He's Back!

I was a little surprised by Episode One. Well, surprised, but then...not.

Rita is still as annoying as a new mommy than she has been over the last three seasons.

Two is that - Lundy is back! I loved him in Season Two. He's retired now and able to do his own hunting, which seems like he is there for Dexter's help. In another twist of irony, now Deb is going to have to address her feelings for him, something she hadn't truly done before (but I do love me some Anton. I think they are a good match).

I also like how Deb has seemed to evolve. I wanted to punch her in the face most years, but the start of this season, I guess with getting the respect of her peers (and not to mention LaGuerta, who I guess she shares a kinship with, having dated two murderers) she is finally able to let go of her insecurities. I am liking her balls this year.

I was floored by the relationship with Angel Bautista and Maria LaGuerta. Absolutely floored. I would have never seen it coming. It seemed like last season, Angel was really into that other detective Barbara Gianna, but I wonder if it was a contractual thing and they decided to spice things up by having him link up with Maria. Interesting.

Now, the Dexter story line. Yes, we all know about his dark passenger. We all know he's had a lot of life changes with the new wife, new family and new kid. But the whole sleep deprivation thing seems a bit contrived to me. I know his ritualistic life has been turned upside down. But where are Rita's mommy skills coming into this? He has a high profile job as a blood spatter analyst in the Miami Metro PD, and yet *he's* on the night shift? Sorry, I think this just plays into Rita being a gigantic bitch who is conniving and manipulative. I like her even less.

The way the first episode ended was contrived and not to mention predictable. The other mini-lines in the story -- especially with John Lithgow playing a VERY convincing Trinity Killer -- are fantastic. I am looking forward to seeing how that pans out.

But Dexter coming back from a kill, getting into a driving-while-exhausted accident? Boo. Not cool. I hope this is just a segway for Rita to realize how the new kid is impacting his job and vitality, and will let him move back into his apartment while the kid is going through his growing pains.

I Think I Figured It Out...

OK so I have to admit I was very surprised that Dexter offed Miguel. While he did technically fit the code, when Maria started piecing things together with Miguel's whereabouts the night Ellen got killed, how she knew of their rivalry and Ellen's unbiased opinion of him, and started taking samples of hair from his truck...I thought FOR SURE that Maria would kill him in some kind of shoot-out or lock down or something.

Of course, I was wrong.

But I don't think I'm wrong about this theory -- next week's trailer saw that Ramon is calling Dexter out on being a threat to Miguel. We also know that somehow the Skinner was in cahoots with Miguel.

We know there is no cell reception in the place the Skinner killed his victims.

We know he was using the cell phone to make phone calls to whoever.

I think that "whoever" is Ramon and therefore, the one last threat to Dexter will be eliminated in the episode 12.

Think about it - the Skinner and Ramon both wanted to know where Free-bow was. Ramon we knew tortured his "victims" but the Skinner of course skins his. But who's to say this -- maybe the people Ramon tortured ended up in the hands of the Skinner. We know that somehow, the Skinner is involved with Miguel...why not the WHOLE Prado family.

Somehow, we all know that both of those guys will go down and our man will be back for Season Four.

Another interesting tidbit is the lead-in we will have for next season. We know that Dexter let his guard down around Deb and told her what he knew about Harry -- that he had an affair with a CI. The only problem is, even though all documents regarding Dexter's adoption and life pre-Morgan family are destroyed, I doubt the CI records of Harry Morgan were.

How much you want to bet that when she sees the name Laura Moser and starts snooping around, she'll realize soon enough that Dexter was a little boy in that shipping container bloodbath.

I mean, Dexter was able to find the newspaper record of the incident first season. How much you want to bet that Deb figures this out by letting the little voice in her head nagging at her?

Will Anton Sing Like a Canary?

Anton Briggs, despite his flaws, seems to be a pretty decent guy. A musician, into a hot detective, he may have his issues with street drugs but from the looks of it, it's just herb and you know what I always say - legalize it. Anyway, the scenes where he was with the skinner looked pretty brutal. But telling too.

Senor King kept asking him about Free-bow. And Anton, like everyone else he skinned, has no clue. He knows of Free-bow, but no one knows where he is except for Miguel Prado and Dexter. I think even the police force thinks that Free-bow has skipped town and of course, they are continuing their efforts searching for the skinner (or better yet, who did Ellen Wolfe in).

But what else did Senor King say or do when Anton was in his chamber? We don't know because a.) we were not privy to it and b.) everyone else has died and did not implicate King in the motives.

I wonder if he might have slipped and mentioned Miguel or the Prados or anything else he might know. We only have three episodes left and technically, Miguel should be gone after this one. So perhaps we will find out soon.

I do like Anton though and I hope that he gets to stay on in some capacity.

Well I Was Completely Wrong On That One...

I CANNOT BELIEVE this show. They really need to make it like Saturday or Friday nights, because I get so wired afterwards, I cannot sleep (screw actually going to work).

Just when you think they won't make it predictable...they do. And when you think you've figured out the latest twist -- turns out, you don't.

I didn't think they would find Anton tonight. They did.

