Dexter

[TheBaxter]

i don't think there's anything inherently bad about rita's character or the actress who plays her. the problem with rita, for me, is she represents things i don't like about the show, namely, the domestication and humanization of dexter. i want to see dexter remain a cold-blooded killer. but oh well, i think the overriding thrust of this show, not just this season but his arc through all the seasons up til now, is his ongoing humanization... kinda like data on star trek. it's a cliche, and will probably be the undoing of the show in the end, but in the meantime, they're still putting out good episodes.

it's kinda like james remar playing harry. there's nothing wrong with his performance, it's just his "character" (if you can call it that) is unnecessary and hurts the show. by the way, if you were james remar, could that part possibly be satisfying as an actor? i guess it's an easy paycheck, show up for a couple scenes per episode in soft focus and recite your lines... but there's no character, no part, no real acting to do. at least in the flashbacks in the first couple seasons, he got to play a real person. we can only hope he loses interest and decides to leave the show for next season.

[Pacino86845]

Ok no spoiler tags, but there's nothing drastic to spoil this episode.

Not much action, I expected more development between Dexter and Trinity, but I understand that the writers want to create a relationship between these two characters, and that will be interesting to see.

Still, how does Trinity hide in the open so successfully, with his family oblivious? Is it possible that at least his wife knows about him?

The highlights of the episode are pretty subtle, but welcome nonetheless: Laguerta and Miguel end their awkward romance, AND NO IN-HEAD H@RRY!!!

Deb has gone from gross and overemotional to just plain gross.

I still think Rita is hot and that there should be more gratuitous nudity out of her... same for the reporter chick.

Over all a decent episode, not as good as the last two, but not bad.

I didn't see next week's preview, dunno what's comin'.

[papalazeru]

I still think Rita is hot and that there should be more gratuitous nudity out of her... same for the reporter chick.

Does one of your relatives work in TV and did they write in Lila?

I couldn't hold off on reading Pacino's comments Bad Papa.

Still waiting to watch this weeks.

[Leckomaniac]

I decided to give this show a shot recently.

I watched the first season and just adored it. The second season just blew nuts. I couldn't even believe I was watching the same show. And now I am a few episodes into the third season and it hasn't gotten much better.

What the fuck happened? It is too bad, really, because that first season was so excellent.

[papalazeru]

I decided to give this show a shot recently.

I watched the first season and just adored it. The second season just blew nuts. I couldn't even believe I was watching the same show. And now I am a few episodes into the third season and it hasn't gotten much better.

What the fuck happened? It is too bad, really, because that first season was so excellent.

I disagree, the first season, as interesting as it was, was a one trick pony and it couldn't have gone down the same route again. As the show has gone on Dexter has developed and I think the 4th series is really a good one so far.

As for Season 2, I found that very slow with quite a few back burning episodes which ended wtih the last 4 episodes because an awseome white knuckle ride - I adored it. Season 3 was a little awkward and too short to develop the relationship that we all wanted Dex to have with a true friend but it was still entertaining.

I think this shows brilliant. I love the writing that while not always top notch, still has the ability to keep you on the edge of your seat or chewing your nails when it needs to.

[TheBaxter]

this was a bit of a slow ep. had some good stuff, had some not-so-good stuff.

i was surprised to see dexter get so close to trinity so soon. i thought he would wait a bit before trying to actually get to know him, just spy on him from afar, but nope. the dexter-trinity scenes were good, especially when he opened up the sister's ashes and trinity freaked out. you can already see dexter trying to emulate him.

best part of the show? NO H@RRY! i was wondering if they finally read our comments and said, you know, they're right, ghost h@rry sucks, we should get rid of him. (spoiler from next week's preview) unfortunately, it looks like he's back next episode

i also didn't care for the dexter-rita therapy sessions. not quite as bad as dexter joining the neighborhood watch, but almost.

[papalazeru]

I would have expected a proper insensed attitude from Dex with the Neighbourhood watch, some proper sneering and hatred but then again, Dex isn't quite in touch with his human emotions as such.

[TheBaxter]

so, i thought last night's episode was kinda lame. felt like a placeholder, nothing really happens of any importance, at least not til the very end.

i really don't like the way they're making quinn into doakes. having him get suspicious of dexter, following him.... they did that whole plot in season 2, and doakes was a much better character than quinn, so if it continues it will only be a pale shadow of the dexter/doakes storyline from that season. quinn needs to get back in bed with the naked reporter chick, that's the only thing he's good for is getting us scenes with her boobz.

even the dexter/trinity stuff seemed off. trinity's got a bug up his ass about something. i was thinking maybe he had caught on to dexter. and then what was up with him making that coffin? and who is it for? is it another part of his ritual, the start of a new series of killings, or something else entirely?

(spoilers from next week's preview) i was suspecting the coffin might be intended for dexter, but from the scenes they showed for next weeks preview, that doesn't seem to be the case. and it also doesn't seem like trinity is on to dexter before that episode, from what dexter tells him and his reactions to it (end preview spoilers)

as usual, the laguerta/angel soap opera stuff is a waste. and the scenes with rita, though at least we were spared any more therapy sessions. though to make up for that, we get in-head h@rry back. bah!

the only interesting part is the very end when dexter realizes he's killed an innocent man. although, didnt he kill an innocent man last season when he killed prado's brother? that guy was a junkie, but he wasn't a killer or anything, was he? maybe it's different since dexter acted in self-defense, but it's still killing an innocent. or maybe it's not the same because this time dexter followed his code, did his research, and thought he was killing a guilty man according to his ritual, only to find out later he was innocent, and that is why it affects him the way it does.

[theayatollah]

I finally caught up to to the most recent episode to participate in talkbacks, and I would have to agree that last night's episode was overall very weak. It honestly feels that the powers-to-be on this show are sticking to tried and true plot threads from previous seasons, almost as if they are afraid to innovate.

