By Buzz Byrne
DEXTER is simply the best thing I am watching on TV this season. Tonight, again, production design and writing achieved a perfect balance of complement and completion. The episode begins with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) and Lila (Jaime Murray) in the middle of some aggressive lovemaking. Lila is barking instructions like Dexter is learning how to parallel park in Midtown Manhattan and the shadowed projection cast on his back is a mix of webs and spiders from Lila’s imposing art. The symbolism isn’t hard to grasp; Lila is in control of our hero…for now.
Recovery is a funny thing. Sometimes different addicts take different things away from the program. Dexter is learning to control his addiction to murder and is refocusing that energy into proactively dealing with the obstacles his life of crime has presented him. The first is dealing with the FBI’s Superstar Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) and the task force assembled for the sole purpose of discovering the identity of the Bay Harbor Butcher (that’s Dexter). Dexter sends a manifesto to the local paper. “I’m about to be published,” he says in voice over as the news flies through the department. A risky move but he feels he needs to redirect the task force rather than just avoid them.
His second problem is Sergeant Doakes (Erik King), who has decided to recommit himself to finding out what Dexter is hiding. Dexter uses the murder of a teenager to set Doakes on the wrong path of an investigation. He later slips the blood report onto Doakes’ desk that exonerates his chief suspect for Lieutenant Laguerta (Lauren Velez) to find. She has been concerned about Doakes’ obsessive tendencies and when it looks like he is railroading an innocent man, she takes his legs out from under him. In the ensuing confrontation between Dexter and Doakes, Dexter looks attacked and Doakes is suspended pending an IA investigation. Professional problem two dealt with.
Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) is not happy with Dexter’s breakup with Rita (Julie Benz) and subsequent attachment to Lila. “Who’s the skank?” were her exact words. She keeps turning to Lundy for help and he turns her on to Chopin. This of course leads Debra to break up with Gabriel. Unfortunately some of this relied upon deft acting and that doesn’t usually end well in Debra scenes. The treadmill moment was physically painful to watch. She winds up making a fairly strong play for Lundy’s affection. He seems torn about this, maybe because he can tell that she is molding herself to whatever guy she stands next to, sucking in his mannerisms, occupying his staked space rather than becoming the force, as her own woman, that she could be.
Rita is trying to get on with her life without a destructive influence. But then again she hasn’t kicked Mom out of the house yet. As Mom disciplines the children in stricter and stricter ways Rita finally has enough. It comes to a head after Cody makes a closeted call to Dexter, asking for his support as he makes his geography report in class the next day. Rita sends Mom back to Michigan when she comes home to the kids sent to bed extra early. I think the lesson here is to never trust anything from Michigan.
Before Dexter answers Cody’s call, he is walking with Lila, distracted by Debra’s accusations that he messed everything up with Rita his soulmate. Lila falls into her program speak that becomes heightened by the nature of Dexter’s addiction and rises above the inherent clichés. It sounds fresh in this context and Dexter asks for more. The lighting cuts his face in half- one side blue and the other red, marking his duality, his split of human and monster. Or is it a different split? The scene develops into an animalistic expression of desire and released emotion spilling through them. Afterwards, Dexter stands facing a mirror shirtless. He is powerful, muscular and sexual. Cody calls and he reverts to a clothed, weak voiced timid man.
Lila deals with Dexter’s lingering attachment to Rita and her family by torching her own loft and the pricey piece of art she just sold. Finally we get a glimpse of the demon lurking behind Lila’s mask. Unfortunately for her, a firebug isn’t as strong as a killer. And as much as she is feeding off of unifying Dexter’s personality, when they do truly stand before each other naked, it will be the end of her. That’s the only way these lovestories can end.