Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals?

Two plus two equals Dexter 6.4 tonight - he discovers two numbers in the doomsday killer's corpses, and then realizes that he's likely dealing with two killers not one - but the deeper story is not mathematical or scientific, but the struggle in Dexter's mind between science and religion.

When Harrison's appendix ruptures and he's rushed into surgery, Dexter - under Sam's general influence - asks even God for help.  And Harrison pulls through like a "champ," according to the doctor, Dexter thanks God.  And although he denies to Sam any meaning in Dexter's use of the phrase, saying he's still a man of science, it's clear that Dexter's atheistic insistence is beginning to crack.

And good thing, too.   Professor Gellar - the "middle-aged professor," as Dexter calls him (thanks, Dex, makes me feel like a suspect) - is moving into high gear.  He claims a third victim - in faith, two plus can equal three - and Dexter's understanding of faith, not just the literal Old and New Testaments, but the workings of a sick mind that twists faith and uses it to kill, may be the best weapon Dexter has against the murderous pair.

Travis, the acolyte who looks like McGee from NCIS, is clearly a true, twisted believer.  He goes out with and sleeps with a brunette, and very much enjoys it.  But Gellar has other ideas, and make her the third victim (you could see this coming), and Travis not only goes along with this but enjoys the locust culmination of the ritual.

A fine season, in which Debra not only gets off a lot of great, fucking lines, but actually uses one in a press conference after Laguerta tells her to be "herself".  Laguerta's pleased with this gaff, everyone else is askance, but Captain Matthews gets lots of compliments about Debra's "telling it like it is," and tells her to keep up the "fucking" good work.

That's what I'm takin' about - Thom Yorke would have been proud.

See also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ... Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And 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' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ... 4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

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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The Plot to Save Socrates



"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Faux Rahm Emanuel Bleeped on Saturday Night Live for Saying Real Words

In case you didn't see this message from "Rahm Emanuel" (played by Andy Samberg of "Dick in a Box" fame) recorded for Saturday Night Live, but, strangely, unplayed on Saturday's show...



I love when the line between reality and satire gets so thin.... After all, Rahm Emanuel really does talk that way - see the hilariously true RahmFacts for details. And didn't Joe Scarborough just say something like that, at least once, just a few weeks ago?

Yes, he did. And, you know, the only thing that bothers me about the SNL skit is that the language was bleeped out - which was sad - but also funny.

As I said in a blog post about Thom Yorke's song lyrics a few years ago, the bleeping out of "f*ck" in this day and age - actually, in any day and age - is fucking ridiculous.

Goes to show - truth can still be funnier than fiction...

Of Asterisks, Black Swans, Thom Yorke, and D*ck

So, Thom Yorke has a haunting new song - "Black Swan" - to be released on his Eraser CD in July. You won't hear it on any radio station - at least, not the non-satellite kind.

Radiohead never did too well in airplay, anyway. But there's a more explicit, illicit reason you won't hear Yorke's plaintively beautiful song. "This is f*cked up, f*cked up," the refrain says, over and sadly sweetly over again.

The FCC was just empowered to increase fines for allegedly "indecent" broadcasting by 10 times their previous amounts. Even with the original amounts, no radio station would want to risk hundreds of thousands of dollars for repeated offenses.

But it's not just radio and TV. Our society is so provincial that you can't just come out and write "f*ck" in most publications - that is, you can write "f*ck" but not the actual word.

Which is interesting. Because, in addition to writing "f*ck," you can further write that the asterisk stands for a "u". You can say that on the air, too. You can also go the "freakin'," "f'ing," and "f-word" routes - in print or in speech - but you can't write or say the actual word. Even though "f*ck" and the other substitutions are all saying exactly that same thing.

Just who would be hurt by seeing or hearing the actual word? Kids? I bet it's a rare 9-year old in America these days who hasn't heard the word at least as often as your average man or woman in Congress. (Or maybe not - VP D*ck Cheney did tell Senator Patrick Leahy to "go f*ck" himself just outside the floor of the Senate a few years ago.)

Well, we can all hear "Black Swan" on the Web, and soon on the new Thom Yorke CD. We'll no doubt be able to hear it on Sirius Satellite Radio, too, where Howard Stern had to go to continue his show in the way he and his fans wanted. Except Sirius costs money. So, thank you, FCC, Congress, and President B*sh, for this new sin tax.

We'll also be able to hear "Black Swan" over the closing credits of A Scanner Darkly in July - Richard Linklater's rendition of the Philip K. Dick story. Thank goodness the F*ds haven't gotten to the movie theaters yet.

But the FCC is ushering in a new Dark Ages for non-satellite radio and non-cable television - programming them, in effect, out of cutting-edge artistic relevance. And they're sharpening their talons for cable and satellite radio, too. After all, it's unconstitutional - in violation of the First Amendment - for the government to go after broadcasters, so why stop there? Why let an artist paint the human condition with a full palette of options, when you can go in an outlaw the most vivid colors?

It's fucking ridiculous.