In regards to Quinn and Dexter, they are dangerously treading toward the whole Doakes storyline. I thought maybe this would provide an opportunity for Dex to tell Deb about his secret, allowing Deb to alleviate her partner's suspicions, but having destroyed Laura Moser's CI files, maybe this renders it more difficult for Deb to believe him. If it ends up with Dex having to kill Quinn, I think it will be the wrong decision

In-head H@rry is a tough call, because I think James Remar is awesome. I generally enjoy his presence, but now I think my opinion is being swayed by everyone who hates his appearances. It appears that initially they were trying to say how Dexter was distancing himself from Harry's code, but I feel that he has deviated multiple times from H@rry's code, only to realize he was wrong. This is what happens at the end of htis episode, he realizes he made a mistake, and now we get the redundant thread of "going back to H@rry's code."

Nevertheless, next week's episode looks like we get some fresh new storylines. More Dexter-Trinity is needed, as those scenes are ten times more tense than his interaction with Miguel Prado ever was. Jon Lithgow really plays his part so well, especially when we see his breakdowns in contrast to his ability to stay level-headed around his family.

[judderman]

I agree this ep was too similar to previous eps, but the preview certainly seems to be playing off the ending, so perhaps that's what this was, an ending with an episode attached to it.

Now that Dex has killed an innocent, he's entered the same realm as Trinity. That makes his decision to kill him hypocritical, and Dex obviously knows it. It is interesting to see whether this is enough to finally push Dexter away from Harry's code and towards freedom. It's interesting that the final ep is called "The Getaway". Who is getting away, and from what?

[Pacino86845]

Pretty much agree with you guys, not much more I can add to that.

But don't forget, Laura Moser's picture was not destroyed, you can still see her face, part of the number on the card she's holding, and that image is now resting comfortably in Dexter's drawer... this could somehow lead to Dexter being connected to Laura without Deb's going through the tedium of an investigation. Funny though, it looked for a moment like the writers were literally shredding that plot line...

As for the coffin, I wonder if Trinity wasn't somehow building it for himself?

Didn't Lundy say a while back that the cycles started in Miami? And Trinity just completed his latest cycle in Miami, 30 years later... maybe that was supposed to be a last hurrah (for whatever reason, which we haven't seen yet), it would somehow explain his "tormented" demeanor this episode.

[papalazeru]

Teh Ep was really boring and Dex's in head voice pissed me off.

Rita: Where are you going today Dex?
Dex: Out....[In head voice] To kill.

Dammit, that's getting boring.

I thought Harry almost crying was well done.

I will say, the monotony of the Ep was lifted by the ending. I think maybe it was constructed that way to lull you into a sense of drudgery. It made the climax all that more surprising, but yet somehow expected.

Rita: Are you hungry Dex?
Dex: Yes...[in head voice] for Blood.

Dammit, we don't need that anymore. He's been living with serial murder for year, wouldn't he be bored of hearing his own voice?

[judderman]

No no! We need the internal monologues! They're what keep Dexter from being another police procedural. Anyway, Dexter onscreen is just a front. It's In-Head-Dexter that is the real character.

And the monologues are never that bad.

[papalazeru]

No no! We need the internal monologues! They're what keep Dexter from being another police procedural. Anyway, Dexter onscreen is just a front. It's In-Head-Dexter that is the real character.

And the monologues are never that bad.

They aren't that bad no, but I just felt with this ep they were so clichéd, a bit like Sherif John Brunell and his little quips.

When the ep became boring, they just seemed more prevalent that normal and grated.

[TheBaxter]

i'd say last night's episode was a return to form, mostly due to having a lot more dexter/trinity interaction. also, lithgow brought the funny last night. good to see some of trinity's goofy side, though his creepy side is still the best. but i LOLed at his little dance before taking dexter to his surprise in the morning, and also when he sat down with the family in the diner and started talking about his sister's death. good to see someone besides dexter doing something socially inappropriate.

as for trinity's suicide attempt it makes sense. his self-hatred and self-loathing have been on display since the 1st episode and him crying in the shower. very interested in seeing how dexter responds to having saved trinity now and what that does to their relationship

i hope rita cheats on dexter and he leaves her lying, cheating ass. that's one solution to her character's ongoing presence.

the whole who-shot-lundy plotline could get dumb though. i've tried to think about who else it could be, but there's no one currently on the show who makes sense as the shooter if it's not trinity. they've already ruled out the vacation killer(s). and anton is at least as tall as trinity, so the same rationale to rule out trinity would rule out anton too. matsuka is short, so that leaves only chicks or short guys. so if its someone we already know, it would have to be totally out of left field. and that would suck. if it's someone not already on the show, then it was all just a pointless red herring. since lundy recognized whoever it was, the only 2 possibilities i can think of are 1) someone lundy put away in the past who got out and came back for revenge, or 2) lundy was secretly married/had a gf, and she shot him for cheating on her.

[Pacino86845]

Or it's the hot reporter chick!

So the coffin WAS for Trinity himself!

And how creepy was the preview for next week's episode? Holy fuck Trinity's son really looked fearful in that brief shot when he's about to get his finger broken, kudos to the actor!

This episode was awesome in pretty subtle ways, I will concur. Again, no in-head H@rry!! WOOHOO!

[TheBaxter]

Or it's the hot reporter chick!

So the coffin WAS for Trinity himself!

And how creepy was the preview for next week's episode? Holy fuck Trinity's son really looked fearful in that brief shot when he's about to get his finger broken, kudos to the actor!

