About Last Night: Dexter Mid-Season Check-Up

Butler's brain is still spinning from last night's episode of Dexter.  See if they're the good spins or the bad spins after the jump!

You know, I gave Dexter a positive review from the get-go this season, but holy sweet mother of christ have you been watching Dexter this season?  Every time I feel like I have nailed down where this show is going, they decide to knock me down and kick me in the teeth just to show me who's boss.  To say that it is full of twists and turns is akin to commenting on the number of downward inclines on your average Chutes N' Ladders board, so let's jut dive in to some of the most satisfying moments from last night's bloodstravaganza.

Dexter let someone in and oh-my-god it may totally work this time!
There's certainly something to be said for artistic pacing when writing good criticism, but sometimes people don't want your buildup, they want to talk about what's on everyone's minds and that is OH MY GOD LUMEN WATCHED DEXTER KILL A MAN AND TOTALLY ACCEPTED HIM AND MAYBE DEXTER GETS TO BE HAPPY!  Maybe as an audience member I am simply aping the average adolescent/annoying couple from work in assuming that things can be different this time around, as opposed to all the other times that this routine worked out so splendidly for Dexter, but I feel like Lumen, as a victim of a violent crime, is someone equipped to handle what Dexter is all about.  But maybe I'm too quick to dismiss Rita out of an intense dislike for everything about Rita.  Perhaps it will all prove too much and he will have to find some kind of way to off her (a la Lila in season 2).  WE DON'T KNOW.  I have made and rescinded so many conjectures about Lumen at this point that I am incredibly hesitant to try to speculate any degree further.  All I know is that I have never demanded silence as inistently as when Dexter and Lumen were standing over a fresh corpse as he handed her a blood slide and everyone in the room waited on the edge of their seats to see what this unstable, unknown wreck of a girl would do in response.

What we do know is that she is Julia Stiles, and that is A-OK

We get a break from having to put up with Batista and LaGuerta's Bullshit

Not only was it incredibly satisfying to watch Deb (still waiting on a response to my invitations, Ms. Carpenter) put LaGuerta in her place after she got sold down the river, it means that we now have a different perspective for the rest of the department's stories than the LaGuerta/Batista marital drama hour.  Seriously, who was sick of having to put up with THAT bullshit?  Maria simply does not work as a character when she is anything other than an object of obvious derision.  She is the boss and nothing will change how people feel about "the boss".  The writers seem to have caught on to this fact and are now re-routing her to just hateable enough to not want her gone from the show, which is a level that works for her.  They had their fun with an experiment, there is nothing wrong with that, but they failed, and it was refreshing to see them seem to acknowledge that by not wasting more time on dramatized marital squabbles.

Arguments: The most compelling of entertainments.

So what was the deal with Jordan Chase, right?
I was honestly not sure what to think about Chase's little "pull Dexter on stage" stunt.  Is he aware of his connection to Lumen and playing his game conservatively?  We do know that this has happened to Dexter before in season 3.  This episode played it off as a coincidence, but look at it realistically:  Why on earth would anyone know that much about someone that they have only ever tangentially encountered?  I don't buy that this guy is just some clueless doofus who happened to provide accidental dramatic tension, but I suppose that we will have to wait until next week to find out.

Seriously, thinking about this show breaks my brain on a weekly basis.  Dexter is unequivocally the best thing on television at present, and if you don't agree with me, you don't have Showtime or a computer.

So how the hell are you reading this?