Dexter season 3 (spoilers)
- Thread starter stj
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Okay I finally saw the whole thing and while S2 will probably go down as my all-time favorite Dexter season (I don't expect them to ever top the Doakes plotline*), this one was definitely at the high caliber the show has maintained overall.
What I liked best about it is the focus directly on the central problem of Dexter's life - reconciling his urges to be a normal person with his need to kill - as well as the show's deeper theme, exploring whether what we assume about "right and wrong" is actually true. I also liked the absence this season of any character I disliked. In S1, I wasn't wild about Rudy and in S3, Lila really irked me. But Jimmy Smits more than held his own as a compelling figure. His slow descent into worse-than-vigilantism was very well handled.
Some great plot twists, too. Dexter being "kidnapped" and socking Vince has got to be one of the best gotcha moments this show has ever done. The scene where Dexter asks Deb to be his "best man" was one of the most emotionally affecting. The relationship between those two is one of the best I've ever seen in a TV show.
And I was also happy to hear that Dex uses bio-degradable garbage bags.
An ecologically responsible serial killer.
*Well, not until they get to the final Deb-finds-out season.
So where do we go from here? The problem with this show has always been the very limited premise which forces them into repetition. Look at the Morgan family - sis dated and was almost murdered by a serial killer, and was saved by her brother, who was menaced by a different serial killer, who both brother and sister worked with, and now sis is dating a guy who was almost killed by a third serial killer, who she saved him from. Given that serial killers are actually quite rare in the real world, and even in Miami, I think this qualifies the Morgans for an entry in Ripleys Believe it Or Not.
The plotlines that they haven't yet tried include:
1. Dexter tries to cure himself. From what I can tell, he's never even attempted psychiatric care and/or heavy-duty meds. I doubt they'd work, but it's an angle to pursue.
2. Dexter starts to lose it. Seemed like the Dark Passenger wasn't quite as evident in S3 as previous seasons. What would happen if Dexter's urges start to overwhelm the restraint of his Code, so that he becomes potentially dangerous to innocent people around him?
2a. Dexter definitively violates the code by murdering an innocent person, and not by accident either.
3. Someone figures out the secret who cannot be disposed of by the writers at the end of the season. The only truly non-disposable character in this show besides Dexter is Deb.
4. Someone finds out Dexter's secret and he doesn't know, but the audience does, and the tension comes from watching this character struggle with whether to expose the truth. So this character needs a motive not to immediately blab.
5. Someone finds out Dexter's secret, and uses it for their gain - not like Prado because they want to pursue justice or become a killer themselves, but because their career will benefit. This is what I suspected LaGuerta might be headed for. Dexter must be putting a lovely dent in Miami's murder rate, and LaGuerta would stand to benefit. But since the Doakes plotline, she would have to be too angry at Dexter for letting him take the blame for BHB, plus she seems to be growing in a far more moral direction compared with the careerist bitch of S1. They need someone else to take over her job, or become her boss, who can fill this role, someone gloriously corrupt but not at all homidical themselves, who could lock Dex up, but wouldn't the public become incensed at the sudden jump in the murder rate that would result, and heads would roll?
1 and 2 could be combined into a single plot thread for a season. 2a is probably a non-starter, since it would require Dexter to commit suicide. But it sure would raise the stakes. Is there any way the writers could pull that plot twist and still allow Dexter to survive? (When I heard spoilers about S3 last year, I didn't realize that Dexter killed the innocent person by accident and was a bit disappointed the writers "let him off the hook" like that. But I admit, not to do it that way would run the plotline straight into a wall.)
I think 3 needs to wait for the final season. It could be combined with 4 if Deb is wrestling with the dilemma of whether to destroy her entire extended family by revealing the truth. Dexter being a father will probably be the element that makes this hard even for Deb, the inveterate cop.
