Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Dexter: Ricochet Rabbit

Dexter: "I think this is offensive. Who would choose to be a serial killer?"

Dexter has officially rejected Brother Sam's religious teachings (that was fast) and has decided to trust his own instincts instead of the Code of Harry. Dexter is even blaming Harry for pushing him toward killing in the first place. That was new.

As Dexter was rejecting Harry, Travis rejected Gellar and went on a rampage all on his own, acting like an inner-directed lunatic instead of his previous torn and conflicted acolyte. Just as he did with Trinity, Dexter refused to do the logical thing and let Miami Metro catch Travis. Too bad for Holly Benson. (And I certainly don't like the subtle implication that she deserved a horrible death because of her moral choices.) When is Dexter going to learn? Well, maybe he has. He finally did call the police. Of course, it's gone so far now that if Travis is caught alive, he could tell them all about Dexter, the False Prophet who killed Gellar. We can't have that.

I had already realized that they were setting up some serious plot consequences to Quinn hitting bottom, but I didn't expect that Angel would be the one to pay the price. (I'm going, no, Angel! Don't go into Doomsday Adam's house alone!) And what's this about toxic gas at Miami Metro? Are they going to do a 24? I'm betting Dexter will figure it out and stop the poison gas. I'm more concerned about what will happen to Angel. I'm fond of Angel.

The parallels between the boyishly handsome serial killer Travis with his invisible father figure and the boyishly handsome serial killer Dexter with his invisible father just aren't obvious enough; Deb remarked that Travis's sister thought the world of Travis, and Deb feels the same way about Dexter. This thing with Deb is starting to get weird. I'm all for psychotherapy and self-realization, but Deb is now seeing Dexter differently, and treating him differently as well. She thinks he's protective and sweet. (Rita saw Dexter that way, too. And Jamie said Dexter is a big softie.) I'm starting to think they're actually going to Go There. And by that, I don't mean Deb finding out about Dexter's extracurricular killings. Will her latest inappropriate and/or ill-advised romantic interest in a protective father figure be with Dexter?

How would Dexter respond to a romantic overture from Deb? I have no idea. He doesn't see the world the way most people do, and he certainly doesn't have a traditional Judeo-Christian moral straitjacket. He loves Deb more than anyone in the world except Harrison. And I am now trying to picture how Miami Metro en large would react to Dexter and Deb as a couple.

(Since a lot of people who read this blog don't get to see the previews, let's not discuss them in the comments. We all know that previews can be intentionally misleading.)

We finally got Greene's video game reveal, and the name of the game is "Homicidal Tendencies." Greene has been so helpful to Miami Metro, and he was easily intimidated by both Angel and Dexter. But if he idolizes serial killers and likes to pretend he is one, is sweet little Jamie in danger? Is Greene destined for Dexter's table?

"I'm the Bay Harbor Butcher." Too funny.

Bits and pieces and yet more hands:

-- Gellar was an innocent victim. He told Travis to get help, and Travis stabbed him in the heart and put him in a freezer. I do love Edward James Olmos. After seeming to be the personification of evil for the last nine episodes, a few effective lines and I felt for him.

-- It took Deb five minutes to figure out Jessica Morris's customer was Matthews. Their upcoming dinner date should be interesting.

-- Travis writes entries on his blog using tons of ellipses...

-- Deb associates churches with funerals. So do I, for that matter.

-- Travis killed both of his parents as well as his sister. Again with the Trinity vibe.

-- Dexter reads Everybody Poops to Harrison.

-- Won't the cops see Dexter on the very same security camera footage he just accessed? Why does this plot line seem so familiar? :) Dexter is being clumsier, much less careful. Or the writers are.

-- Dexter's screen saver is the hand of God from the Sistine Chapel. Was Travis's the Last Supper?

-- Gold acting stars for Colin Hanks. He's got a completely different vibe now that he's shed Gellar and acquired his own disciples. I didn't expect Doomsday Adam and Eve to be so totally batshit. Why didn't one of them say no?

Quotes:

Dexter: "He thinks Gellar is still alive."
Harry: "Talking to someone who isn't there. Huh."
Billie laughs out loud.

Harry: "This is ghoulish. Even for you."
Dexter has decided to keep Gellar's hand in storage for a rainy day. Weirdly funny.

Deb: (in church) "Holy Christ on a stick. (pause) Sorry."
Billie laughs out loud.

Dexter: "Maybe you're pregnant."
Deb: "First of all, fuck you. And second of all, that would be the immaculate fucking conception since I haven't been with anyone since Quinn. And lastly, fuck you."
Dexter: "Sounds like you're feeling better."
He did that deliberately to shock her out of her panic attack, didn't he? He also shared with her his own panic attack from the motel room o' blood.

Dexter: "Time to play 'find the fuck pad'."

Deb: "His sister seemed so convinced he was a good guy."
Dexter: "Maybe she didn't know."
Deb: "Anything's possible."
Billie laughs out loud.

What a clever episode. Four out of four... there have been a lot of disembodied hands this season, right?

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

16 comments:

  1. I liked it but there are two thing that annoy me a bit: first, Dexter rebelling against Harry feels like what he did in season 2 and second, the change in Travis´s demeanor. At first, he was torn about it and said that Gellar did it but now he totally switched and I don´t buy it. He should have some doubts like in the beginning. It´s lack of continuity and it seems that the writers just put Travis torn and confused so we, the viewers, wouldn´t suspect that it was him all along. I´m sorry but that annoys me a bit.
    And someone please kill Quinn.

