Dexter vs. The Tooth Fairy

This has been one hell of an odd season so far. The multitude of notable guest stars continue to make their debut, which is several times more than usual for Dexter. Then there’s the fact that Dexter hasn’t quite yet met his Big Bad of the season, though in a way he’s been introduced to their “work.” Then there’s Vince’s sneaky/sexy intern, Debra’s surprising promotion and dumping of Quinn. … See, an odd season.

I will say, though, that none of those oddities holds a candle to how this episode ended. Talk about turning things into one hell of a WTF moment. In fact, it took me some time to process what we’d just seen, because it was so fast, and the camerawork was done in such a way as to perfectly convey in us that same sort of disbelief the onlookers had. A macabre display of what I’m guessing were the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, pieced together — literally — by Travis and Gellar. If anything was going to finally catch Dexter’s attention as to his next fixation this season, this would be it. The fallout coming next week will be a sight to behold.

Once again a theme is brought forth on Dexter that hadn’t really been approached before: What happens when Dexter grows old and hasn’t shaken his Dark Passenger? Will he wind up like old Walter Kenny, sitting pathetically in a storage locker with his slides; his son, Harrison, barely coming to visit? It was a theme that I’d like to see come up again in the show, because I believe if Dexter is interested at all in truly ever ridding himself of his sickness, tossing away those slides would be a step in the right direction.

Then again, maybe seeing that the Tooth Fairy Killer was able to so easily thwart the authorities for so long might give him some hope that he can survive. But is that how he sees himself winding up? Does he care?

The new replacement detective for Deb seems pretty bad ass, even though he gave Deb a hard time right from the start; can you blame him, though? I definitely don’t see Deb staying in the position she’s in by the time this season’s done. I see her taking a step back down to detective, most likely of her own choice, and Angel right into that spot where he clearly belongs. This is not a sexist thing — she is just much better suited and is more comfortable in the field, and seeing her conduct the debriefings is painful. It’s even worse to have to see LaGuerta come down on her so hideously, and the farther away they’re kept from each other the better.

Quinn … I said this before and I’ll say it again: he’s not long for this world. I’m not exactly sure what he’s got brewing in that noggin of his, but he clearly wants to cause some sort of hurt for Deb. Right now he’s using other women, next … he may use Dexter. Will he go back to trying to prove Dexter’s one sick individual, in order to cause Deb a world of hurt? Obviously that can’t happen, so Quinn … *kkkkkttttt!* (that’s my finger across the neck like a knife sound … go with it.)

“I remember when I found that under your bed. I’d rather it had been a stack of Playboys.” – Harry, on Dexter’s old folder of serial killer newspaper clippings

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Oct 16, 2011 @ 22:04 EST5EDT