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Dexter: Sin of Omission

Dexter: "I took advantage of you."
Deb: "Yeah! You did!"

Dexter's religious quest continued on its demented path with a blood-soaked, heavily annotated Bible, confession of his murders to a priest with Alzheimer's, and absolution. Just telling the truth to a priest and being absolved seemed to mean something to Dexter. I'm not sure what. I'd think that Brother Sam actually was good for Dexter. Except for his sin of omission.

If Dexter can in any way be construed as an instrument of God's justice, then the fact that he let Travis go because of Brother Sam and looking for the "light" was a mistake that just cost Lisa Marshall her life. If Gellar exists, then it was an even bigger sin of omission for Travis. If Gellar doesn't exist, then Travis mutilated and murdered his own sister, and even chained and burned himself. That's a seriously batshit case of looneytunes he's got going on there.

Dexter just missed seeing Gellar. Even though Travis was the one who saw Deb talking to Lisa, Gellar was lurking outside Lisa's house and could have seen Deb, too. I thought we were going to find out this time. I guess the writers just haven't finished playing with us. Do we have to wait until the season finale to find out whether Gellar is real or not?

I felt bad about Lisa Marshall. That poor woman suffered and died because she was Travis's sister, much as Deb was Brian's victim only because she was Dexter's sister. The Travis/Lisa relationship is an obvious parallel to Dexter and Deb, with the sister representing "light" and normalcy. The Dexter/Deb relationship has always been the cornerstone of this series. Is it finally splintering?

Deb caught Dexter in a kill-related lie, and lest we forget, the Shady Lane hotel guy will eventually be found. Deb realized, with the help of her therapist, that her close relationship with Dexter isn't so close and tends to go in only one direction. Blowing Deb off when she was trying so hard to be a good sister was a mistake on Dexter's part. To top it off, Lisa Marshall told Deb that Travis didn't confide in her, just as Deb was realizing the same thing about Dexter. Will Deb finally make a connection? She's a detective, after all.

(Oh, forget it. It's Charlie Brown and the football. Deb will never find out. Never gonna happen.)

In other news, I thought at first that LaGuerta was just micromanaging Deb into a corner, but no. I don't think LaGuerta is so corrupt that she would cover up a murder. Is she just protecting the hooker's customer? Wasn't Matthews' blackmail hooker-related? They didn't introduce this plot line for no reason, so I'm sure someone is going to figure it out. Deb is wildly busy, but she is certainly pissed enough at LaGuerta to keep the case open. We shall see.

Bits and pieces:

-- Brother Sam's funeral was nice. Genuine emotion on the part of the mourners, and it took place at a spot important to Sam (as well the place where his murder was avenged).

-- That Bible might not be something Dexter will want to keep around. Something that is blood-soaked is going to reek. If it doesn't, already.

-- Angel's lunch with Jamie and Louis was just weird. Did Angel actually threaten Louis? Really? Way to be overprotective, Angel. If Jamie finds out, she'll be furious.

-- Deb is now regularly seeing the cool psychotherapist. Her body language at the session was interesting, as if she was actively concealing herself. The fact that her relationship with Dexter has already come up is pretty interesting. More, please.

-- I'm going to observe and record that Quinn continued to make a complete ass of himself, and move on.

-- It was just announced this week that Dexter has been renewed for not one but two more seasons. Eight seasons of Dexter? That's sort of phenomenal. I hope that means they'll figure out a cool way to end the series.

Quotes:

Dexter: "What's good for an apology?"
Donut vendor: "Male or female?"
Dexter: "My sister."
Donut vendor: "I'd go with a cruller."

Deb: "I need everyone's asses on the fucking ball."
Masuka: "And I keep rearranging that sentence to make it hotter."
Dexter: "And that's still my sister."

Deb: "LaGuerta is acting weird."
Dexter: "Weird how?"
Deb: "She's being helpful."

Deb: "Are all brothers assholes?"

It feels like they lost a little momentum. Or maybe this one just wasn't as compelling as the road trip. Three out of four apologetic crullers,

Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

8 comments:

  1. I liked this episode and am enjoying the season so far; but if it is like you say, Billie, the Charlie Brown football, I'm going to be irrevocably pissed off. Deb HAS to find it all out this season, otherwise everything from season 6 forward will be more of the same.

    Poor Molly Parker. She survived even Deadwood, but couldn't make it in Miami. She's a good actress and has a beutiful, beautiful smile. I hope I see her around soon.

    This Tyler Durden vibe from Travis is less and less believable. He was chained very far from the glowing iron. It's getting ridiculous.

    And we actually saw Geller making the alligator beast by himself last week. Travis was blissfully away. I'm not sure if I still buy it.

