Dexter

[diggity]

I agree that Laguarda's twist was good but if they had developed her character even a little bit more, it would have much more believable rather than having to swallow such a cut throat move in one gulp. She does come across as someone who would probably step on someone else's head but not to that extent. (Thanks for the reminder of Oz Pete, I couldn't place her for the life of me.)

Doakes is definitely dead but there's no way Dex could have killed him right there or else it would have made more of a mess and left things open. He did shoot Dex in the leg so that alone will make for Doake's disposal for sure IMO. Dex can fake a leg injury & make Doakes disappear but more likely he will sell a struggle of taking down Doakes to the feds to diffuse things for a while. Dex as well as Doakes himself have both painted a bad enough picture for Doakes so it shouldn't a hard sell. The only thing I can see creating a problem is time. Dex still needs to get rid of the cuban guy & keep Doakes fresh until he is ready to kill him so the story adds up. I find it hard to believe Doakes will not find a way out of that cage and keep the suspense up for just a little while longer. Regardless of what happens, Dex still has to come up with a better way to dispose of the bodies assuming this doesn't turn into the series "The Ex-Serial Killer Dexter."

I have no idea where it goes after Doakes goes away unless the entire situation leaves enough doubt with LaGuarda that she picks up where Doakes left off. Knowing her new found shady tendencies, she would probably make for a much more secretive cat & mouse game with Dex. I can't see any other way out. Of course having Lila out there is a real liability that must be dealt with at some point as well. Maybe she'll befriend LaGuarda at some point, both with intentions of getting back at Dex. I'm sure Dex will get back with Rita only for Lila to work non-stop in undermining the 2 of them...Dex can't kill Lila because of LaGuarda's growing suspicion...you heard it here first

[TKO11]

They're certainly dragging Doakes's death out, aren't they? Now Dexter believes he was responsible for his father's death..... which pissed me off a bit when I was watching, because I'm pretty sure that last season they showed his father dying hospitalized, in a wheelchair, not running out and about and walking in on Dex's kills (where was Dex doing that guy anyway, in the rec room?).

Stretching credibility a bit now. And on the website, the clip from next week shows him having a big heart-to-heart with Doakes about whether or not he should turn himself in. Will Dex decide to do it, release Doakes, and then end up killing him when Doakes tries to "apprehend him" himself? Naw... to predictable. But the direction is a bit weird right now.

[diggity]

I agree. The father suicide twist is a little much. I do remember him drifting off too but I think it was in a hospital bed but either way I wasn't crazy about any of it.

It seems like psycho Lila is going to be the one that keeps this from being predictable but she is starting to get on my nerves. From the flashes of scenes from next week, seems like Dex believes that Battista gave Lila a date rape drug which right off the bat is stupid because he already knows she's crazy and likely knows Battista enough to know he wouldn't do that.

Also in the coming scenes it looks like she breaks into Dex's car & turns on the navigation to see where he last went? I guess they are trying to make it look like she is going to be the one to let Doakes out but I have a feeling they just twisted the coming scenes so it looks that way. More than likely when they showed that empty cage, it was Lila getting there too late and Doakes is probably already dead or moved somewhere else.

I do like how Dex freaked out Doakes with the chop job. It was about time he was put in his place with the reality of the situation. I don't care who you are, you aren't playing a tough guy when the person in the room with you (who has you captive no less) is responsible for killing & chopping up over 30 people.

I think it's interesting that he is flirting with the idea of turning himself in but in the end I think his commitment to Rita & the kids will prevent him from doing that. It was interesting how he revealed that they were a primary concern to him should he be found out.

Aside from it all, I hate treading water episodes like this one. I expected at a little more out of this weeks episode & whatever did happen was not impressive. I'm sure next week they'll bounce back but I hope it doesn't get much further out there.

[PeteLeo]

Lila gave herself the roofies when she retired to the bathroom. She's going to threaten to have Baptista arrested for rape unless Dex does her bidding.

Doakes kicks his way out of the cage while Dex is away. Another physical confrontation is looming.

Harry (Dexter's adoptive dad) was slowly wasting away in the hospital a year before his actual death -- thus creating the bedridden scenes from last season -- when Dex discovered that the head nurse was slowly poisoning him and other patients in some "Angel of Death" serial killer fashion. Dex took care of her (Denice Crosby). The end of that particular episode showed Harry on his feet and comparatively healthy again, while Dex's voiceover stated that his dad lived for another full year.

