Dexter
>> Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Dexter is an American television drama series based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay and adapted for television by Emmy Award-winning screenwriter James Manos, Jr., who wrote the pilot episode. Set in Miami, the series centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a serial killer who works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood spatter analyst.
The series premiered on the premium cable network Showtime on October 1, 2006. Dexter has received considerable critical acclaim and has won two Emmys in technical categories, and has also generated public controversies concerning its content and promotion. An edited version of the series began airing on CBS on February 17, 2008 to make up for the shortage of new content caused by the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike. Canada's CTV simulcasts episodes along with CBS, and is also airing the edited version in order to follow Canadian cable simultaneous substitution rules.
Season 1
Orphaned at the age of three and harboring a traumatic secret, Dexter (Michael C. Hall, Six Feet Under) was adopted by a Miami police officer named Harry Morgan (James Remar), who recognized Dexter's sociopathic tendencies and taught him to channel his gruesome passion for killing by giving it a constructive direction: killing people who deserve it. Most have slipped through the justice system, due to loopholes and technicalities in the law or were never apprehended.
To satisfy his interest in blood and to erase his own crimes, Dexter works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. Although his drive to kill is unflinching (otherwise overcome by a feeling of "emptiness") Dexter is, through extensive instruction from Harry, able to fake normal emotions and keep up his appearance as a socially-responsible human being. Flashbacks throughout the series show how Harry instructs Dexter on the art of appearing normal, and he follows Harry's instructions as a sacred "Code of Harry." In accordance with this code, all of Dexter's victims must be killers themselves who have killed multiple times with no remorse, and Dexter must have proof that they are definitely guilty before he takes action.
Dexter has a girlfriend, Rita Bennett (Julie Benz), whom he dates in order to appear normal. Rita is psychologically damaged from an abusive ex-husband, a violent felon, and is too distraught to want sex. Dexter is unable to fake emotional closeness, something that his girlfriends discover post sex and is inevitably the reason the relationship ends. Dexter hopes to keep up the facade of normalcy by never engaging in sex with Rita. Dexter does have genuine affection for and feels comfortable with Rita and her two children, Astor and Cody.
The first season focuses mostly on "The Ice Truck Killer" - a serial killer eluding the Miami PD who is communicating with Dexter through his crime scenes. Dexter's adoptive sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) begins dating Rudy, who is revealed to the audience to be the Ice Truck Killer. At the end of the season, Rudy attempts to kill Debra, but is stopped by Dexter. Rudy reveals that he is really Dexter's brother, Brian Moser. Dexter has no choice but to kill him in order to save Debra; he makes Brian's death look like a suicide.
Dexter uses his calculated charm to become well-liked by all of his colleagues, with the exception of Sgt. James Doakes (Erik King), who repeatedly calls him a freak and openly accuses him of being up to something, although he is never sure what it is exactly. The tension between the two is an ongoing plot motif.
Doakes senses a connection between Dexter and the Ice Truck Killer, but is not sure what it is. He starts tailing Dexter because of his personal suspicions. Rita's ex-husband, set up by Dexter for a felony parole violation, is back in prison proclaiming his innocence, and points Rita to a clue to the truth about Dexter. The season ends with Dexter and his sister entering a crime scene, with Dexter imagining a tickertape parade for himself, complete with confetti and airplane fly-over, and the crowd praising him for his fine work "taking out the garbage" (i.e. killing those who prey on the weak and vulnerable).
The complete first season of Dexter was released in a four-disc DVD package on August 21, 2007 in the U.S.
Season 2
New cast members for this season include Jaime Murray as Lila, an artist who is a former meth addict and arsonist who becomes Dexter’s sponsor (and later his lover), Keith Carradine as FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy and JoBeth Williams as Rita's mother Gail. The role of Rita's son Cody was re-cast, and in Season 2 was played by child actor Preston Bailey.
Dexter begins the season unable to satisfy his urges for over a month, due to the constant surveillance by Sgt. Doakes. When the opportunity to kill arises, he has problems executing his victims after killing his brother at the end of season 1.
To further complicate matters, treasure hunters discover Dexter's underwater dumping ground for his victims. As the police extract body part after body part from the ocean, the media dubs the killer the "Bay Harbor Butcher", and FBI Special Agent Lundy (played by Keith Carradine) is brought in to catch the "Butcher."
