Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Bosch; Citadel; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Fauda; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outer Range; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Diplomat, Last of Us, Lazarus Project, Orville, Way Home; True Detective; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Dexter 7.11: The "Accident"

So let's get right down to real nitty gritty in Dexter 7.11, tonight's episode in this fabulous, best season of Dexter: Did Hannah really try to kill Deb, or did she set up her near death to implicate Hannah and split up Dexter and Hannah?

The arguments that Hannah tried to kill Deb: The bottle of water in Deb's car wreck had the anti-anxiety medication mixed in. Hannah is a master poisoner. Hannah had motive (she tried to get Deb to back off on her opposition to Hannah and Dexter and failed) and opportunity (she was in Deb's house). Pretty convincing. Convincing enough, apparently, to convince Dexter that Hannah tried to kill Deb.

But there are arguments on the other side of this - arguments that suggest Deb set the "accident" up to break up Dexter and Hannah. Deb hates Hannah. Not just because Hannah is a killer who out-manuevered Deb, but because Deb loves Dexter, and more than as a sister. Deb has not been herself all season - understandable, since she learned Dex was the Bay Harbor Butcher, and has been helping Dex cover up and pursue his serial killing. Even more important: we just saw Deb, in this episode, brilliantly plant evidence that convinced Matthews that Daokes was indeed the Bay Harbor Butcher (not Laguerta, who's being moved in large part by her love for Doakes). If Deb is capable of planting such evidence, she could certainly have figured out a way of setting up her own near murder, and make it look like Hannah's work.

But, in Deb's defense: why would she choose to kill herself in a way that indeed could have easily killed her, in a crashing car was that was totalled?

That seems like strong evidence that Deb didn't set it up, and that Hannah tried to kill her. But, on the other hand, there's also this, which may be the most important evidence - evidence we didn't see. We the audience did not see the actual crash. For all we know, Deb - with some outside help - had herself roughed up, had someone crash the car, placed herself in the upside down car, then drank the drugged water so she passed out.

It's a little far fetched, I know, but, I wouldn't put that past Deb, would you? And there's also this on Hannah's side: as she herself said to Dexter, had she planned on poisoning Deb, wouldn't she have succeeded?

It's a tough call, and I'm probably wrong, but I'm thinking we'll learn, either in this season's finale next week or later, that Hannah was innocent in this.

That's one reason to watch next week. Another, in an arc that goes back to second season and even the first, is just how will Dexter will manage to prevail over Laguerta. If he does ... well, he will, in some way, right? The fact that this question can even be asked shows why this is my favorite season of one of the best series ever to be on television.