I think somehow events will be manipulated so that Doakes takes out (or appears to have taken out) Lila and then is hauled away over his protestations by the FBI. PeteLeo.

[diggity]

How do you think the Doakes/Lila thing plays out? Just curious.

I assume Doakes has a car somewhere around the cabin & I can't imagine Dex just forgetting about it. So assuming he has the keys or moved it, maybe he tries to take Lila's car when she gets up there?

[PeteLeo]

Here's my guess: Doakes escapes the cage by kicking out a panel (you can see him doing this in the previews of next week's episode), whereupon Dex returns to the cabin to find the cage empty and is ambushed by the ex-captive. There is a short but vicious struggle in which both are wounded, Dexter more seriously, and Doakes' military training allows him to overpower Dexter's martial arts abilities.

Just when an over-confident Doakes starts to immobilize Dex for the trip to the authorities (he still wants to deliver Dexter alive to clear his name), Dex surprises him enough to escape and reach his car, leaving Doakes on foot in the swamp. Dex is hurt badly enough to require medical treatment, but the caution that has been hammered into him by Harry forces him to return home in hopes of fixing himself up.

Dex arrives home just in time to face Lila, who has drugged Rita and dragged her there so that she can kill her romantic rival while Dexter watches. There's a tense confrontation, which, in his weakened state, Dexter isn't able to win. Just as it appears Lila is going to kill both of them (Dex and Rita), Doakes crashes into the party, having double-timed it out of the swamp and commandiered an unoccupied car. Lila tries to shoot Doakes, but he manages to disarm her in a fight which results in her death.

Doakes once again is exultant in victory and he turns the weapon toward Dexter . . . when Deb (who was tailing Lila, trying to prove that Baptista didn't rape her) steps into the open doorway and blows him away. All she saw was "the Bay Harbor Butcher" aiming a gun at her brother. Both psychos are dead, the FBI is satisfied, Deb and the badly injured Dexter are hailed as heroes, and everything is in place for the start of the next season.

Hey, it could happen. PeteLeo.

[TKO11]

Damn Pete - now you've ruined it for everybody.

[diggity]

Wow Pete.
The way things have been getting a little further out there lately it very well could.

The only thing I can't see happening is the Rita abduction because she's always with her kids or at work. Lila doesn't seem like the flavor of psycho to grab Rita & disregard the kids. She's more into the sneaky & conniving stuff.

Deb shooting Doakes & closing the door on it all sounds very possible.
Little sis finally feels like she actually does something good for Dex...I can totally see that.

I still don't see where the Lila/Battista & date rape drug thing is going. I know she wants Dex mad at him but I can't see how he can believe anything she says.

Lila is going to wind up at that cabin. If its not Doakes or Dex she finds up there is has to be drugs or body parts.

[PeteLeo]

I just read on the IMDb that due largely to the on-going writers' strike, CBS plans to begin rerunning selected series from cable in their primetime slots, and "Dexter" appears to be the prime candidate for the initial offering. A spokesman for the network stated that Dex would fit well with their other, higly-popular crimes shows ("Criminal Minds," "NCIS," the "CSI" franchaise). Of course, there will have to be edits for language, nudity, and violence, but I think that overall the sick little spirit of the program can remain intact on free TV if done correctly.

I hope the powers don't decide to move all future episodes into the CBS fold before they're allowed to air in their pristine glory, however. PeteLeo.

[diggity]

Another episode of dancing in circles. It was still a good episode but it was a little annoying to have to sit there & listen to Dex contemplate turning himself in for an entire episode when we all know damn well he won't. The exchanges between Doakes & Dex were priceless. The involvement with the guys on the hovercraft was great way to spice up the cabin stuff that was starting to grow stale.

Looks like Lila is going to go off the deep end now & kidnap the kids. I knew there was no way Dex could believe Lila. The expired Visa was a good twist to get her further into psycho mode.

From the looks of the upcoming scenes, it appears someone's charred remains is examined. I'm assuming Doakes gets torched in that explosion...Dex escapes having to kill him...maybe Doakes even saves the kids before he croaks to increase the torment for Dex. With Doakes dead & LaGuerta's working to reveal evidence proving Doakes' innocence, the show can safely continue a cat & mouse FBI game with Dex flying under the radar like before but Dex obviously must operate with a much more care.

