Dexter - My Bad, S05E01

If you had already recovered from last year's shocking finale, the quick recap did an excellent job of bringing all those horrified emotions. Not a moment has passed in all that time for Dexter (Michael C. Hall), and not a moment has passed for any of us. Still stunned, the passage of time has started again, and we can only hope that we will heal along with the characters on the show. But is that even possible for them?

Rita's death last year is only the beginning of...well...of something. It's still hard to see where we are going. Dexter's utter and complete shock over finding her body rendered him almost non-functional. Naturally, he blames his sociopathic condition for his inability to feel rather than understanding that it is not an unnatural place for his mind to go to protect him from his pain. Everyone deals with grief differently. Dexter can't even acknowledge his until he is suddenly confronted by that jerk as he is trying to run from his past and from everyone who loves him. The surge of emotion he felt as he knocked that man's head in for saying something rude and unfeeling about Rita, and then the screams of pain as he broke down. Michael C. Hall is certainly deserving of every award and nomination he has ever received.

Whether that man truly deserved to have his head bashed in is an argument for another day.

And while, as usual, Dexter moves the story along and is its focus, I really loved what was going on around him in it. Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) also deals with her grief in the most interesting ways. She managed to be strong for Dexter, protecting him as she could, taking care of his child, and arranging everything for Rita's funeral. He was really checked out of reality for a while, and Deb stepped in and took care of it. Eventually, of course, she demanded physical comfort in the form of sex on Dexter's kitchen floor with Quinn (Dexmond Harrington). Now that was HOT and something we've been waiting for for years.

I've always liked Quinn's issue with Dexter. It works better for me than the issues that Doakes had. Plus, the balance of his feelings for Deb, whom he cares about as his partner if not as more than that, compared to his dislike of her brother...it's just such a tentative balance which the writers know how to play with so effectively, and it makes for fantastic television.

The big question for the season is if Dexter is going to be discovered for who he is or not. If he manages to keep it all hidden, how is that going to happen, and if it all comes out, how is he going to manage to shift the blame? He is far more capable of humanity now that when Doakes was supposed to take the fall for him, but has that capability been destroyed by Rita's death? So many questions and only 11 more episodes to get all the answers.