Whatever happens, I'm glad they kept Anton and Quinn around. Anton in particular seems like the kind of guy that Dexter wouldn't assume is a threat, but he seems pretty savvy and observant, and I gotta wonder whether he'll start to sense something off-kilter about Dex?
And speaking of the BHB, once Miguel realized that Freebo was far from being Dexter's first kill, wouldn't he have realized the extreme unlikelihood of Miami PD hosting two secret serial killers in their ranks?
Instead, I think they'll jerk us around in the final episode, making us think All Is Lost and at the last minute, Dexter will be saved and will get away with his murders for all time. Maybe one person will know the truth, and accept him, and that would have to be Deb.
However, future speculation based solely on S1-3 is fine by me. How many seasons can this go on for (more than five might be stretching it, but I hate to think of this ever ending)? Can they do a season that isn't a variation on "Dexter finally meets someone who sees him for what he is and then kills them?"
What I liked best about it is the focus directly on the central problem of Dexter's life - reconciling his urges to be a normal person with his need to kill - as well as the show's deeper theme, exploring whether what we assume about "right and wrong" is actually true. I also liked the absence this season of any character I disliked. In S1, I wasn't wild about Rudy and in S3, Lila really irked me. But Jimmy Smits more than held his own as a compelling figure. His slow descent into worse-than-vigilantism was very well handled.
Some great plot twists, too. Dexter being "kidnapped" and socking Vince has got to be one of the best gotcha moments this show has ever done. The scene where Dexter asks Deb to be his "best man" was one of the most emotionally affecting. The relationship between those two is one of the best I've ever seen in a TV show.
And I was also happy to hear that Dex uses bio-degradable garbage bags.
An ecologically responsible serial killer.*Well, not until they get to the final Deb-finds-out season.
So where do we go from here? The problem with this show has always been the very limited premise which forces them into repetition. Look at the Morgan family - sis dated and was almost murdered by a serial killer, and was saved by her brother, who was menaced by a different serial killer, who both brother and sister worked with, and now sis is dating a guy who was almost killed by a third serial killer, who she saved him from. Given that serial killers are actually quite rare in the real world, and even in Miami, I think this qualifies the Morgans for an entry in Ripleys Believe it Or Not.
The plotlines that they haven't yet tried include:
1. Dexter tries to cure himself. From what I can tell, he's never even attempted psychiatric care and/or heavy-duty meds. I doubt they'd work, but it's an angle to pursue.
2. Dexter starts to lose it. Seemed like the Dark Passenger wasn't quite as evident in S3 as previous seasons. What would happen if Dexter's urges start to overwhelm the restraint of his Code, so that he becomes potentially dangerous to innocent people around him?
2a. Dexter definitively violates the code by murdering an innocent person, and not by accident either.
3. Someone figures out the secret who cannot be disposed of by the writers at the end of the season. The only truly non-disposable character in this show besides Dexter is Deb.
4. Someone finds out Dexter's secret and he doesn't know, but the audience does, and the tension comes from watching this character struggle with whether to expose the truth. So this character needs a motive not to immediately blab.
5. Someone finds out Dexter's secret, and uses it for their gain - not like Prado because they want to pursue justice or become a killer themselves, but because their career will benefit. This is what I suspected LaGuerta might be headed for. Dexter must be putting a lovely dent in Miami's murder rate, and LaGuerta would stand to benefit. But since the Doakes plotline, she would have to be too angry at Dexter for letting him take the blame for BHB, plus she seems to be growing in a far more moral direction compared with the careerist bitch of S1. They need someone else to take over her job, or become her boss, who can fill this role, someone gloriously corrupt but not at all homidical themselves, who could lock Dex up, but wouldn't the public become incensed at the sudden jump in the murder rate that would result, and heads would roll?