This episode was awesome in pretty subtle ways, I will concur. Again, no in-head H@rry!! WOOHOO!

i don't know if the coffin was for trinity. it seemed to me like he was planning on starting another murder spree, when dexter showed up and it was his conversation that made him revisit all that stuff from his childhood, and thus the suicide. but maybe the suicide was his plan all along, in which case the coffin would make sense.

i forgot to mention the absence of Imaginary H@rry. i'm hoping maybe that shot of him looking at dexter with sadness and disappointment after dexter learned he killed an innocent man will be his last scene on the show. it would be appropriate, since it would represent the ultimate failure of his code, which was designed as much to protect innocent people FROM dexter as it was to protect dexter himself. and that shot almost... ALMOST... made all the other h@rry scenes the last couple seasons worth it... but then i realized, how much more powerful would that shot have been if it HADN'T been preceded by all those lame imaginary-h@rry scenes? it would've been like h@rry's ghost coming back to mourn what dexter has done. oh well. there were no shots of h@rry in next week's preview, so hopefully that's representative of the show as a whole from here on.... NOW WITH 100% LESS H@RRY!

also about the preview... that kid SHOULD have looked scared... i almost looked as scared watching it when i realized what he was gonna do. lithgow is awesome in how he can be so funny one minute and chilling the next. on another note though, i think i might need to start skipping the previews, 'cos they're giving away too much. as good as this episode was, too much of it was revealed in last week's preview, and this week's preview gave away too much from next week's episode. it's tough, because after a good episode, i want more, and after a bad episode, i want to see something from next week's episode to give me hope it will be better. this season has been a bit uneven, some really good episodes, but a couple of pretty bad clunkers too (last week's filler-sode, and the community watch episode, for example). uneven, but so far i'd say better than last season, especially if they can bring home the trinity storyline real good.

oh, and about the reporter chick... if she is the shooter then that would be exactly the kind of out-of-left-field plot development that would resemble a leather-clad tv show icon leaping over a deadly aquatic beast. her motive would have to be to create a big news story for herself, which would be pretty evil, even for a naked news reporter chick, but also would have been a massive fail since she HAD no story on it til deb finally agreed to the interview. it's kinda far-fetched to think that was her plan all along. so if she ends up being the killer, i'll be unhappy with this show

[Pacino86845]

oh, and about the reporter chick... if she is the shooter then that would be exactly the kind of out-of-left-field plot development that would resemble a leather-clad tv show icon leaping over a deadly aquatic beast. her motive would have to be to create a big news story for herself, which would be pretty evil, even for a naked news reporter chick, but also would have been a massive fail since she HAD no story on it til deb finally agreed to the interview. it's kinda far-fetched to think that was her plan all along. so if she ends up being the killer, i'll be unhappy with this show

I agree, and actually when the thought crossed my mind I had just brushed aside as being a highly implausible scenario... but then my brother said it and once I thought about it a bit longer it started making "sense" in terms of what the writers would do. As for the reporter's motives, remember that she DID report on Lundy's death. She had been the one to first "break" the story of his investigation into the Trinity murders (thanks for nothing Quinn), and she was right there at the scene of the shooting. Batista even gave her the STD statement that eventually led to the "capture" of the vacation killer. And she'd been gunning for the hero piece on Debra right from the get go... and she DID get it in the end, no? Not that any of this is realistic or even rational thinking, but she does stand to benefit from Lundy's death.

[TheBaxter]

and she DID get it in the end, no?

that's the scene i want to see!

[theayatollah]

EDIT: ^LOL

The one major explanation left for who is the culprit remains as Lundy's reaction to the shooter. The look on his face always seemed to me like he recognized the person, but maybe he reacted to the sight of a gun. That being said, I think you guys are right, there really is no other external character that would fit this mold. That being said, I don't really like this development either.

The episode was overall okay, but they were again wasting our time with the Angel/Laguerta Hispanic Soap Opera BS and setting up Quinn as Doakes #2.

[TheBaxter]

alright, it's been a couple days, so i'm abandoning the spoiler tags now.

i think lundy definitely recognized the shooter. i don't think it was just the gun he was reacting to. if he recognized the shooter, that's another point against it being the reporter chick. unless he was boning the reporter himself, which would also give her a better motive. but it would also make this even more soap-opera-ish, and lame.

one possibility that would be kinda cool, though it wouldn't work if lundy recognized the shooter, is if trinity made his wife or one of his kids shoot him. i wouldn't be surprised, at the least, if we eventually find out that his family knows more about his killing sprees than we think they do.

[judderman]

Well, at long last, Hot Reporter has a purpose beyond being hot.

Angel and Maria may be beating a horse that's been shot, left to rot, and then consumed by vultures only for its skull to appear in the foreground of a western, but at least the whole Quinn/hot reporter subplot has a purpose. And thank the maker they didn't go with Quinn as the new Doakes. Longtime fans would have insurrected. I sometimes wonder if this show would be better reduced to half an hour, instead of bulking out with all this filler.

[TheBaxter]

i kind of enjoyed this episode in spite of itself.

first, imaginary h@rry was back in full force. that's never a good sign.
then we have the wacky plot twist at the end. more about that in SUPER-SPOILER text below.
and there was some really bad acting, especially from trinity's family, and ESPECIALLY especially from trinity's wife. the whole "my husband's a psycho, i'm on the verge of hysterics and could break down at any moment so i'm just going to smile real big and act like everything is PERFECT" act was so cliche'd and over-the-top. in fact, EVERYTHING with the trinity family thanksgiving dinner was like a massive steaming pile of cliche: the doting nervous wife, the sheltered, lolita-esque daughter coming on to dexter, the in-the-closet Dumbledore son who finally stands up to dad... and yet, somehow i enjoyed it in spite of myself, even though i realized how bad and cliche'd it was. mainly because, again, lithgow is awesome, and when we finally get to see dexter's dark side come out and the look on trinity's face when dexter unleashes the monster on him... it was worth it for that.

i didn't buy dexter's reasoning for staying so long at their dinner though. he was worried what trinity would do to the son if he left. why? dexter doesn't care about people, he has no feelings. ok, he cares for his sister, for rita, for the kids, maybe even a little for his coworkers... but that's it. he doesn't care at all for other people. why would he care what happens to this kid of a killer who he barely knows? enough to stick around when he's worried about what his own kids or neighbor may have found in his shed? i didn't buy it. but still, i'll let it pass because it led to that great scene of him on top of trinity.

and now about that twist...

