Dexter - Remains to Be Seen, S04E02

At the end of the season premiere, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) was in a car accident on his way home with medication for his baby son, just after he'd killed a murderer named Benny Gomez. Flipping the car multiple times, Dexter came to surrounded by paramedics and police. And he feared they would find Benny in the trunk.

But Benny was not in the trunk. And neither Dexter nor his interested audience had any idea of where his body ended up.

For the second week, Dexter has been tight and put together. There are many things going on, but they do not feel completely disconnected as they did last season. We are dominated again, finally again, by Dexter and the needs of his dark passenger in conjunction with the rest of his life. How will he balance family, work and his need to kill? Who knows how, but he knows that he must. He cannot stop killing and he cannot be caught.

And we care that he not be caught. I spent the episode worrying about what he might have done with the body. I do not have the same affection for John Lithgow's Trinity Killer. He scares the &*^% out of me. When he was walking that woman home, that woman he's probably going to kill next episode, and he seemed like such a nice, normal man...I got the shivers. And that's probably why I'm not bothered by Dexter. I never killed any body and I have no intention of doing so, thus Dexter is never going to come after me. But Trin? He has a logic to it too, it seems, but it is so twisted and perverse that I could never understand it.

The side plots are also more colour than annoyance. I do want to know why Astor (Christina Robinson) is dealing so poorly with the newest changes in her life, and whether or not Maria (Lauren Velez) and Angel (David Zayas) are going to make is as a couple. I hope that whatever Quinn (Desmond Harrington) has got going on turns out to be awesome. And I like Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) and her constant swearing and the way she always makes her life more complicated than necessary.

They don't draw much focus and don't take away from the important stuff, but they do make Dexter's world rich and complete.

What I am most interested in discovering is whether the Vacation Murders will be solved soon, or whether than is going to be a plot line that remains throughout the season. All I can say is that if it is going to stick around, I wouldn't be upset if it got a little more intense. But if it's just so that we can continue to have our cops working as cops, well keep at it but don't take the focus (which is what it is doing admirably right now).

I hate having to wait a week before I can see the next episode.