Whew! Though Dexter may not be able to just yet, I can finally breathe a big sigh of relief. One of the best dramas on television is regaining its strength, pushing through potentially disastrous plotlines to produce an episode full of classic Dexter-style entertainment.
No time is wasted in developing the Lumen story, which is heating up each week as the rape victim seeks to avenge her slimy perpetrators. She quickly alerts Dexter to the fact that she didn't get on a plane to Minneapolis, instead staying in Miami. You know, by calling him in a panic and requesting his assistance at the crime scene she's created.
Cue excitement!
I always love seeing Dexter scurry around in his tight-fitting killer tee, frazzled by a problem he has to solve while he's got a victim Seran-wrapped on his table. And there was plenty of that in "Everything is Illumenated." Upon receiving her distressed phone call, Dexter flings his latest victim (a guy who seduces men with sexual favors and then apparently kills them) over his shoulder and realizes he has to help Lumen, whose actions may lead back to him.
He joins her at the abandoned warehouse, and is very unhappy to see her, because he thought she was on a plane to Minnesota and out of his life for the foreseeable future. No such luck for Daddy Dexter. But their reunion is just a distraction for the unsuspecting audience, during which Lumen's shot-in-the-chest victim slithers away. Dexter masterfully tracks him down using the bloody trail he's left behind, and a bottle of Magic Blood Spray. He eventually finds the guy ducking under a sewer grate, and he and Lumen try to prove his guilt/innocence. Dexter isn't about to let the man die if he's innocent, but not to worry, the guy obviously isn't too bright. He makes a call on Lumen's cell phone while she and Dex are off, again, fighting in another room. Unfortunately, he never learned how to whisper, and chooses to implicate himself just loud enough so Dexter can hear. The whole incident is complicated by the fact that, in typical Dexter fashion, the police get word of the shooting and are on their way to the crime scene. This always works out great for Dexter, though, who manages to tie the whole mess up with a tidy bow. Just out of sight of Deb and Masuka, Dexter frames the previously-knocked-out guy in his car (his latest victim, who wakes up) for killing Lumen's victim (who Dexter kills after the phone conversation), and Masuka proceeds to hilariously explain the ludicrous scene with forensic (and sexual) expertise. Whew!
On the usually-lame Batista/LaGuerta front, this week wasn't so bad. I admit that I actually fell for the whole Batista-might-hook-up-with-that-hot-Hispanic-chica-at-the-club routine, but turns out he was just bringing her to LaGuerta because she can help their investigation into the Santa Muerte beheading brothers (which the force is putting a lot of effort into, despite lackluster results so far). The Batista thing seemed kind of unnecessary, but hey, at least he didn't ACTUALLY hook up with that club skank, and at least he/Maria expressed their feelings over the blow job/bar fight. I'm hopeful they got that mess out of the way, and get back to being, hmm, police officers maybe?
Deb and Quinn become official BF and GF, which I couldn't care less about, except that I hope it's leading to a more controversial Quinn-Dexter showdown. Seriously, when's the ball going to get rolling on that? I do like Quinn's new recruit; he's smarmy and seems to have nothing to lose. If past seasons are an indication, this will be the big exploding plotline that gains steam sometime around the finale and doesn't die down until the last few scenes of the season. Oooh, I have a feeling it's going to be good.
Overall, this was a heartfelt episode that made Dexter and Lumen more likable than they have been thus far. Dexter has never seemed more like a sociopath killer than he has in this season, as he continues to display strange yet not outwardly strong emotions over the loss of his wife. But his relationship with Lumen is softening him, as they trade their stories of horror and the feelings that accompany them. And boy, that baby Harrison really knows how to liven up a scene. Keep it up, Dexter! Next week, bringing us halfway through the season(!), is "Circle Us."
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.