Looks like Lila still will be a loose end that will have to be dealt with as it seems Doakes will let her in on Dex. Interesting. The show's redeeming itself yet again.

[PeteLeo]

Well, it could have happened my way.

Doakes had to die, I guess, since even if the "evidence" indicated he was the Butcher, he would still be a very loud (and profane) voice throwing a spotlight on Dex. Speaking of whom, old Dexter surely located and then ambushed Lila quickly, didn't he? No problems slipping his clearly suspicious drug packet past the eagle-eyed airport inspectors in this paranoid, post-9/11 atmosphere? He also took her out 'way too quickly, just like he did Rudy last season.

These most recent episodes ran, at most, fifty minutes, as opposed to a full hour apiece (or even 1:05) in the beginning. I wonder if the producers made a conscious choice to shorten them with an eye to re-broadcast on network TV?

What were Bautista and Deb being decorated for at the end of last night's finale? Deb did put out a burning Dex, but what was Bautista's big positive action?

See you next season. PeteLeo.

[diggity]

I thought they wrapped it up pretty well. I agree that Lila was disposed of way too quickly but I guess there was no point of stringing her along any further. Nice touch with the epidural. She was kind of a dead end really.

It was a little surreal how calm Rita was over having her kids kidnapped by a psycho & saved from a burning building but I guess after what she's been through she's like "whatever."

Bautista & Deb were the leading local support on the Bay Harbor Butcher investigation. Pretty sure that's what they were being decorated for since the case is officially closed.

I guess LaGuerta will have to develop some suspicion about Dex at some point.


Some classic quotes from Dex in the episode...


"Its strange to have a creation out there. A deeply mutated version of yourself running loose & screwing everything up. I wonder if this is how parents feel."


"You're going away with me all right...in a garbage bag."

[TKO11]

I was terribly disappointed. It didn't suck, but it was a step back. It was just waaaaay too neat and had a little bow on it. Lila kills Doakes, making it possible for Dexter to kill her (as a murderer). Doakes is done away with, and the evidence is so compelling that Lundy won't even LOOK at the evidence LaGuarta uncovered about Doakes being away during two more murders? Lila is too deeply implicated to go to the cops. Nobody apparently inventoried the evidence on the scene because Dexter pocketed the GPS and nobody said boo. Dexter find Lila, in Paris, and kills her - shit, I could run incognito better than that.....

Overall a very good season, but failed to deliver on the highest end of it's promise (unlike season 1, in which every second was riveting and didn't leave so many, 'yeah right' dangling loose ends).

[diggity]

Yeah it was a bit too neat but for how out there it was all getting, I can't see what else they could have done with it but I guess it's not our job to worry about that. I figured Lila would be a loose end to come back later somehow. It seemed real crammed to wrap her up before the end of the show. I hope Lundy disappears already. The relationship with Deb is so gross & cheesy.

The support group thing with Dex & Lila was a bit of a rip off right out of Fight Club. I don't know which was written first but whatever.

[diggity]

I just don't see how it can end any other way, unless somehow Dokes is framed, which that is a very much a possibility as Dokes did kind of set the stage a bit when speaking to Laugardia he stated that his father was a butcher and that he might take that up, so if there is going to be more seasons then it could possibly be Dexter's word over Dokes, but then again he may kill Dokes and it be proclaimed self-defense and Dokes be labeled the Bay Harbor Butcher, but surely Dokes is not a serial killer as well, but then again I may be totally wrong. I tell you what...this is a pretty damn good series!!!

Let's give credit where it's due

[diggity]

Well it happened, Dexter moved to prime time starting Feb 17th on ABC.

[Enswell]

I thought it was moving to CBS.

So what is the plan? I assume they're showing edited versions of the first to seasons. Will the first run of any future seasons still be on Showtime?

[diggity]

I thought the 3rd season was good but it just didn't have the same atmosphere as the first 2 seasons. Not enough guessing & suspense as in the first 2 in particular. There was a point I knew exactly how this season was going to play out & it basically did to a tee. I don't want to use the word disappointing as I was still religious in watching it. I guess the show had to take this turn in evolving Dexter's character. Its become more of a dark romantic comedy now.

