Dexter 4×01 and 4×02

I’m never really sure what I expect Dexter to be like, as a show. It keeps me entertained and never downright pisses me off, like many shows I watch or have watched, so I guess I don’t mind when it takes me a few episodes to get a sense of where the current season is going? Bwahaha, that sounds bad. I am merely confused. It’s obvious that the first two seasons had the tightest scripts and just created more suspense. They probably also used the best ideas you can use for that kind of story: The origin story coupled with a creepy whodunit, and the story where Dexter himself becomes the hunted. Compared to this, it’s much harder to sum up the idea behind Season 3 in a matter that’s to the point. Two episodes into Season 4, the same applies to the new and possible second-to-last season. Dexter and Rita are married and have a baby: Dexter is sleep-deprived and makes more mistakes than he can afford. He screws up at a court hearing, and a killer walks free (for a while), which causes Quinn to be extremely angry at Dexter. But then Dexter sees how Quinn steals money from a crime scene, and while Dexter is too busy with his own problems to bother telling anyone, Quinn gets antsy and does a 180° in Attitude Towards Dexter.

Quinn being a bit shady isn’t a new concept. Last season, there was Yuki’s Internal Affairs investigation, but most importantly there was how Quinn tricked Anton into working as a CI for him. It’s definitely true that Quinn isn’t always playing by the rules, but where this will factor in the big picture, I don’t know. Quinn definitely pays more attenton to Dexter this season than he did the last, and that may cause some complication along the way.

Hurrying home after a kill, Dexter falls asleep on the wheel and has an accident. He isn’t injured severely, but suffers amnesia, and realizes he doesn’t remember where he put the body. Was it in the car? Nope. Was it thrown out and is lying somewhere, waiting to be discovered? Or did he store it somewhere to pick up when he had time to dispose of it properly? It is always fun to see Dexter struggle.

Maria and Angel: I’m not sure why they are now a couple. It has to have a reason. Now, I love both these characters, and I think if they’re happy together, I should be happy. Why they want to keep their relationship a secret, I don’t know. I’m sure no one will care much. Even if it goes against some law enforcement dating rule I’m unaware of, everybody at the homicide division has violated his or her share of regulations, often with the knowledge of their colleagues and superiors.

Actually, what I like least was that flatly-written dialogue that established that Angel and Gianna broke up. Maybe it was more flatly-acted than flatly-written… there was a joke in the scene, but that guy Angel was talking to, yeah, probably not the strongest actor ever.

The Trinity Killer: Lundy is back! He’s back, retired and hunting a serial killer, whom he dubbed the Trinity Killer because he kills in threes. And has done so for at least thirty years without arousing too much suspicion, meaning that Dexter is officially impressed. Lundy is weird… he really seems to have a thing for Dexter, the way he is looking at him and all… careful, Dexter! He only likes you for your lab…!

The Trinity Killer himself is nicely creepy. While the identity of the first season’s killer was left a mystery until a dramatic reveal later, we get to see the man do his killing right from the start… well, this spares us a half-assed whodunit like in Season 3, which never got interesting because… yeah, why anyway?

Other than kickstart the Trinity plot, Lundy also serves to make Deb’s life slightly more complicated. Of course, she loves Anton and she better not let that old man get between them… but Lundy’s return at least confuses her. I guess there are some things left unresolved. Better resolve them. I like how Deb went from Lundy from Anton, it illustrates how she overcomes her daddy issues: Lundy is a reliable cop like her father, and probably the same age as her father. Anton is the opposite in character (but also nice) and a CI that Deb had an affair with. Which is against the rules. She learns from Dexter that her father also had an affair with a CI, so she has finally managed to be more like her father, indeed. Haha.

Deb wants to know who her dad slept with: Deb is slowly working her way through her father’s CI files. Maybe the speed is unrealistic. It’s been months and she hasn’t even looked at the names on all the files? I… guess she was busy? Through her investigations, Deb might come dangerously close to the truth about Dexter. This is the plot I’m most interested in. The files regarding Dexter’s past have been destroyed, but how much information does the file on his mother contain? It will without a doubt be enough to make Deb figure out the connection to Brian Moser, her serial killer ex, but will she also find out that Dexter is Brian’s brother? Oh, the uncertainty!

The other murder series: “The Vacation Murderers”, formerly known as the “Vacation Robbers”: Other than keeping the police department busy, I don’t see how this is important yet. A murder series targeting tourists is of course something that takes priority, maybe even over the chase for a serial killer that only Lundy  thinks exists. Oh, I miss Mohinder. Lundy even built himself a map with strings to be more like Mohinder.

Other than that, I kind of miss Miguel’s wife. Her name slipped my mind, but… she was a cool friend for Rita. Maybe her role as a vampire on True Blood kept her away? In any case, I hope Julie Benz gave her vampire acting tips.