so pacino thought the hot reporter chick was lundy's killer, and i thought it might be one of trinity's family members. i guess we were BOTH right! i'm not sure how i feel about this yet... a lot will depend on next week's episode and how they explain her motivation for killing lundy. if her motivation WAS just to create a story for herself, then it's still a shark-jumping massive fail of epic proportions with a dash of x 1000 due to the extreme coincidence of trinity's daughter just happening to kill the guy investigating her dad. i can't believe the writers would plot something as dumb as that, even the Heroes writers have more sense than that. so either a) trinity put her up to it somehow, or b) she knows her dad is the killer and did it on her own to protect him. and b) doesn't make much sense either because 1) if she wanted to protect her dad, why did she then write that big front-page story about how he's still on the loose, and 2) how did she even know lundy was on the trail of her dad to begin with, only trinity himself knew that. so it has to be a) trinity put her up to it, because anything else would be stupid.

but that still raises some questions. like 1) how much does she know about her dad's serial killing? if she's capable of killing herself, maybe she's his accomplice. or maybe the psycho streak got passed on genetically. if she's willing to go that far just because her dad asked her too, and seemingly not show any remorse over it, then she's got to be as fucked up as her dad. and she has to know something about how fucked up her dad is too.

the bigger question for me is 2) how did lundy recognize her? i STILL say it looked like lundy recognized the shooter. but he couldn't have known she was trinity's daughter, he didn't even know who trinity was, only just saw him and had a physical description. he didn't know his name, identity, or anything about his family, so he couldn't have recognized her that way. that only leaves the possibility that lundy really was just reacting to her holding a gun pointed at him. that's kinda lame. oh well.

i have to say, this season is probably the oddest season of dexter yet.

[papalazeru]

so pacino thought the hot reporter chick was lundy's killer, and i thought it might be one of trinity's family members. i guess we were BOTH right! i'm not sure how i feel about this yet... a lot will depend on next week's episode and how they explain her motivation for killing lundy. if her motivation WAS just to create a story for herself, then it's still a shark-jumping massive fail of epic proportions with a dash of x 1000 due to the extreme coincidence of trinity's daughter just happening to kill the guy investigating her dad. i can't believe the writers would plot something as dumb as that, even the Heroes writers have more sense than that. so either a) trinity put her up to it somehow, or b) she knows her dad is the killer and did it on her own to protect him. and b) doesn't make much sense either because 1) if she wanted to protect her dad, why did she then write that big front-page story about how he's still on the loose, and 2) how did she even know lundy was on the trail of her dad to begin with, only trinity himself knew that. so it has to be a) trinity put her up to it, because anything else would be stupid.

but that still raises some questions. like 1) how much does she know about her dad's serial killing? if she's capable of killing herself, maybe she's his accomplice. or maybe the psycho streak got passed on genetically. if she's willing to go that far just because her dad asked her too, and seemingly not show any remorse over it, then she's got to be as fucked up as her dad. and she has to know something about how fucked up her dad is too.

the bigger question for me is 2) how did lundy recognize her? i STILL say it looked like lundy recognized the shooter. but he couldn't have known she was trinity's daughter, he didn't even know who trinity was, only just saw him and had a physical description. he didn't know his name, identity, or anything about his family, so he couldn't have recognized her that way. that only leaves the possibility that lundy really was just reacting to her holding a gun pointed at him. that's kinda lame. oh well.

i have to say, this season is probably the oddest season of dexter yet.

Seconded. The end of that turned the whole thing to shit.

I think she's a co conspirator and they both killed Lundy and took a shot at Debs, maybe there were two guns? (I know, I know, ballistix and all that so not likely), but the conspirator thing probably is. I think she's a child from a first marriage where the mum was killed by Lithgow, the daughter suffored a kind of stockholm syndrome.

Still...I think this season started out so well but then went downhill so quickly. I kinda got what I wanted with Dex becoming fascinated with the Trinity killer but the damn streak of coincidence just makes it all...as you say Bax...Heroes.

[Pacino86845]

i kind of enjoyed this episode in spite of itself.

first, imaginary h@rry was back in full force. that's never a good sign.
then we have the wacky plot twist at the end. more about that in SUPER-SPOILER text below.
and there was some really bad acting, especially from trinity's family, and ESPECIALLY especially from trinity's wife. the whole "my husband's a psycho, i'm on the verge of hysterics and could break down at any moment so i'm just going to smile real big and act like everything is PERFECT" act was so cliche'd and over-the-top. in fact, EVERYTHING with the trinity family thanksgiving dinner was like a massive steaming pile of cliche: the doting nervous wife, the sheltered, lolita-esque daughter coming on to dexter, the in-the-closet Dumbledore son who finally stands up to dad... and yet, somehow i enjoyed it in spite of myself, even though i realized how bad and cliche'd it was. mainly because, again, lithgow is awesome, and when we finally get to see dexter's dark side come out and the look on trinity's face when dexter unleashes the monster on him... it was worth it for that.

Yes, concur, although Trinity's family didn't bother me *too* much... but I will reiterate what I said last week, the kid who play's Trinity's son is actually a pretty decent actor... he's better than a few of the main players on the series (not Dexter, of course, but look at Batista and Laqwerty). He had a couple of lame-ass cheesy lines that I thought he delivered effectively.

i didn't buy dexter's reasoning for staying so long at their dinner though. he was worried what trinity would do to the son if he left. why? dexter doesn't care about people, he has no feelings. ok, he cares for his sister, for rita, for the kids, maybe even a little for his coworkers... but that's it. he doesn't care at all for other people. why would he care what happens to this kid of a killer who he barely knows? enough to stick around when he's worried about what his own kids or neighbor may have found in his shed? i didn't buy it. but still, i'll let it pass because it led to that great scene of him on top of trinity.

