Having said that I would begin to review television shows, I had a little bit of an ulterior motive. That's right - I want to share my Dexpert views on a series that has had me gripped since I first picked up watching it online last year: Dexter, a Showtime treat that has very rapidly become one of my favourite things to do of an evening.
#1 - DEXTER SEASON FIVE
Stars - Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, Desmond Harrington, Julia Stiles, Johnny Lee Miller, Peter Weller, and more
Memorable Quote - 'Tick tick tick? That's the sound of your life running out.'
(Memorable Deb-ism: 'Fuck me in both ears.' and 'I would rather put a campfire out with my face.')
Review - We'll take series five in chronological order, and end with a general overview. First up was 'My Bad', an episode I had been looking forward to greatly. The last series ended in utter tragedy with Rita's death, and now the questions were many. How would Dexter deal with Rita's death? How could he balance being a single Dad to three kids with being a serial killer AND a blood splatter analyst? Most importantly, how were his colleagues going to react to him being targeted?
Their reaction, of course, is varied. Some take him as the main suspect thanks to his first words after the police arrive, seemingly a confession, though others - like his sister Deb - still believe in him. Although that faith is usually misplaced, here it is correct, and it is almost painful to watch Dexter face the possibility of being sent to jail for the one crime he did not commit. But this is episode one, and as a savvy viewer we can already begin to expect that he will get away without charges - though not without an emotional cost. The moment that Dexter realises, too late, that he was truly in love with Rita is the most heart-string-tugging moment of the entire series to date, and was very well done. Although Dexter may carry a dark passenger, he is not as emotionally dead as he thought, which will continue to bring an interesting spin to the rest of the season (and, no doubt, season 6).
Episode two, 'Hello Bandit', introduces a new bad guy to the screen, in what will eventually become a season-long arc. Boyd Fowler is the name of the man picking up roadkill and also indulging in a little spot of murder on the side, but Dexter does not yet realise what he is getting himself in to. In fact, his initial determination to be a good father and nothing more is thwarted completely this season, right from the start when he takes Harrison to investigate blood inside the van that will lead him to Boyd. This episode also sees the start of two other story arcs - the Santa Muerte case, and Debra's relationship with Quinn, which actually works perfectly. The two of them look good together and have real chemistry, as well as matching attitude problems, and we know that both of them understand what it is like to be lied to and to lose someone that they thought loved them. We see Astor turn into a brat and demand to leave in another demonstration of Dexter's newfound human emotions, and finally are introduced to the Barrel Girls for the first time. Although this episode seems to be mostly a way of moving the plot forward, there are small nuggets of brilliance - though I am beginning to become skeptical as to how Dexter manages to swing all this time tracking down killers without attracting attention.
'Practically Perfect' brings in a new character, Harrison's Irish nanny, Sonya. Fact fans will be amazed to know that this is the same actress that played Catherine of Aragon in The Tudors - I know, I had to Google it in surprise, too. Anyway, this is an episode full of tension as Dexter is nearly revealed for who he is when he attempts to kill Boyd and is tranquilised instead. Thankfully for him, he already gave a false name (Darrel Tucker), and Boyd most definitely has something to hide. For both of them, calling the police is not an option. Dexter clearly thinks that this is because of the previous killings, but one of the biggest shockers of the season comes when Lumen, at this point an unknown female, sees Dexter killing Boyd. This has to be one of the highlights of the entire series, as it propels the show into a new layout: previously it has been Dexter vs one big bad and one supposed ally who must be stopped for the length of a season (Ice Truck Killer/Brian and Doakes, then Doakes/Lila, then the Skinner/Miguel Prado, and lastly Trinity, who fulfilled both roles). This season, however, there are mulitple big bads who are all part of the same equation under Jordan Chase/Eugene Greer, but the ally is someone he can finally trust. He cannot kill an innocent, so it was clear from the outset that Lumen would either have to turn him in, or become his partner in crime, a transition that felt natural and genuine.
This was also the first episode for Sergeant Lopez, who played a disappointingly small role in the storylines. It was interesting to have a sort of mini-Deb for her to play off against, and I hope that character will be used more in the future. The argument between Batista and LaGuerta here was interesting character development, but something that I could not really care about. For me, it was simply distraction from the main events.
In 'Beauty and the Beast', Quinn is getting towards the ideas that we all were afraid of him getting to - the connection between Dexter and Kyle Butler, and more than that, the connection between Dexter and the death of Trinity. It is painful to watch him destroying his relationship with Debra as well as getting close to taking down our hero, but again - thinks the voice in the back of the head - this is only the first part of the season. If Dexter was going to go down, it would not happen yet, and therefore the fear rests not with Dexter but with Quinn. Is he going to implicate himself and do a Doakes? I for one certainly hoped that he would not - Quinn's kinda awesome, and the last thing we want is for repeating storylines to give Showtime an excuse to cancel the show. Again, this is a moving-forward episode: there's a break in the Santa Muerte case that goes wrong, and Dexter struggles with Lumen, but nothing is really developing yet.
