Dexter season 7

Weird moment halfway through the episode: Harry says that heart disease killed him. Dexter knows that Harry killed himself after witnessing Dexter's first kill. Did Dexter block out that revelation, or is the ghost of Harry a figment of Dexter's psyche that is separated from the rest of Dexter's mind?

Or did the writers conveniently forget/not watch that early episode?

That's what they say. That is not, necessarily, what will happen. Dexter and Homeland are currently continuing to grow year over year. You don't let that go off the air. While the producers may very well intend for it not to go on, it is entirely possible that Showtime will renew this when the time comes and they'll eventually be able to find somebody to make it happen if none of the producers or writers want to do it. It's not impossible. I'm not even sure it's terribly unlikely, but I've got no idea what Showtime has in its hour-long slate for two years from now as a companion for Homeland.

Given that it's not what happened in the book (so the writers wouldn't be reminded of it if they went back to source or Lindsay) and I think the show only touched on it once or twice in the early seasons (so it's probably not a gigantic note in the show bible), it's entirely possible that they've gone and forgotten that. In all cases, Harry was sick well before he decided it was time to go out, so you could justify that statement by saying that it was heart disease that landed him on Bad Nurse's rounds in the first place.



For the episode....this was pretty much inevitable. What it feels like they're doing here is going back to the Lumen season, but this time they maybe aren't going to fuck it up at the goal line. We went to great lengths to obtrusively establish that Sarah here crushes too hard on people, so I can easily see Deborah wanting her brother to infiltrate her body with his dangle coming up at some point, her getting crazy jealous, and a murder attempt happening. That would give the writers an opportunity to use the incest angle (all the way to hell, show), not pretend like it never happened, but bail out of actually having something icky go down. The entire series has been about Dexter trying and failing to connect with people successfully (1: Biney; 2: H.G. Wells; 3. Jimmy Smits; 4. Trinity; 5. Lumen; 6. Mos Def at first, then Travis) so it makes sense. I could also see this as being an easy way out of the LaGuerta corner - Sarah Walker can easily pull a Doakes on her if she thinks the woman is a threat, and not only do we know that at some point in the past, LaGuerta wanted to bone down, but now she's potentially investigating him for murder.

I'm not so big on the Russian Mob angle at this point. It feels like an unnecessary addition. I would have been fine with everything this season happening except for that and I wouldn't have lost any sleep, so I do hope that the show manages to make that at least a little bit relevant to the primary story at some point - at least, moreso than "Dexter desperation fuckilled Enver Gjokaj, so now a guy is trying to murder him." I don't really need anything to motivate Joey to do anything at this point. I would, in fact, prefer that he were less obtrusive in the show. At this point I'd rather see David Zayas use his years of real world police experience to medium-bad act through some basic crime investigations instead. Instead, it feels like the writers are waving their hands and shouting as loud as they can to keep me from noticing that this is largely a combination of the Lumen and H.G. Wells stories. I don't care that it's a rehash. I'm cool with that if they do it right.

Well I guess that's settled! I can't say I'm not disappointed; Dexter's reactions in this episode rang rather false to me. :(

I haven't caught up on Season 7 yet so I'm not reading any of this thread, but I'm going to go ahead and bitch about the two seasons I recently caught up on.

Fuuuuuuck this show. I don't ever remember thinking about how stupidly things came together (or fell apart) near the ends of each season. Dexter is now carrying bodies in populated Miami locations in the fucking daytime. I loved Season 6's dichotomy in the form of Mos Def versus Colin Hanks and the spiritual pulling it did on Dexter, but how fucking obvious do they have to make his activities? Is it supposed to be some reflection of him becoming sloppier, or something? And attempting to end a tense moment of Dexter almost getting caught by him magically, within minutes, getting rid of entire bodies and murder scenes is... well it all just feels like a ridiculous farce of plot-driving right now. And seriously, performing a kill at a site where someone knows he's going to be and there's the very real and obvious risk of him getting caught, just to go ahead and have him caught by the second most pivotal character in the show? Ugh, just ugh.

Bottom line is that this show used to make me feel somewhat smart for watching it, like any great show does, but everything after Season 4's finale just makes me feel like I'm supposed to be another couch-humping American idiot slurping up sensational television. I'm going to finish watching this show, but I'm also going to be cursing this fucking show.