I sort of agree, but sort of disagree too... Dexter does have a weird conscience of sorts, he just lacks emotion. H@rry's code basically tells him that in certain circumstances it's ok for Dexter to ritualistically kill people. Now Dexter has been leaving Arthur Mitchell alive on borrowed time out of curiosity, whereas his purpose is to stop killers before they harm other innocents... when Trinity finished his last cycle and Dexter saw that he was a "perfect" family man, he figured that no harm was going to come to anyone immediately so he could observe and learn more about Trinity in the mean time. However in the last episode Dexter learned that Trinity was in fact a monster in his daily life, so there would be a sense of regret in not having killed him already.

and now about that twist...

so pacino thought the hot reporter chick was lundy's killer, and i thought it might be one of trinity's family members. i guess we were BOTH right! i'm not sure how i feel about this yet... a lot will depend on next week's episode and how they explain her motivation for killing lundy. if her motivation WAS just to create a story for herself, then it's still a shark-jumping massive fail of epic proportions with a dash of x 1000 due to the extreme coincidence of trinity's daughter just happening to kill the guy investigating her dad. i can't believe the writers would plot something as dumb as that, even the Heroes writers have more sense than that. so either a) trinity put her up to it somehow, or b) she knows her dad is the killer and did it on her own to protect him. and b) doesn't make much sense either because 1) if she wanted to protect her dad, why did she then write that big front-page story about how he's still on the loose, and 2) how did she even know lundy was on the trail of her dad to begin with, only trinity himself knew that. so it has to be a) trinity put her up to it, because anything else would be stupid.

but that still raises some questions. like 1) how much does she know about her dad's serial killing? if she's capable of killing herself, maybe she's his accomplice. or maybe the psycho streak got passed on genetically. if she's willing to go that far just because her dad asked her too, and seemingly not show any remorse over it, then she's got to be as fucked up as her dad. and she has to know something about how fucked up her dad is too.

the bigger question for me is 2) how did lundy recognize her? i STILL say it looked like lundy recognized the shooter. but he couldn't have known she was trinity's daughter, he didn't even know who trinity was, only just saw him and had a physical description. he didn't know his name, identity, or anything about his family, so he couldn't have recognized her that way. that only leaves the possibility that lundy really was just reacting to her holding a gun pointed at him. that's kinda lame. oh well.

i have to say, this season is probably the oddest season of dexter yet.

Maybe Lundy had seen her before in one of his earlier Trinity investigations? Maybe the reason Lundy hadn't caught Trinity yet was in part because she had interfered with his investigations in the past? Or maybe it's just the gun...

[papalazeru]

Still....It's a bit of a coincidence on the whole thing no?

[TheBaxter]

so, i've been trying to figure out what the porn version of this show would be. obviously it would be called Sexter, and it would be about a serial fucker named Sexter Organ, who goes around fucking women to death (or men, if it g@y pr0n). but his father, Hairy Organ, realized he was a monster and so raised him with a code where he only fucks BAD women to death, like murderers and shit. the problem is that makes Sexter a rapist as well as a murderer, and we all know that being a murderer is ok but being a rapist is unforgivable, so somehow he'd have to persuade these evil women to have sex with him voluntarily. and then, in the process of having sex with him, they have the most massive orgasms of their life, leading to brain hemorrhage and death, or something like that. maybe i'm just overthinking this.

[Retardo_Montalban]

i kind of enjoyed this episode in spite of itself.

first, imaginary h@rry was back in full force. that's never a good sign.
then we have the wacky plot twist at the end. more about that in SUPER-SPOILER text below.
and there was some really bad acting, especially from trinity's family, and ESPECIALLY especially from trinity's wife. the whole "my husband's a psycho, i'm on the verge of hysterics and could break down at any moment so i'm just going to smile real big and act like everything is PERFECT" act was so cliche'd and over-the-top. in fact, EVERYTHING with the trinity family thanksgiving dinner was like a massive steaming pile of cliche: the doting nervous wife, the sheltered, lolita-esque daughter coming on to dexter, the in-the-closet Dumbledore son who finally stands up to dad... and yet, somehow i enjoyed it in spite of myself, even though i realized how bad and cliche'd it was. mainly because, again, lithgow is awesome, and when we finally get to see dexter's dark side come out and the look on trinity's face when dexter unleashes the monster on him... it was worth it for that.

Yes, concur, although Trinity's family didn't bother me *too* much... but I will reiterate what I said last week, the kid who play's Trinity's son is actually a pretty decent actor... he's better than a few of the main players on the series (not Dexter, of course, but look at Batista and Laqwerty). He had a couple of lame-ass cheesy lines that I thought he delivered effectively.

i didn't buy dexter's reasoning for staying so long at their dinner though. he was worried what trinity would do to the son if he left. why? dexter doesn't care about people, he has no feelings. ok, he cares for his sister, for rita, for the kids, maybe even a little for his coworkers... but that's it. he doesn't care at all for other people. why would he care what happens to this kid of a killer who he barely knows? enough to stick around when he's worried about what his own kids or neighbor may have found in his shed? i didn't buy it. but still, i'll let it pass because it led to that great scene of him on top of trinity.

I sort of agree, but sort of disagree too... Dexter does have a weird conscience of sorts, he just lacks emotion. H@rry's code basically tells him that in certain circumstances it's ok for Dexter to ritualistically kill people. Now Dexter has been leaving Arthur Mitchell alive on borrowed time out of curiosity, whereas his purpose is to stop killers before they harm other innocents... when Trinity finished his last cycle and Dexter saw that he was a "perfect" family man, he figured that no harm was going to come to anyone immediately so he could observe and learn more about Trinity in the mean time. However in the last episode Dexter learned that Trinity was in fact a monster in his daily life, so there would be a sense of regret in not having killed him already.

and now about that twist...

