selenak

Dexterthe show at its best has managed to toe the line between keeping its hero sympathetic yet not to glamorize or prettify serial killers or vigilantism. (One of several reasons why last season and the part where killing now worked as therapy sat ill with me.) It also often used serial killers to satirize various aspects of society, and this episode was a case in point. I enjoyed it a lot. Dexter has often be paralleled/contrasted with his victims/prey du jour, and if, say, Arthur was a false hope that you could reconcile being a family man and a serial killer who then turned out to be a nightmare to his family completely without them knowing about his killing activities, and a warning sign to Dexter, this week's cranky old man is another possible future. Though clearly the show doesn't want its viewers to think Dexter might be in for a lonely age, bereft of all contact and reduced to staring it his old trophies and the occasional murder despite physical infirmity; there is the pointed contrast of the quondam Tooth Fairy's desire to let hurt his son post mortem with the revelation of the truth about himself and Dexter's desire to protect Harrison from the truth, as he kept it from Rita. (And yet, the old man had a photo of his son in his room.) Still, it's a great example of what the show used to do more often in earlier seasons and less in the later, de-glamourize serial killing by the sheer banality/everyman quality of the serial killers. Dexter's victim, his gruesome past and revival attempt of same excepted, isn't different from many old people, and what he suffers from aren't the punishments for serial killing but the afflictions that sadly often go with old age; loss of physical agility, social isolation, loss of contact with family members. He never got caught, and in the end, he's not different from anyone else, and Dexter makes sure his death won't be identified as murder but will be seen as avarage as well.

Meanwhile, we get a reminder of the first season's serial killer/antagonist, Rudy/Brian, and I would wonder whether this is the show preparing for Deb finding out by reminding the viewer of the Ice Truck killer, except she already found out Rudy and Dexter were brothers two seasons ago and the show passed up the opportunity of letting this lead her to more questions. I do think we're meant to assume Masuka's student/potential love interest is just using him for Ice Truck Killer related reasons, but I also think it will be a red herring because the show already did that subplot with Christine the reporter and Quinn, so this time around the twist will probably be that she isn't a mole after all.

Deb's first day in office went predictably in an an immensely watchable fashion. I am really glad that it looks like Deb's seasonal plotline will be about her job, not her love life, and that if you have to revive the antagonism between her and LaGuerta to its old strength, it will be about the job as well. Also, never stop those sibling scenes between her and Dexter, they remain the core of the show. As for the new detective, we'll see.

Intriguingly, Brother Sam seems to be more than a one shot character. I'm curious to where the show will go with him and Dexter, because we've done the potential friend-turning-foe thing a couple of times, so I hope it won't be that. Plus he's a good contrast to the Olmos character whose name I keep forgetting (if they said it already). Again, provided the show won't suddenly reveal Sam is secretly murdering after all, he would be the the one killer other than Lumen (whose current state of being we don't know about) the series offers as able to successfully quit and do something productive with his life.