A powerful, tough, believable finale to this great second season of Dexter on Showtime tonight, which wrapped all the bloody and singed loose ends convincingly.I say singed - as well as bloody - because this was Lila's finale as much as it was Dexter's, even more so.
First, she brilliantly incinerates Doakes after she finds him in the cell in Dexter's cabin, and Daokes tells her Dexter is the Bay Harbor Butcher. This shocks and inspires her - makes her love Dexter more than ever before - and in a split second she rises to the moment, and figures out a way to get Doakes out his cell and blown to death in the fiery explosion she sets in the cabin. (I had always admired her intensity and devilish genius and devotion to Dexter.) Had Daokes died in his cell, this would have tipped off the authorities that Daokes was not the killer.
So Dexter's home free from Doakes, and enjoying it ... until he finds out he's not home free from Lila. Dexter plans on luring Lila to her death - even though she truly loves him, and even though he does believe, at least in part, that they are soul mates - until Lila gets what's going on, kidnaps Rita's kids, and almost kills them and Dexter in yet another blaze.
Deb plays a role in all of this, and she has had some of the best lines this season. (For example - tonight she puts it to Dex about Lila - "What did you do to make her so pathetically crazy for you? Does your dick dance?")* Jennifer Carpenter does a killer job - sorry, couldn't resist - and her performance as the trash-talking, fast-talking vulnerable sister of Dexter was every bit as good as Michael C. Hall's superb performance in the title part this year.
*Under the great-minds-think-alike-heading - see the discussion started by anniedeuce on Dexter-IMDB for this and other Deb gems...
Now back to Lila, I gotta say - and my regular readers know - that I wouldn't have minded at all had Lila made it into the next season. A dark, beautiful, counterpart of Dexter - willing, moreover, to take wild chances because of love - would have made a strong addition to the show. On the other hand, her knowledge of Dexter's secret, and her instability, would have made her as much a threat to Dexter as was Doakes, in his own way. And her threatening the kids, the totally pure, innocent recipients of Dexter's love, sealed the deal in Dexter's mind.
So ... well, the fade to black is followed by a classic Dexter scene - in Paris.
And this symbolizes the new leaf that Dexter must turn over. He can't be the Bay Harbor Butcher again, because that would invalidate Doakes' taking the fall. He'll have to kill another way.
Where is it written, after all, other than in our popular culture, that serial killers have to be 100% consistent....
We'll find out more, next year...
====
And now the contest: I have three posters of Dexter that Showtime was good enough to give me, and I am itching to give away. All you have to do e-mail me - at Levinson.paul@gmail.com - with the correct answer to the following question:
What 2007 motion picture bears a striking resemblance to Dexter - featuring a serial killer who is capable of powerful love for his family, attends AA meetings to keep his "addiction" at bay, and has a sarcastically commenting inner voice?
First three correct answers to the above each get a free poster in the mail.
Good luck - and all of you Dexter fans - there will be a lot of Dexter here when Season 3 comes back on Showtime, next year...
AND THE WINNERS ARE ... contest winners announced! (December 17, 2007)
Season 3 Sneak Preview Review - No Spoilers...
See also Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex
The Plot to Save Socrates
"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book
more about The Plot to Save Socrates...
Read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates .... FREE!
2 comments:
Are you serious? Have we even been watching the same series? That was the worst example I have ever seen of script writers taking on the role of the hand of God. Everything was all way to convenient and all the loose ends seem to be tied up just for the sake of being able to end a season. The series failed to fulfill any of its promises. I love this series, but the last episode single-handedly ruined the promise of future great television.
You say that it was sll part of Lila's brilliant plan to let sgt. Doakes out of his cage right before the explosion, preventing the police from realizing he was held in captivity, hence not the killer. But really, in the explosion all was destroyed beyond recognition, the interior, the cage, even doakes body was scattered about severly burned. What fails to make the story of "accidental" fire believable is the stove, which was found to be turned on.
And did Dexter really ever have feelings for Lila? She seduced him purely sexualy. The thing i liked most about season finale is the fact that Dexter opens up about his true feelings for Rita, which are purely unconditional at this point.
I have to side with Debra on this one. Lila had to go. She was gross.
Post a Comment