    Still, a good episode but it could have been more.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Anonymous. It seems inconsistent that now Travis is full-on Doomsday Leader... This type of thing really annoys me. (funny you mentioned 24. During the episode I was reminded of it by this.. they did it all the time with the traitors, showing them acting perfectly just till the audience found out and then just being plain evil)

    I hope Dexter being clumsy is leading up to something, but I'm feeling it's the writers. I feel the plot is getting more and more clumsier these last two seasons... (don't get me wrong, I still love this series and the drama is still excellent, but lately it seems Dexter is relying completely on luck to find his victims, capture them and/or escape without consequences - tooth fairy, motel owner, the man he murdered in the beginning of s05, etc - instead of the long planning and clever decisions from the first seasons. Also, the police work is not helping - I still don't get how the Quinn/Robocop thing from last season just vanished without any mention..)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I got That Vibe too from Deb's story about their childhood and the somewhat suggestive promo. But I think it won't go there. The last few therapy sessions and this one all seem to come back more to the fact that Deb has relied heavily her whole life and she is realizing that she doesn't know a thing about him, two things that I guess need to change. I could be wrong, but I am hoping it doesn't go in that... slightly suggested direction. Even if Dexter was adopted, it'd still be a bit weird this late in the game. I really do think they've been building up more to the Deb finding out about Dexter thing, but it seems like that every season. haha

    I gave Quinn breaks before, but he will have lost what respect I have left if his drunken stupidity gets Angel killed. Both Dexter and Deb's old boyfriend, Anton were nearly killed in the past because of his incompetence.

    Crazy Colin Hanks surprisingly freaked me out more than crazy Edward James Olmos. He is Tom's son. He seemed so freaking harmless before; killing his 'mentor' with a sword must have broken his mind, maybe sanctioning off all of the homicidal tendencies to his wise master personality while he himself is innocent. I wonder what kind of backstory will be given about Travis, if any. We learned Gellar was in fact little more philandering professor who feel victim to, apparently, a fanatical fan of one of his pseudo-christian hellfire books. Poor guy? Olmos did have my favorite line delivery though. "You killed me... then you put me in the freezer." You know, next to the above "Time to play 'find the fuck pad.'"

    Things are looking pretty tense all around. Dexter's never fought terrorists before I don't think. If only he had found that easy to break out of door in the basement while Travis spent five minutes talking to himself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It seems like every week has a new team of writers or at least different writers than the previous week. I think this is part of our inconsistency. I'm willing to go along for the ride because I love Michael C. Hall.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the comments, everyone. Obviously, I'm still really enjoying Dexter. For me, it always was, and still is, the most fascinating character study on television. I keep thinking they've done everything they can possibly do with Dexter himself (other than him getting caught, getting found out by Deb, and/or put on trial) but they keep surprising me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dexter's one of the most consistent shows I've ever seen. I don't think I've ever seen a bad season or a bad episode. But this season hasn't reached the highs of the past two seasons for me. Every episode has been a solid 3 out of 4, but we've yet to hit that full score. Part of that's down to the fact that Gellar being dead wasn't much of a surprise. Maybe if they'd covered it up better there'd have been more shocks along the way. But this is still a quality show, with its best stories still to come.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can agree with that, Paul. This season hasn't blown me away, although I'm very much enjoying it. I can always tell when something is losing me -- it's when I have trouble making myself write about it. I have no trouble at all writing about Dexter this season. So far, my least favorite season has been the third.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah, the third is my least favourite, too. The fourth is my favourite, closely followed by the first and the fifth (In no particular order).

    The CAPTCHA word is "scroddle". That should be a word. Anyone want to guess what it might mean? Keep it clean.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Billie... I'm really beginning to think this is the season that Dexter gets caught out - perhaps not by Deb, but by someone. He's been so sloppy. I mean, he's taken sloppiness to a whole new level. I thought the Shady Lane Motel pen was bad, but in this episode he set himself up for some big falls... There's a strong chance he will be on that surveillance footage from the marina - he stood on the same walkway where the security guy was having a smoke when he (Dexter) was looking for the Ricochet Rabbit earlier; he dialled 911 from his cellphone (caller ID, anyone? voice-matching technology, anyone?)... Eish, even Quinn could figure this out if he was sober enough! Not sure how the writers are going to wrap it all up with only two episodes to go, but the finale is bound to be a doooooooozie! And I'm kinda waiting for the geek-slash-wannabe-serial-killer (who is now sufficiently hurt and/or pissed off) to put his computer skills to work on Dexter's PC and discover something incriminating.

    @Paul Kelly... Scroddle, hmmm? That's such a lovely onomatopoeic word. I think it should be used to describe how cows walk when their udders are overly full. They kind of waddle and wobble and sway at the same time - yep, they scroddle. Sorry, I'm a farm girl :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I just want to slap Quinn around and say 'snap out of it!' Is this supposed to show us how much he's broken hearted not that he's not marrying Debra? Have some pride, fella!

    Anyway, my favorite seasons are still one, two, three and four. They had that gotta see it, don't want to miss it vibe going for the stories, directing and acting.

    Five through Six I could wait around and see the reruns of later, but even those have a couple of episodes that are gems. All and all its still a good show, just not great like it used to be. I'll still watch until the end.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Am I the only one who gets this vibe that all these therapy sessions and whatnot are leading to Deb dying? Possibly finding out who Dexter is a the same time. If there ever was a time to kill Carpenter off, now is it, with the Doomsday Killer taking the fight to her doorstep.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Vieras Talo, you have a point -- but the idea of this series with no Deb is unthinkable for me! She's nearly as indispensable as Dexter himself.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Nice catch, Patryk. I'm starting to think I need a full-time editor. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Season 6 was just Jesse Pinkman hallucination from smoking meth.

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.