Monday, December 14, 2009

Dexter - Hello, Dexter Morgan, S04E11

Many of you watched the last episode of season 4 of Dexter last night, but I did not. Instead, I caught up by watching the penultimate episode of this season.

The episode was not rife with tension and suspense as some previous episodes, granting almost a reprieve from the darkness until next week. Not that many important and serious things did not occur, but there was so much of the positive, that side was outweighed.

Let us address the positive first. Laguerta (Lauren Velez) and Batista (David Zayas) got married. Their boss was highly unimpressed, accusing them of making marriage a sham since it was clearly a political maneuver, and in the wake of that accusation, a shadow of a doubt crossed the couple's faces, but I know he was wrong. True, Maria and Angel were getting married to get him off their backs, rather than because they had already come to the decision that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, but that does not mean that they do not feel one day they would have made that decision anyway. Particularly in this day and age, where divorce is so common, it is really not inexcusable to marry someone that you want to date when you could not date them under other circumstances. We will have to see if next season, or even next episode, their relationship proves that they took the right course of action...but it is better that they know how things will be between them than to always wonder what might have been.

I also have to say that I loved Dexter (Michael C. Hall) and Rita (Julie Benz)'s relationship bump. With Masuka (C.S. Lee) having witnessed Rita and Elliot's kiss, things could have gotten very bad. Instead, when Rita told Dexter, he didn't really let it faze him. Rita still wanted to be with him, right? So then there was no issue. But in the end, some instinct he did not know he had, one completely unconnected to the serial killer in him, still punched out Elliot and told him to stay away from Rita. And as a result, Rita's issues were dramatically decreased, knowing that Dexter did care after all. Sure, excessive jealousy is not a good thing, but a man really ought to care when another man kisses his wife.

But let's not forget the true reason we watch Dexter - I'll give you a hint, it has nothing to do with the romantic plot lines. Even though the main events of this episode were not without them. Poor suffering Christine (Courtney Ford), journalist and unloved daughter of a serial killer - she wanted to be just like her dad, and he did not love her any more for it.
There was the beautiful moment where Quinn (Desmond Harrington) and Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) realized that both had the misfortune of dating psychos. As Deb pointed out, Quinn was only dating Christine, while Deb had actually been engaged to the Ice Truck Killer.
Christine finally decided to do the right thing - which Deb ruined by telling her they had already I.D.ed her father when they hadn't. Still she did apologize to the woman she'd shot, for the lover she'd killed. And Jennifer Carpenter's performance then, as she tried to absorb the apology, as she shook with her grief and pain, that was brilliance! With the terrific finish of Christine blowing off her own head. What a moment!

And now, Arthur (John Lithgow) is safe from the police, and knows Dexter's true identity. With only one more episode to go, what will happen? Will Dexter kill Arthur? Will he keep his serial killer persona secret? Will Deb resume her search for their father's former lover and discover Dexter's true identity or will that wait for season 5? I'm planning on finding out soon!

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