Tonight’s episode of Dexter took a very interesting turn as Dexter and Miami Metro Homicide continued on their similar but separate pursuits of the Doomsday Killer. Meanwhile Quinn did something incredibly stupid, Deb went head to head with Jamie, and Dexter came face to (back-of-)face with a big target.
Light and Dark
Brother Sam managed to speak Dexter’s language tonight. Dexter doesn’t understand God, but he does know a thing or two about darkness and light. The conversation Dexter had with Sam, which had Sam telling Dexter that light can always overcome darkness, could prove to be the ray of hope Dexter needs if he’s ever going to overcome his dark passenger.
I’m feeling optimistic about Sam, and I’m not referring to him being shot. He wasn’t quite dead when the episode ended, so there’s definitely hope there. What I’m more hopeful for is that he really is a changed man. I’m theorizing that a big part of Dexter’s understanding and appreciation of faith will hinge on Sam being a great example of a man overcoming his inner darkness. God or not, Dexter might be able to get something from a real example of a man who has overcome his dark passenger. Brother Sam seems to see himself as shepherd of sorts, hoping to lead a flock of lost souls toward the light. Giving Harrison a stuffed lamb was certainly fitting in that respect. If Sam falls back on old habits at some point in the future (assuming he lives), odds are, Dexter will be one of the first to find out and, in addition to having to kill a man he’d begun to form a friendship with (wouldn’t be the first time), seeing Sam fail at redemption might deter Dexter from believing there’s any chance he might also be able to let the light overcome his darkness.
On an excellent aside, Sam getting shot gives Dexter a new target, which is nice, as we’ve now gone two episodes without a kill from Dexter.
Doomsday
Gellar and Travis spent the bulk of tonight’s episode looking for a whore. With a giant photo of Gellar plastered on the front of the newspaper, as he’s now a “person of interest” in the case, Travis was left to whore-hunt on his own. He failed in capturing a woman stumbling around at the docks, but he and Gellar were more successful the next night when they used Travis’ car to ram a drunk couple. What’s to be done with the “Whore of Babylon”? Probably something gross. We didn’t find out tonight.
Moving on to the Doomsday case, Batista and Quinn went to visit the university where Gellar worked. After questioning a teachers assistant who admitted to living with Gellar for a time, Quinn did the unbelievably stupid thing of sleeping with her. As Batista pointed out, there were plenty of other women around. Heck, it was a college town. I doubt it would have been all that difficult for him to find some other pretty, scholarly brunette to charm into bed. Instead, he had sex with a woman who once lived with the man they think may be killing a bunch of people in Miami. Not only was it irresponsible and potentially damaging to their case, but it’s obvious it’s going to get back to Deb at some point (see the preview for next week’s episode).
It wasn't entirely a fruitless effort for Quinn and Batista, as sleeping with the teachers assistant did lead them to a book full of Gellar's rapture-doodles.
Deb and Anderson
I’m disappointed that that Mike Anderson said he’s married. I thought there were some sparks between the new detective and Deb. Who knows? Maybe something will still come of it. At the very least, she has a friend, which is something she really needs right now. In the meantime, after Deb had an argument with Jamie over Harrison being exposed to a bunch of photos of chopped up bodies (Jamie was in the right there, I think), and a conversation with the precinct therapist, wherein Deb’s current state of emotional chaos was brought to light, Anderson helped Deb score a great apartment with a reduced rent, due to the fact that a woman killed herself and her husband in the middle of the living room. Win!
Crisis eBated. Masuka got rid of Ryan, which was expected after she stole the Ice Truck Killer fake-hand and sold it on an auction site. Masuka petitioned her replacement to figure out a way to get the hand back. Of course, the thing was sold already, but new-guy managed to erase the auction listing, and as a bonus, scrubbed all of the porn off of Masuka’s work computer and improved his credit score. New guy > Ryan. Still, something tells me this issue with the lost hand isn’t over.
Sloppiness
Once again, Dexter was doing random side-work at the precinct. Sure, we got to see him doing his blood-spatter thing at the murder/suicide crime scene, but why exactly was he tasked to mess with the angel wings? Couldn’t someone else have searched for blood in the process of looking for any other DNA on the wings? I know this is a technicality, but that, added to him being the one to examine the body parts last week is confusing to me. And I can’t help but wonder how no one else will notice that a square of the wings was cut out?
The wings did lead him to a museum, which led him to a video on restoring old documents or something, which immediately led him to Travis, so that was helpful.
That wasn’t the only bit of potentially-problematic sloppiness on Dexter’s part. He broke into Travis’ home to see what he could find and came across an old bible, which had numbers near the top corners of the pages that looked very similar to the numbers found on each of the victims. To make sure, Dexter cut one of the pages from the bible and brought it back to the lab to see if the cut-out matched the bit of paper. Was that necessary? Wouldn’t he worry that Travis would notice the page was missing and know he was being messed with and possibly pursued? I thought that might be an issue until Dexter caught up with Travis in his car, nearly strangled him, questioned him and then left him to walk off on his own. He wasn’t even wearing a mask when he did that. Again, not to be overly critical, but that seemed like a major risk.
It’s the end of the world as we know it... in 15 days
According to the numbers the cops came up with, the rapture’s in about 15 days, Dexter-time. We know what Gellar and Travis are doing is leading up to something. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to their latest victim.
Funny line of the night:
“Defacing a bible. I’m probably breaking a rule.”
