Monday, March 24, 2008

Desperately Seeking 'Dexter'

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer


WARNING: I’m currently suffering from the mother of all sinus and bronchial infections. Having spent most of the day visiting the doctor’s office and wandering the aisles of Rite Aid, I am – at the time of this writing – significantly doped up on a seriously powerful dosage of antibiotics. So, apologies to our faithful PTR readers if this post is more loopy than usual. Suffice it to say, though, I’ve had enough of this sniffling - sneezing - coughing - aching - stuffy - head - sinus - pressure - is - killing - me thing, especially since I never get sick and, as such, hardly ever have to go to the doctor. Ah, but never say never.

There’s no telling what one will do when one gets desperate.

And boy, we got to see Dex get desperate this week.

Desperate to take care of himself – protect his neat little world of lies, keep to the code, ensure his survival.

OMG! moment of the series thus far: Dex rolling up to the crime scene of his last kill, complete with Valerie Castillo’s body miraculously recovered from Davy Jones’ Locker. If only Dex had just been a little neater and tidier with the Castillos last week, eh? That break from plan was looking less and less like the right thing to do. And yet, we knew dumping Valerie’s entire body (not the neatly sliced Dex special) was going to come back and haunt him.

But by the Icetruck Killer?

So. Clever.

The next move in this ultimate serial killer chess match.

It was interesting to watch Dex squirm this week.

“I don’t have bad dreams. Nothing ever goes ‘bump’ in Dexter’s night.”

And yet, even in his squirminess, he was still so calm, cool and collected. Watching him methodically think through how he was going to survive, still being two or three steps ahead of the gang even when he himself felt like he was losing it was brilliant.

But poor Deb. She was so genius at working up the profile that linked the Dex killing to the IK. So spot on that only Dex himself could shoot her down.

Again.

We learned in the flashbacks this week that Deb was always the “outsider” to Dex and Harry’s activities. Rightfully so, of course (hey, who wants to learn their bro' is a serial killer anyways). And yet, we feel for her, don’t we? She was always trying to be the apple of Harry’s eye, and Dex seemingly took that from her without really wanting to do so.

Then and now. As we said, desperate times call for desperate measures.

We also learned that Rita’s ex-husband is more of a thug than we can possibly imagine at this point. Poor little Astor had to be the one to have her birthday almost ruined because deadbeat dad of the year wants to see “his” kids. What is it with deadbeat fathers pulling the whole “they’re my kids, too” thing? Something tells me we’re going to have a visit from thugbeat Paul in the not-too-distant future.

Is it bad to want Dex to … um, make Paul go away?

Stay tuned.

The first season of Dexter airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on CBS. Check out Showtime's official Dexter Web site for the inside scoop on the series.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed this episode immensely but had a little bit of trouble with the ice killer finding and pulling up that body in 100 feet of ocean. It was a little far-fetched but certainly not enough to ruin the ep for me. You did a good job with the write up despite your current health status. Hope you feel better soon.

TVFan said...

"Is it bad to want Dex to … um, make Paul go away?"

If it's "bad," then I don't want to be good. ;-) Suffice it to say, I'm right there with you.

Another stellar hour from this show, but I've come to expect nothing less. I like the way you described Dexter's relationship with the unknown Icetruck Killer as a chess match -- very appropriate. I felt so bad for Deb b/c she was dead-on. At the same time, there was no choice. The way this show uses flashbacks is just brilliant. It makes it so psychological, and that fascinates me.