THIS WEEK ON Dexter: Sin of Omission
It’s going to be hard to weep for dumb ass Dexter in two seasons when the show concludes. With a crying Deb laying over his splattered skullcap, cursing the Nefarious Fates for weaving such a tale, I won’t weep with her. As the season continues trudging towards its somewhat blasé ending, one thing is becoming painstakingly clear. Dexter is a douchebag.
More than anything, that seems to be the motif this season. Morgan’s emptiness has given way to a black hole of vengeance. While it has always carried a remarkable presence in his life, there were often moments throughout prior seasons where he’d feign existence. Hang out with Rita and the kids. Bang that Lila chick while she’s painting something with bovine feces. These days? He’s just patting Harrison on the head, blowing off Deb, and then running around after the Doomsday Killer. He’s a prick.
Hopefully when Deb finally gets to blast through grey matter with a reluctant collision of gun powder and steel object, she’ll still be a lieutenant. LaGuerta is maneuvering from Generally Rote Bitchy Female Power Role into something more duplicitous. She hooker sheds the mortal coil and she has her gnarled talons in it somehow. She’s covering for someone. Unless she’s just cracked in half, underneath the weight of his dozen-gallon ass and own insipidness. Generating some sort of even more horrid second personality who she thinks she’s covering up for. About the only way I could give a fuck about LaGuerta is if she had a Tyler Doucheden-type psyche fracture who ran around fucking prostitutes and eating Arby’s. To dream.
There’s a fluidity to the narrative’s pairings this season. Brother Sam and Doomsday. Brother Sam and Dexter. Morgan, Brother Sam, and Doomsday. This episode there was an uncomfortable foiling between Dexter and Doomsday. They both employ faith to their own ends moreso than feeling any sort of genuine divinity in their grasp.
There was some painful ass shit when Dexter spreads the page of the Bible stuck together to find the passage he needed to manipulate Travis. It was a situation so overwrought it could have only been more egregious of some Pop-Up Video bullshit kicked-off during the scene. Pop, pop, pop! Do you see the symbolism of a blood-soaked page stuck together?! Pop, pop, pop! Now Dexter and Doomsday are both manipulating the Good Book for their own means. Brother Sam, praise be! You rest too soon good friend. The only genuinely good man in this season who feels like using the Bible for the Good.
Quinn is spinning rapidly out of control. When did the dude become uncomfortably close to a rapist? Grabby McHandy-Hands is running around a strip club with evil intent and Masuka is all like “Bro, I came here to stare at blown-out pussy lips and make inappropriate comments. You’re harshing my buzz!” That dick Lewis-Louis is still getting with Angel’s sister which is making him way uncomfortable. He’s clearly forgetting he was busy getting busted for banging prostitutes a couple of seasons ago by some police lady. Though Angel bro, don’t sweat it. I think the show’s writers have forgotten that too. Lewis-Louis totally better be a serial killer or something. Otherwise he’s boringgggggggZzzzjesuschrist. He’s busy modeling Dexter’s dong-bait in his video game and scooping up pieces of Dexter’s hair from his laboratory floor. Also amazing? He tells Dexter that Google is like “Totally unwizard now, brah!” But! Dexter was using some generic search engine created for the show. That they focused on twice. Netrangler!
Whoops!
Let’s take a step back and examine the people who have professed faith this season. We have Dexter. Douchebag selfish serial killer. Doomsday Killer. Pock-marked father of Selena, who bangs teaching assistants and stalks his former lackey and bends the Bible for mass murder. The show really isn’t building a discussion about Faith. Even for an agnostic like myself, it seems one-sided. Give me something, Dexter! I don’t expect you to be Kierkegaard or Anselm or Aquinas, but fuck.
Latest awkward example? A former Father who Dexter visits in a nursing home. The dude is suffering from dementia. There we go. Another faith-based character irrevocably broken. Either the show is trying to convey the difficulty in rocking the Righteous Path, or the writers are a gang of angsty Atheists. Just as the Father is about to absolve Dexter of his mass murders, he clicks off. Powers down. Revives seconds later, and then gives him his blessing.
Pop, pop, pop! Do you see the commentary on the emptiness of Catholic forgiveness? Pop, pop, pop!
I sure fucking do!
So now Adama has seen Dexter’s face and it’s fucking on. Right? The eventual point in the season where the two serial killers face off in a race to out the other one first. Dexter will be: hog-tied at least once. He will: kill a couple of people, bare minimum. Also, don’t forget: there’s going to be a point where Deb and the rest of the department is heading to a scene where Dexter already is (and hog-tied) where we’ll clench our asses, dong-heads, and labia tensely as we root for him to untie himself and double back to make it look like he’s just showing up.