The Tale of the Blood Necklace proved to be an overall decent episode that helped Dexter get to where it needs to be for the final stretch of the season. There were a lot of things I hated about this episode, in the sense that they seemed overly contrived and, well, lame. The downhill trend starts with lots of cheesy Jordan Chase/Dexter stuff, during which Chase echoes all of Dexter's thoughts and once again seems suspiciously omniscient. What the heck is this guy? Therapist? Motivator? Workout buddy?
Then there's a scary break-in at Casa Dexter, but it turns out to be Astor. She's back. And she's drunk. And she's 12.
(Her much more mature 14-year-old friend thought she was 14, though. ...As if that would have made a difference.) This whole sequence was hands down the dumbest thing that has ever happened on this show. It's not even plausible that a 12-year-old bought a bus ticket from Orlando to Miami just to drink some liquor. And why bring only Astor back if we have to have a storyline that involves Dexter dealing with Rita's kids? Cody is so awesome.
Deb has a union meeting over her trouble with the Santa Muerta case, but not to worry, she's encouraged by trusty Quinn who tells her he loves her (oops!) right before she leaves. Yuck. I'm sick of them. I've actually enjoyed Quinn the last few weeks, mostly because he has funny lines and I like his sleazy P.I. partner. But I'd love to see Deb's problems at the force just be about her dealing with that. Results from the union meeting: Deb is banished to the file room with that awesome black lady who the show has been smart enough to keep around. It doesn't take very long for Deb to break File Lady's first rule: Don't read the files. She does. And figures out some stuff about the Girls in the Barrels case: The crimes were done by more than one perp.
Dexter succeeds in stealing a droplet of blood from Jordan's blood necklace, while Jordan is taking the shortest shower anyone has ever taken. This Jordan character seems to be just as suspicious of Dexter as Dex is of him, and immediately checks his blood necklace to make sure Dex hasn't tampered with it. Because, you know, he's obviously been so inconspicuous thus far, keeping that blood around his neck 24/7.
Deb convinces "balls in my vice" Masuka and Batista to re-open the Boyd Fowler barrel case, which seems about right. At episode 9 of the season, the show is just about ready to ramp up the major case that will take us into the finale. As usual, Deb catches on to much of what Dex already knows, and it looks like Dex will have to head off the cops if he wants to kill off Boyd's childhood friends himself.
The Astor/Olivia situation takes way too long to resolve. The girls go missing, but really they just ran away to dress up in slutty clothes and get caught shoplifting. Oh, how far this young actress has come. All is resolved, eventually, and Dexter and Astor have a real nice heart-to-heart, during which she shares with Dex her varied vocab of curse words. Oh, and the teenage angst theme gives Lumen a chance to confront Astor's friend about the bruises she happens to see while the friend is taking off her jacket. Even Harrison could've figured out what came next: Astor tells Dexter that Olivia's mom's hot-heated boyfriend abuses Olivia. And Astor actually brought her friend to Miami just to escape her mean abusive father figure. How sweet.
Meanwhile, Maria thinks Deb is trying to get back at her by finding DNA evidence that should reopen the Boyd Fowler case. Hmm, yeah, I'd be trying to get back at you, too, if you pinned your mistakes on me and put my job at risk. Naturally, Maria is not happy with Batista, either. Ahh, marital bliss.
Deb and Lumen finally meet, which is an awesome moment if only because it didn't even occur to me before that they hadn't met, and Jennifer Carpenter always reacts to weird Dexter situations with such needed depth that it puts a lot in perspective. And yet, baby Harrison still steals the scene.
Deb confronts Maria in what turns out to be a really intense conversation about Quinn and his Dexter snooping. Deb didn't know Quinn got suspended, and Maria informs her that she suspended him for Dexter's safety. Uh oh. Surprisingly, Quinn tells Deb almost everything when she confronts him about this. He at least tells her the truth about having a lead in the Trinity/Rita murder; and then goes so far as to tell her he thought the composite sketches of Kyle Butler looked like Dexter. He does lie, and tell her that he dropped it. But you can see in Deb's face that she is deeply hurt, and perhaps set on an irreversible path when it comes to suspecting Dexter. Maybe it's something else she can look up in the file room?!
It might not matter though, because Quinn is so distraught that he hurt Deb, he decides to tell his P.I. to stop his Dexter investigation. The P.I. doesn't want to hear that. He know he's onto something, and tries again to blackmail Quinn by threatening to tell Deb what he knows.What he knows is that Dexter and Lumen are on a boat at 3 a.m. throwing a large bag of something (drugs, he says, a body?) into the water. In this case though, Deb would be the only one completely destroyed by the information, not Quinn. The lovebirds don't end on great terms, which I like because hopefully it will allow each of them to pursue their respective investigations alone.
Things I liked about this episode:
- Deb, as always. Jennifer Carpenter is a great actress who has received probably the best material this season and does a consistently stellar job with it.
- Dexter kicking that abusive guy's ass. Woo!
- Julia Stiles' Lumen
- "Does helping Lumen make you feel better about what happened to Mom?" -Astor asks Dexter. Aww. It does.
Now that Good Dad Dexter is back in view, what does this mean for him and Lumen? Was this episode just a reminder that the show hasn't forgotten about Astor and Cody? Probably. But next week looks promising. The last scene of "Teenage Wasteland" shows an infuriated Jordan Chase calling Dexter's home phone. Lumen answers instead, and she's so thoroughly freaked out that the conversation is really uncomfortable to watch (in a good way). At the end, Jordan says: "Take care, Lumen." Whaaat!
Only three more episodes left, and likely the best ones of the season. See you next week for "In the Beginning." Happy Thanksgiving everyone!