A cult following begins to form behind the "Butcher" when it is discovered that his victims were themselves responsible for deaths. Dexter even finds that a comic-book character, "The Dark Defender", was created in his honor where he comically states as he looks at the poster, "Nah, it's too hot to wear all that leather in Miami".
Rita's relationship with Dexter becomes more tense as she and her children are dealing with the death of her ex-husband Paul, who was killed in a prison fight. Paul's repeated suggestion that Dexter was to blame for his imprisonment eats at Rita's conscience and eventually Rita accuses Dexter of setting up her ex-husband. Dexter admits to setting up Paul, but Rita refuses to believe that Dexter premeditated the crime and assumes that Dexter is a heroin addict. He acquiesces to "having an addiction", though he characteristically allows her misinterpretation to go without clarification; in return, she vows to stay with him while he goes through the Narcotics Anonymous program. In this way, Dexter avoids responsibility for Paul's death (though he set the process in motion) and consequently maintains the rationalization that he only (directly) kills people who are murderers. Doakes continues to pursue Dexter until he encounters Dexter leaving a NA meeting. Doakes seems satisfied that Dexter's odd behavior and apparent drug use can be explained by traumatic experiences as a career police officer.
Debra continues to struggle with the trauma of her experience with the Ice Truck Killer combined with all the people recognizing her as the "Ice Truck Killer's" girl. For a sense of safety and comfort, she stays with her brother, another new source of stress in Dexter's life.
Throughout Season 2, Dexter is pursued by Special Agent Lundy, while both Debra's affection for Lundy and her confidence in her own detective skills grow. Doakes' suspicions about Dexter are revived, and he ultimately discovers Dexter's collection of glass slides containing blood sample souvenirs from all of his victims. The possibility of matching the slides hidden in Dexter's air conditioner with the bodies of the Butcher's victims sets up a climactic episode in which Doakes confronts Dexter at a drug dealer's remote cabin. Despite receiving a gunshot wound in the leg, Dexter overpowers Doakes and keeps him locked in the cage inside the cabin while he begins to frame Doakes as the Butcher. Lieutenant LaGuerta, Doakes' former partner, is the only one who believes in Doakes' innocence. She finds evidence of Doakes' innocence and takes it to Lundy, but he tells her that the evidence is tainted by her previous failure to report Doakes' telephone conversation to the investigation team. Lundy rejects LaGuerta's case files, though he believes she may be correct about Doakes' innocence.
Near the end of the season, Doakes escapes from the cage temporarily and is recaptured by Dexter after being threatened by two drug dealers. Dexter struggles with his life as a serial killer, thanks to revelations throughout the season regarding Harry Morgan, his foster father. Dexter learns that Harry was sleeping with Dexter's biological mother before she died and that Harry took his own life after walking in on Dexter in the middle of a murder, unable to deal with the reality of the monster he had created. With his confidence in the Code of Harry and himself destroyed and exhausted from having to maintain his "mask" for so long, Dexter plays out the possible resulting scenarios in his head of turning himself in. Dexter's events on his last day of freedom include having Deb review his will, having a final dinner with her, and taking Rita and the kids out on the boat. During the "last meal" with Deb, he realizes how much she depended on him to resolve her feelings about the murder attempt by the Ice Truck Killer and decides to continue with his original plan of framing Doakes as the "Bay Harbor Butcher."
In the season finale, Lila finds the cabin where Doakes was imprisoned and causes a propane tank explosion, blowing up both Doakes and the corpse of one of Dexter's victims and preventing Dexter from being named as a serial killer. Lila then meets with Dexter, expecting him to accept her love now that she knows his dark secret. She catches him preparing to kill her and seeks revenge by trying to kill Rita's children and Dexter. Dexter manages to save the children and escape and then exacts his own revenge on her after she has fled to Paris. In the closing scenes, Doakes' memorial service goes largely unattended, with the exception of LaGuerta, Dexter, and Doakes' immediate family. Expressing the logic of Dexter's mental world, the final words in the series are a voice-over of his thoughts on the recent events. We hear that he now considers himself the master of the techniques his father taught him. Dexter believes this combined with the fact that Harry knew himself to be wrong about the code gives Dexter the right to rewrite that code and to live his life the way he wishes. He also states that he now needs those relationships that he originally cultivated as disguises in order to fit into society, even though they make him vulnerable. He considers himself, "An idea transcended into life."
