By Buzz Byrne

Dexter (Michael C. Hall) has Sergeant Doakes (Erik King) caged in a drug dealer’s cabin in the Everglades, psycho ex, Lila (Jaime Murray), is stalking him by seducing Lt. Batista (David Zayas) just when Dex is putting it back together with Rita (Julie Benz). And it seems Superstar Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) is putting an expiration date on his and Debra’s (Jennifer Carpenter) relationship. Have we got everybody in the cast covered? Everybody but the dead guy.

That would be Harry (James Remar), Dexter’s adoptive father, rule giver and creator.

Now that Doakes is the prime suspect for being the Bay Harbor Butcher, the best thing for Dexter would be to kill him, chop him up and send him to a watery grave and forever have the murders pinned to him. But Harry’s rules don’t allow for that so Dexter is left with the much riskier task of framing him and leaving him alive. It is during this frame job that a drugged up Doakes lets slip that Harry had some secrets, much like his son. As Dexter digs around for this he unearths the fact that his father committed suicide. How could this be? “How could he do that to himself?” Dexter asks in voice over, “How could he do that to me.” That is really the question.

Through a few flashbacks we see life in the Morgan household. Late teen years for the kids. Harry is quick with his work frustrations and quick to box Debra into a corner under the guise of protecting her. What emerges in this family portrait is that Dexter was Harry’s pet, if not just his pet project. Debra’s lightning quick temper and father figure/confused sexual identification become logical even if dampened by Carpenter’s ineffectual acting. And for all the rules to being an avenging force for sociopathic good, Harry couldn’t handle the reality of his creation. When a pimply faced Dexter offers his first justice killing, Harry vomits. This connection/revelation comes when Dexter fillets a murdering drug dealer to pin on Doakes, while Doakes is inches from the carnage. As Dexter cleans up, a reeling Doakes mutters, “Stay away…just stay away from me.” The same words Harry said at the first killing.

“I killed my father.” That’s what Dexter realizes. What we are meant to realize is the value of law over justice. For all the kindness that Dexter supplies to people in his life, for all the moral certainty that his killings take, he comes to life when he carves the flesh. It is an inhuman fetish, not a necessity of his good deeds. As much fun as it is to root for him, at the end of it all Dexter is really just a monster. No amount of rules will equivocate that.


But isn’t that what makes this show such fun? Harry has been long absent this season which is unfortunate because James Remar is an actor who deserves better prominence but you only get to say the lines they give you. Now that he is truly lost, a tragic figure whose powers have been diminished, there’s not much left for him on this series. This season was about the journey inward for Dexter. You can’t go much further than being responsible for your Pop’s suicide.

I suppose this does leave Dexter with a new way to get out of this jam, but that seems unlikely and hardly satisfying. Doakes’ cage will be empty soon enough and it looks like Lila might find her way into the crescendo of the final two episodes. Whatever knot the writers have got themselves into is always easily enough untied with a crafty hero at work. The question becomes, once Dexter does survive, will he stay loyal to his father’s rules or will he choose the path of his departed brother, the Ice Truck Killer? And will anybody besides “Rita and the kids” be left standing at the end?