The one really unforgivable plot point was the idea that they would have “closed the case” of the barrel girl murders before getting the lab results back on the victims, and before convicting or even finding their main suspect, Boyd. Remind me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Dex dispose of the body? So the cops will never find Boyd, and the case will never be really closed.
But as I was steaming over this, the rest of the show unfolded, and I have to admot I enjoyed it a lot. In particular how they brought Astor back in for the episode.
Though I really question why Quinn would have dropped his suspicions of Dexter. Particularly by insisting that his hunch was wrong. If I got suspended for something like that, I would be doubly determined to check it out. Especially since his FBI pal had already offered to show Dex’s picture to Trinity’s family.
The other thing of note IMO was LaGuerta’s seeming character rehabilitation. Except that I think she was just doing another self-serving reinterpretation of the facts. I can’t believe she thought Dexter needed protection from Quinn, and might really be the mystery man involved with the Trinity killer. She was just putting Quinn in his place for being disobedient. There was some other part of her story that didn’t ring true either, but I’ll have to see it again to remind myself what it was.
He’s falling for Deb. He only has a hunch about Dexter and pursuing his hunch, right or wrong, will jeopardize his relationship. He probably would have continued to pursue it had Liddy not threatened to tell Deb.
He had to save face. I’ve found that when you get caught for something, rather then just outright denying it, it works better if you tell them a little and take your lumps. If you give them something to yell at you for, they’re more likely to believe you about the bigger thing that you’re lying about. (This is my first cigarette, I’ve never smoked before./I was holding it for a friend, I don’t do drugs/I really wanted it but I didn’t have any money, I’ve never stolen anything before/I had a hunch, I dropped it)
On the one hand, I don’t think they want to do the Doakes thing again. OTOH, I really don’t think he’s dropped it completely yet.
That would put it in the hands of the FBI. I think Quinn either wanted to take care of this himself (much like Dexter…and Doakes for that matter) or he wanted to be able to hand over everything, all at once, to LaGuerta and be rewarded for it.
Did anyone else think he called Liddy “Dad” when he walked into his apartment? I had to watch that three times.
The last scene was chilling- I never saw the “take care Lumen” coming. Dexter’s “I love you” to Astor was just as surprising.
Any theories as to who the mystery woman whose blood is in the locket is? Dexter said she had DUIs but it would be a good idea for him to see if she really is still out there. There are lots of people who could go missing for a year and not be reported.
When he said that Cody’s grown a foot I wondered if that’s a set up to change out the actor who plays him.
Dexter’s anatomy lesson (“That’s your vagus nerve…”) was probably the best ass whipping in the show’s history.
Yup. He saw someone sitting in the chair and just assumed it was her.
I’m sure it’s just all the makeup she was wearing, but I almost didn’t recognize Astor.
Why didn’t Dexter report Olivia’s dad? I have to assume it was a combonation of too little evidence, which means this would get dragged out and in the mean time he’d be putting Astor in danger as well as Dexter wanting to fulfill some sort of a fatherly duty. But it seems like they might be setting Dexter up for more problems, just another thing he’ll have to worry about.
He asked if her mom knew, but I didn’t hear the answer. Was he beating on the mom too? I dunno, if a stranger recognizes from a bruised up torso that the kid’s being beaten, I would think that would be sufficient evidence to get the child welfare people involved.
I would also think it would be sufficient evidence to not hand her back to the guy to bring her home. And BTW, did the police actually do anything to verify the guy’s story before letting him walk over a possible child abduction?
And how is it that the whistle seems not to be blowing? There’s this sensational shooting, the press is all up in the air, the cops file multiple reports that directly contradict each other, and not over minor details either, and the net result is that Deb goes to a file room for a couple of weeks??
I’m not sure if you’re saying that I’m wrong or that you’re in disbelief that shit hasn’t hit the fan for LaGuerta. If the latter, then I totally agree.
I agree with you. But I’m really wondering why Internal Affairs isn’t questioning everyone and suspending people right and left. Where’s that big shot cop who’s looking for a chance to get rid of LaGuerta?
I think if it had actually been Olivia’s father Dexter would have reported it, but didn’t the guy say he was just her mom’s boyfriend? Easiest to just tell him to stay the hell away, throw in a little anatomy lesson for good measure.
I think Quinn just wanted to be sure before he brought any suspicion down on a grieving widower. He knows there’s something off about Dex but he only had a hunch on the Kyle Butler thing.
