The season finale to “Dexter” is tonight, and thus far–fairly consistently–I have yet to figure out how things are going to end up. Which doesn’t stop me from trying it again and, just on the off chance I’m right (which I probably won’t be) I’ll put it below the–heh–cut line…
UPDATED BELOW with actual spoilers…
Eli Stone will die in pitched battle with Dexter, but Lumen will wind up being arrested for the vigilante killings (perhaps copping an insanity plea), and will tell Dexter that under no circumstances should he confess to anyone his role in it. (“If you do, I swear, I’ll kill you.”)
UPDATED: 10 PM–Oh well. At least I was right about her surviving. You didn’t have to be Kreskin to figure that out. There was no way they were going to play the exact same emotional beat. Everything else…not so much. But hey, maybe she’ll be back…
PAD
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I would think they certainly won’t kill her off, as that would be repetitive, but one never knows.
I think your scenario is likely if they couldn’t get Stiles for another season, but I would imagine next year or the year after is all we have left, so it’s possible they may be able to twist her arm for one more turn.
I do think it’s possible that Deb may find out what’s going on finally, and we’ll be left with the cliffhanger as to how she’ll deal with that knowledge.
[re: Lumen getting arrested for it all] Ohhh, I like that idea.
I actually had a dream of the conclusion a couple of nights ago (yeah, I’m worried too) and while I don’t remember it all, Lumen and Jorden were both killed, and Dexter was very busy covering up evidence in the forest of his own involvement while dealing with his own angst… oh yeah, there was a forest. Did I mention that?
For my actual predictions, I don’t think Deb will discover anything about Dexter’s dark pursuits, but I think Quinn’s suspicions will be reawakened from the murder of Liddy, setting up that thread for next season.
Not sure what will ultimately happen to Lumen, but I don’t think the character will be back next season. If she survives and is not captured I think she’ll have some sort of closure with Jordon’s demise and move on. (Maybe she’ll come back in season 7 or 8 as a serial killer Dexter has to deal with… that could be interesting.)
One thing that’s bothered me a bit the last two seasons is a seeming disregard in Dexter’s character to occasionally killing a person who didn’t meet the code. He first did this at the start of season three when he killed Miguel Prado’s little brother, and it was a bit WTF moment for the character, and something he struggled with.
That was always one of the big draws of the Dexter character was that he was the “serial killer who only kills serial killers”. That was the hook.
However since then he has killed three others with no seeming hesitation or remorse:
– The photographer when it turned out his assistant was the killer.
– The absolute prìçk in the boat shed that disrespected Rita’s memory.
– Liddy in the back of the van.
Now granted, the last was a fight for his life, and the other two characters could easily be filed under “did society a favour”, but it dilutes an important aspect in the Dexter character that allows you to maintain your pathos, IMO.
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Dex certainly felt a little remorse about Miguel Prado’s brother, but further researched revealed that he *was* criminal scum, after all, and thereby left him a loophole.
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Likewise, the Photog’s assistant DID cause Dex some stress as well. It even played into a conversation with Trinity. The whole “hunting accident” scenario. Sure, you never exactly quite sure how much of Dexter’s comments to Trinity were just spin, but there was some truth to it.
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But I have to agree about the “boatshed guy”
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As for Liddy, the whole crooked cop angle (who had just kidnapped Dexter himself and was essentially about to condemn Dex to death) could be another “pass” for Dex’s conscience.
It also occurs to me that (Photographer’s assistant notwithstanding) I don’t believe that Dex took a blood slide for the other people he killed. Nor did he ritually dump their bodies.
I’m just annoyed that they never resolved the “Kyle Butler” dangling plot-line. That was absolutely the way to unravel Dexters whole tapestry, and instead, we have Quinn effectively saying “Nah, I’m in love with his sister, so for her sake, whatever Dexter has done is okay with me.”
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I don’t like it, and I’m not sure I buy it.
I though Deb was going to shot and kill Lumen but Dexter was going to escape without Deb knowing it was him. That would have alter their relationship.
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The other posibility I had was that she was gonna let them go (base on all the admiration for the “serious sh*t” that the vigilante couple had) just as it happen but she was going to see it was them. She wouldn’y know the whole thruth just that Dexter was killing this guys because he had a connection with Lumen and maybe because of what happen to Rita.
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Hanging plot points: Quinn saw someof the photos of Dexter and Lumen. He has to suspect that Dexter and Lumen match the Deb’s vigilante couple theory. also, there was a remainder that Deb was held hostage by the icetruck killer (Dexter’s brother) so probably she would eventually found out they are brothers.
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Was there ever a resolution if Harry is the biological father of Dexter? I know Deb found out Harry was romantically involve with Dexter’s mom and she told Dexter. If I remember the scene correctly Dexter never even thought Harry could be his father when Deb told him about Harry’s involvment with an informant.
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I enjoyed this season better than the last one. I just could not identify with Dexter’s admiration and curiosity about how trinity could keep a family. Dexter is like a child in need of acceptance and to me it feels repetitive. His need for Lumen was similar this season but at least there was also the fact that he was trying to replace Rita so at least that was new.
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The voodoo killers or whatever their name were felt like filler. Did they caught the other brother? I guess they were set up for Deb to show how she felt about having to kill a person that she knew deserved to die and justify her actions at the end of the season.
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The theme for her was that thing sometimes are more complicated than we though. Not everything is black and white and no one can escape the gray.
