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!!