Just stop! Nobody cares! Shut up! Nobody fucking cares about the book! Jesus Christ! Stop!

Alright at least Season 7 starts off with a bang. I really hope this is the final season.

There is going to be a Season 8, which will be the final season.

Deb's moral compass just spins round and round.

Does this mean Dexter will give her a girl boner again soon?

Honestly, I'm still a bit baffled by people who get their panties in a bunch about the (not even technically accurate) incest angle. Last I checked, it was still a show about a serial killer who kills serial killers (and occasional killers, and the odd bit of nonkillers). And that's all fine and dandy, but somehow the thought of (step!)sisterfucking is considered yucky, gross, or my personal favorite - "cheap plot element"? What is this, I don't even, etc.

Sex is just weird man.

The annoying thing about the incest angle isn't that they raised it - it's that the show raised it and then refused to follow through because it realized that was icky. I still won't be entirely satisfied until Mikey goes balls deep in his ex-wife, but whatever. The show will do what it does. I'll say that I'm at least marginally assuaged by one particular bit in the scenes from next week, so maybe they'll still play it out.

I would, however, like to ask the show now to PLEASE DECIDE WHETHER YOU ARE ON CINEMAX OR NOT. Look - I'm okay with whichever way you choose to go, but there was every reason for Yvonne Strahovski to have her tits out in that episode and pretty much none for Relatively Unknown Ukranian Lady. You know how many tits have been out in this season of Homeland? Zero. So it can be done on your network. Just make the call and be consistent. It's fine if you don't want to do that anymore. I'll still watch. But it makes some of the positioning in scenes where one of your actresses with a big enough name value to demand that she keep her clothes on really awkward, particularly when not twenty minutes later you've got another, less well-known actress gyrating for basically no real effect. I mean, it's not to the level of Tara on True Blood at this point (whom I don't even particularly want to see topless on the basic merits, but just because she's on the cast, in the age range, and it only seems fair at this point), but you can see that shore from where you are.

I actually don't hate where the show is just now. I really don't know what they're going to do next. Conventional wisdom says that Srahovsky dies, because no guest star survives two consecutive seasons, but it's not like she's got anything else big and significant going on, so I don't know. I'm sure that one or the other of her and Deborah ends up going out, and I'd be baffled if it was Deborah, but I'm kind of rooting for Sarah. This show does weird things to your moral compass.

Ummm The incest angle is back in play now :)

Good episode. I could watch Dexter and Isaak chatting in a gay bar for the next 4 episodes and I would not be bored. That was a great scene and why I still watch the show.

Yeah that scene was fantastic.

IMO, the only reason the incest angle was ever a thing was because they needed at least some semi-plausible reason why a homicide detective wouldn't immediately arrest Dexter when she happened upon that murder scene. So they went with the old standby that she was blinded by love. An unconsummated incestuous love that only came to light when she was asked a leading question by her therapist. (Even Woody Allen thinks that's a stretch.)

You can see them setting up the irony for Deb's eventual demise in Dexter's actions. When Hannah kills Deb, it will (once again) be Dexter's fault because he didn't kill Hannah when he should have. (Just like with Rita and Trinity.)

Can someone who remembers more than I do explain what leads Laguerta was following regarding Dexter's boat? I don't remember what had happened back in Season 2 with his moving the boat. I saw the piece of paper she was examining last week but I don't know why she was looking at it and what dots lead her to that, and then to the place she was at this episode (a place I also don't recognize or know where it is).

Only vague memories at this point, but the big cliffhanger driver for season 2 was that Dexter's original dumping ground had been found. Some forensics work or other was narrowing down the docks where the Bay Harbor Butcher was sailing out of (matching specific type of algae or barnacles or somesuch?), so Dex relocated. I don't remember at all if there was any mention of the basic legwork missing it, or they got misdirected somehow so it fell through an investigative crack. (Mostly I remember Dexter having close calls getting the AC shut down for the body storage freezer so nearly all the evidence got ruined. He sure has a lot of great anecdotes to share with Hannah for pillow talk.)

I also second the calls for more of Dexter and Isaak meeting for drinks at the gay bar. They should go there at the end of each day of trying and failing to kill each other, and develop a relationship like the Looney Tunes sheepdog and wolf clocking in and out of their work days.

