Maybe I’m just having a bad week. First, last Friday, I came out and said I thought the latest episode of Supernatural was snooze-worthy. More commenters came out in the episode’s defense than in support of what Deb and I had to say. And we love Supernatural, really! Well, I wasn’t all that keen on this episode of Dexter, either, though I certainly won’t say it was bad … just not filled with the thrills I’ve been waiting for. I want to be on the edge of my seat!
We did get a few big things out of this episode in the way of how the rest of the season will play out. First up, Mos Def’s character, Brother Sam. I wasn’t really sure what we were going to get out of him when the casting was first announced some time ago, and he’s even more of a mystery now … and I like it. Even Dexter’s not quite sure what to make of the self-redeemed Brother Sam, and it’s going to be interesting to see what more he’s going to bring to the table besides … more people to Dexter’s table. Could it be that Dexter confides in him his secret, the two of them working together at some point? Doubtful, but it’s all I’m coming up with at the moment.
Then there’s Travis (Colin Hanks) and Professor Gellar (Edward James Olmos), who we’re still really not sure about either. They seem to believe the end of days is upon us, though why they’re going about killing people for it isn’t clear. It seems like a slow-going process to get to learning what these guys are all about and, ultimately, how Dexter’s going to come to face them.
Lastly we have Debra’s promotion, which, strangely enough, is one of the more interesting portions of the episode. LaGuerta clearly doesn’t believe Deb deserves to be Lieutenant, but is that what Matthews thinks as well? I believe we’re supposed to think Matthews is putting Deb in that role just to cause LaGuerta to look bad when the whole thing blows up, but I’m not 100% sure about that. I do believe Angel deserves the job over Deb and could definitely run things much better than she could, but Deb’s surprised me (and those on the show) with what she’s capable of — and how smart she can be — in the past, dirty mouth and all. But with Deb in the Lieutenant’s seat, doesn’t that mean she won’t be in the field very much anymore? I think we need her in the field to keep her interesting, don’t you?
Oh, one more thing. Since when does Quinn even come near Dexter at all, never mind simply say he and Dexter have their “differences.” It goes quite a bit more beyond that, don’t you think?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Oct 09, 2011 @ 22:00 EST5EDT
If it weren’t for the voiceover narration, I could almost believe that this episode was about Deb, not Dexter. Really the only other things that happened were introducing Brother Sam and Travis’s sister.
I think Matthews was mainly increasing his own political capital (and I suppose the Department’s public image) by promoting the hero cop. Shafting LaGuerta and honoring Harry’s memory and legacy a bit seemed to be secondary considerations. I kind of loved how much Deb swore in this episode in response to multiple instances of good news for her personally. Also both her and Masuka’s reactions to her becoming his boss.
Quinn seemed to bury his overt hostility with Dexter in the final picnic scene of last season, as he was getting more serious with Deb. He was never able to find that smoking gun where her brother was concerned. I expect him to pick it up and run with it now, considering how much Dexter hates him in the voiceovers. This episode did help to remind me just how dumb Quinn is, though.
Heroes‘s Brea Grant was surprising. I remember her being more stick-like and much less sexy on that show.
Quinn’s had a year to let go of his animosity toward Dexter. It seems to be Dexter who hasn’t forgotten or let go of anything.
The first episode was kind of slow, but I thought this second episode was really good. I am intrigued by Brother Sam. I assume he is meant to be a foil to the cult creepos. Since faith is one of this season’s themes, it makes sense to show how faith manifests differently in different people’s lives.
I wasn’t sure at first, but now I’m convinced that this theme can work. Dexter is in a constant struggle to control his Dark Passenger, and he doesn’t think he can change from a monster to a man. But there are many cases of monstrous people being transformed by faith (Brother Sam appears to be one such case), so it’s natural for Dexter to want to find out if this is really possible.