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  2. If Gellar -is- real, it's just bad writing. I'd rather believe they've failed at tricking us into believing he's real than believe they intentionally (and there's no way it isn't intentional) tried to make us believe he was fake just to twist it by making him real. Because, why? It's pointless. It's a meta-mislead inserted just for the sake of being misleading. It adds nothing to the plot. If he -is- a hallucination, at least it's a real plot and they've been doing it for a reason, even if everyone figured it out.

    I've never really believed that being able to figure out a twist in advance is a bad thing anyway--something that is predictable because it believably follows up the storytelling that has gone before is much better than something that is unpredictable because it makes no sense with the rest of the story.

    So yeah, Gellar better be imaginary, or I'll be annoyed.

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  3. Looks like the season has finally come together. It's good stuff, in my opinion.

    I am drawn more to the idea that Gellar isn't real now. The 'hints' are a little too noticeable. Gellar never enters the scene, he's always just there around Travis. Him walking away before Dexter saw him was a little too inconvenient (plus Dexter keeps insisting that he's a dark passenger that can be killed). Travis saw his sister talk to Debra, not Gellar, as you said. Plus a guy like him crawling out that small high up window and making a getaway before Dexter got there. It's getting hard to believe he's real.

    Then again, Travis has never really struck me as being crazy enough to have a multiple personality. Or maybe he's so crazy that all of his craziness manifests itself in the form of Gellar, making Travis completely normal looking. Dexter will find out soon enough now that they are working together. Fitting. It's pretty clear to me that Travis is a representation of Dexter. They are both practically living the same kinds of lives. And now they are hunting the same person. I hope this doesn't mean Debra will die.

    After this episode, I'm almost convinced that Deb will find out about Dexter this season. I don't think its been brought up before how absolutely little she's knows about him. And now her mission second to finding Gellar and Travis is making a deeper connection with her brother. It just seems like this could be the moment we've all been waiting for. If not, then showrunners aren't giving a character as smart as Deb enough credit.

    Even though Angel's threat toward Louis was uncomfortable, I was laughing all the way through it. I remember how he beat a guy to a pulp for insulting Maria, so I guess it figures him being overly protective of his sister.

    All in all, another typically awesome Dexter episode.

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  4. I would like to state for the record that I have said since the first episode of this season that I see Deb and Angel hooking up. I think Angel's overprotective instinct toward his sister will be mirrored in how he feels toward Deb. Also, he's distancing himself from Quinn in a way that will make it less awkward for him to have an affair of some sort with Deb. I think he will end up being put in a position to "save" her.

    I'm seeing tons of weirdness from intern guy whose name I can't remember. He's dating Jamie, Dex's sitter, but he deleted a text from her without reading it? That's just weird. It's obvious he's using Jamie to get close to Dex, but I think there's another agenda at work here, too. Anyone else see something weird going on with that video game? Guy is smart. He may decide Dex is much better as a video game anti hero.

    I love that La Guerta looks like sex on a stick and is becoming more and more evil. I know Angel has a history with hookers and when she arrived on the scene, she wanted to know where Batista was. Please don't let him be involved. I don't want to see their story go this way even though I loved that they were together. I think they are more intriguing now that they have some bitterness toward each other.

    Quinn needs to be transferred. I never liked him. He should marry green thong (who I mistakenly thought was Jamie. How many college girls have paid their way this way?), and he should move to Orlando.

    I liked Deb and Dexter fighting about communication. It's even more special when you realize they divorced before shooting this season after being married, what?, a year?

    No opinion on Travis/Geller. Not nearly as interesting to me as the others.

    For the record: that hand that Ryan stole is still out there. I think it may return, too.

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  5. I won't let them bait me into thinking Deb will find out about Dexter for the 3rd or 4th time. Even if they had such a scene they'll just cut it now that Showtime has given them two more seasons. Such a revelation would fit best in the finale of the penultimate season.

    On Travis/Gellar: the episode title really suggests that letting Travis go was the eponymous sin so Gellar must be imaginary. Enything else will feel like a cop-out. Too many contrivancies would be needed to explain how Gellar remains unseen by anyone else.

    I think the ITK hand was there just so we would have some exposition on season 1 before ITK appeared inside Dexter's mind. But the Speedster from Heroes feels wasted so far.

    That new intern rejected Jaimie's text because he's scared of Angel. No double meaning behind it. So far at least.

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  6. I liked it but I also feel that it´s losing a bit of steam. That´s why the renewal for two seasons makes me aprehensive.
    As for Gellar/Travis, I think it will come as no surprise if Gellar turns out to be imaginary.

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  7. I know I'm late to this discussion, but just wanted to point out that you missed one of the best quotes of the show:

    Deb: I'll fuck Masuka if this isn't our guy.

    Had me laughing for a while...

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