Dexter - Circle Us, S05E07

And suddenly Dexter (Michael C Hall)'s world crashes right back into that of the rest of the officers at the precinct. Again, I love the fact that the Santa Muerte case remains a separate affair, the development of which was pretty intense this episode, so the fact that it is Dexter`s extracurricular that has become a joint effort makes me pretty happy. I'm also quite liking the development of Dexter`s friendship with Lumen (Julia Stiles).

The Santa Muerte case has been a PR nightmare from the beginning, and the latest development has not improved things at all. Did Maria (Lauren Velez) make a bad call in sending Officer Manzon (April Hernandez) to the Fuentes brothers' table? It is hard to say - the results certainly were devastating, with the informant and another bystander ending up dead, although Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) got to accomplish what she should have in her last encounter with the murderers. One of the brothers is dead, the woman he was threatening safe. Would things have gone better had that brother not asked Manzon to join him, tried to feel her up, and discovered her gun? Was the potential of its discovery a negligible risk that did not pan out, or did Maria not consider it a potential danger? I would say Manzon's reaction time from the moment she was discovered was too slow. We'll see how that develops, and, remember, there is one brother still out there.

On the other side of things, we finally got to meet Jordan "Take It Now" Chase (Johnny Lee Miller). His security guard is one of the men who hurt Lumen, and he is obviously equally connected to the crime. When a man panics, he makes mistakes. Moving the bodies of the women was never a good idea, but being hit by a drunk driver and having the bodies strewn across the highway is one of the worse possible outcomes. Lucky for them Dexter is coming to claim them, and therefore he will help them avoid being arrested by the police. Good thing Dexter doesn't care about PR; his kills continually hurt his precincts' track record.

Now, there are a lot of comparisons between Lumen's relationship with Dexter and Miguel's in season 3. Both of these people have been allowed into his life, have been told of his secrets. The big difference is that Miguel's desire for Dexter's skill came from a dark place he created inside himself, whereas the darkness in Lumen was imposed by the men she seeks to kill. Unlike both the men, she is obviously damaged and does not pretend to hide what she has become. She also has a brightness which is neither an act, nor believed to be an act (in Dexter's case, since he would never actually be able to believe that he had a positive side). I can only hope that by the end of the season, Lumen will be healed, will not resent Dexter for who he will continue to be, and will not hurt him when she inevitably has to move on.

So the race is on, will Dexter be able to kill everyone he intends to without his own colleagues catching them first, or without them catching him?