I would like to raise just one nitpickety, awful observation. "The Fox Hole?" Really, show? What - was The Blam Factory just a little too far? Couldn't get permission for The Pussy Depository? I would think that the Russ...uh...Ukranian Mob would invest in a place just a little bit classier. Also, the part of me that was taught English by a chain of mean old ladies who probably scarred him for life flinched at, "You haven't even begun to be sorry." I would have gone with "You haven't even begun to regret" at a bare minimum, to avoid the "to be" conjugate.

On another subject, I guess we've got some understanding as to why Astor isn't on the show anymore. Jesus but she grew up. She looks older than her frigging babysitter at this point (though she might make a pretty boss young Emily on Revenge if they ever needed one, which they won't, because VanCamp has a baby face - despite the fact that Astor looks like the age she actually is and Emily is 26 and can still play teenager). It's kind of a shame, because one of the few stories from the source that I would have liked to see (I know, I know - shut up, nobody cares, and cetera and cetera, and I'll grant that Lindsay is a terrible writer, but the basic Cody and Astor story from the source would have been neat to see) would have involved Astor and Cody. Ah well. That one was probably a bridge too far for even Showtime anyway. I guess with a time jump next season could do it with Harrison.

Obviously, though, I liked the episode. The show has finally, publicly, obviously owned up to That Horrible Thing It Did last season, so I'm prepared to let them off the hook for that. I'm sure they were waiting to hear that I finally approve of their handling of the incest angle. I also love the gaying of Isaak. That seems like the perfect way to justify this vendetta he's gone on, and it makes his character just a little bit more interesting, and it's believable, and I didn't see it coming (I had assumed that he and Enver were childhood friends or something). It also finally makes me feel something other than anger for the character, which was a good call.

And to top it all off, it looks like the season conclusion that they're rolling toward (based on the Scenes from Next Week) is pretty damn good. Nice job, show. I salute you.

You might want to avoid going to Google Maps, zooming out to the entire country and doing a search for 'Foxhole'. Cos you'll be all, "Really, people of America? What - was Fuckslut Central just a little too far?"

No. It would not.

Wow.. Another terrific episode..

A few thoughts..

I am weeping that we won't get another Isaak / Dexter scene. The apartment conversation, the later discussion on what motivates Dexter and his lack of connections to people. The two actors were just absolutely terrific and well written as well.

I so thought Deb was going to let Hannah bleed out.

Its clearly the fire inspector....

And I guess we are stuck with Laguerta and the arsonist to close out the season?

It was a good episode but I thought it was funny when he described the two times he was scared to Hannah (when his mom was killed and when he thought about not seeing her again).

"What about that one time with your wife and the tub and the blood and your boy in the blood and so forth?"

"Meh, wasn't so bad."

Haha, I said that too! His mom and Rita. And then he was like my mom and LOSING YOU MAYBE!

I guess the writer of this episode never saw that season.

No - you all are not paying attention. Rita was part of his facade.. But Hannah accepts all of Dexter and understands all and therefore means more to him then anything!

Play along with me now :)

Didn't he also find Rita dead, rather than either live through her execution like his mom or have a life dangled in front of him like Hannah?

There are certainly ways one could be scared after an event like the death of a spouse, but Dexter has never really been dependent like that. At least that I recall.

Yup, Dexter or the viewers were never totally convinced that Dexter grew into loving Rita. And it was all done, when he found her, so nothing to be scared of (if you're Dexter that is).
One might have thought the time Harrison nearly died would have been on his list... but then, he was trying to say something nice to Hannah.

And yeah, from indifference to love - I'll be sad Isaak is gone now. He was great and I was way wrong.

Bit late to introduce a new serial killer... especially since it's clearly the fire investigator. Or perhaps they're throwing us a red herring and their reaction to each other is just because they're to geeks very alike - one with fire and one with blood. But then the fire guy isn't very confident, so I guess it is him.

But he totally was. Rita's death devastated him and even before that--he was nervous enough about Rita and Harrison's safety that he tried to send them away before anything bad could happen. The look on his face in that episode when he calls her phone and hears it ringing in the bag is not one of a person that is just dealing with part of his facade. He totally loved Rita! Hell, he beat a guy to death in a bathroom he was so upset over her. Not that anyone ever noticed.

I totally bought that Dexter came to love Rita. That it was his first step out into the world of Real Emotion. They were both damaged people that were great together.