1 and 2 could be combined into a single plot thread for a season. 2a is probably a non-starter, since it would require Dexter to commit suicide. But it sure would raise the stakes. Is there any way the writers could pull that plot twist and still allow Dexter to survive? (When I heard spoilers about S3 last year, I didn't realize that Dexter killed the innocent person by accident and was a bit disappointed the writers "let him off the hook" like that. But I admit, not to do it that way would run the plotline straight into a wall.)
I think 3 needs to wait for the final season. It could be combined with 4 if Deb is wrestling with the dilemma of whether to destroy her entire extended family by revealing the truth. Dexter being a father will probably be the element that makes this hard even for Deb, the inveterate cop.
Whatever happens, I'm glad they kept Anton and Quinn around. Anton in particular seems like the kind of guy that Dexter wouldn't assume is a threat, but he seems pretty savvy and observant, and I gotta wonder whether he'll start to sense something off-kilter about Dex?
If she continued to believe that Doakes was innocent, then that means the Bay Harbor Butcher was someone else at Miami PD, and that he was most likely the person Doakes was chasing. And who's the one and only person Doakes has ever been suspicious of? Hmm.
And speaking of the BHB, once Miguel realized that Freebo was far from being Dexter's first kill, wouldn't he have realized the extreme unlikelihood of Miami PD hosting two secret serial killers in their ranks?
Oh yes, I'm familiar with the "Dexter spiral."
The season 1 finale suggested that Dexter's greatest wish is to be exposed for what he is, and instead of being punished, he is accepted. It boggles the mind how this could be achieved, but hey, if they could pull it off, it would be the most incredible ending imaginable.
Instead, I think they'll jerk us around in the final episode, making us think All Is Lost and at the last minute, Dexter will be saved and will get away with his murders for all time. Maybe one person will know the truth, and accept him, and that would have to be Deb.
No kidding, this is NOT a show anyone wants to be spoiled on. Begone with ya's!
However, future speculation based solely on S1-3 is fine by me. How many seasons can this go on for (more than five might be stretching it, but I hate to think of this ever ending)? Can they do a season that isn't a variation on "Dexter finally meets someone who sees him for what he is and then kills them?"
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^They could go with the weirdness that is Dexter in the Dark, and have it all turn out to be supernatural entities being the "dark passengers" etc...
But seriously I would like a thread/season where his passenger abandons him and see how he deals with it.
But seriously I would like a thread/season where his passenger abandons him and see how he deals with it.
They might try this, but I wouldn't want to see them repeat the episode with the psychiatrist from the first season.
I don't think they'll go there. The key to the series is making Dexter likeable. If this happens, he turns into Prado.
I think they were setting this up with the final episode of the third season. Once Deb finds out about Lara Moser, it will only take her a little while to connect all of the dots.
In the beginning, I wouldn't have thought this possible. The pilot episode is entirely dependent on Dexter's point of view. But as the series has progressed, the other characters have been allowed to become viewpoint characters as well. So it might happen.
As I indicated before, I haven't minded so much that each season has been about somebody finding out Dexter's secret. Each year has taken a different thematic approach to that storyline, and so far it hasn't become boring.
What I did find annoying was how the threat of the serial killer in season three seemed to be a light threat to everyone. Just because the skinner was a tertiary part of the plot doesn't mean the characters should treat him as anything less than the third serial killer to hit Miami in a year. I mean, damn!
I think having Deb slowly work out who--and what--Dexter is would be fascinating. She would eventually know, and probably crack up over it, but Dexter might not know that SHE knows.
And, if there's another criminal out there who knows Dexter's secret, would he spill the beans---and would anyone believe him?
My GOD, I can't wait for this next season to start.
And, if there's another criminal out there who knows Dexter's secret, would he spill the beans---and would anyone believe him?
My GOD, I can't wait for this next season to start.
Wouldn't the absence of the Passenger mean the absence of the desire to kill? I think they need to go in the opposite direction - the Passenger needs to start really taking over.