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Well, that is enough rambling for one post. As Harrison would say: die die (bye bye).
“Hanging plot points: Quinn saw someof the photos of Dexter and Lumen. He has to suspect that Dexter and Lumen match the Deb’s vigilante couple theory.”
When Dexter tampered with “the drop of Libby’s blood on Quinn’s shoe” evidence, Quinn said “Thanks. I owe you one.” Not pursuing the link between Dexter and Lumen could be associated with that promise.
“also, there was a remainder that Deb was held hostage by the icetruck killer (Dexter’s brother) so probably she would eventually found out they are brothers.” Near the end of Season 4, Deb did discover The Family Connection between Brian and Dexter. Dexter was prepared to blame himself for Deb’s near death at Brian’s hands but Deb, in her colorful way dismissed it by saying that her father adopting Dexter was the best thing that ever happened to her and her family.
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“Was there ever a resolution if Harry is the biological father of Dexter? I know Deb found out Harry was romantically involve with Dexter’s mom and she told Dexter. If I remember the scene correctly Dexter never even thought Harry could be his father when Deb told him about Harry’s involvment with an informant.” Near the end of Season 1, Dexter “inherited” his biological father’s house after he died and flashed back to his youth where he needed a blood transfusion and Harry obtained one through Dexter’s biological father. This was confirmed when Dexter snuck into the Town Coroner’s office and obtained a blood sample of his “father’s” corpse and submitted it along with a sample of his own to Masuka for analysis. Of course, Dexter later discovers indisputable evidence when he discovers the “Thank You Card” that he sent to his “unknown benefactor” at Harry’s insistence (it proved to Harry that Dexter wasn’t completely “a monster”).
Thanks for the remainders David. I’ve only seen each episode of Dexter the week it is premiered on Showtime. The first season in particular is a blur to me and until last week I was incorrectly remembering the events of season 2 as two separate seasons.
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I am going to have to buy the eventual complete series set once the series end. This is a show that I do not mind watching again.
You’re welcome.
Now you know why I make it a point to record this season and watch each episode at least twice. Also, I have Seasons 1-3 on DVD and I plan to buy #4 when I can afford it (Best Buy seems to have stopped discounting it in their stores to encourage their online markets to do it!) The literary Dexter series as well as the TV series lend themselves to repeat reading/viewing like a classic series of novels or films IMHO.
Tony wrote, “I just could not identify with Dexter’s admiration and curiosity about how trinity could keep a family. Dexter is like a child in need of acceptance and to me it feels repetitive. His need for Lumen was similar this season but at least there was also the fact that he was trying to replace Rita so at least that was new.”
At the end of the first season we see Dexter having the fantasy of his killings being out in the open and celebrated, with his sister nearby and people cheering. He knows if his crimes were linked to him he’d be locked away for life or killed (depending if he was legally considered or not). His sister is a police officer, so the only (adult) living family he has would be obligated to arrest him if she learned his secret. And his secret isn’t a small impulse or minor character trait, but his obsession, something he can barely control.
Trinity represented the possibility of having it all: family, plus killing. (Or is that killing, plus family?) Lumen represented the person who knows Dexter’s secret and doesn’t care; someone who, as Dexter said, looks at him and doesn’t see a monster. Much like THE SOPRANOS, DEXTER isn’t about the crimes per se but reconciling the crimes with the family. Dexter wants to be good as well as a killer, and he seeks that through family and/or relationships.
I had mixed feelings about this season ender compared to the others.
In Season 1, he has to deal with the fact that he had to kill his brother to save his adopted sister.
In Season 2, his “Inspector Javert” was killed by a woman that he had to kill and he treated it like a breakthrough.
In Season 3, he kills a high-ranking “apprentice” and his hired “attack dog” in time to get married and inherit a family.
In Season 4, he kills his “mentor” and discovers that his wife was killed before this happened.
In Season 5, he completes a trail of vengeance for another “apprentice” who decides to “hang up her knife and leave” while he reconnects with the extended family that he thought he lost.
I have this feeling that either Season 6 will be the most explosive season yet or the writers have forgotten what made this show special: intelligent stories involving intelligent characters that have open wounds that never heal neatly and cleanly. This ending was too tidy for me. Maybe I’m not seeing the big picture. I guess I’ll have to “Stay Tuned.”
I’m also a little confused about how easily Quinn was let off the hook by LaGuerta. OK, sure, the drop of blood on his shoe was “not” Liddy’s, but what about the phone call records? What about the meetings with Liddy that Deb witnessed? What about his fingerprints all over the van? What about the phone call Quinn makes to Liddy LITERALLY at the time of the murder?
Hmmm…on second thought, maybe that’s what got him off the hook. “Oh, we found out that you were calling Liddy at the exact time he was being murdered. You couldn’t have killed him with one hand while you were on the phone, and if you had murdered him then you knew he wouldn’t answer the phone so you wouldn’t have called him. You’re cleared, Detective.” LaGuerta has already established herself as not an investigative genius.
In all fairness, whenever Deb is personally involved with a “suspect,” she tends to lose her sense of “detection” (remember Brian Moser?) Also, the only case that LaGuerta was on top of was the Miguel Prado case and even there she didn’t have all of the facts.
I’m just relieved that this show isn’t attempting to portray Quinn as Doakes 2.0 like they did at the end of Season 4 and the beginning of this season. It would have been to formulaic and I’m beginning to like the idea that this show’s season openers and the season closers rarely match up: it reflects RL in that respect.