Dexter 5.12 The Big Thing
Dec. 13th, 2010 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which some predictions come true and others don't while the show is renewed for another season.
First of all, I am glad that of my two predictions re: Lumen, the one about her taking the fall for Dexter didn't come true and the one about it ending in a confrontation with Deb where Deb has to decide whether or not to let Lumen go did. We really did not need another dead woman, let alone one who's been crucial for the season. So am I happy with the way Lumen's storyline was resolved? Yesno. Yes as far as the story itself is concerned, no in terms of execution. By which I mean: I am completely on board with Lumen, after killing the last of her torturers/rapists, concluding she's done with killing, realising Dexter is not because his need to kill was never tied or triggered solely by the need to avenge her, that he'll continue to kill and that this is not the life for her, and leaving. However, I think the show chickened out and failed to show us how she got there. Asabigail_n pointed out, the show every single time avoided showing us Lumen's reaction to the sight that broke Harry and shocked Doakes, the matter of fact dismemberment of the corpses. Which would have been a possibility to indicate Lumen's growing awareness that Dexter is different from her, but would have distracted from the tale of mutual healing by complete acceptance the show wanted to tell. Another case of the show wanting to have its cake and eat it with Lumen was the way it hammered down the "there's no coming back from something like this" message both with Deb's reaction to the dvds and speculation about the vigilante(s) and Lumen's own words, only to present Lumen's "losing her dark passenger" as something that happens overnight and off screen. Again, I am completely okay with the trauma that Lumen went through having a different effect than the one Dexter went through as a child. But like Lumen's tv style fast physical recovery (even with Mazuka's antibiotica Dexter brought her) after weeks of torture, and the sex after her first killing (I already ranted about this) after weeks of rape, this is all very shorthand and handwavey; a smudged sketch, rather than the careful oil painting I wanted.
What I didn't expect: Dexter's final conclusion in the tag scene, that Lumen also showed him that it is possible to quit, basically, to lose your dark passenger. Because that is a hint Dexter might try, in the next season, to do just that, especially now that Cody and Aster returned to him, and maybe with more success than with Lila. Who knows? Hm. (Though again, would have been more emotionally resonating if we'd seen Lumen struggle with both the killing and the quitting.)
Deb seeing Lumen and Dexter only distorted through the view screen (thus not learning Dexter's secret for another season) was a bit of a cheat, but her letting the unknown vigilantes go was not, because the show did prepare that, and thank you, episode, for reminding us of Deb's Rudy experience as another reason why she identifies with Lumen. I wouldn't have believed it if Deb had let the Bay Harbor Butcher go (seen through shades or not) in season 2, but in these very specific circumstances (i.e. as far as Deb knew a victim going after her serial killer torturers), with the preceding episodes leading up to this, I could.
However: parallel to this, we have the Quinn and Dexter thing. As I expected, Dexter is in a position to analyze Liddy's blood on Quinn's shoe which implicates Quinn and saves Quinn instead for Deb's sake. Conversely, Quinn - who knows whom Liddy was investigating and who thus is the obvious candidate to have killed him - does not say anything to anyone about Dexter, also for Deb's sake. Happy ending for Deb and Quinn. Except not, because what Quinn just did is imo a very different thing from Deb letting Lumen (and unknown accomplice) go. Granted, Quinn doesn't know Liddy caught Dexter serial-killing but he does know Liddy had dirt on Dexter, that Liddy thought Dexter did kill, and now Liddy is dead, killed, as everyone pointed out, in an expert way. This means Quinn is now covering not for a revenge-motivated vigilante but a killer. Who is as likely as not to kill again going by what Quinn knows. I do hope this is meant as a comment on Quinn's ethics rather than something intended to make me go "aw, how he must love Deb, yay, true love winning out!"
Death of Jordan Chase/Eugene Greer: he hasn't read the evil overlord rules and thus dooms himself by monologueing and gloating instead of killing Lumen right away and Dexter immediately after he has captured him. However, this is a villain who makes his living as a motivational speaker and by getting under people's skins and gets his jollies out of just that in a lethal and sadistic fashion, so it's entirely believable.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: all scenes with Deb and Maria LaGuerta, whether hostile or cooperative and working together, are golden. More of that, please, show, less of their love lives.
Return of Astor and Cody and the last exchange being between Astor and Dexter, about Rita, Lumen, helping and dealing: this I loved. Just as Astor's and Cody's departure signaled how Dexter's initial attempts to cope with Rita's death weren't working and Astor's visit showcased a turning point on the road to recovery, now their willingness to return to Dexter symbolizes the successful healing and rejoining of the community and the human bonds that were severed by Rita's death.
In conclusion: there was a lot about this season and this finale I enjoyed, but also an observable increasing tendency to take emotional short cuts and demand more and more suspension of disbelief. This makes me hope they really really will wrap the show up next season.