The thing that is really missing in S3 is the sense of Dexter being a threat. Even though this may make people uncomfortable, we need to have the sense that he could murder any adult (kids and Deb being established as psychologically "off the menu" for him), even Rita, and clinging desperately to the Code is the only thing stopping him. This show needs to regain its edge.
And although I own the third book, I have a feeling I may as well toss it in the garbage right now?
That didn't get very far anyway. I'd like to see what would happen if he went to a shrink who was legitimately trying to help him, or more importantly, if Dexter legitimately was seeking help because the Passenger was scaring the hell out of him by making him a danger to Rita.
I see that as the thing that will ruin this show! TV is full of likable characters, I don't want Dex to be just one more. The key to Dexter is making us like someone who should disgust us/offend us/scare the shit out of us/make us wonder what's wrong with us for liking this guy and continuing to watch.
I think there's a long way to go before Deb understands it all. She'll know that Harry may have adopted Dexter out of guilt for getting his mother killed, and she knows that Harry isn't Dexter's bio-dad (established in S1 by the DNA test), but beyond that, how does she make the leap to knowing that Dex is a serial killer? Even if she knew about the horrific circumstances regarding his mother's death, that doesn't mean anything's wrong with Dex. The first step would be determining that Rudy was Dex's brother, but even that doesn't prove much - did Dex even know Rudy was his brother? The trail of dots could take a few seasons.
And that is why it pissed me off that they killed Paul off-screen! He was perfect - he knew Dex was off his rocker, but nobody's going to believe the bitter junky wife-beater ex-husband's accusations against his wife's new boyfriend, who is also a pillar of the community. But that wouldn't stop Paul from doing whatever he could to get his kids away from Dexter, particularly if he realizes that the nutcase he knows about working for the Miami PD is also most likely the real BHB.
Maybe Rita's sudden new ex-husband is an effort to resurrect the idea of the Paul plotline, but I'd greatly prefer some excuse why Paul wasn't really dead (witness protection, anything, I don't care how lame it might be).
The key would be for her to realize that Harry "created" Dexter. I think we need a return to the notion that Harry wanted to create a vigilante - his motives weren't so different from Miguel's, were they? He could have at least tried to get Dex psychiatric help as a child, and it's very significant to me that he didn't. Deb might see Dexter as more a victim than anything else and feel obligated by family bonds to cover for him.
More work needs to be done on Deb as a character and her tangled relationship with Dex to maneuver her into a place where this would be her likely reaction, as opposed to the bullet-in-the-head that Dex envisioned in S2. She needs to be more jaded and cynical for starters. But isn't that pretty much the trajectory for any newly-minted police detective?
Yknow the best thing about season three is that I now have 39 episodes on DVD to keep me busy for the next year, rewatching the whole thing bit by bit, again. This will probably become an annual event for me from now on.
Couple quibbles about this season:
1. Lack of follow-up to Dex killing the pedophile. I thought this was pretty significant - the guy did not fit the Code, as Dex noted - which meant he was removing a possible (but not proven by his usual standards) threat to Astor - that's a slipperly-slope type departure from the strict letter of the Code that could lead to dangerous things. It's easy for Dex to expand his definition of who constitutes "threats" based on how threatening they are to people Dexter loves. I think this shows the erosion of the Code, and that it's going to continue. Being a husband and father can only make this erosion happen quicker.
2. The resolution of the Miguel story. It seemed awkward to have Dex's confession about Oscar be handled as an afterthought. I would have preferred Miguel and Dexter to be in a stand-off situation, and then Miguel learn independently that Dex killed Oscar, and that is what makes him sic a serial killer on him. Maybe Miguel was planning for a nice, clean, quick death but learning the truth about Oscar sent him into a rage and made him want Dex to suffer, so he brought in the skinner.
The maguffin to allow this twist could have been planted early in the season. For example, when Dexter lost a crown and found it later, how did he know for certain it was his? It's not impossible that with the fighting going on there, it could have been someone else's. Or plant something else in the premiere episode, seemingly resolved, that we would all forget about.