I also wasn't sure how to get the Ellen Wolfe scenario. It's obvious Miguel did kill her. But it seems to me that he's done this sort of thing before, with or without Dexter's help. He is able to move evidence around - he is able to turn things around to his benefit. And it looks as though Dexter is going to have to teach him a thing or two about "the code."

I can only gauge how Miguel is going to go away after 10 episodes. Will he try to kill Dexter? He's going to have to die, I guess. I like Miguel's character simply because Dexter was able to let him in. I would like to see him come back but I think it's obvious that because he has gone outside of the code, Dexter is going to have to take him out with the trash.

Thinking About Tonight's Episode

Spoiler alert (sort of): we all know, judging from last week's previews that Ellen Wolfe (Miguel Prado's archnemesis) is missing or not returning her calls. And judging by the look on her face when Miguel shows up at her door unannounced, she seems to not be fazed by it. In fact, she looks pretty happy to see him.

My theory: Ellen and Miguel are carrying on an affair. Syl, probably clued into this with her female intuition, goes out and kills Ellen or sends her away. I'm wondering if somehow this is the case, since we know Syl was considering getting a private detective on Miguel to keep tabs on his whereabouts.

In other news, I think we are going to find out what happens to Anton - I am pretty sure Deb saves him. And gets her badge for cracking the skinner case wide open. Just a hunch.

Talk to you later...

Does He Kill Her...Or Does He F**K Her?

What an interesting twist to this week's show ending. Miguel participates in his first kill, and ends up at Ellen Wolfe's house. As we all can tell, Ellen is the bane of Miguel's existence. He's convinced that without her meddling, he'd be able to get all convictions he wants.

At the same time though, it kind of reminds of a sports rivalry. One day, the teams are talking smack about each other. The next day, they go out and play a round of golf. Seems like in Miguel and Ellen's case - the passion they exhibit in the court house can translate to passion in the bedroom.

It makes sense, though, with their fiery attitudes. We were able to see a side of Ellen when she was acting as Maria LaGuerta's "date" that she likes to flirt with the boys and let her hair down. She was trying to convince Maria to participate with her and to relax more herself, have some fun.

The ending of the show could take two twists -- Miguel (as we can see in the previews for next week) was "fired up" after the kill that he couldn't go straight home. Fueling the fire that his wife Syl could believe that he's having an affair. And the look on Ellen's face when she opened the door wasn't one of "What the hell are you doing at my house this late, mother fucker?" -- it was more like, "hey there, sailor." *wink, wink*

If he went over there to complete the act of killing her, that's one thing -- but if they are having an affair AND she ends up missing next week, this can lead to a very interesting last few episodes of the season.

We also know that Jimmy Smits is signed on for 10 episodes, so perhaps he either goes missing or he "disappears" for two episodes and shows up again in the last one.

Conspiracy Theories

The best part about a Dexter season, and I think for most Dexter fans is that the season outline can be a bit predictable. Not that the story lines are particularly easy to figure out. Hence the title of the post. But that we can pretty much guarantee to see what the theme of the season is, the first episode reveals a lot without telling us much, and by the sixth or seventh episode of the season, we are pretty much glued to our television sets every Sunday night, but also can breathe knowing we are going to see the end of the season. I think another thing I love is that each season ties up each loose end. So that we will certainly know what Deb's new partner is up to, why IA is investigating him, who Anton really is (hint: I'm pretty sure he's either IA himself or some kind of detective type), who the "Skinner" is, and what Miguel Prado's deal is.

Since Jimmy Smits is only signed for 10 episodes, theories abound that he's either going to be killed (hopefully not by Dexter himself since he does live by the "code") or move away or something. The thing is though, it appears as though he's going to get his hands "dirty" next week somehow. I'm wondering if eventually he will fall into some kind of code living and Dexter can get away with it. I'm also wondering just how "clean" this dude is. Ellen Wolf, his nemesis, has alluded that he's done some super-shady things as Assistant District Attorney. Well, pot meet kettle, but that's besides the point. The point being is that there are plenty of theories on the Dexter board at Showtime.Com and others that Miguel may have been participating in a game like this all along. Like, his little brother Oscar over Free-bow's house the night Dexter went hunting for him. I wonder just how personal that visit was or whether Miguel might have sent him there for a shake down.

Theories have been abounding essentially that Miguel has been participating in some "house cleaning" of his own and not just by prosecuting criminals in court. There's also thinking he may not have been getting his hands dirty. It will be interesting how he is written off the show. On FrozenBarbie, there was a story that Smits accidentally used a real knife in a scene, not a stunt knife (no one was hurt). Things that make you go hmmmmm.

In other news, someone pointed on the Dexter board that perhaps Vince Masuka is going to be written off the show. I really hope not (you can pretty much guarantee a smart-ass comment from him in each show), but why would they make such a big deal about Masuka looking like the killer last week? It was interesting because last week's episode was probably the first one I rewatched this season. It's funny how you might miss some things here and there, and catch them the second time around. I'm going to have rewatch a few of them I think.

What else? We all know Deb is going to bed with Anton. We also know that her partner is a dirty cop who got another cop killed. We will certainly get more insight on that.

It just sucks we have to wait another five weeks to find out! What's great is that we won't have cliffhangers!