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Monday, November 16, 2009

Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes

Dexter made what might well have been a life-changing mistake at the end of last week's episode - 4.7 - he called an innocent man. Tonight's episode 4.8 begins with Dexter's conscience being troubled by this mistake - I wouldn't say tormented - but Dex pretty soon gets beyond that. "It was a mistake, for fuck's sake," Dex's internal voice complains, as Batista puts up Dex's target on the board, saying we thought he was a killer but now he's missing and may be a victim.

Does this mean that serial killers have no conscience? Maybe. It's certainly one of the best lines we've heard from Dexter, rivaling his sister's.

Dex may be able to leave that mistake behind him, but this fine episode isn't quite done yet with big mistakes. The Trinity Killer is jumping off a roof, but Dex grabs him - this isn't the ritual way he wants to dispatch this monster, who Dex knows is guilty for sure. But Dex quickly changes his mind, realizing that an avenging execution from his hand is satisfactory, whether his hand wields a knife or lets Trinity fall. And at just that moment, two good samaritans appear on the roof, and pull Trinity up to safety. Dexter's mistake was trying to save the killer in the first place.

But the biggest mistake of all disclosed tonight was made not just by Dexter, but by Debra - who discovers it - and all of us, as well. We had been thinking that the Trinity killer wounded Debra and killed Lundy. But Debra realizes that her scars suggest a much shorter killer - shorter that the Trinity killer's 6+ feet - and Masuda confirms this.

Which leaves us with one huge-ass puzzle (sorry, I'm listening too much to Debra's great speech patterns). The Trinity Killer is responsible for the serial cycles of three killings. But who shot Debra and Lundy?

The only character I can think of who had a motive would be Debra's boyfriend Anton - but Anton's taller than Debra (you can see that clearly when they're kissing, standing, in episode 4.2).

So where does that leave us? I don't think Dexter - the show - would bring in a killer totally out of left field, at this point. So that leaves us, again, with the Trinity Killer. Was he crouching when he shot Lundy and Debra? Debra tonight said no, Lundy would have seen that.

But if the Trinity Killer is indeed a mistake for the Lundy-Debra shooting, who then?

It's mistakes like these that make Dexter such great television.







6-min podcast review of Dexter


See also
Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ... Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi'

See also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... 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

Reviews of Season 2: 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 and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter







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5 comments:

Jessie said...

It's clearly the reporter. She probably has a history of shooting cops for a story. Serial shooter or something along those lines. It's definitely the reporter.

Bertie said...

We knew it wasn't Trinity because Dexter said it wasn't- he was watching Trinity kill someone else at the time.

Paul Levinson said...

The reporter's certainly a possibility, Jessie - but, so far, we've seen no evidence of any homicidal tendencies.

Bertina - Dexter was saying all along that it _was_ Trinity - Dex wanted to kill Trinity to avenge his sister and Lundy.

dawn said...

Okay my friend ready for my answer. It has to be someone smaller. We have 3 or 4 possibility's
1. Trinity's son - my choice
2. Trinity's wife
3. Quinn
4. Reporter.
You know how I love a mystery but the son being the shooter would be great and put a whole new dynamic for Dexter to think about

Paul Levinson said...

Trinity's son is an excellent choice, Dawn - from what we've seen, Trinity has at very least been psychologically abusive to his son. And the height would work very well.

But how would the son have known about Lundy?

Same appeal and problem for Trinity's wife.

The son and wife make sense in terms of being likely pyscho, but no connection to Lundy.

In contrast, Quinn has some connection to Lundy, but Quinn is too tall.

If the reporter had a connection to Lundy, she would be a better possibility than Lundy - but, as I indicated above, we've seen no evidence of her being someone who would just gun two people down.

Excellent puzzle. And I do like Trinity's son - maybe Trinity told his son that Lundy was following him?

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