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I thought it was a fun read still, and interesting departure and the fourth is back to the more standard plotline (a plot I could see working very well in the series too) but it just seemed so weird the way it went there with the passenger thing.Wouldn't the absence of the Passenger mean the absence of the desire to kill? I think they need to go in the opposite direction - the Passenger needs to start really taking over.
The thing that is really missing in S3 is the sense of Dexter being a threat. Even though this may make people uncomfortable, we need to have the sense that he could murder any adult (kids and Deb being established as psychologically "off the menu" for him), even Rita, and clinging desperately to the Code is the only thing stopping him. This show needs to regain its edge.
And although I own the third book, I have a feeling I may as well toss it in the garbage right now?
I think if it was handled like in the book, Dexter losing his passenger could be very interesting to see played out. He feels slow and dull witted, like he's lost one of his senses when it comes to the solving of these crimes because he's lost his insight. Genuinely feels fear for the first time and feels like he has to commit murders to bring the passenger back because he misses it.
Perhaps it could even be what sends him off the deep end, committing a random murder to try and coax the passenger to return.
Strange. In the show, the Passenger is what drives him to kill. His experience as a serial killer may make him better at his job, but he'd still be reasonably good at it. Remove the Passenger, and you remove the desire to kill. Sounds like Lindley is really stretching the logic of the character there. 
The "Dark Passenger" has been mentioned before in the series, including season three, but it has never been in the forefront like it is in the books. But I haven't read the books, so that information is only secondhand.
Basically, on the series, it's what Dexter calls his drive to commit murder.
Basically, on the series, it's what Dexter calls his drive to commit murder.
I think he mentioned it once in S3, but that's really not enough. It's too easy for Dex to start to become this nice guy with an oddball hobby - he's too damn likeable. The writers need to remind us again and again that he is a huge-ass PSYCHO!
If only to counteract Michael C. Hall's overwhelming charisma.The Dark Passenger is just Dexter, no demonic entity. It's something short of a split personality, but he definitely perceives it as a separate entity and talks about it as being a sort of monster that needs to be fed - the murders are what feed it - and gives him hell if it goes hungry.
Here's one of his best scenes where he talks about the Passenger. The people in the audience think he's a drug addict (it's a Narcotics Anonymous meeting). Only he knows what he's really talking about.
^ If I recall, there are several moments in Season 2 devoted to Dexter talking about "The Dark Passenger," but that moment is truly the best. It's probably one of best moments of the whole series.
Strange. In the show, the Passenger is what drives him to kill. His experience as a serial killer may make him better at his job, but he'd still be reasonably good at it. Remove the Passenger, and you remove the desire to kill. Sounds like Lindley is really stretching the logic of the character there.
Yeah, if I recall correctly,in Dexter in the Dark almost every crazy serial killer type has a Dark Passenger, and Dexter's Passenger can sense theirs, and the passengers are possessing forces that are the offsping of some dark god/primeval force that's existed since the dawn of time and possessed the first animals and started violence against their own kind, but humans were the first where it got satisfaction from the kill because they knew what they were doing...
Also his Dark Passenger gives him clues in a way that's not just his experience, like it will start laughing when there are other killers around and things like that, while it is portrayed a little like that in all 4 books, in the 3rd it is very much a supernatural entity, which can come and go as it pleases and actually itself be scared of the bigger Dark Passengers return, etc.
And by implication, this all-time-great scene (just the first minute of this clip) is also about the Dark Passenger.
I rewatched the pilot episode - wow, it's amazing that the characters, who charmed me immediately the first time round, seem like caracatures now. Dex and Rita are awkward headcases who are scared of sex. Deb is a stuttering idiot. LaGuerta is an incompetent, nasty, creepy semi-slut. Doakes is of course, Doakes. It's a testiment to the character development (in LaGuerta's case, a hasty near-retcon between S1 and S2) that these characters seem so much more likely fully fledged humans now.