so pacino thought the hot reporter chick was lundy's killer, and i thought it might be one of trinity's family members. i guess we were BOTH right! i'm not sure how i feel about this yet... a lot will depend on next week's episode and how they explain her motivation for killing lundy. if her motivation WAS just to create a story for herself, then it's still a shark-jumping massive fail of epic proportions with a dash of x 1000 due to the extreme coincidence of trinity's daughter just happening to kill the guy investigating her dad. i can't believe the writers would plot something as dumb as that, even the Heroes writers have more sense than that. so either a) trinity put her up to it somehow, or b) she knows her dad is the killer and did it on her own to protect him. and b) doesn't make much sense either because 1) if she wanted to protect her dad, why did she then write that big front-page story about how he's still on the loose, and 2) how did she even know lundy was on the trail of her dad to begin with, only trinity himself knew that. so it has to be a) trinity put her up to it, because anything else would be stupid.

but that still raises some questions. like 1) how much does she know about her dad's serial killing? if she's capable of killing herself, maybe she's his accomplice. or maybe the psycho streak got passed on genetically. if she's willing to go that far just because her dad asked her too, and seemingly not show any remorse over it, then she's got to be as fucked up as her dad. and she has to know something about how fucked up her dad is too.

the bigger question for me is 2) how did lundy recognize her? i STILL say it looked like lundy recognized the shooter. but he couldn't have known she was trinity's daughter, he didn't even know who trinity was, only just saw him and had a physical description. he didn't know his name, identity, or anything about his family, so he couldn't have recognized her that way. that only leaves the possibility that lundy really was just reacting to her holding a gun pointed at him. that's kinda lame. oh well.

i have to say, this season is probably the oddest season of dexter yet.

Maybe Lundy had seen her before in one of his earlier Trinity investigations? Maybe the reason Lundy hadn't caught Trinity yet was in part because she had interfered with his investigations in the past? Or maybe it's just the gun...

Her face was on the newspaper article she wrote, outing Lundy as the guy chasing the Trinity killer. Her article along with that sexy mug was laying down on Lundy's desk. Lundy was all "Oh shit, it's that bitch that tipped Trinity off to my investigation of him" BLAM BLAM!

[papalazeru]

As fantastical as the little plot twist was, I'm still giving the writers the some leeway.

They really came back and shocked me in Season 2 with their back burning story so I will give them a chance to come clean.

[TheBaxter]

so... trinity DIDN'T put her up to it... she figured out her dad was trinity on her own, and killed lundy to protect him. i'm ok with that... at least it wasn't the monumental coincidence i was afraid it was for a moment there. it will be interesting rewatching this season over, knowing about that from the beginning and seeing if it still holds together. it still leaves some questions though. why did she keep writing about trinity after killing lundy? unless she doesn't know her father is also the bludgeoning murderer... i can't remember if those killings were linked to the bathtub killings in her articles. also... why didn't she also kill deb? why did she leave her alive as a potential witness? and i still preferred the idea that lundy recognized his killer as trinity right after finally coming face to face with him. i guess he could have recognized the reporter from her articles, but doesn't have the same poetic quality as lundy being killed by trinity himself.

mostly a good episode. plenty of forward momentum and more creepy weird trinity stuff. only two episodes left to go. hopefully a better conclusion than last year's series.

from next week's preview: it looks like dexter is going to be hunted next. that should be fun to watch. although, we do have another repeating theme from season 2, this time dexter getting too close to someone who then figures out who dexter is, and ends up putting dexter's kids in danger, forcing him to come to their rescue... just like lila from season 2

[judderman]

They say the last moment of the season will be the biggest twist. I'm dreading what it could be. Maybe Trinity is Dexter's real dad...

[TheBaxter]

i think the twist will be that imaginary harry isn't imaginary at all... or a ghost... but that he's actually harry's evil twin brother, but only dexter can see him because he uses magic invisibility dust. hey, at least it would give harry's continuing presence in this show a purpose!

[Pacino86845]

^IPAMPILASH!

Great episode, despite completely useless in-head H@rry (I think I'm learning to filter him out as I watch the show).

The only member of Trinity's family we see is the only one who can act: Jonah. Go Jonah!!

The hot reporter chick really looked hot in this episode, even though she keeps her clothes on most of the time. In fact I sort of felt sorry for her.

Trinity Plus One is creepy as fuck.

I wish I didn't watch the preview for next week's episode... even though they are usually good about not revealing what "really" happens, there's still too much shown that would be better off left as a surprise: like Arthur Mitchell showing up at Miami Metro... actually, having him stalk Dexter would've been cool to see in the episode rather than knowing what to expect in advance. Still, this time Dexter has a pro stalking and threatening his family rather than Lila who was batshit crazy and yet was a criminal mastermind... at least this time it's a bit more "believable."

And yet again they rekindled the Quinn/Dexter animosity, that's got to lead somewhere, no?

Mmmmm, hot reporter chick. Ok she didn't do too bad of a performance, there were some key moments that she pulled off well enough, so in my book she's earned the right to be called by her character's name: hot reporter chick!

[TheBaxter]

the only drawback to this plot development is that we are unlikely to see her naked again this season. i was kind of hoping she'd end up in the bathtub with trinity. actually, scratch that. seeing her and lithgow naked at the same time would have played tug-of-war with my libido til it snapped.

[Pacino86845]

It would've snap-crackle-and-popped.

[papalazeru]

Even though it had the stupidest plot twist last ep, I'm still throughly enjoying this show; it's still able to keep the charm going.

I do like how this week it's gone from cat and mouse, to a chase before the time runs out and next week it goes all Usual Suspecty with Lithgow walking into the police station. I wonder if he has Dex's family buried somewhere and the oxygen is running out?

Yes, it's all a little clichéd but they have so much fun with the characters.

[Pacino86845]

Michael C. Hall is good as always despite the writers obviously struggling with the character, but they should give John Lithgow some sort of bonus for holding this entire season together. Points go to Special Agent Rock Star Wild Bill Lundy as well but when they killed him off so early it was all up to Lithgow and Hall.

[TheBaxter]

Michael C. Hall is good as always despite the writers obviously struggling with the character, but they should give John Lithgow some sort of bonus for holding this entire season together. Points go to Special Agent Rock Star Wild Bill Lundy as well but when they killed him off so early it was all up to Lithgow and Hall.

and the hot reporter chick.

