THIS WEEK ON Dexter: Take It
I have to hand it to the writers. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve found the past two episodes in a fucking row! to be engrossing like woah. Ignore the fact that the side stories continue to underwhelm aside from Robocop trying to bring down Dexter and Lumen. The Dexter/Lumen/Jordan chase story has grabbed me by my impressively miniscule genitalia and refused to let go. A certain sadness pangs around my empty gut as I realize that nothing gold can stay, especially a cute relationship between a serial killer vigilante and the woman he saved from a trip to a swamp.
Catharsis. Underpinning this entire episode, and perhaps the remainder of this season’s arc is Dexter’s chase of the impossible. Relief from the murder of his mother. Relief from the murder of his wife. The double-smash of the two female figures he’s cared for the most. As we’ve watched our boy throughout the seasons, he’s struggled with an inability to cope with what’s been done to him. His murder serves, at best, as a mitigation. He never feels completely fulfillment, or complete release from his demons. His dark passenger. His demonic b-boy. Whateevr.
If anything, the show has underlined his hobby’s his continuing fading effectiveness. As seasons have marched, each kill seemed to bring him less and less satisfaction. Cut to this season, and they’re empty loads being blown. No gratification. A rote behavior done with the hope for gratification, only to be filled with Jordan Chase’s accurately diagnosed hole. His killing relief has flat lined.
Say what you will about Jordan Chase. A piece of societal refuse. Rapist. Murderer. His commentary on the primal sits uneasily accurate. Underlying Dexter, Chase, and all of humanity are primal drives motivating us. Word up to Freud! His command to Take It!, Take It! is a dangerous recommendation to everyone listening. For who the fuck knows what such a reckless suggestion will lead to? Hint: rape, murder, et cetera. Obviously not for everyone, but it opens the door.
Still though, he understands Dexter better than he realizes. Morgan has that same drive. That same hollowness. The show has always contrasted Dexter with someone just a smidge askew from his own life. Murderers who haven’t been able to control the primal within them. Trinity. Ice Truck Killer. Now Jordan Chase. Saved by the code, a curious twist of ethics that allows Dexter to remain at least equivocal in his moral standing, and for many of us a dark hero.
Take It!, Take It!
Enter in Lumen. Like Dexter she was born anew in blood. Unlike Dexter, it was her own. And they have bonded together, as he has shown her the many curves of his labyrinthine soul. Their bond is through the failure to receive catharsis. Lumen seeks the same release from his tragedy that Dexter does. Unlike Rita, who despite a shitty husband and time in her life, Lumen understands him on a level the deceased Mrs. Morgan never could. Not only was she not born in the flame of the misguided primal, but she always has the same hunger.
The same blood lust.
Dexter and Lumen are tied together, both having suffered wrongs, both having a failure to achieve catharsis. What may end up saving them both – but let’s be honest it’s all going to end in tears – is not that they both want to murder those who have wronged them and others, but the fact that they have each other to plug up their broken machinery.
Again, its their search for catharsis.
Anyone who doubts the primal nature of their question only needs to swing back to the end of last night’s episode as they finally murder Cole. The two of them bonded together in their ritual, about to do-off with Chase’s piece of shit head of security. As Dexter and Lumen stare into each others’ eyes, he plunges the knife. Note the gasp that escapes from Lumen’s mouth. Call it surprise but I’ll call it nearly orgasmic. The primal release that comes from the achievement of an almost ineffable need for that murder.
The two of them partake in something primal, something that is borderline sexual. All those primal drives, smashing up against one another.
Take It, Take It!
Their salvation lies not in the killing of all of Boyd’s friends. It lies in their relationship that has arisen from the seeds of pain, and the pools of blood they’ve begun spilling together. The inevitabilites of the show preclude this from lasting. I think we all know that. As Robocop (I actually forget character’s real name and don’t care about to look it up) snaps pictures of them disposing of Cole into the Atlantic, we all know this is going to end poorly, but for the moment is becomes obvious. Lumen and Dexter need one another for the catharsis that comes from having someone who knows you. Fully. Up until this point Dexter’s utilized stop-gap measures. Women who he loved but didn’t know him fully, a murderous drive that stemmed the lust.
But now?
Now he’s got a real shot.
Shame it’s going to end in tears.