Dexter Review: “Run” (Season 7, Episode 4)

Thanks to it, though, business went more or less back to usual. I was cautious in my optimism, but it was there nonetheless. Now, four episodes in, it seems it wasn’t unwarranted. Unlike other reviewers I’ve read, though, I won’t be so quick to act like everything’s returned to normal. In a sense, you could say we’ve switched roles. Whereas before they were the ones that were going at it all doom and gloom, while I regularly contended they were being much too harsh, I’m now the one calling the show out on what I perceive to be its failings.

And those are? Well, it comes back to what I was talking about before, which is the questions Dexter asks of its viewers. Thus far, each episode this season has left me with a number of questions. Some have been of the welcome sort already mentioned, relating to the morality of Dexter’s devilish deeds and where this season will take him and Deb, while others have had a more critical edge to them. During “Run,” the critical began to outpace the welcome.

Let’s start with the matter that lead a couple readers to comment on last week’s review, that of Louis’s sudden death. Whether the blow-back would end up hurting Dexter or not was a point of contention. If “Run” is anything to go off of, though, his being written off was as easy and painless as I had thought. It took him out of the picture and threw Dexter in the sights of the Ukrainians. Two birds, one stone.

What of his murder taking place on Dexter’s boat? Or of the plans Louis supposedly had for him? Not so much as a mention. Louis disappeared and no one’s even cared enough yet to go looking. Does that mean no one eventually will, that we’ll never hear of Louis again? Besides his internet followers, I can’t think of a single person who would notice his absence. He was no longer an intern, and had just been unceremoniously dumped by Jamie, leaving him with no other ties to the outside world (that we know of).

Admittedly, until what the Ukrainians did with his body is addressed, his case isn’t closed. Further, just because the plotline was conspicuously absent from one episode, minus the requisite mentions from his killers as they look into Dexter, that doesn’t mean it won’t come back up later. Look at LaGuerta’s investigation into the blood slide she found at the scene where Travis died. These last two episodes, it seemed almost as if it’d been forgotten amid the season’s numerous plotlines. However, as seen in the teaser for the next episode, it’s not about to go away, not yet.

That being said, I don’t think the probability is high that his death ever comes back in a big way. Dexter may go to take the boat out for a spin, find the blood, and try to piece things together from there, but that’s as far as I see it going. If Louis can sneak onto the boat and get murdered by the Ukrainian mob, all in broad daylight, I think it’s safe to say that nobody’s about to notice a little blood on his boat unless LaGuerta’s investigation leads them back to the marina.

Next there’s the matter of Speltzer who comes back in a big way in this week’s episode and raises a number of questions in doing so. First, if all a suspected (and confessed) murderer needs for a get-out-of-jail-free card, and to file charges against the four officers needed to take him in, is to argue that he wasn’t aware of his rights, the justice system is fu**ed. If Dexter wanted to get Deb to defect to his side, he should’ve just pointed out how patently absurd that was, arguing that if the guilty get off that easily it makes him a necessary evil.

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