Season 2 premiered on September 30, 2007. On July 17, the first two episodes of the season were leaked on the internet, and on December 4, the last two episodes were also leaked. On November 4th, 2007, the Writer’s Guild of America started a strike, but writer Daniel Cerone stated in the L.A. Times that Season 2 had already been completed in anticipation of the WGA’s action.
The complete second season of Dexter was released in the USA and Canada on August 19, 2008. It was released in Australia and New Zealand on August 21, 2008.
Season 3
Miguel Prado (played by Jimmy Smits) is a prominent assistant district attorney and old friend of Lt. LaGuerta who works with Dexter to solve the case of the murder of Oscar Prado, Miguel's youngest brother. Dexter killed Oscar in self-defense while attempting to stalk a murderous drug dealer named "Freebo"; and soon Miguel confides in Dexter and grows to trust him. Miguel, upon following up on a lead as to Freebo's whereabouts, witnesses Dexter with the weapon he used to kill Freebo (also the same weapon that killed Oscar Prado), but instead of reprimanding him, he hugs and thanks him, thinking that his brother is finally avenged.
Meanwhile, Rita (Dexter's girlfriend) finds out she is pregnant and Dexter finds it hard to choose when she asks whether she should keep the baby or not. After some consideration, Rita informs Dexter that she will keep the baby and raise him either with or without his help. It also takes some time for Dexter himself to cope with the idea of actually having a child (an acceptance helped by the fact that he now sees Astor and Cody as his children and therefore to be protected), and he ends up proposing marriage to Rita, which she happily accepts.
Throughout Season 3, Debra starts working more seriously in order to earn her detective shield, but due to an untimely commentary on her part she is cut off from the Freebo case and starts working with a new partner named Joey Quinn to investigate a serial killer with the habit of skinning his victims while alive (labeled "The Skinner"). She also starts a relationship with Anton, one of Quinn's confidential informants who starts working with her. However, Yuki Amado, a female Internal Affairs officer, starts pressuring Debra to give her information on Quinn, promising to help her become a detective in return, but Debra refuses to cooperate, despite Yuki's claims that Quinn cannot be trusted.
A notable change from previous seasons is the increased use of fantasy scenes with Harry, Dexter's foster father. Harry offers guidance, ideas, and guilt. This differs from the earlier seasons' use of flashbacks to illustrate Dex's past.
As Dexter and Miguel cooperate to conceal Freebo's true demise from everyone else, the duo end up becoming close friends, as do Rita and Miguel's wife Sylvia. While the Prados assist Rita during a medical emergency, Miguel searches for Dexter, who was on a cruise ship killing a victim suggested by Miguel, who realizes that Dexter committed the murder. Miguel praises Dexter for killing another murderer and offers his aid in the future. Trying to discourage Miguel, Dexter proposes a risky operation to free an infamous Aryan Brotherhood leader, who continues to commit crimes while inside prison, in order to kill him. Miguel agrees with the idea and the plan succeeds (despite the alarm sounding during the escape), and Dexter starts to recognize Miguel as his first and only true friend, to the point of inviting him to be his best man at his wedding.
Camilla Figg, an old friend of Dexter and his family, is dying of terminal lung cancer and asks him to end her suffering, which he (who had never purposely killed an innocent before) reluctantly agrees to do. On the occasion, Camilla reveals to Dexter that she knew that his brother was the Ice Truck Killer and congratulates him when he confesses to her that it was him who killed Brian.
Miguel and Dexter's partnership takes a new step when Miguel himself offers to dispose of their next target, a former football player turned gambler who in order to pay his bookie commits murders on the bookie's behalf. With some reluctance, Dexter accepts, and after preparing the trap and teaching him the basics of his "code", he witnesses Miguel killing the victim without hesitation. However, on the next day, Dexter finds that Ellen Wolf, a defense attorney and old courtroom adversary of Miguel's, was also killed by him. After some investigation, Dexter also discovers that Miguel has been manipulating him since the beginning and never trusted him at all.
While the relationship between Dexter and Miguel begins to unravel, so does Miguel's marriage when Sylvia begins to suspect that Miguel is having an affair and confides her fears to Rita, who in turn confides in Dexter.
