DEXTER Season 5 Discussion & Spoilers

[Shaka]

Was the funeral home scene supposed to be some Six Feet Under joke? :P

That's how I took it too, in fact I was expecting it as soon as Debra talked about meeting with a Funeral Director. And I thought it was especially obvous considering Bill Brochtrup, who like Michael C Hall in Six Feet Under, played a gay character in NYPD Blue, was kind of channeling David Fisher ! It was fun !

Nice start to the 5th season, I just hope Quinn doesn't turn into Doakes 2.0...

 

[Ayelbourne]

Really enjoyed the season premiere.

What bugged me though, was how everyone was up Dexters ass for not grieving the way they thought he should.

Personally, I found his reaction absolutely normal.
Different people grieve differently. Some cry, some don't.
Last November, me and my mother found my grandmother dead in her house.
For the next few days, I was walking around in a state of shocked numbness, barely noticing what was going on around me, just like Dexter did here.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^Yeah, that's what I said myself. Dexter's emotional reactions are far more normal that he will admit, and he thinks there's something wrong with them when in fact they're pretty normal a good deal of the time and especially here.

 

[Aragorn]

I'm hoping the "Dexter as the prime suspect" doesn't get dragged out too long. Obviously for the sake of this show continuing they'll eventually drop it, but I think they should drop it sooner than we'd expect... and have the fallout of Dexter's friends suspecting him affect the rest of the season.

Of course, they completely ignored the whole part about Trinity leaving dead family member cremated ash at the killing site.

I suspect some traffic camera or ATM camera nearby will have caught Trinity driving toward the house, and that will be enough to get Dexter off the hook.

 

[Ayelbourne]

Of course, they completely ignored the whole part about Trinity leaving dead family member cremated ash at the killing site.

Wasn't that only at those killing sites where he had killed fathers?

 

[Canadave]

^Yeah, that's what I said myself. Dexter's emotional reactions are far more normal that he will admit, and he thinks there's something wrong with them when in fact they're pretty normal a good deal of the time and especially here.

Yeah, I've found that throughout the whole show, Dexter has been a lot more "normal" in an emotional sense than he likes to think of himself. And I certainly think the way he reacted to Rita's death is well within the range of reactions that most people would have—well, randomly clubbing someone to death aside, at least.

 

[Dream]

New episode tonight.

Spoiler: Summary for 5x2 Hello Bandit

In his new role as single father, an anxious Dexter tries to get his family's routine back on track, to begin the process of moving on from Rita's death.

 

[Jack Bauer]

No surprise that they got Astor and Cody out of the picture right away. It certainly makes it easier for Dexter to go out and kill. But what of Harrison? Does he take him along? that would be creepy. The LaGuerta and Batista stuff drags again this week. Can't they give them something better to do?

 

[Aragorn]

Well it looks Dexter was never a suspect in Rita's murder, which was pretty easily taken care of. But I wonder where they're going with Quinn. Does Dexter need another crazy ex to blow Quinn up for him?

 

[Jack Bauer]

I just hope that whatever they plan for Quinn that they just don't do a repeat of the Doakes plot.

 

[LitmusDragon]

This was pretty much a stopgap episode that took care of some necessary plot points while setting things up for whats to come.

It looks like they are going to brush the bathroom murder aside. I'm OK with that I guess, though I do wish that they'd devoted a few more minutes onscreen to explain how Dexter had covered his tracks.

I liked the scene with Harrison and Dexter in the moving van. Pretty creepy.

In the previews they cut it to look like when Dexter tranquilizes the oildrum guy that he doesn't go down right away. That would be an interesting development. Maybe he has a resistance due to recreational use of animal tranquilizers? I am probably reading something into nothing here.

The LaGuerta-Batista thing is becoming a bit tiresome.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Eh, kinda blah eppy, just getting from Point A to Point B. The drama with the kids is interesting, even if the actors for Astor and Cody aren't quite able to pull off the scenes convincingly. The stuff with Lagueta and Angel - snore!

I just hope that whatever they plan for Quinn that they just don't do a repeat of the Doakes plot.

I'm hoping they're setting up an opportunity to finally do the Deb Finds Out plot twist. What if the writers maneuver Deb into a situation where she must choose between Dex and Quinn? Easy choice, she'd choose Dex but what if that requires she kill Quinn? In that case, and she and Dex cover up the murder, that would easily explain why she wouldn't feel obligated to rat Dex out to the authorities. And it would set up a monumentally kick-ass final sixth season.

Go for it, writers!

 

[Aragorn]

I'm a bit disappointed that Astor won't be the one to discover Dexter's secret, because it would be interesting how Dexter would react to a young girl wanting to learn his craft.

I don't read the novels, but from what I'm told Doakes didn't die in them. So is Quinn filling his shoes for plot purposes? Of course, is the TV show even following anything in the books?

 

[Ayelbourne]

^With the exception of most of season one, no.

in the books:
-Rita is alive and became pregnant after the marriage.
-La Guerta is dead (last victim of the Icetruck Killer, who isn't actually called that way)
-Dexters Brother escaped
-Dex trains Astor and Cody, due to them showing sociopatic tendencies thanks to Paul
-the Dark Passenger is actually some kind of demon
-Deb has known Dexters secret ever since Brian had kidnapped her (she was awake during their conversation) and she doesn't rat him out. She also has big boobs.

 

[Starbreaker]

Pretty good bridging episode. I was seriously shocked that Dexter isn't being investigated for Rita's death.

And what is this creepy guy doing? Cutting off hair and electrocuting girls in barrels? Gonna get weird, I imagine.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Of course, is the TV show even following anything in the books?

I hope not! I'm reading the third book and it gets...wacky.

-the Dark Passenger is actually some kind of demon

Yeah it's going sf/f. But I like that the novel and TV series are having less and less to do with each other. I can't even envision Michael C. Hall as being the guy in the novels. If they keep going the way they're going, the novels could end up being a premise for a completely different TV series.

 

[Jax]

in the books:
-Rita is alive and became pregnant after the marriage.
-La Guerta is dead (last victim of the Icetruck Killer, who isn't actually called that way)
-Dexters Brother escaped
-Dex trains Astor and Cody, due to them showing sociopatic tendencies thanks to Paul
-the Dark Passenger is actually some kind of demon
-Deb has known Dexters secret ever since Brian had kidnapped her (she was awake during their conversation) and she doesn't rat him out. She also has big boobs.

I've always thought about reading the books but am going to pass now, they sound crap compared to the TV show.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The novels are more jokey and lightweight, and don't worry so much about little tiny issues of plausibility, like Deb knowing her brother is a serial killer and somehow deciding that it's ok not to report that fact to any authorities or even worry about the ramifications for herself if it should come out. Or the notion that child abuse invariably leads to serial-killer-ism as implied by making Astor and Cody's stories so parallel to Dex's.

In that context, for serial-killer-ism to actually be caused by malign dieties who have apparently existed since the Big Bang and have a habit of taking over people's brains is just par for the course. Maybe Jeff Lindsay can eventually hook up his mythos with Star Wars - couldn't those malign dieties also be behind the Dark Side of the Force?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

^That whole thing is pretty much swept under the rug in the next book. I've not read the latest one yet but I'm willing to bed it's totally forgotten about now.

 

[MichaelDornFan]

Hopefully that's it for S4 wrap-up.