"I went to a place to eat. It said 'breakfast at any time.' So I ordered french toast during the Renaissance". --Steven Wright ... If you are a devotee of time travel, check out this song...

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Dexter 3.12: Season's Happy Endings?

We knew Dexter would survive this Season 3 finale - the series is too superb to have a Season 4 without him. But I was surprised by the number of other happy endings, or at least happy and good steps forward for major characters, that came to us in this finale. These include -

1. Dexter and Rita getting married. Yes, there was a little blood at the end on Rita's white dress, but that was more symbolic than indicative of anything immediately dangerous.

2. Deb getting promoted to detective, against all odds, and getting back into her good relationship with Anton, against even greater odds.

3. Angel coming clean with LaGuerta about how his need for human contact led him to a prostitute, who has become the love of his life, that's ok with LaGuerta, too (which does make sense).

4. Dexter forgiving his father.

5. The two bad guys, Ramon and King the skinner, successfully vanquished.

I still think that Miguel went far too easily last week - and, come to think of it, that's a surprise happy ending, too.

I'm going to keep thinking, though, about this finale. The season was in many ways the best of the three. And maybe its biggest surprise of all that, on some days, everything can indeed work out right, is a surprise worthy of this excellent series.

It's certainly more than enough to make me wish Season 4 was starting tomorrow. I can't wait to see how some of those happy endings start to unravel.


See also Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ... Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review









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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a joke the ending was, barely tied to the table, easily escapes &dispatches the killer like he was a bug. All wrapped up nicely, they really mailed it in, ruined the season for me. Should have left him tied to the table and partially skinned to end the season and left everyone wondering!!

Paul Levinson said...

I pretty much agree with you - especially regarding Miguel, who was dispatched much too easily the week before.

Lenny said...

Burrito?

OK... I love Dexter, but it puts me on a private pedantic hell because of the show’s spectacularly lousy dialectic writing about Cuban Spanish.

Because Dexter takes place in Miami, there’s a lot of Cuban stuff and characters going on, but whoever the writer(s) for the series is, they seem to believe that Cubans in Miami are indistinguishable from the Hollywood area Mexicans and Mexican-Americans that he or she “knows” as Latinos or Hispanics.

As a result some pretty amazing cultural blunders in the spoken language continue to occur in the show, and I discussed some of them at http://dcartnews.blogspot.com/search?q=dexter.

But now an even more egregious culinary blunder took place in the series finale that revealed to me that the writer or writers for this series have zero understanding of the diversity of cultures in their own continent, and now I am firmly convinced that they have never set foot in Miami.

Let me set a different background for you. Imagine that you’re watching a TV series and the characters walk into a restaurant in South Carolina and inside a big sign announces that the restaurant has the “Best Soul Food in the South.” The characters sit down and then they order Egg Foo Young and a couple of egg rolls.

That would not make sense, right? Lousy script writing or a small easy-to-fix culinary gaffe?

In the Dexter season-ending episode, actress Jennifer Carpenter, who plays Dexter’s annoying and foul-mouthed sister and now Detective Debra Morgan, walks up to a food establishment, where a prominent sign displays that it sells “The Best Cuban Food in Miami.”

She then orders a burrito.

A burrito?

There is no such food item in any Cuban restaurant in Miami, or Cuba or the entire planet Earth. Outside of a Mexican restaurant environment, you ask any Cuban what a “burrito” is and he will tell you that it is a small donkey. A “burro” is a donkey or ass, and a “burrito” is a small donkey.

Cuban food does not include any dishes called burrito, but Dexter’s Hollywood-based writers, never having set foot in Miami or even a Cuban restaurant in la-la land, assume that Cuban food (and by default all Latin American food) consists of burritos, tamales, refried beans, enchiladas, etc.

We had a small “Dexter watching” party for the season-ending episode, and one of the persons in the group was a very good Puerto Rican friend. When Detective Debra Morgan ordered a burrito at a place selling “Miami’s Best Cuban Food,” we both burst out laughing.

However, inside: Dexter, you’re killing me!

Sol Connection said...

I really loved season 3, great characters, great story and i am liking the development of Dexters personality. For me the pacing in the middle was a bit slow and the end a bit rushed. It Needed to be 2 episodes longer or edited down in the middle (especially would have liked to have seen more tension around the death of Miguel and the capture of Dexter by the skinner). I liked the finale, though would have liked at least one major loose end. Anyway, yay Dexter! Looking forward to season 4.

Mr. Divorced said...

You can watch the season finale online at http://watchdexterseasonfinale.blogspot.com/

Jill said...

Sorry to correct you, Paul, but Batista did not become involved with a prostitute. Barbara Gianna is an undercover cop, not a hooker. Surprised you didn't know that. Yes, he was looking for "companionship" that night, but that doesn't make Gianna a hooker.

Overall -- kind of a lame ending, with moments of brilliance. No investigation because King was run over by a cop car? That seems odd to me. Frankly, Miami Metro is looking more inept every season because of all these serial killers. And what's with Syl having NO grief at all just days after her husband was murdered? I know she was angry with him, but man, that's cold.

The moment of brilliance -- Dexter's breakdown of Ramon. That took his lecture to Batista a few episodes ago and magnified it.

It's clear that the writers are taking Dexter on his Pinocchio-like journey to becoming a real boy. Some who enjoy liking Dexter just the way he is are disappointed, but you can't just leave him as he is without him starting to look like just a vigilante -- something this season has made him look like, especially when compared to Miguel.

Adam Tramantano said...

I agree, can't wait for season 4!

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