Dexter and Miguel then begin to dance around in a game of who has leverage over whom as the police investigate the death of Ellen Wolf. This game of leverage ends with Dexter realizing that Miguel cannot be allowed to run loose any longer (at which point Dexter decides to kill him using the Skinner's Modus Operandi) and with Sylvia, convinced that Miguel is having an affair with Lt. LaGuerta and seeing them leaving LaGuerta's house together, ordering him out of the house. Miguel helps the Skinner escape and evade police custody in return for his agreeing to kill Dexter.
Striving to discover the truth about Ellen Wolf's death, LaGuerta ends up obtaining evidence linking Miguel to the crime, while Miguel himself discovers that LaGuerta was investigating him, and decides to kill her, but Dexter realizes it beforehand and captures him while he was looking for her. Before killing Miguel, Dexter confesses to him that he was the one who murdered his younger brother Oscar.
After Miguel's body is discovered, he is immediately identified as a victim of the Skinner, just as Dexter planned. But Miguel's other brother Ramon is still suspicious of him. After pointing a gun on Dexter during a dinner with Rita he is captured by Angel and Debra and during a visit to him on prison, Dexter helps him to put his demons to rest offering advice and personal relation to Ramon's life.
However, on the night before his wedding, Dexter is captured by the Skinner, and manages to break free by taking advantage of a moment of distraction by him, but breaking his hand in the process. After some fight, Dexter manages to snap the Skinner's neck and make it look like suicide by throwing his body before a running police car. Dexter gets his broken hand put in a cast and attends his wedding. He admits to himself that his wedding vows "to be the best husband and father he could be" were absolutely true.
The season ends with a few minor cliffhangers. The first is the picture of Dexter's birth mother laying on top of Debora's desk. It is unsure if Debora will find out that Harry was having an affair with Dexter's mother and if she can tie it all together. Also, Dexter realizes that Rita lied about being married twice before and doesn't understand why she would conceal this, albeit he does come to the conclusion that everyone has skeletons in their closet. These are both possible storylines for the respective characters in the upcoming season. The outcome of Miguel's murder investigation, along with any leads pointing to Dexter, is still unknown. The final scene of season 3 is Dexter and Rita sharing their first dance as a husband and wife, while a few drops of blood leak from Dexter's cast on her dress.
On October 21, 2008, Showtime renewed the series for a fourth and a fifth season. Each of them will consist of 12 episodes and will go into production in the spring and will presumably air in the same fall slot the series has occupied each year.
Season 1
Orphaned at the age of three and harboring a traumatic secret, Dexter (Michael C. Hall, Six Feet Under) was adopted by a Miami police officer named Harry Morgan (James Remar), who recognized Dexter's sociopathic tendencies and taught him to channel his gruesome passion for killing by giving it a constructive direction: killing people who deserve it. Most have slipped through the justice system, due to loopholes and technicalities in the law or were never apprehended.
To satisfy his interest in blood and to erase his own crimes, Dexter works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. Although his drive to kill is unflinching (otherwise overcome by a feeling of "emptiness") Dexter is, through extensive instruction from Harry, able to fake normal emotions and keep up his appearance as a socially-responsible human being. Flashbacks throughout the series show how Harry instructs Dexter on the art of appearing normal, and he follows Harry's instructions as a sacred "Code of Harry." In accordance with this code, all of Dexter's victims must be killers themselves who have killed multiple times with no remorse, and Dexter must have proof that they are definitely guilty before he takes action.
Dexter has a girlfriend, Rita Bennett (Julie Benz), whom he dates in order to appear normal. Rita is psychologically damaged from an abusive ex-husband, a violent felon, and is too distraught to want sex. Dexter is unable to fake emotional closeness, something that his girlfriends discover post sex and is inevitably the reason the relationship ends. Dexter hopes to keep up the facade of normalcy by never engaging in sex with Rita. Dexter does have genuine affection for and feels comfortable with Rita and her two children, Astor and Cody.
The first season focuses mostly on "The Ice Truck Killer" - a serial killer eluding the Miami PD who is communicating with Dexter through his crime scenes. Dexter's adoptive sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) begins dating Rudy, who is revealed to the audience to be the Ice Truck Killer. At the end of the season, Rudy attempts to kill Debra, but is stopped by Dexter. Rudy reveals that he is really Dexter's brother, Brian Moser. Dexter has no choice but to kill him in order to save Debra; he makes Brian's death look like a suicide.
