I'm not sure if anyone saw the end coming. Oh, sure, we all knew that Dexter (Michael C. Hall) was finally going to catch up with Arthur (John Lithgow) and put an end to the man known as the Trinity Killer. That's the thing about this show, each season has always ended on a fulfilled note, leaving us wanting to see more not because of a cliffhanger of any sort, but because we know there is another story to tell and we want to hear it. The question has become "How will Dexter catch and destroy this threat to the world and the people in his life?"
This entire season, the theme has been the question of whether Dexter is a threat, maybe not to the world or at least the serial killers in it (which we know he is), but to the people in his life. In this episode, with Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) discovering that Dexter is the brother of the Ice Truck Killer, and Rita (Julie Benz) catching yet another glimpse of his Dark Passenger, some of his skeletons have been pulled from the closet, and in the light of day, they don't appear nearly so scary. Both his sister and his wife believe that Dexter is a positive force in their lives, that he makes their world better for being in it.
As the end of the episode approached, and with it Trinity's death, Dexter is overcome with a calmness, an understanding that perhaps, after all this time, he might be able to begin to curb his Dark Passenger to his will, rather than being a slave to its primal urges. His family makes him want to be a better man, and makes him believe that that is actually possible. But amid that peace, I could not stop the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop, though I could not imagine what that would be.
Dexter caught Trinity, he killed him, and he made the decision that he would be in control from now on. He goes home to grab his back so that he can join his lovely wife in the Keys, at peace with himself, but when he tries to call Rita, he discovers her purse is in the house. And she and their baby son Harrison are in the house - Rita in the bathtub, and Harrison on the tile floor, sitting in red water. And my heart broke.
So many people have complained of Rita of late, for getting in Dexter's way, for being annoying, but the last couple episodes, she has shined and so had their relationship. Ever since the therapist pointed out that she had her own set of issues to work out. Finding her like that, seeing her like that, so beautiful in her blue dress in the blood-filled tub, for the first time, Dexter ended before the story was finished. Arthur Miller may be dead, but before he died, he changed the playing field. And Rita is gone.
I can't say where this will go. Dexter seemed to absorb the shock with a certain numbness, unsure of what to do as he stood in the blood-soaked bathroom, his son crying on the floor, his wife...Will this awake a mad vengeance and rage in him? Or will his need to be a good single father to 3 children keep him on the level? Will he even be able to function at all?
So many questions about what will happen next season, and I'm still breathless from the shock of those last few moments.
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