I think it had to do with Astor’s comment on Olivia being her only friend. He wanted to get rid of Olivia’s dad in the way that would least interfere with their friendship/Olivia’s life. If he went to the police Olivia would likely be removed from her mother at the very least until it could be confirmed her mother wasn’t involved with the beatings.
I thought the same thing, Boyo Jim – why would they close a case against a guy who hasn’t been caught! The writers do this all the time – they make the police behave as if they know that the perp is dead. The most glaring example of this is with with Trinity. He was one of the most prolific and feared serial killers in history, and he’s supposedly still at large.
…And not one person in the entire unit even CONSIDERS the possibility that it was Trinity who abducted Astor??!
Argh!
Okay, glad I got that off my chest.
I knew the second that Olivia’s mom’s boyfriend was identified that he’d been abusing her. I’m just glad they didn’t go down the sexual abuse road because there’s only so much sexual depravity that I can take in one series.
Gosh, do I hate Liddy.
I’m so glad that Dexter was doing Daddy things and spending time with both of his kids. I appreciate that he was stricken when Astor said that he was always gone.
I can’t believe they’re going to wrap everything up in 3 episodes! Has this been a short season or is that my imagination?
I thought he said “I’m Olivia’s dad…sort of” and the boyfriend or step dad thing was implied. It’s one of those things (like a lot of other things) you have to assume the writers wanted to focus on the drama and keep some of the mundane discussions off camera.
I rewatched it; he says “I’m Olivia’s dad! Sort of. I live with her mother” and later in the episode, right before Dexter beats him down, he mentions something about the both of them raising “other people’s kids”.
I doubt Dexter even needed Astor to say that the kind was her only friend to decide not to report the abuse. Dexter’s brand of justice pretty much never involves alw enforcement.
Haven’t been liking this season much, but this episode was pretty good. Hopefully things will keep picking up.
Quinn was perusing Dexter more out of personal dislike then much real evidence that he was the killer (and indeed, in this one case, Dexter wasn’t the killer), so I’m not really surprised he dropped it to make up with Debb. IIRC, he actually tried to call off the corrupt cop earlier, but the guy had blackmailed him to keep his payments coming.
Last line was fairly chilling, but kinda dumb of the evil self-help guy to let Lumen know he’s on to them. Seems like he coulda just played dumb, rounded up the troops and gone and taken out Dexter and Lumen all at once.
Quinn’s really had it in for him since Dexter saw him steal a stack of cash from that hotel room and didn’t say anything. Quinn really didn’t understand that Dexter honestly didn’t care.
I’m wondering what Jordan is doing by giving a heads up to somebody he knows is extremely dangerous that he’s on to him. That’s an error that can keep him out of the better supervillain clubs.
Totally aside from the plot, does anybody know if the actor Desmond Harrington (Quinn) has been sick? He looks like he’s lost a lot of weight recently (and he wasn’t heavy to begin with)- sunken cheeks and all. Of course otoh Michael C. Hall has had cancer in the last couple of years and he looks great.
This is part of it, but the appearance of Harry after the beatdown suggests something larger.
At first, Dexter accepted Harry’s code simply as a survival mechanism–in coarse terms, he went after repeat killers only because, logically, these were the victims least likely to lead to his capture. Over time, he started to understand his actions (at a very basic level) as a form of justice, and he evolved to see his actions as a moral act (e.g. confronting his victims with their crimes before death–I’m torn between whether this was an initial step in Harry’s code–planted by his father from the start so that Dexter would have a chance to evolve–or if Dexter started doing this on his own). Note I’m not saying Dexter’s morality is correct, but he has found a way to justify his actions beyond simply feeding his “dark passenger”
Last night, Dexter seemed to take another step, applying this crude sense of justice to something outside his usual deadly process, and for the direct and unselfish benefit of someone he later said he “loved”.
I can’t speak for America but in England removal is the last thing they will do. They would try to talk to the girl first in a neutral place, then observe the family, then maybe tell the mom that she has to get the guy out of the house and only if they considered it clear and present danger to the kid would there be talk of removal.
This is sadly even truer with kids above the age of 10 or so. My wife worked with a family where the father stabbed the kid in the knee and because it was a drug fuelled ‘accident’ they didn’t even charge him or remove the kids even temporarily.
I don’t have an answer. but so many people have noticed it that “weight loss” has become an autosearch term on Google when you type in his name. And there are tons of people out in the intertubes speculating on it.
I think I’m gonna add him to my 2011 Death Pool list.
I suspect that while the list of people who would love to see LaGuerta gone is very long, the list of people who are willing to be the one to try to make it happen is very short.
To quote Verbel Kent, “How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?”