Loaded Couch Potatoes

It’s been more than a month since the harrowing and shocking season finale of Showtime’s hit series Dexter, and most of the fans are still reeling from it. Twists, turns, and straight up shocking moments filled this amazing season. After the jump, a breakdown of this season’s events and a look to the extremely uncertain future of our Dearly Demented Dexter Morgan. *Spoilers Ahead*

Ok, first off, a quick rundown of the premise for this season. Dexter, who is now a husband and father, is trying to give suburban life a shot. He has everything he could possibly want: a loving wife, great children, and a good career. However, soon his Dark Passenger’s cries for attention cause Dexter to wonder if this is the life he really wants or not. Meanwhile, a dangerous new adversary returns to Miami after 30 years to finish a lifelong cycle of killing…

I’m going to go ahead and run through this season’s flaws, mainly because they were few and far between. I honestly did not like the LaGuerta/Batista love story subplot. It had almost nothing to do with everything else in the season and it was almost like the writers wanted to put some filler into a few of the episodes. Next season will probably play with their whole marriage thing, and how neither one of them will like it, and we’ve seen it a thousand times before. The only reason that it might be worth it will be because the writers of this show can make it somewhat interesting. Also, I did not enjoy how Astor was used in the first half of the season. Now that we have Daddy Dexter, he obviously needs to be put into situations that will show he’s a good father to her, and also cody and Harrison. But they couldn’t resist the cliche of preteen drama, so Astor hated basically everything that Dexter was trying to do for her. The lowest point was when she begged for an iPod, and I started to get worried that it wasn’t going to be a fulfilling season.

Despite these very few flaws, this was a near perfect season. Michael C. Hall was superb in his portrayal of our dark hero, so much so that he was recognized for his performance at the Golden Globes this year. Keith Carradine, what little bit he was back, also brought a new layer to his Agent Lundy, and we realized that he was a truly great character, but his life was sadly cut short. Other good performances include C.S. Lee and James Remar, as Masuoka and Harry respectively. Julie Benz’s Rita was rather underused this season, but she did her best to hold her own, all the way through to the shocking end.

Two actors really broke through this season that made it so worthwhile. Jennifer Carpenter, playing the always feisty Debra Morgan, stole many of the scenes she was in. It was by far the best story she had been given to work with. Not only did she have to deal with Lundy’s return and sudden death, but then she had to put together the pieces as to why the shooting happened and she showed a lot of range. I’ve never cried during this show until this season. It was when Deb broke down to Dexter in the parking lot where she was shot and Lundy was killed. I do admit I shed a few tears as she was because her performance hit home and put Lundy’s death into perspective for everyone; She cheated on Anton with Lundy, and ended up paying the price for it. It was depressing, but a smart move on the part of the writers.

Without a doubt, the best performance goes to John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer/Arthur Mitchell. It was perhaps the most disturbing, morbid, and terrifying villains in recent television history. His meticulous, calculating kills were but a small part to his madness. As the season progressed, it was revealed that his victims meant something pertaining to his own life: the bathtub murders represented his sister who died after slipping in the shower(which young Arthur accidentally caused), the seemingly suicidal mother represented his own mother who jumped off a building, and then the middle-aged man who was beat to death was a parallel to Arthur’s father, who he himself killed. After this initial cycle was studied for the majority of the season, Dexter discovered there was a fourth victim which started the kill cycles; a ten-year old boy, representing Arthur himself. These death scenes were always worth a good shudder and were executed brilliantly.

The truly horrific part of this whole thing was the way Arthur treated his family. They all feared him, most of all his wife, his daughter developed a sexual obsession with any man who payed her attention because she was cut off from the world, and his son was the only one who wanted to put a stop to the madness. The torture came to a head in the now infamous episode, “Hungry Man.” This thanksgiving special found Dexter pulling double tine, trying to be at his own thanksgiving dinner, and also Arthur’s in his pursuit to understand the man behind the monster. During the course of their awkward and disturbing day, Arthur’s daughter came onto Dexter, who was given a blessing by her mother as long as he didn’t tell Arthur; Arthur broke his son’s finger as soon as Dexter left the room; he called his wife a cunt to her face after wondering why no one side they were thankful for him; and then ultimately tried to kill his son before Dexter put a stop to all of the madness and had to make a hasty escape. It is without a doubt one of the best episodes of this season, if not the series.

One of the constant themes I saw this season dealt with the possibility of being alone. Everyone entered a situation where they questioned if they were better off spending life alone, with no one to love. Dexter had the obvious problems of juggling his Dark Passenger with his family, and for a while, he thought that the only person worth listening to was the Passenger, though he knew it would devestae his family. Deb also had to confront this problem after she found herself with no one to love after Lundy’s death. Hell, even Lundy figured it was better for him at one point because he knows he cared more about the job than people. The only one who had a somewhat decent relationship was Quinn, who dated reporter Christine Hill, and even that blew up in his face. Ultimately, it comes down to that no one can truly deal with people and relationships the way they want to, so they should just try their best to make it work, which was a struggle for every character to understand.

Another them I noticed was that Dexter’s need to kill turned damn near into full-blown addiction this year. He intentionally planted evidence to throw the police off just so he could have a kill all to himself, which repeatedly blew up in his face(See: Benito Gomez, Arthur Mitchell). However, in the season finale, he realized how much he’s let his Passenger control him and he could see a brighter future, one where he didn’t have a Need to kill. This bright vision came crumbling down soon after.

After disposing of Arthur’s body, Dexter returns home to finish packing for his honeymoon getaway with Rita, who he thinks has already made it to their destination. He checks his voicemail to discover that she was late for the early flight, and she booked a later flight and came home to wait until it was time to go again. Dex gave a quick smile, then called Rita’s phone to let her know he was on the way. After placing the call, Dexter hears a familiar ring coming from the kitchen. When he walks over, he discovers Rita’s phone and purse still there. And that’s when he hears it. Harrison’s crying from the bathroom drives Dexter to find him…only to realize he’s sitting a massive pool of blood. Dex looks over to see Rita, lying motionless in the bathtub, killed in the same manner as one of Trinity’s victims.

Dexter’s obsession with being the one to kill Arthur ended up being his worst nightmare. He lost his wife, and now his son will most likely grow up to be like him, right down to being “born in blood.” Harry was right; Dex might not be able to have it all while the Dark Passenger is around.

I think John Lithgow said it best after the finale: “I do not envy the writers for next season.” How are they going to handle this situation? Is she really dead? Was it all a dream? How will Dexter deal with being a single father? Will Rita be used the same way as Harry, but on a more encouraging, reasonable level? One thing’s for sure; I cannot wait until September to find out.

Overall, this was one of the best seasons of Dexter yet. Shocking, disturbing, and suspenseful, it had all the elements a show like this needs. This easily gets a 9.5/10 from me, and I cannot wait to see what’s being cooked up for Season Five.

P.S. As many of you know, Michael C. Hall recently revealed he’s undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. On behalf of the writers here at Loaded Couch Potatoes, we’d like to extend our thoughts and prayers to him  and his family during this trying time. Get well soon, Michael. We all believe you can defeat this Dark Passenger.