The Killers

To quote the many tweets and Facebook posts after last night's season finale...OMFG.

I goofed though. I was in attendance at the Manhattan viewing party (attended by Clyde Phillips and Desmond Harrington as well) and I was in so much shock that my Facebook post inadvertently gave away the ending.

I deleted it later, but basically I told myself that at that point, no one was on Facebook who hadn't seen the show (OK I can tell myself anything to make me feel better).

I guess what I can say right now is...Dexter may have won the War against the Trinity Killer...but we all know Trinity won a critical battle that changed the dynamic of not only the show (selfish reasons abound of course) but the course of Dexter's life. Nothing will ever be the same for our vigilante killer again.

I was an English lit major and much of my studies came through reading and interpreting Shakespeare's works. Was there NOT a person in the audience last night that Hamlet didn't come to mind? You know the background. Missed opportunities. Loved ones lost as a result of procrastinating and not taking the matter at hand seriously, getting sidetracked with minutiae.

We all knew that Dexter's "tragic flaw" was what made him unique, made him who he was, and would catch up to him eventually one day. However, we can see the costs of this flaw and now several innocent people are hurt by this.

I think Clyde Phillips, if that was his intent, to have these Shakespearean parallels (I highly doubt it was a coincidence), is a genius. Of course, I have never read the Dexter books, so if this was a theme, then Jeff Lindsay really struck a nerve. Great job by all.

I can't help but wonder though what kind of dynamic this will leave. No doubt (SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD!) Rita's presence will be missed next season, especially for the way she grounded Dexter. But at the same time, she held him back from who he really was. And we all have seen in the past on this show that anyone who gets in the way of Dexter being true to himself "disappears" one way or another.

On a personal note, I am not one to easily get sucked into television dramas. Never in a million years would I think I would be rooting for a sociopathic vigilante serial killer but I am. I never get emotionally invested in television shows if I don't have to. Something about this show drew me in from day one.

The only other episode that I think has generated more questions than answers for me would be the Sopranos final episode. Most hard-core Sopranos fans were unhappy with the ending initially. Then all the questions they had afterwards and discussions it generated led them to believe that it was the appropriate series finale.

We all knew Dexter was going to kill Arthur. We all knew eventually Deb would find the truth about Laura Moser and her sons Brian and Dexter and the link to the Ice Truck Killer. Her reaction and realization of it surprised me. I do give the writers that.

I am guessing that next season, Dexter will lose custody of Astor and Cody to Rita's mother and she will try hard to get Harrison as well. Since he is the biological father of Harrison I think he will fight for him. Or maybe not. He could think that Harrison is better off without him but only HE knows the Code and may have to help him channel that anger we all know he will have growing up. These are Dexter's lessons learned. He will have to have Harrison learn from his mistakes but I wonder how much of it will be anger turned towards Dex as he is partially responsible for Rita's death.

Rita's death may not be as cut-and-dried as being by the Trinity Killer. Since we saw he found Dexter's old address. Someone suggested Elliot may have killed her or someone else did. I wonder if that's one of the story lines for next season.

Seeing as how this is the longest post I have ever written on my favorite show, I think I can surmise this was a fabulous episode and all I can say is, bring on more for Season Five.

Arthur's Use of the "C" Word

With a name like the Miss Morgan, clearly I am female. My background is that I'm the daughter of a construction worker and I'm a big sports fan. I've had a potty mouth my entire life. So when people apologize to me for using bad language I reassure them..."Trust me. I've heard a LOT worse in my lifetime!"

One word in the English language does not enter my vernacular at any time, however. That is the "C" word that is used to describe the female genitalia. It's just very strong and the background to it is demeaning, violent and basically only used under those two circumstances. Well let me go back. There are several words the Babe Harbor Butcher won't use in her talk. The "C" word just pops out as one of these words.