[TKO11]

I hate to call this season a disappointment too - but after the unbelievably good first two seasons, it was a letdown.

There was a point that peaked at the end of episode 10 that made it look like they were really going to finish the year with a bang (when Dexter was bagged and trunked by what we thought was the Skinner), but even that had all of it's steam let out.

What I wonder now is was this whole season laying the groundwork for the next 2 seasons? Will it go like the book, where the newly married Dexter figures out that his stepkid hs the same "darkness" due to watching her father's treatment of her mother.... and begin to teach her "the code"?

Should be fun.....

[diggity]

I agree where it looked like a turn was coming but in the end when it actually did come, it was resolved in 5 minutes which was a bit of a letdown. But I guess that guy wasn't really someone who would pose a big threat to Dexter anyway.

I thought the storyline with Deb & her love life once again was annoying. She is fun as a character but I find myself rolling her eyes anytime she is interested in anyone....but I guess that's what they want you to do so desired effect achieved.

In the book the daughter is twisted? I guess that makes sense as there was an episode or 2 where she was a tad sinister.

I thought Jimmy Smits did a good job with his character. I rolled my eyes a little when he was introduced but I quickly bought into him on the show. I thought they brought his demise a bit too quickly.

[robg]

I really enjoyed the 3rd Season. It's probably my favorite one. Although I like to look at it as being Episode 11 was the real Season Finale. *Spoiler Warning* Once Miguel Prado died that was a wrap.

[apollack]

I enjoyed it too. I think the quality of the show is so high that once it hit a plateau, there is a sense of a little letdown, but I still think it is darn good. I looked forward to every episode and can't wait for the next season.

If you enjoy the moral ambiguity of this show, other good ones to check out: The Wire and Brotherhood.

[PeteLeo]

Guess who got married on New Year's Day?

Give up?

Michael C. Hall ("Dexter") and Jennifer Carpenter ("Deb").

Yep, Dexter married his sister in real life.

And you thought having a serial killer for a hero was morally uncomfortable. PeteLeo.

[doomeddisciple]

Pete - Following his role in 6 Feet Under I am surprised Michael C Hall didn't marry Jimmy Smits.

[don1234]

Guess who got married on New Year's Day?

Give up?

Michael C. Hall ("Dexter") and Jennifer Carpenter ("Deb").

Yep, Dexter married his sister in real life.

And you thought having a serial killer for a hero was morally uncomfortable. PeteLeo.

Pete:

In the series, Dexter is adopted. They're not sister and brother.

That's in real life... but this, after all, is Hollywood

[PeteLeo]

Yes, Dexter and Deb are adopted siblings in the series (and the wedding was between Hall & Carpenter in real life), but even in that situation there's reason to be wary. As established during this last season, Deb's dad Harry (James Remar, of THE WARRIORS, by the way) was having an affair with one of his c.i.'s . . . who just happened to be Dexter's mother.

It's entirely possible that Dex and Deb are half-siblings on the show and just haven't discovered that, yet.

PeteLeo.

[TKO11]

Season 4 premiere tonight! Woot Woot!

[TKO11]

I realize I am a far bigger fan of this show than most, but in my opinion the season 4 premiere last night may have been one of the most enjoyable single episodes of any show I've ever seen. It was so clever (I loved the alternate intoduction, where a sleep deprived Dexter missed the mosquito, pulled on a T-shirt covered in baby puke, and looked at the mirror like a man on his very last legs). It had so many real laughs in it (from Vince, Lundy and Dexter himself), introduced John Lithgow as this season's serial killer (and Lithgow can do psycho like few others), and had one of the true-blue "holy shit" cliffhanger endings I've seen in a long while.

They certainly set up this season to be a great one, at least based on the quality of episode 1.

[PeteLeo]

Yeah, it looks promising. I wish the storyline had continued with the Sarge and the undercover chick, who I found to be very sexy.

I really like the series, but so far my favorite villain remains Rudy, a true serial killer to match Dexter himself. I loved it when he told the bound and trunk-caged Deb to stop screaming so that he could listen to the fine stereo system the stolen car had to offer. PeteLeo.

[diggity]

I am just a big a fan TKO & I agree.

The undercover chic was sexy. La Guerta doesn't do anything for me whatsoever other mild repulsion.

I'm really looking forward to this season.