[TheBaxter]

last night's episode was pretty great. i only have a couple gripes (besides the usual fake h@rry complaints)...

one. the resolution of the laguerta-angel storyline. talk about hokey and cheesy to the extreme... especially dexter's involvement. the good news is, this will put the storyline to rest for the remaining episode of this season. the bad news is, we'll have an even worse storyline next season when they break up and get a divorce. if this is what the writers have to resort to to keep the secondary characters involved and give those actors something to do, this show is going to be in trouble real soon. there are only two ways to resolve this in a way that doesn't bleed into and ruin next season. the good way would be to have them break up and divorce off-screen between the end of this season and the beginning of next season, and deal with it in a quick one-minute scene, like they did with angel and his narcotics girlfriend from last season* in the first episode this year. dexter comes in one day and says, "so how's the marriage" and angel's all like "oh, we got a divorce, but we're still good friends", dexter shrugs and WE NEVER HEAR ANOTHER WORD ABOUT IT. that's the good way. the better way is to kill off laguerta in the next episode. not only does it remove the marriage storyline, it also removes a pointless character.

i know others here would rather see rita or deb get killed off, but i want to see laguerta die more than anyone. she's the most underwritten and inconsistent character on the show. one episode she's a scheming, conniving harlot, and the next she's a dedicated policewoman with a heart of gold. and it usually goes back and forth once or twice a season. the books killed her off in the first book and i think that's why the show's writers haven't really known what to do with her. after season 2, they set her up for a perfect storyline where she's suspicious of the bay harbor butcher because she doesn't believe it's doakes, and then she could get on dexter's trail, and then dexter would have to face up to the possibility of having to kill an innocent person to save himself... but maybe they thought that would be too similiar to what happened to doakes, so they didn't go there. but the last two seasons, the most convoluted and pointless plot lines have dealt with laguerta.... first her relationship with prado and her lesbian fling with that lawyer (which could have been hot except it was laguerta and that ugly lawyer, and no one wants to see either of them naked) and then this season the forced romance with angel. the best thing they can do is just kill her off, for the sake of the whole show.

* by the way, i liked angel's relationship with the narc a lot better... mostly because it felt more genuine and had some sweetness to it, him courting her and all, and his awkardness. angel with laguerta though was a bust. not only because she's a bitch, but just no chemistry and the relationship feels like a forced plot line. angel is one of the better secondary characters, and i think the actor is probably the best non-dexter actor out of the regular cast. they have to give him something better to do. hey, how about some subplots for the secondary actors that DON'T involve them hooking up with someone who's a co-worker or a serial killer?

ok, number two. last week's preview, once again, gave away WAY TOO MUCH. this was a really tense and well-paced episode, but it was deflated by knowing exactly where it was going... right down to the VERY LAST LINE. imagine the shock of seeing trinity track dexter right back to police HQ, actually coming right into the building himself. unfortunately, i can only imagine because i had it spoiled in last week's preview. other than showing trinity and dexter come face-to-face, they gave the whole thing away. those previews are like crack, it's hard to resist them. but this show doesn't NEED previews, at least not ones like that. it's not like a show where each episode is self-contained and people might skip an episode or two, so you show a preview to get them to come back next week. each season of this show is one long story, so if people are still watching by the 10th episode, they're going to stay around til the end. you don't need to tease them to keep them interested, and spoiling the whole episode is just going to piss people off... LIKE ME.

ok. i had to get all that out of the way. now to the good stuff. like i said, a great episode, the cat-and-mouse between dexter and trinity was great to see, and to see dexter suddenly as the hunted instead of the hunter, but not even realizing it til the very end**. and the last scenes when trinity shows up at police hq definitely lived up to expectations. the scene of him in the trinity investigation room, looking at all the pictures of all his kills, and the look of pride and joy on his face as he looked over his life's work... pure awesome. and then his line "mr laundry (i can't remember his name)... you've done me a solid." ok, he didn't actually say "solid", if he had it would have been 1000 times as awesome. but still, that was a great scene. and just his whole demeanor, the way he casually walks around like he owns the place.

** actually this reminds me of one more weakness of the episode. dexter fell for trinity's trap WAY too easily. was there ANYBODY in the audience who wasn't on to what trinity was up to as soon as dexter left to go after him? maybe the excuse was that dexter was too distracted and harried (ha, ha, get it? HARRIED!) by all the other stuff going on in his life to think it through, but i don't really buy it. dexter's too smart to fall for that. how could anyone think trinity was so dumb as to go to the one place where he's been caught by dexter before to call him, let alone to try to kidnap another boy while he's got someone blackmailing him. so that was a bit weak. but really, that, and the angel-laguerta thing, were just minor drawbacks in an otherwise great episode, and next week's finale looks like it's going to be just as good.

[judderman]

Laguerta is the most consistently repellent character on the show, which, considering that the main character carves people up, is an achievement.

I agree with everything you said, Baxter, but what really got me about the arcade scene is that Dex didn't recognise Trinity's GMC. Hasn't he seen it before? I don't remember.

OK preview spoilers.

How could Deb have learned about Laura Moser, learned that she died, learned that she left behind two little boys, and that one of them was Dexter, and yet not know that the other little boy happens to share the same name of her ex-fiancée, as revealed by Angel back in season 1? Has she forgotten that he wasn't actually named Rudy?

From the looks of things, the cops are still on the Trinity case in the finale, which is odd since Dexter supposedly closed it. Perhaps the "big twist" is that Trinity frames Dex for his own crimes, or other crimes we don't know about, and Deb, realising Dexter's past and connection to Rudy, suddenly realises he is in fact a serial killer. And so he ends the show on the run.

