In episode 5.02 ‘Hello, Bandit’, Dex is back on the hunt despite still dealing with the aftermath of Rita’s death and being a single dad.
Luckily he has one less thing to worry about (well, for the time being anyway.) After bailing on his interview with the FBI in last week’s ep, he sat down with the same smarmy agent from the crime scene and his bespectacled partner to get it over with. It was a well done little scene that quickly and seamlessly transitioned through several stages: Dexter being incredulous and angry at being accused, one of those smart fake outs that this show does so well (‘We know you were at Arthur Mitchell’s house…working the raid’) and ending with some trademark dry humour (‘Why would he go after your wife?’ ‘Because he’s a serial killer?’)
But he’s still not completely in the clear, as the dreaded sketch artist has struck again, and this time they didn’t whip up a perfect portrait of Jesus Christ like in Season 1. Miami homicide interviewed Trinity’s wife and kids, who obviously spilled that he was spending a lot of time with a certain Kyle Butler before he disappeared. Apparently none of them could agree on exactly what Kyle/Dex looked like, and the sketches are rather featureless and creepy looking. But that nosy Doakes wannabe Quinn is still on Dex-alert and seems to maybe see something in the combined sketches that nobody else does. And Quinn has a kinda-sorta nothing happened-but actually it did relationship with Deb going on, so I really hope they aren’t going for a total rehash of the season two angle where somebody Deb is having a relationship with (back then it was Lundy, now Quinn) is the one investigating Dexter.
But Deb could probably be forgiven for spending time at Quinn’s pad, cos hers was a little overcrowded this week with Dex moving the kids in temporarily to get them away from the bad-vibes family home. Cody seems to be doing ok, and baby Harrison seems to enjoy the soft glow of a blood-detecting blacklight just as much as his daddy does. I found that storytelling scene in the moving truck very cute despite it being quite disturbing when you think about it, which is a testament to how likable Dexter’s character is. But Astor is still all ‘This is all your fault, you ruined everything!’ And honestly, I got a little annoyed with her. It’s not that I don’t understand that a 13 year-old is going to be angry about their mother getting murdered and be looking for someone to blame, but something about all her dialogue is not hitting the mark, and all my sympathy is actually for Dexter rather than her. It could possibly be that, as great as the young actor Christina Robinson is, that she just doesn’t have the maturity or the acting experience to deliver the necessary emotion.
Last week we had the super sad scene with Dex telling the kids about Rita, and this week there was an even sadder one when Astor and Cody left with their grandparents to live with them in Orlando for a while. But, sad as I was I like the reason for it: now Dex can focus on the new killer he’s targeted! I do love when they reveal each season the twisted nemesis that Dex will try to get on his table. The first potential victim of the season is Boyd Fowler, a guy who picks up dead animals for a living, has a cupboard full of identical soup cans and listens to motivational tapes. Oh, he also sticks dead girls in barrels and dumps them in the swamp, saving a lock of their hair as a memento. While he’s certainly no Ice Truck Killer, it will be great to see Dex on the hunt, possibly continuing to let out the anger we saw unleashed last week. Maybe he’ll make quick work of this one and move on to another challenge!
I really liked this episode, and things are moving along very nicely indeed. Almost as nice as my new Dexter action figure looks on my shelf of nerdy stuff! Sorry, nothing to do with this episode at all, I just wanted to show off little plastic Dex.