All that said, why am I bringing this background. I happened to notice that our new and improved killer Trinity (although we have seen it's Quad-rinity with Dexter's sleuth work) Arthur Mitchell uses the word quite a bit. He used it with his wife at Thanksgiving (nothing says family like "Shut up, c**t.") and when he found out Christine Hill was responsible for Lundy's death.

We know his background with his sister Vera dying accidentally in the tub. Mother jumping to her death. Dad being bludgeoned to death. Clearly, Arthur was traumatized by these events as a child for certain. And I'm going to take a stab (erm, no pun intended) at what other things might have contributed to Arthur being the way he is. I'm pretty certain he was sexually abused as a child. The debate is whether by his mother or father. I would gather it's his dad given his mode to kill little boys and particular heavy violence to men. So why the violence toward women?

What would be interesting for me to see is that background, if Dexter gets curious and sees that Arthur's father was also a killer. I would not be surprised if he was responsible for someone's death and Arthur saw that. Plus he's repeating the cycle with murdering the woman in front of Christine as a little girl. Remember that Dexter teaches us the whole Nature vs Nurture argument each episode.

Arthur's violence towards women in particular and his disrespect for his wife and his two daughters with his overuse of the "C" word too is disturbing. Of course, here I am, rooting a serial killer who kills bad guys every week talking about disrespect! But I have to say that out of all the killers Dexter has seen in the last three seasons: ITK, himself, the Skinner, Arthur Mitchell's profile takes the prize of most disturbing, hands-down.

Masuka Profile

In the history of any television show, there has always been one character who is not a focal point, but without him or her, the dynamic of the show would be completely different. Like Lennie Briscoe (played by the late great Jerry Orbach) on Law & Order provides that much needed comic relief in arrest and interrogation scenes, Vince Masuka (played by C.S. Lee) is quite possibly Dexter's Lennie Briscoe. The stuff that comes out of this man's mouth is dirty, perverted, funny and so off-the-beaten-path from the rest of the characters. If he were not on the show, I could tell you that even with the great story lines here, something would be missing.

Something interesting is happening with Vince this season. I feel like we're seeing another side of him to make his character more well-rounded. We know he is good at what he does (but hardly the "golden boy" image our boy Dexter seems project at Miami Metro), but he seems to be around solely for comic purposes.

We've seen his perverted side for sure which is funny and inappropriate at the same time. Hey, he's a medical examiner so I can cut him some slack for looking at dead bodies all day. This season we've seen more of a softer side of Vince.

It's clear to me that he cares deeply about Deb and the Morgans (well for all the folks at Miami Metro, but Deb and Dexter we see him interacting with more often). When Deb goes in to show him her wound to discuss trajectories, he seemed a bit softened. Sure, he had to throw in a archetypal Vince dirty-mind line in there, but I felt like he seemed a bit taken aback by actually seeing one of his dear friends wounded. For some reason that scene touched me.

Another thing though is we are certainly seeing a softer side of him when he sees Rita kissing the neighbor guy at Thanksgiving. My love for Rita well, I've pretty much minced no words that I would like to see her off the show. But Vince seems really obligated to tell Dexter what he saw, and even went back to the house to leave. Only to have Deb convince him to have drinks with her to buy time.

There's something beneath the surface here and I hope the writers introduce more of a well-rounded Vince in the future. We've seen him use his sexual innuendos, which are certainly funny and welcome given the context of the show. However, like giving us more Batista and LaGuerta this season, I'd like to see more of what make Masuka tick.

I'm no psychologist, but I think the sex talk is mostly a defense mechanism for letting people not get too close. Then we see him have genuine feelings of conflict when he sees these things around him that he is being loyal to his friends. I wonder what has happened to him in his past that makes him the way he is.

We all know Dexter is a natural born killer for all the documented reasons. To me, Vince Masuka is a core character on Dexter. At the same time, seeing these different faces to him just is so delicious to me. Keep the Vince story lines going!!