Yeah, you're probably right. It's been a while.

I was reading the books as well at the time in them he never really got away from the 'every emotion I have is faked'-part of his personality.

But that would still leave him devastated, sad and mad - not scared, because at that junction he would only have to be scared for his own life, and that's not his thing.

Exactly. They (the writers) may have not mentioned Rita because they didn't want to tip their hand too much as to the twist that will inevitably come. The idea that he cares more about losing Hannah (a person whose best attribute so far was that she didn't get that upset when she was on his kill table recently) versus the mother of his child was pretty laughable.

I think you're giving them too much credit.

Dexter absolutely loved Rita, no doubt about it. But when he was faced with her death, there was nothing to be afraid of. Those of you who think it's an idea about who he cared about more are missing the point. Rita was never dangled in front of him the way Hannah was, with the chance that he might lose her. Dexter never had the opportunity to influence Rita's fate. Instead he thought he'd wrapped things up (like normal), taken care of Trinity... Only to have to come home and face his failure. That was terribad for Dexter and undoubtedly traumatic, but it wasn't a matter of fear.

Incidentally, I think Deb is almost certainly dead. The theme this season is setting up is being afraid of losing what you love. That doesn't bode well for Deborah.

Dexter saved Trinity from killing himself because he wanted to do it himself. That ended up causing Rita to get killed so I think he definitely influenced Rita's fate. His own hubris cost him his wife, just like it will with Debra.

(Oh, and Quackers already covered the fact he was afraid to lose Rita when he sent her away. He tried to keep her safe but failed.)

Oh absolutely... But at the time he wasn't aware of the stakes. Which is kind of I guess what I'm trying to get across: when Dex was dealing with Trinity he didn't know what the stakes were. When dealing with Isaac, he did. Hence his fear.

Dexter assumed a false identity in his dealings with Trinity because he was acutely aware of the stakes. Once Trinity had Dexter's real identity he knew who to kill to get at Dexter.

Yeah the whole fear of losing something started with losing Rita and her kids (killing the dad), then ramped up when Rita almost lost their baby (he went from not knowing how he felt about that to being relieved the baby was ok), then super ramped up when Harrison was born and he had to weigh the killing vs. the family man vs. whoops he just got his wife killed so never mind all that. So I don't buy the writers leaving that out. Dexter was absolutely afraid that Rita and the kids were in danger, that's why he sent them away in the first place.

But on a different note, and I say this every season, how does no one in the department notice or think it's weird that Dexter and Deb are the target of serial killers? Of all the people in Miami. Seriously. Captain Lady isn't even touching on that, just focused on the boat. Make a leap in logic here, people! Something is fucked up with that family!

You're probably right, but taking a precaution isn't the same thing as being scared. I put a seat belt on, but I'm not scared every time I enter a car.

In keeping with the theme of the night, I think that the end of the episode last week combined with this has gone and made me really like Isaak. I didn't expect to. I found him a little bit flat and unnecessary earlier. Good job on the writing staff. I like his character and I like the purpose he served.

I'll admit that I have no idea where this season goes from here now, though. This firebug feels like a late-game addition to the show, mostly because this is the point that past seasons would be entering their home stretch and we're basically going to be starting something cold. History says that Yvonne Strahovski has to die (because the guest star always dies or realizes she has to return to her home planet), and I can think of a few ways in which that could be satisfyingly accomplished, but it seems like one of her or LaGuerta needs to be wrapped up. Or possibly both. They could do both in pretty much the same way they did H.G. Wells (Lila?). Come to think of it, that would be the most conventional way for the show to end the season, since the status quo would basically be reinstated. I kind of hope they don't do that. Even though I continue to dislike LaGuerta.

Bobby!!!

And I meant Supernatural Bobby. Not arson bobby

So with only two weeks left, the only season long thread we really have is LaGuerda's investigation. That's kind of strange, normally by now there's a real sense of momentum, of building toward a climax. Obviously we've got Deb tipped off re Hannah's counsellor, but I don't know... I feel as if this season has been more short mini arcs than one big thing. Maybe it's because they killed off Sirco early; I really felt as if we were headed for a more apocalyptic confrontation there.

I also felt the dad stuff was weak. He was just so cartoonish and over the top... Even by Dexter standards.