Unless this love angle is done away with entirely and we get to see Deb become increasingly more involved in Dexter’s killings, possibly even to the extent of her helping him in the act, my interest in her as a character has almost disappeared entirely. Speaking from the standpoint of a hormone-driven guy once more, Jennifer Carpenter’s not even much to look at anymore. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s different about her. Maybe it’s her skin which looks a little too on the tan side nowadays. But there’s just something off about her.
Likewise, as I mentioned in last week’s review, there’s something off about Dexter. Not in terms of his looks, though. I will always count Michael C. Hall among my man crushes. He even succeeded in making cancer look sexy. No, what’s off about Dexter is that he’s simply not on top of things anymore. Except for Hannah, that is. Except neither are the writers, I guess, since restoring the contents of Price’s recycle bin are apparently beyond the capabilities of Deb or anyone else in Miami Metro. There have always been moments like that on Dexter. Think back to him pulling the fire alarm to get some much-needed privacy all those years ago. The difference is that it’s gone from a random moment here and there to an unsettling trend.
It’s a wonder Dexter hasn’t been caught yet. Then again, having seen the trouble Deb had to go through to discover who he really is, and how woefully inept Miami Metro can be, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. In short, if the other characters were anywhere near as smart as Dexter fancies himself, Dexter wouldn’t have made it past the first season. Dexter, once a weekly battle of wits, has slowly become a battle of the witless. People often talk about how inaccurate a representation of real-life crime scene investigation CSI is, yet, for some unknown reason, I’ve never once heard Dexter singled out in a similar fashion. Oh, many have mentioned how unlikely it is that Miami would be the serial killing hub it’s been throughout the series, but none have really called it out on anything besides that and I can’t for the life of me understand why that is.
Switching topics, something else that made little sense to me was the calm nature with which Isaak spoke to Dexter at the bar. This was a man desperate enough to put himself at odds with his own men and attempt a drive-by on Dexter when he stopped to get his daily box of donuts. He’s completely unhinged, as the preview for the next episode, where he kidnaps Hannah and threatens to kill her, goes to show. Yet he goes so far as to tell Dexter that they might actually have been able to become good friends if things were different. The two simply don’t mesh.
Bravado, like the type he displayed as Dexter and the others came to investigate the murder in Viktor’s apartment, I can see. But not this oddly polite attitude displayed in the conversation between him and Dexter at the bar. Still, in spite of it feeling a little out of nowhere, I rather liked it. That’s the only thing in this episode, other than Jamie in a bikini, that I can say that about. And it looks like that’s yet another trend that’s only going to continue as we move towards the season finale. Dexter could pull another rabbit out of its ass (I know I’m mixing my metaphors and I don’t particularly care) come the finale, not unlike last season, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Bits and Bobs:
- Quinn’ll either end up in jail or dead by the end of the series the way he’s going. Book it.
- Masuka’s not even himself lately. He got, I think, three lines and only one was at all amusing.
- Did they pay the writers to have Cody mention Angry Birds off-hand or are they just too lazy to come up with anything more original than him being yet another teenager too attached to his phone who also happens to play the most popular game there currently is?
- I imagine Astor and Cody being back was a welcome sight for many, but not for me. All it took were a couple brief moments for me to be reminded of why I was glad they were essentially written off. Cody’s simply not an interesting character and Astor’s nothing but cliched teenage melodrama. It was nice, however, to see Harrison again. He barely did anything, but I can’t hate on a cute kid being cute.