In 'First Blood', Dexter begins to worry about Harrison having a dark passenger, though this idea is lost later on in. I'm hoping that it is lost now only to reappear next season, as it is an interesting concept and one that will no doubt provide a wealth of storylines (Harry teaching Dexter teaching Harrison - the irony of the name is not lost here). We begin to understand that Lumen is serious about killing the Barrel Girls men, but is she in the right state of mind to be making any decisions at all? By the time she tries to shoot Robert and is stopped by Dexter I am beginning to grow tired of her sniffling. She needs to man up and get some justice, or at least that's my view.
Deb visits a tattoo parlour with Masuka, one of my favourite comedy moments of the season as he suggests she get a tattoo:
Masuka: 'Hey, since we're here, why don't you get Quinn's name put on your -'
Deb: 'Hey. I have a gun.'
Masuka: 'I'll just wait in the car.'
We also see the supposed departure of Lumen, though it is clear that she is not going to give up without a fight, and when she gets back into the cab we can only wonder what she has planned.
'Everything is Illumenated' marks the halfway point of the season, and is quite a nice pun. Incidentally, the fact that Lumen sounds like Luminol, and that Dexter is a blood expert, is also quite a tidy little pun, but never mind that: this is the episode where things get intense. The scene where Dexter is almost, almost caught by Deb and the gang and JUST manages to escape, setting up the two dead bodies, had me on the edge of my seat. It's the halfway point now and you almost begin to think that hey, they probably could run a trial for six episodes, couldn't they? It's possible that he could get caught now, isn't it? But thankfully, no thanks to Lumen, Dexter makes it, and from this point it is clear that he is committed to helping Lumen - the cost of not doing so could be too much for him to carry. We have a little more on the Liddy storyline and on Santa Muerte, but nothing too important just yet.
Episode seven is 'Circle Us', where we finally meet Jordan Chase fully. Johnny Lee Miller plays this part excellently throughout - he is truly creepy, and actually quite motivational as well. The cold-blooded psychopath is playing the innocent game for now though, as Dexter points Miami Metro in the direction of Boyd to detract attention from Cole, thinking that this will buy him time to get to him himself. We also have the unfortunate ending to the Santa Muerte case, a shoot-out that really seems to serve very little purpose. I appreciate being shown that there are cases that Dexter does not stick his oar into, but since the show is actually called 'Dexter' I felt that a case running for seven episodes and ending with such drama was a bit superfluous, particularly as it now ends without a backwards glance. More Liddy drama building up, as Quinn finds out that Dexter is working with Lumen. From this point I began to respect Harrington as an actor more and more, as some of his scenes with Liddy and Deb are really great stuff, developing him from the cop-with-a-bad-streak of last season.
Their arguing intensifies in 'Take It!', where Liddy has photographs of the dumping of Cole Harman's body. Cole was of course killed during the seminar led by Jordan Chase, in a few scenes that are really quite chilling. Dexter is turning into a hero, Rita and Lumen's avenger rather than the monster he usually associates himself with, coming to Lumen's aid just as she is trapped by the man she is afraid of. LaGuerta suspends Deb etc etc, still not interested in this storyline, beginning to wonder if they're trying to write LaGuerta out for making really stupid decisions. She's becoming her superiors, it seems, and while she and Batista make a good couple she is making less and less sense as the episodes go on.
In 'Teenage Wasteland', we get a bit of a shock. Astor has returned, with quite a large amount of make-up and alcohol, demanding to know who Lumen is and vomiting all over the damn place. Kids these days. Long story short, the outcome is that Astor likes Dexter again, and Olivia's stepdad has been hitting her. The scene where Dexter beats him so that he will leave her alone is the most indicative yet of the change that has come over him this season, and it is not an unwelcome one. Dexter is doing human things! Yay! What Harry says to him in the car, too, must be a pretty large personality turning point. We also realise that Quinn and Deb's relationship is getting pretty deep pretty fast, and that she may even be in love with him (which I can't really blame her for).
We also get our first idea of Emily, whose blood is removed from Jordan's necklace in typical nick-of-time Dexter fashion, and the Boyd case is reopened, spelling trouble for Dexter. Now we're beginning to worry about how he's going to juggle all of these things - finding and killing Lumen's captors, stopping homicide from finding them first, hiding Lumen's true identity, and avoiding Liddy - who he doesn't even know is watching them. Oh no, Quinn, I keep thinking. Do NOT do a Doakes. This episode has my favourite ending so far, as the moment when Jordan Chase says Lumen's name over the phone was pretty damn terrifying - he's onto them! I don't think I've ever gasped as dramatically in my life.
