By Buzz Byrne
As Dexter (Michael C.Hall) furthers his “recovery,” he finds his world crumbling. The walls and foundation of who he is were so carefully crafted by his adoptive father (James Remar) and molded into a set of regulations to point a pathological murderer in the “right” direction. But as the character of Harry slowly erodes, so too does the validity of Harry’s Rules in Dexter’s eyes. Did Harry love his biological mother or was he just using her, “Or me?” Dexter wonders. Did Harry make a monster to exact revenge that was beyond his own ability? And if that is the case, what will Dexter find when he gets to the end of his journey inward.
Dexter’s sponsor, Lila (Jaime Murray), puts it to him thusly, “Plenty of people go through trauma without becoming addicts…Now you get to figure out who you are.”
Yeah, that’s all. And if she didn’t seem so hot and bothered to get him in the sack, maybe this advice would seem more noble and true. What Dexter is discovering is that the world is more complex than simple good and evil. Both can be contained in a singular soul.
The dance with Superstar Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) continues. This week, the Bay Harbor Butcher (Dexter) has a copycat and Lundy calls Dexter to the scene. “If you were the Bay Harbor Butcher, would you use a place like this?” Lundy asks, referencing the abandoned train yard. As the irony and paranoia drip from the screen, there is a delicious feeling that maybe it will get worse for Dexter before it gets better and yet he win still overcome in the end.
It does get worse as Rita’s mom (JoBeth Williams) wants to meet Dexter’s sponsor- have them both for dinner. One does get the cannibal vibe off dear old Gail. Lila charms both mom and daughter but later, as Rita and Dexter meet at his place for a late night rendezvous, Lila leaves a message heard by both, calling Rita Martha Stewart-ish, mom an attack dog and happy not to have slipped about their road trip of last week. Rita breaks up with Dexter immediately and storms out.
The next day at work, Doakes is back to harassing Dexter since Debra told him her brother wasn’t an addict. As Dexter tells Doakes to get out of his stuff, Doakes counters, saying, “Why would someone pretend to be an addict unless he’s got something a Hell of a lot worse to hide.” It’s too bad this plot point was so easily seen diffused, as his superior has been worrying about his mental health lately. Doakes is the mirror to Dexter- so similar but polar opposite because of the line drawn by the law- the glass pane that separates them and reflects each others strengths, yet when one raises a right hand, the other is raising a left.
Dexter is left boiling and runs right to Lila. “Being the new me sucks!” He says. The tension of his life and the tension with Lila roils over into the inevitable sexual explosion that has been hinted at for weeks. Afterwards, as they lay in the basking afterglow, Dexter asks which step that was. My guess is that it is just another one that will change everything. Dexter was not a sexual being in the first season. That’s what made his relationship work with Rita so well, they didn’t have sex. Part of what makes mental illness such a topic for fiction is that it holds the possibility, the trick, of making insanity understandable, when in fact it will remain truly elusive. It is not a puzzle that can be put together, at least not in the case of a serial killer like Dexter. But we still want to root for him, and we want to understand him and the shift to giving him a vibrant sex life is much easier an access to his subconscious than other tactics. It probably won’t work out well for Dexter and it definitely won’t end well for Lila but it is new ground.
Having lightened his load, so to speak, Dexter deals with the surveillance tapes of him checking his boat for blood evidence, finds the copycat and dispatches the guy and helps the investigation stay local and within his sphere of influence. It is great to see strong actors in strong guest roles this season. Carradine and Williams have shored up the edges and been fun to watch. C.S. Lee, who does double duty on CHUCK, gets all the best lines. Do you really need a context for, “Respect the vest before I take out my hose.” Or, “I can explain all that She-Male stuff.”
By the end, Rita wants to give Dexter a chance to explain and when he does he comes clean about seeing his mother murdered and the trip to confront her murderer with Lila. He also says that later they were intimate and that truly ends the relationship. “Tonight I told the truth.” He says in voice over. It feels like the start of something fresh, but with Dexter, it always ends with blood.