Got another season plotline idea: what if Dexter ran across a serial killer who he really had to sympathize with? He already knows he's "no better" than them, in that he's "helpless to stop," just like they are. To treat them with contempt therefore is hypocrisy on his part; he should be compassionate.
If he met up with a serial killer who was a) trying to stop and b) maybe doing something like killing terminally ill people (the Angel of Death idea) - like the nurse who was Dexter's first kill - not something that was so beyond the pale that the audience would automatically lose sympathy - would Dexter actually let this person continue while trying to get him/her help? This might be a good parallel for his increasing complexity as a character, in his relations with others (compassion now being a possible option for him) and in his understanding of the morality of what he's doing.
This plotline would offer great opportunities for the same slippery-slope as in S3. What if the killer moved on to unplugging preemie babies from incubators if they had virtually no chance at survival? That would certainly push new-dad Dexter's buttons.
And it sounds like Lindsey wants to turn his book series into sf/f, so maybe that's not such a bad idea for him. There's no real purpose in the books taking the same path as the show, after all.
I think Lindsey rolled back on the supernatural elements in the fourth book of the series, since the third one was so widely panned.
And speaking of the pilot, beyond the reasons you mention, I think the characters seem like caricatures because the point of view is (almost) entirely Dexter's in that episode. We're following him the whole way. It's hard to develop other characters when they can only be on screen in relation to Dexter. Beginning in episode two, in a move that at first felt jarring, but was obviously required in retrospect, the other characters began to have full scenes outside of Dexter's point of view.
For a serial killer that Dexter has sympathy for, I think the Angel of Death idea is still too far out for him. The only reason he had any sympathy for Brian in the end was the family relationship, and the only reason he had sympathy for Miguel was that they were friends. No, I suspect he would have to meet a killer exactly like himself. Somebody who doesn't like that he is compelled to kill, and does the best he can by killing criminals. That might not be a bad idea for a final season, actually, since it would inevitably involve Dexter confronting himself, figuratively and literally.
And speaking of the pilot, beyond the reasons you mention, I think the characters seem like caricatures because the point of view is (almost) entirely Dexter's in that episode. We're following him the whole way. It's hard to develop other characters when they can only be on screen in relation to Dexter. Beginning in episode two, in a move that at first felt jarring, but was obviously required in retrospect, the other characters began to have full scenes outside of Dexter's point of view.
For a serial killer that Dexter has sympathy for, I think the Angel of Death idea is still too far out for him. The only reason he had any sympathy for Brian in the end was the family relationship, and the only reason he had sympathy for Miguel was that they were friends. No, I suspect he would have to meet a killer exactly like himself. Somebody who doesn't like that he is compelled to kill, and does the best he can by killing criminals. That might not be a bad idea for a final season, actually, since it would inevitably involve Dexter confronting himself, figuratively and literally.
I thought about that, too, but I'm not sure it would work. If the person were exactly like himself, there would be no conflict - he couldn't condemn that person without condemning himself, so he would have no choice but to leave them be.
There might be a practical problem, that the person is poaching on Dexter's territory and there's probably a limited number of permissable victims. Dexter would just be removing a fellow predator from his hunting grounds. That might be a fun angle for a plot thread, but there would be no moral dimension.
Dexter himself played Angel of Death in "Easy as Pie" - so would it really be that much of a leap for him to recognize the hypocrisy of condemning someone else for doing something not too different?
We just need someone who, like Dexter, is skirting the edge of morality rather than obviously going over the edge. Hey, how about a character who uncovers people who are suicidal and befriends them - and then helps them commit suicide as the "best answer to their problems."
This person could be the opposite of Dexter in that they would be charming, helpful and compassionate "for real," at least in their own deranged mind. They would simply be helping people find peace from their intolerable lives. Not just the terminally ill, but people who are clinically depressed, in terrible financial trouble, etc. Like the psychiatrist in "Shrink Wrap," but not so obviously megalomaniacal and off-putting. Someone who could genuinely charm the audience, and gain our sympathy just as Dexter has.