[TheBaxter]

PREVIEW SPOILERS

well, brian IS a pretty common name. and it was a preview, so we don't know what else she might know or find out beyond what little was shown.

i don't think dexter could be framed for trinity. he's never travelled to most if any of the other trinity kill states, and since he works with cops, would have pretty solid alibis for those timeframes. i don't remember what they showed of them still investigating trinity (i tried not to watch the preview TOO closely) but remember, they don't know that dexter killed that trucker guy, so as far as they're concerned, he's still alive and on the loose. they would still be trying to track him down.

and as for the van, i know dexter has seen trinity's van, has ridden in it before even... but i don't know if it was the same van. trinity might have rented a different van. maybe he rents a new van only for as long as it takes to work on each four walls build, and doesn't own his own van.

[Pacino86845]

Use spoiler tags for preview spoilers!!

I am pissed off, the episode turned out to be useless because it was completely ruined by last week's preview. I thought there was going to be a huge surprise/twist this episode, but it turns out it was just Trinity showing up at Miami Metro... which we already saw played out in the preview.

By having the best part spoiled in advance, I began to notice the crappier elements of the episode... like Laguerta and Angel, in-head H@rry, Deb being gross (how about that plaid shirt of hers, she's gone grunge tomboy), Quinn is officially a useless moron of a character. The hot reporter chick was pretty good though...

So I am totally pissed off because the coolest part of the episode had already been completely spoiled and the rest of it was useless. Urgh.

No, I did not watch the preview for next week's episode. And also I'm not sure I'll come back to watch season 5.

[papalazeru]

Use spoiler tags for preview spoilers!!

I am pissed off, the episode turned out to be useless because it was completely ruined by last week's preview. I thought there was going to be a huge surprise/twist this episode, but it turns out it was just Trinity showing up at Miami Metro... which we already saw played out in the preview.

By having the best part spoiled in advance, I began to notice the crappier elements of the episode... like Laguerta and Angel, in-head H@rry, Deb being gross (how about that plaid shirt of hers, she's gone grunge tomboy), Quinn is officially a useless moron of a character. The hot reporter chick was pretty good though...

So I am totally pissed off because the coolest part of the episode had already been completely spoiled and the rest of it was useless. Urgh.

No, I did not watch the preview for next week's episode. And also I'm not sure I'll come back to watch season 5.

It's not the ending that mattered so much for me, it was the journey that had me going. I loved how Arthur became the cat instead of the mouse.

[Pacino86845]

They had even spoiled the "journey" in the preview, the fucks! The journey was like five minutes of episode time, and last week's preview had focused exclusively on that. Everything else in the episode was major and totally unwelcome filler.

[TheBaxter]

well, i'm totally with pacino on that one, like i mentioned in my post. it really did kill the suspense of the episode, like reading the last chapter of a book before reading the whole thing. i could still appreciate the tension of the chase, but having it all spoiled by last week's preview really deflated it.

i don't know how much of that is the show's fault, and how much is showtime's fault. it's like when a trailer gives away big plot points to a film... is it the film's fault, or the marketing dept? i don't know how much control the showmakers have over what is or isn't shown in the previews, i'm guessing not a lot, so i'm not going to hold it against the show itself. i've just got to train myself to avoid previews in the future. especially for this show.

[TheBaxter]

awesome finale! i can't say this was the best season overall (season 2 was), there were a couple real clunker episodes, and the laguerta-angel story was a real distraction. but it was definitely the best finale they've ever had.

there's no way to talk about the episode without going into massive spoilers, so i'll wait a few days before saying too much. all i will say right now is, the ending was... perfect.

[stereosforgeeks]

awesome finale! i can't say this was the best season overall (season 2 was), there were a couple real clunker episodes, and the laguerta-angel story was a real distraction. but it was definitely the best finale they've ever had.

there's no way to talk about the episode without going into massive spoilers, so i'll wait a few days before saying too much. all i will say right now is, the ending was... perfect.

Unfortunately yet again the writers prove they have no clue and dont know how to actually plan a season.

If it was planned from the beginning with the circular nature of Harrison (despite the logical inconsistency of the timeline) I would have thought it was excellent. However, because they had a last minute "ooo this would be cool moment" and not a serious plan for the season it leaves me feeling a bit let down.

But hey we did get rid of Rita!!!

The crap with Deb figurin g out just enough to keep the status quo was snore inducing though. Now that would have been a true game changer.

[TheBaxter]

^ WOAH, SPOILERS ABOVE ^

however, or whenver, they arrived at the decision to kill rita, it worked for me. what i was REALLY worried about was that all the telegraphing of the idea that dexter would give up serial killing to try to live a normal life with his family would be followed through with. as much as that would've sucked, the alternate ending they described in that article would have been way way worse. i mean, that alt ending is so bad, i can't imagine they ever seriously considered it.

one of the odd bits of that interview:

Did Trinity tell Rita about Dexter before he killed her?
PHILLIPS: I don’t know the answer to that question. We haven’t talked about next season. But [my gut says] I would think that he did not tell her.

i posted this in TBs, but the fact is trinity DIDN'T KNOW dexter was a serial killer til the very end. so he COULDN'T have told rita anything. up to the point that dexter had him on the table, trinity just thought dexter was trying to be a vigilante when he was hunting trinity down. i hope when he thinks about that a bit more, he realizes that, or else it would be a big inconsistency if, for example, they had rita phone and tell someone, or write down somewhere, somethiing trinity told her that she couldn't have known.

[stereosforgeeks]

i posted this in TBs, but the fact is trinity DIDN'T KNOW dexter was a serial killer til the very end. so he COULDN'T have told rita anything. up to the point that dexter had him on the table, trinity just thought dexter was trying to be a vigilante when he was hunting trinity down. i hope when he thinks about that a bit more, he realizes that, or else it would be a big inconsistency if, for example, they had rita phone and tell someone, or write down somewhere, somethiing trinity told her that she couldn't have known.

Hugely inconsistent! Though I can see them doing it.

[Pacino86845]

So, I just finished watching the episode...

But before all that, I was casually reading a BNAT TB on the main page when some asshole cocksucker spoiled the big twist.

Urgh... and I had even avoided the preview and everything, thinking I was taking every measure to avoid being spoiled.