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Dexter: Chemistry

Hannah: "Sometimes a life has to be taken. There's no need to dress it up."

There's something rather delicious about this season of Dexter. Maybe it's all the secrets out on the table, so to speak, with Deb knowing the truth. Maybe it's the unexpected Dexter sex. Maybe it's the frank conversations about murder that Dexter is having with all of his new, murderous friends. Actually, all of the above.

Early in the episode, an idiot on a motorcycle flipped off Dexter and Hannah, the two murderers in the car behind him. (Dexter said, "Boy, did he pick the wrong car.") Sal the crime writer essentially did the same thing. He stalked and threatened Dexter and Hannah, screwing around with two murderers who were cleverer than he was, and he paid the ultimate price. I realized before it happened that Hannah would take advantage of Sal's oral fixation, so that wasn't a surprise. I actually thought for a moment that the blood spatter flower was also poisonous and Hannah had used it in order to implicate Dexter and get rid of two birds with one stone. (Maybe I've stumbled on a future plot point.)

What they're doing with Hannah is working, because I was completely off balance with her character. The way she asked Dexter so casually if he was planning to kill her later was oddly disarming. Her emotional breakdown and tearful confession to Sal was so convincing that I almost bought it. But I also kept expecting her to kill anyone at any moment. And son of a gun, she did.

Hannah talked to Dexter about survival of the fittest, about how nature adds and subtracts. For Hannah, killing and dying is simple, a part of life. She is as accepting of her own murderous nature as she is about Dexter killing her. She lives in the moment. And she's not like any other character we've seen on this show. (Unless I'm forgetting someone. Hey, seven seasons, cut me a break.)

The final scene was priceless. Dexter was lying next to Hannah in bed (was she sleeping, or was she listening?) and Deb called and told Dexter he had to kill Hannah. A confused Dexter broke the fourth wall and looked right at the camera, something he hasn't done in awhile. Awkward. Loved it.

All this, and we also got Dexter's delightful little lunch encounter with Isaak Sirko. I'm starting to like Isaak. It was so cute that he stole one of Dexter's french fries off his plate, and then insisted on paying for it. I also enjoyed Dexter explaining Wile E. Coyote to Isaak as they were threatening to kill each other. It's like they're having fun with it, and the acting chemistry is perfect. Like I said, delicious.

Bits and pieces:

-- The Quinn bribery plot has now been integrated into the Angel restaurant plot. Come on, Angel! I can't believe Angel didn't see that bribe for what it was. And did Quinn really believe Nadia? Sigh.

-- Deb tried to convince Maria that the investigation was hopeless and Doakes really was the Bay Harbor Butcher. Will Maria stop investigating? Hey, this is Dexter. I don't think so.

-- Dexter had Hannah's blood spatter flower literally hanging over him while he was on his computer. Some obvious symbolism.

-- The Christy Lawson murder sounded like the Rosie Larson murder on the late (or maybe not so late), unlamented The Killing.

-- I'm sad Sal is gone already. Although I think he was a bit too creepy and obsessed with death for Deb. As this season has progressed, I'm actually sorta kinda changing my mind about Deb and Dexter as a couple. I don't find it as off-putting as I originally did.

Quotes:

Sal: "Between you and me, I'd watch what I eat around her."
Oh, Sal Sal Sal. Why didn't you listen to yourself?

Dexter: "She isn't drawn to my darkness like Lilah, or blind to it like Rita. She doesn't need it, like Lumen. She accepts both sides of me. The whole Dexter. So why am I walking away from this? Because when some chemicals mix, they explode."
Uh huh.

Sal: "I'm gonna interview Hannah later. Maybe I can pull something out of her."
Deb: "Gross."

Dexter: "Traces of blood. Good for me, bad for his gums."

Isaak: "I have a feeling you're a different kind of animal. The question is, what kind are you, Dexter Morgan?"
Dexter: "The kind who hunted your friend down and strapped him to a board and put a plastic bag on his head and crushed his skull with a fire extinguisher. The kind who's going to do the same thing to you, give or take the fire extinguisher."

Dexter: "Not only can't I kill her, I can't seem to stay away from her."

Another terrific episode, and I hope they can keep this going. Three and a half out of four fire extinguishers,

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

11 comments:

  1. Santiago Cabrera needs to stop dying on my shows.

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  2. Watching Dexter or Grey's Anatomy of soft porn is the same, it's boring

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  3. In terms of the soft porn thing, I was glad after the end of the last episode that they didn't show the sex and more intimated it after the slab encounter at the beginning of this epi. That first sex scene was so 'right out in the open' I kind of had to look away.