'In the Beginning' is episode ten, and Dexter wisely sends Harrison away to be protected by Astor and Cody and their grandparents. Meanwhile, he must do yet more covering up of mistakes, as the DVD of Lumen must be removed and replaced. Emily is a puppet of Jordan's, as we spine-chillingly discover, and we begin to wonder if this crazy man might actually outwit Dexter and Lumen. But if Trinity couldn't, can Jordan Chase? Well, he almost does - but in an editing twist that was quite spectacular, we discover that Dexter and Lumen are working in a different house as they kill another rapist, meaning that they are quite safe from discovery. Not, however, safe from Liddy, who has been filming it all. Surely, surely with concrete evidence like that, this is the time when Dexter will have to go down?
Either way he ends up sleeping with Lumen, which is quite nice for him, I suppose. Well done, Dexter.
'Hop a Freighter' is next, and with only two episodes left things are heating up. Dexter finally realises that Liddy is filming them, though he still does not know the culprit, nor exactly how badly they have incriminated themselves. On finding that it is Miami Metro surveillance gear, however, he is shocked, and clearly rattled. Is this going to be the episode in which he looks into his sister's eyes, knowing that she knows the truth? Thankfully not, because Liddy is stupid enough to confront a serial killer, and gets himself added to the serial list because of that stupidity. Thus ends one of the greatest threats that Dexter has faced to date. The tension is skillfully built as Quinn arrives, and that little drop of blood is the best foreshadowing since Final Destination 2. The tension continues - we know that Jordan has Lumen, and unbelievably we also see him kill Emily, who had been assumed to be important to him in some way. A little side note - there must be so much of Lumen's hair and various other fibres at all of these crime scenes, but it does not seem at all as if she is going to be caught. Ah, well.
Deb puts together her romantic vigilantes theory, which is terrifyingly close to the truth, and it is clear that she has not fallen out of love with Quinn at all. If only she knew the extent of how he could have been involved in her brother's downfall!
The season finale was titled 'The Big One', and finally aired last night (at the time of typing this). Going into it there were several things to be resolved: Is Quinn going to be framed or get away with it? How will Dexter save Lumen? and, more pertinently, WILL Dexter save Lumen? Those three questions were answered, though only two of them answered satisfactorily. I am not at all happy with the explanation that 'the bloodwork cleared him', because I require more details than that. What did Dexter do? Did he fake something, or just point out that one drop of blood does not a murder make? How on earth would he get away with any of this? Anyway, the Liddy investigation puts a spanner in Dexter's works, though he is so unhurried that I almost begin to think that he has forgotten about Lumen. The boat conversation between Dexter and Quinn is laced with both hidden questions and hidden answers, and added another level of tension to the scene.
Many of the trademark Dexter elements appear in this episode: Deb and Miami Metro are racing against Dexter to find the big bad, Deb is the one leading the investigation, someone Deb loves is in jeopardy, many things are very close to going wrong and yet go down smoothly (such as the moment Lumen is almost discovered by a fruit seller), and also the moment of pure happiness after the kill foreshadows something terrible happening. Remember when Dexter was all happy about getting rid of Trinity, only to find that Rita was dead? Well, this is something similar. When I saw Lumen laughing on the boat and looked at how much time was left in the episode, I knew that she was not going to make it to the end of the season - and indeed, she walks out on Dexter about five minutes before the end. This is something that I don't understand. How can he let her go with all that incriminating knowledge? How can she risk leaving him, knowing that he could incriminate her out of spite?
The three best moments of this episode are the heart-stopping scene where Deb finally catches Dexter in the act, albeit unknowingly, and the act of kindness she shows him by allowing him and Lumen to escape. Just goes to show that all Deb wants is a little love. Then there's the moment that Jordan Chase traces his hand over Dexter's kill tools, pausing at the empty space with a puzzled look for a second before roaring in pain and rage as Dexter stabs him (brilliant acting from Miller again). The third moment comes at the very end, as he tells us 'that nothing is set in stone, not even darkness.' The look on his face as he stares us into the credits is the perfect ending to a great season, and although it is not really a cliffhanger it does promise us that Dexter has not quite softened up yet, and he will be coming back with a vengeance next season.
So, the final verdict? Well, in spite of the flaws such as the boring side-storylines and a few plot holes as to how all this is possible, I think that this is the best season of Dexter yet. The reason? Imaginative ideas have broken Dexter out of his emotionless avenger mode and brought him into a more human frame of mind, a state that we can empathize with - how can we not believe in the pain he feels when Lumen leaves him? The fact that Astor and Cody are soon going to be back in the mix is also promising, and I for one simply cannot wait for season six. Something tells me it's going to be a good one. 4.5/5
Tl;dr? Dexter's awesome.
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