Dexter uses his calculated charm to become well-liked by all of his colleagues, with the exception of Sgt. James Doakes (Erik King), who repeatedly calls him a freak and openly accuses him of being up to something, although he is never sure what it is exactly. The tension between the two is an ongoing plot motif.
Doakes senses a connection between Dexter and the Ice Truck Killer, but is not sure what it is. He starts tailing Dexter because of his personal suspicions. Rita's ex-husband, set up by Dexter for a felony parole violation, is back in prison proclaiming his innocence, and points Rita to a clue to the truth about Dexter. The season ends with Dexter and his sister entering a crime scene, with Dexter imagining a tickertape parade for himself, complete with confetti and airplane fly-over, and the crowd praising him for his fine work "taking out the garbage" (i.e. killing those who prey on the weak and vulnerable).
The complete first season of Dexter was released in a four-disc DVD package on August 21, 2007 in the U.S.
Season 2
New cast members for this season include Jaime Murray as Lila, an artist who is a former meth addict and arsonist who becomes Dexter’s sponsor (and later his lover), Keith Carradine as FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy and JoBeth Williams as Rita's mother Gail. The role of Rita's son Cody was re-cast, and in Season 2 was played by child actor Preston Bailey.
Dexter begins the season unable to satisfy his urges for over a month, due to the constant surveillance by Sgt. Doakes. When the opportunity to kill arises, he has problems executing his victims after killing his brother at the end of season 1.
To further complicate matters, treasure hunters discover Dexter's underwater dumping ground for his victims. As the police extract body part after body part from the ocean, the media dubs the killer the "Bay Harbor Butcher", and FBI Special Agent Lundy (played by Keith Carradine) is brought in to catch the "Butcher."
A cult following begins to form behind the "Butcher" when it is discovered that his victims were themselves responsible for deaths. Dexter even finds that a comic-book character, "The Dark Defender", was created in his honor where he comically states as he looks at the poster, "Nah, it's too hot to wear all that leather in Miami".
Rita's relationship with Dexter becomes more tense as she and her children are dealing with the death of her ex-husband Paul, who was killed in a prison fight. Paul's repeated suggestion that Dexter was to blame for his imprisonment eats at Rita's conscience and eventually Rita accuses Dexter of setting up her ex-husband. Dexter admits to setting up Paul, but Rita refuses to believe that Dexter premeditated the crime and assumes that Dexter is a heroin addict. He acquiesces to "having an addiction", though he characteristically allows her misinterpretation to go without clarification; in return, she vows to stay with him while he goes through the Narcotics Anonymous program. In this way, Dexter avoids responsibility for Paul's death (though he set the process in motion) and consequently maintains the rationalization that he only (directly) kills people who are murderers. Doakes continues to pursue Dexter until he encounters Dexter leaving a NA meeting. Doakes seems satisfied that Dexter's odd behavior and apparent drug use can be explained by traumatic experiences as a career police officer.
Debra continues to struggle with the trauma of her experience with the Ice Truck Killer combined with all the people recognizing her as the "Ice Truck Killer's" girl. For a sense of safety and comfort, she stays with her brother, another new source of stress in Dexter's life.
Throughout Season 2, Dexter is pursued by Special Agent Lundy, while both Debra's affection for Lundy and her confidence in her own detective skills grow. Doakes' suspicions about Dexter are revived, and he ultimately discovers Dexter's collection of glass slides containing blood sample souvenirs from all of his victims. The possibility of matching the slides hidden in Dexter's air conditioner with the bodies of the Butcher's victims sets up a climactic episode in which Doakes confronts Dexter at a drug dealer's remote cabin. Despite receiving a gunshot wound in the leg, Dexter overpowers Doakes and keeps him locked in the cage inside the cabin while he begins to frame Doakes as the Butcher. Lieutenant LaGuerta, Doakes' former partner, is the only one who believes in Doakes' innocence. She finds evidence of Doakes' innocence and takes it to Lundy, but he tells her that the evidence is tainted by her previous failure to report Doakes' telephone conversation to the investigation team. Lundy rejects LaGuerta's case files, though he believes she may be correct about Doakes' innocence.
