By Buzz Byrne
Miami is in the middle of its worst heat wave ever. All eighteen victims of the Bay Harbor Butcher have been identified. Pervy forensic expert Vince Masuka has made a big, BIG break in the case. And worst of all, Rita’s mother is coming for a visit.
The world of South Florida is wrapping its hands around Dexter’s throat and he is gasping for breath.
But just when the show could take the turn into simple genre-based cops and robbers/cat and mouse stuff, morality gets a turn at the wheel. The central issue always is that we love Dexter. You have to in order to enjoy the show. And the seduction of that love is that Dexter only kills those that kill or, as superstar special agent Frank Lundy put it last week, “The only justification for killing is to save the life of an innocent.” That’s how Dexter justifies what he does and that’s how we justify liking him for it. But of course it is a hollow argument. Dexter kills because he needs to and because he loves it. It is the thing he must do in order to be his most excellent self imaginable. And that isn’t justification, that’s self indulgence.
Despite being the title character, Dexter is not alone in the moral minefield. Srg. Doakes has to face his demons. Lt. Maria Laguerta must make critical decisions about her career. Officer Batista lies to a widow to get the truth. Debra Morgan tries to take back her sexual power by banging a near stranger (I’m not trying to be rude or indelicate; there really was a lot of banging around in the scene).
They all come to moral crises and few emerge unscathed. Doakes tracks down a murder suspect who had similar special ops training to his own. The man admits to killing his wife. Doakes confronts him on boat aptly named “SS FUBAR” and in this corrupted soldier he sees a future that might have been him. And Doakes has to kill him. For many reasons.
Batista tracks down a widow of a Bay Harbor Butcher victim and tries to find the dark secret, as the pattern of the Bay Harbor Butcher is that he only kills those who deserve it. Batista gets nowhere with his aggressive interrogation. When he approaches her with porkpie hat in hand, strips his hard veneer and appeals to her maternal instincts she rolls over and gives him everything. Was it a simple tactic or was he being real? Maybe both.
Lt. Laguerta provided the biggest, “OH NO SHE DI’NT!!” moment of the episode. She has had the back of the much stressed Lt. Esmee Pascal, the woman who took her job. Laguerta has helped and directed her replacement as Pascal has been slowly driven to a breakdown due to her fiancé sleeping with another woman. Tonight Pascal finally loses it at work and has to be replaced permanently by Laguerta. It is after this that it is revealed that Laguerta was the one sleeping with Pascal’s fiancé, just, it seems, to get her old prestigious job back.
Dexter warms to Rita’s mom immediately when she proclaims the Bay Harbor Butcher a Godsend for ridding the streets of scum. Such reactionary sentiment is growing and Dexter’s long held fantasies of hero worship are likely to be realized soon. Meanwhile his sponsor in his twelve step program is a vexing vixen. She steals property and possessions to create her gruesome artwork and she may have her sights set on stealing Dexter away from Rita. At the very least she is going to challenge Dexter’s moral code. She is already getting him to see that people aren’t all bad or all good. She derides his defenses saying, “You make yourself a monster so you don’t have to take responsibility for your actions.” Dexter is stunned. “She’s looking behind the mask,” He tells us in voice over, “And she’s not turning away.”
Everybody is wearing a mask. And in tonight’s great episode, we got to see them with their masks on and off. Remarkably well written, acted, directed and produced. This season keeps getting better.