First of all, I am glad that of my two predictions re: Lumen, the one about her taking the fall for Dexter didn't come true and the one about it ending in a confrontation with Deb where Deb has to decide whether or not to let Lumen go did. We really did not need another dead woman, let alone one who's been crucial for the season. So am I happy with the way Lumen's storyline was resolved? Yesno. Yes as far as the story itself is concerned, no in terms of execution. By which I mean: I am completely on board with Lumen, after killing the last of her torturers/rapists, concluding she's done with killing, realising Dexter is not because his need to kill was never tied or triggered solely by the need to avenge her, that he'll continue to kill and that this is not the life for her, and leaving. However, I think the show chickened out and failed to show us how she got there. As
abigail_n pointed out, the show every single time avoided showing us Lumen's reaction to the sight that broke Harry and shocked Doakes, the matter of fact dismemberment of the corpses. Which would have been a possibility to indicate Lumen's growing awareness that Dexter is different from her, but would have distracted from the tale of mutual healing by complete acceptance the show wanted to tell. Another case of the show wanting to have its cake and eat it with Lumen was the way it hammered down the "there's no coming back from something like this" message both with Deb's reaction to the dvds and speculation about the vigilante(s) and Lumen's own words, only to present Lumen's "losing her dark passenger" as something that happens overnight and off screen. Again, I am completely okay with the trauma that Lumen went through having a different effect than the one Dexter went through as a child. But like Lumen's tv style fast physical recovery (even with Mazuka's antibiotica Dexter brought her) after weeks of torture, and the sex after her first killing (I already ranted about this) after weeks of rape, this is all very shorthand and handwavey; a smudged sketch, rather than the careful oil painting I wanted. What I didn't expect: Dexter's final conclusion in the tag scene, that Lumen also showed him that it is possible to quit, basically, to lose your dark passenger. Because that is a hint Dexter might try, in the next season, to do just that, especially now that Cody and Aster returned to him, and maybe with more success than with Lila. Who knows? Hm. (Though again, would have been more emotionally resonating if we'd seen Lumen struggle with both the killing and the quitting.)
Deb seeing Lumen and Dexter only distorted through the view screen (thus not learning Dexter's secret for another season) was a bit of a cheat, but her letting the unknown vigilantes go was not, because the show did prepare that, and thank you, episode, for reminding us of Deb's Rudy experience as another reason why she identifies with Lumen. I wouldn't have believed it if Deb had let the Bay Harbor Butcher go (seen through shades or not) in season 2, but in these very specific circumstances (i.e. as far as Deb knew a victim going after her serial killer torturers), with the preceding episodes leading up to this, I could.
However: parallel to this, we have the Quinn and Dexter thing. As I expected, Dexter is in a position to analyze Liddy's blood on Quinn's shoe which implicates Quinn and saves Quinn instead for Deb's sake. Conversely, Quinn - who knows whom Liddy was investigating and who thus is the obvious candidate to have killed him - does not say anything to anyone about Dexter, also for Deb's sake. Happy ending for Deb and Quinn. Except not, because what Quinn just did is imo a very different thing from Deb letting Lumen (and unknown accomplice) go. Granted, Quinn doesn't know Liddy caught Dexter serial-killing but he does know Liddy had dirt on Dexter, that Liddy thought Dexter did kill, and now Liddy is dead, killed, as everyone pointed out, in an expert way. This means Quinn is now covering not for a revenge-motivated vigilante but a killer. Who is as likely as not to kill again going by what Quinn knows. I do hope this is meant as a comment on Quinn's ethics rather than something intended to make me go "aw, how he must love Deb, yay, true love winning out!"
Death of Jordan Chase/Eugene Greer: he hasn't read the evil overlord rules and thus dooms himself by monologueing and gloating instead of killing Lumen right away and Dexter immediately after he has captured him. However, this is a villain who makes his living as a motivational speaker and by getting under people's skins and gets his jollies out of just that in a lethal and sadistic fashion, so it's entirely believable.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: all scenes with Deb and Maria LaGuerta, whether hostile or cooperative and working together, are golden. More of that, please, show, less of their love lives.
Return of Astor and Cody and the last exchange being between Astor and Dexter, about Rita, Lumen, helping and dealing: this I loved. Just as Astor's and Cody's departure signaled how Dexter's initial attempts to cope with Rita's death weren't working and Astor's visit showcased a turning point on the road to recovery, now their willingness to return to Dexter symbolizes the successful healing and rejoining of the community and the human bonds that were severed by Rita's death.
In conclusion: there was a lot about this season and this finale I enjoyed, but also an observable increasing tendency to take emotional short cuts and demand more and more suspension of disbelief. This makes me hope they really really will wrap the show up next season.