Near the end of the season, Doakes escapes from the cage temporarily and is recaptured by Dexter after being threatened by two drug dealers. Dexter struggles with his life as a serial killer, thanks to revelations throughout the season regarding Harry Morgan, his foster father. Dexter learns that Harry was sleeping with Dexter's biological mother before she died and that Harry took his own life after walking in on Dexter in the middle of a murder, unable to deal with the reality of the monster he had created. With his confidence in the Code of Harry and himself destroyed and exhausted from having to maintain his "mask" for so long, Dexter plays out the possible resulting scenarios in his head of turning himself in. Dexter's events on his last day of freedom include having Deb review his will, having a final dinner with her, and taking Rita and the kids out on the boat. During the "last meal" with Deb, he realizes how much she depended on him to resolve her feelings about the murder attempt by the Ice Truck Killer and decides to continue with his original plan of framing Doakes as the "Bay Harbor Butcher."
In the season finale, Lila finds the cabin where Doakes was imprisoned and causes a propane tank explosion, blowing up both Doakes and the corpse of one of Dexter's victims and preventing Dexter from being named as a serial killer. Lila then meets with Dexter, expecting him to accept her love now that she knows his dark secret. She catches him preparing to kill her and seeks revenge by trying to kill Rita's children and Dexter. Dexter manages to save the children and escape and then exacts his own revenge on her after she has fled to Paris. In the closing scenes, Doakes' memorial service goes largely unattended, with the exception of LaGuerta, Dexter, and Doakes' immediate family. Expressing the logic of Dexter's mental world, the final words in the series are a voice-over of his thoughts on the recent events. We hear that he now considers himself the master of the techniques his father taught him. Dexter believes this combined with the fact that Harry knew himself to be wrong about the code gives Dexter the right to rewrite that code and to live his life the way he wishes. He also states that he now needs those relationships that he originally cultivated as disguises in order to fit into society, even though they make him vulnerable. He considers himself, "An idea transcended into life."
Season 2 premiered on September 30, 2007. On July 17, the first two episodes of the season were leaked on the internet, and on December 4, the last two episodes were also leaked. On November 4th, 2007, the Writer’s Guild of America started a strike, but writer Daniel Cerone stated in the L.A. Times that Season 2 had already been completed in anticipation of the WGA’s action.
The complete second season of Dexter was released in the USA and Canada on August 19, 2008. It was released in Australia and New Zealand on August 21, 2008.
Season 3
Miguel Prado (played by Jimmy Smits) is a prominent assistant district attorney and old friend of Lt. LaGuerta who works with Dexter to solve the case of the murder of Oscar Prado, Miguel's youngest brother. Dexter killed Oscar in self-defense while attempting to stalk a murderous drug dealer named "Freebo"; and soon Miguel confides in Dexter and grows to trust him. Miguel, upon following up on a lead as to Freebo's whereabouts, witnesses Dexter with the weapon he used to kill Freebo (also the same weapon that killed Oscar Prado), but instead of reprimanding him, he hugs and thanks him, thinking that his brother is finally avenged.
Meanwhile, Rita (Dexter's girlfriend) finds out she is pregnant and Dexter finds it hard to choose when she asks whether she should keep the baby or not. After some consideration, Rita informs Dexter that she will keep the baby and raise him either with or without his help. It also takes some time for Dexter himself to cope with the idea of actually having a child (an acceptance helped by the fact that he now sees Astor and Cody as his children and therefore to be protected), and he ends up proposing marriage to Rita, which she happily accepts.
Throughout Season 3, Debra starts working more seriously in order to earn her detective shield, but due to an untimely commentary on her part she is cut off from the Freebo case and starts working with a new partner named Joey Quinn to investigate a serial killer with the habit of skinning his victims while alive (labeled "The Skinner"). She also starts a relationship with Anton, one of Quinn's confidential informants who starts working with her. However, Yuki Amado, a female Internal Affairs officer, starts pressuring Debra to give her information on Quinn, promising to help her become a detective in return, but Debra refuses to cooperate, despite Yuki's claims that Quinn cannot be trusted.
A notable change from previous seasons is the increased use of fantasy scenes with Harry, Dexter's foster father. Harry offers guidance, ideas, and guilt. This differs from the earlier seasons' use of flashbacks to illustrate Dex's past.