Think about it this way. Dexter kills person after person, and cleverly avoided the law during the Bay Harbor Butcher search. Now he continues to kill again and again. He's exactly the kind of person Dexter himself goes after. Sure, he goes after people who are "guilty," but he admits to himself that this is just an excuse and he's really a monster. Now, if Dexter faced off against somebody just like him, it would mean he would have to evaluate his whole path. The Ice Truck killer went after innocents. No problem there. Lyla went after Rita's children and killed Doakes. No problem there, either. And Miguel Prado killed off Ellen Wolf, another innocent. There's no moral dillema when the season's antagonist goes after innocent people. But if the killer has a code just like Dexter's, now there's a real dillema for the character to face.
I don't like the Angel of Death idea, because it almost inevitably will lead to Dexter killing the 'Angel of Death' because he's taken an innocent life, or someone who wasn't of right mind to make their decision to end their life (the clinically depressed and financially troubled that you mention). Dexter let Camilla die with her express wishes. Dexter killed Oscar Prado in self-defense. Even the sex-offender was stalking his children.
The antagonist who convinces people to commit suicide as the best answer to their problems sounds too much like the shrink again.
I don't like the Angel of Death idea, because it almost inevitably will lead to Dexter killing the 'Angel of Death' because he's taken an innocent life, or someone who wasn't of right mind to make their decision to end their life (the clinically depressed and financially troubled that you mention). Dexter let Camilla die with her express wishes. Dexter killed Oscar Prado in self-defense. Even the sex-offender was stalking his children.
The antagonist who convinces people to commit suicide as the best answer to their problems sounds too much like the shrink again.
Dexter has already faced a vigilante killer - Doakes murdered that Haitian war criminal in S1, and the Army Ranger/wife-killer in S2, yet Dexter didn't use those as excuses to kill Doakes, despite having every motive to want to contrive an excuse. In S2, Dexter also confronts a copycat vigilante killer and decides to kill him based on the non-righteous nature of two of his victims after wrestling with the problem of whether he fits the Code.
So he's made his moral choice. A killer who only kills the guilty is "off the menu." If Dexter veers from this, it's because he's letting rationalization dictate his actions more and more, but he did that when he murdered the pedophile this season simply for having photos of Astor. By Dexter's own standards, he should commit suicide, which completely muddies the moral picture now.
So he's made his moral choice. A killer who only kills the guilty is "off the menu." If Dexter veers from this, it's because he's letting rationalization dictate his actions more and more, but he did that when he murdered the pedophile this season simply for having photos of Astor. By Dexter's own standards, he should commit suicide, which completely muddies the moral picture now.
Please. The Army Ranger wife-killer was self-defense. And the season one incident was left ambiguous, even in the end. And it wasn't a signal that Doakes was going to keep killing people, a key to the code. At the end of season two, Dexter decides Doakes should be let go, but Lila kills him.
My memory is a little fuzzier on the Bay Harbor Butcher copycat in season two, but didn't he kill people that Dexter felt were less than guilty? And, more importantly, he was easy to capture. Hardly the skill of a season-long antagonist.
My memory is a little fuzzier on the Bay Harbor Butcher copycat in season two, but didn't he kill people that Dexter felt were less than guilty? And, more importantly, he was easy to capture. Hardly the skill of a season-long antagonist.
Doeaks' ending is one of the things that bothered me. They had created a pretty awesome point of no return situation and didn't take the easy way out by making Doakes evil, then had it all wiped out by Lila. On top of that, Doakes, who was actually right about Dexter, ends up taking the blame and dying. How horrible must that be for his family? I hope they go back to this later. Maybe Dexter will actually start to feel guilty about it once he ends up with a family of his own.
