gaining reasons to trust Dexter.)

[selenak]

I'll have to rewatch to check for the bound hands which escaped my notice (probably because I was too busy being upset this was happening). You know, it's not that I can't see that "Lumen reclaims her sexuality after killing one of her rapists" was the intention, but I still can't suspend my disbelief enough because - in show time, isn't it just three weeks or so after Boyd's death?

[ide_cyan]

Any time after the experiences Lumen went through might seem too soon, but it's been longer than that, though the show's pacing makes it hard to tell exactly how long. When Deb and Quinn go to Jordan Chase's offices at the beginning of the ep looking for Cole, the receptionist tells them that "Mr. Harmon hasn't worked here in more than two weeks."

[sizequeen]

Same here. I was really *proud* of Lumen in that moment. She had taken her revenge and by making love with Dexter, she had taken back her power and her sexuality that those men had violated. AN Dexter had made a real connection with someone. I thought that the trust and love between Dexter and Lumen was completely earned.

[selenak]

I am pretty sure this is how the show intended me to understand that scene, though abigail_n has come up with a fascinating completely different interpretation over at my lj; my problem is that I, personally, could not buy it at all. Still can't. Which is an individual viewing response, of course.

[monanotlisa]

As I said in a comment above: this is very much what the show intended; it's just not how it was emotionally received at my end at all.

[monanotlisa]

I can see this is the writers' intent, and the textual difference to BSG is there - but like Selena, it read as unbelievable in a show where the characters are usually so finely tuned, so human in all the right (and wrong ;) ways.