As Dexter and Miguel cooperate to conceal Freebo's true demise from everyone else, the duo end up becoming close friends, as do Rita and Miguel's wife Sylvia. While the Prados assist Rita during a medical emergency, Miguel searches for Dexter, who was on a cruise ship killing a victim suggested by Miguel, who realizes that Dexter committed the murder. Miguel praises Dexter for killing another murderer and offers his aid in the future. Trying to discourage Miguel, Dexter proposes a risky operation to free an infamous Aryan Brotherhood leader, who continues to commit crimes while inside prison, in order to kill him. Miguel agrees with the idea and the plan succeeds (despite the alarm sounding during the escape), and Dexter starts to recognize Miguel as his first and only true friend, to the point of inviting him to be his best man at his wedding.
Camilla Figg, an old friend of Dexter and his family, is dying of terminal lung cancer and asks him to end her suffering, which he (who had never purposely killed an innocent before) reluctantly agrees to do. On the occasion, Camilla reveals to Dexter that she knew that his brother was the Ice Truck Killer and congratulates him when he confesses to her that it was him who killed Brian.
Miguel and Dexter's partnership takes a new step when Miguel himself offers to dispose of their next target, a former football player turned gambler who in order to pay his bookie commits murders on the bookie's behalf. With some reluctance, Dexter accepts, and after preparing the trap and teaching him the basics of his "code", he witnesses Miguel killing the victim without hesitation. However, on the next day, Dexter finds that Ellen Wolf, a defense attorney and old courtroom adversary of Miguel's, was also killed by him. After some investigation, Dexter also discovers that Miguel has been manipulating him since the beginning and never trusted him at all.
While the relationship between Dexter and Miguel begins to unravel, so does Miguel's marriage when Sylvia begins to suspect that Miguel is having an affair and confides her fears to Rita, who in turn confides in Dexter.
Dexter and Miguel then begin to dance around in a game of who has leverage over whom as the police investigate the death of Ellen Wolf. This game of leverage ends with Dexter realizing that Miguel cannot be allowed to run loose any longer (at which point Dexter decides to kill him using the Skinner's Modus Operandi) and with Sylvia, convinced that Miguel is having an affair with Lt. LaGuerta and seeing them leaving LaGuerta's house together, ordering him out of the house. Miguel helps the Skinner escape and evade police custody in return for his agreeing to kill Dexter.
Striving to discover the truth about Ellen Wolf's death, LaGuerta ends up obtaining evidence linking Miguel to the crime, while Miguel himself discovers that LaGuerta was investigating him, and decides to kill her, but Dexter realizes it beforehand and captures him while he was looking for her. Before killing Miguel, Dexter confesses to him that he was the one who murdered his younger brother Oscar.
After Miguel's body is discovered, he is immediately identified as a victim of the Skinner, just as Dexter planned. But Miguel's other brother Ramon is still suspicious of him. After pointing a gun on Dexter during a dinner with Rita he is captured by Angel and Debra and during a visit to him on prison, Dexter helps him to put his demons to rest offering advice and personal relation to Ramon's life.
However, on the night before his wedding, Dexter is captured by the Skinner, and manages to break free by taking advantage of a moment of distraction by him, but breaking his hand in the process. After some fight, Dexter manages to snap the Skinner's neck and make it look like suicide by throwing his body before a running police car. Dexter gets his broken hand put in a cast and attends his wedding. He admits to himself that his wedding vows "to be the best husband and father he could be" were absolutely true.
The season ends with a few minor cliffhangers. The first is the picture of Dexter's birth mother laying on top of Debora's desk. It is unsure if Debora will find out that Harry was having an affair with Dexter's mother and if she can tie it all together. Also, Dexter realizes that Rita lied about being married twice before and doesn't understand why she would conceal this, albeit he does come to the conclusion that everyone has skeletons in their closet. These are both possible storylines for the respective characters in the upcoming season. The outcome of Miguel's murder investigation, along with any leads pointing to Dexter, is still unknown. The final scene of season 3 is Dexter and Rita sharing their first dance as a husband and wife, while a few drops of blood leak from Dexter's cast on her dress.
On October 21, 2008, Showtime renewed the series for a fourth and a fifth season. Each of them will consist of 12 episodes and will go into production in the spring and will presumably air in the same fall slot the series has occupied each year.
0 comments:
Post a Comment