    Also when Hannah was telling her story for Sal I was skeptical of its veracity because for the most part she puts on a show, who knows when she's actually telling the truth or lying? She's so good at it, almost like Dex, except I don't know what her motives are so I take anything she says with a grain of salt. Still riveting, basically because I have no idea where they're going with it.

    Also think Quinn giving Batista that money was an interesting and logical thing for him to do. It solved a problem for him and probably made him feel less guilty for lying to someone who believes in him. He's still two-faced though. I agree with your grade.

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  4. Less intense than the previous ones, but so, so engaging. Great acting you all !

    Loved the encounter between Dexter and Isaac. A "chip". How British of him !

    And that table scene at the beginning reminded me that I wasn't watching an NBC show.

    Great reviewing Billie. You're really good at this (yes, and so is the rest of the staff, of COURSE).

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  5. I can live with the Dexter sex scenes. It may be difficult to do, but I think I can manage. :-)

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  6. What's with people feeling weird about the sex scenes? Are you aware of what show you're watching?

    So you're OK with all the murdering, blood and gore in the rest of the show but you have to look away on sex scenes? Bunch of hypocrites.

    I've been a fan of this site for year and this is the first time I have to comment on this kind of ridiculous comments on the content of a show. For that, Billie, I apologize to you.

    As for the episode, I'll agree with Celticmarc, this was less intense but still good.

    I do need them to resolve the Quinn story and get him out of the show, he's just annoying. And I guess that overlap between his story and Angel's hints us how Angel's restaurant project will end. From the beginning I thought that was a weird move for Angel's story.

    And I can't wait to have them come back on the weird Dex-Deb story. There's too much potential on that to ignore it for the rest of the season/series.

    Great review as usual, Billie. :)

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  7. I get why some were uncomfortable with the Dexter/Hannah table scene. It was a lot more explicit than what they usually do on this show, and oddly violent, considering that he wasn't actually hurting her. Fernando, I get what you mean, but calling people 'hypocrites' because they admitted to being uncomfortable doesn't sit well with me. If you're uncomfortable, you're uncomfortable. It's not a reaction you can temper with logic, is it?

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  8. It could have been a great season, but then two things happened: 1) Dex-Hannah lovestory and 2) Quinn-Nadia lovestory.

    First to Quinn and Nadia. I simply don´t buy it. He throws away his career, risks his friendship to Batista and suddenly does not care for Anderson´s murderer anymore? After all the fuzz he made? He knows her how long? Furthermore it is simply not interesting. I would have never expected me to say this but I would rather have more Laguerta. She has an interesting story but we see nothing of it.

    Then Dexter and Hannah. Oh my....I don´t know what to say. I don´t buy that Dex is so invested and suddenly thinks he loves her. He too risks everything for a woman he knows for two minutes. His behavior is so un-Dexter it hurts. He always cared for himself and his family and now Hannah seems to be his priority (He ignores his initial judgement again). More or less he aknowledged that he never loved Rita. He changed his mind very quickly, didn´t he.

    I thought the big bad would be Isaak and I´m disappointed that he´s not. It seems that the big bad of Dexter this season is Dexter himself. He is stupid, sloppy and just unlikable (never thought I´d say that either). I just hope that if he has to chose he chooses Deb and not Hannah. Dex and these unlikable women (Lila, Hannah) are terrible and don´t do the show any good if they overshadow the crime element.

    I´m rooting for Deb and Batista. I hope they bring Quinn and Dex back on track and if not bust them.

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  9. Well, I was not uncomfortable with the sex scene per se (I watch Spartacus, so that was not the problem), I was uncomfortable because it was Dexter. She is a black widow and simply awful and seeing Dexter with her in that way makes me angry. Since when does sex clouds Dexter´s mind? And I hate that he does not see that she uses and plays with him.

    P.S. Why did my previous comment vanish? :(

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  10. I liked this a lot. All I know is that this season will not end well, or at least that´s what I think.

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  11. Thanks, Billie. It was the rawness of the scene that was a little difficult to watch. Doesn't mean I don't know what channel I'm watching or what show.

    I'm either comfortable or skeptical when it comes to how these scenes are done. It's great when they're done right, hard to take when they're not. This was in between for me.

    A lot of men don't care about the context of a sex scene as long as there is one. Go figure.

    Also I don't think that it's out of character for Dexter to fall for Hannah so hard. He didn't know Lila or Lumen for that long either, and he had sex with them pretty quickly.

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