# Dexter 11/6/11 Just Let Go **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2011, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141 "2011-11-07T04:59:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/21 "2011-11-08T22:43:49Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Anybody else suspect that Gellar (at least the one we’re seeing) exists only in Travis’ head? I don’t recall ever seeing him alone, he’s always with Travis. > > I know there’s a real Gellar (or at least there was) but I think he’s dead or left the country or something. It’s been obvious (to me at least) for the past several episodes, and in fact I would be shocked if that wasn’t the case. We’ve discussed it in the season thread. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/22 "2011-11-08T23:29:06Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > Anybody else suspect that Gellar (at least the one we’re seeing) exists only in Travis’ head? I don’t recall ever seeing him alone, he’s always with Travis. I thought we kinda settled on that one at an episode or two ago. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/23 "2011-11-09T09:18:39Z")
Yep, and I’m convinced that when they finally catch him, they’ll find Eddie Jimmie Olmos’s decomposing body in Hanks’s house somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/24 "2011-11-09T11:38:15Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I thought we kinda settled on that one at an episode or two ago. I probably didn’t read that thread. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/25 "2011-11-09T13:34:22Z")
> [@simster](#): > > Right - he went to the hospital with tools hoping to find/catch ‘whatshisname’ - then Sam woke up and asked to talk to him. So he may have decided not to … and then had a spontaneous urge on the beach. What do we think about the bro finally showing up in his head? Perhaps the devil on his left shoulder while his angel dad occupies the right shoulder? Even if that is the case, I don’t know how they’d work that into the story. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/26 "2011-11-09T13:42:21Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > So he may have decided not to … and then had a spontaneous urge on the beach. > > What do we think about the bro finally showing up in his head? Perhaps the devil on his left shoulder while his angel dad occupies the right shoulder? > > Even if that is the case, I don’t know how they’d work that into the story. I don’t know. I thought I had it all figured out during the Lumen season. I thought she was going to get rid of his Dark Passenger. Hell, even the name made sense. Lumen-Light, the opposite of Dark. The writers didn’t pick that name by accident. But, nothin. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/27 "2011-11-09T20:23:01Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I don’t know. I thought I had it all figured out during the Lumen season. I thought she was going to get rid of his Dark Passenger. Hell, even the name made sense. Lumen-Light, the opposite of Dark. The writers didn’t pick that name by accident. But, nothin. Dexter becomes less interesting if he moves away from his Dark Passenger–but that doesn’t necessarily mean he becomes more interesting by moving closer to it. The strength of the show comes from the accomodations he makes given his unrelenting desire to kill human beings. Dexter goes to extreme pains to (1) make sure his victim is guilty of a heinous crime and (2) confront his victims with their crime and cast their death as a kind of retribution. Dexter simply followed this pattern because he was trained to, but Harry’s code (at least initially) was justified as a method to reduce the likelyhood he would be caught (i.e. he would lose his chance to go on killing). Since then, Dexter has worked out other justifications for the code–most notably in the arc with Lumen last season, where the original victim herself was crying out for justice. He’d reached a point where he justifies his killing as doing the will of the original victim. That is, until one of those original victims–Mos Def–specifically told him he does not want his brand of justice. Dexter’s conflict on the beach was that Nick certainly met all the standards of Harry’s code and certainly “deserved” to pay for his crime, but if he killed Nick he could no longer hang onto that noble justification. It’s in this sense that his brother has “won” for now. Dexter isn’t going to go on a rampage, and he’s certainly not going to abandon the code, but his rationalization for his actions are going to be more clinical. That is bound to make him less sympathetic, as he gets confronted with kill opportunities that will be harder to justify. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/28 "2011-11-09T21:01:40Z")
I get the sense that after spending a lot of time humanizing and normalizing Dexter, the show will spend its final seasons undoing all that has been built and illustrating that Dexter cannot go on unchecked. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/29 "2011-11-10T00:46:13Z")
Stupid guy had to get all “LOL GOT AWAY WITH IT YOU CAN’T PROVE I DID IT YOU CAN’T PROVE NOTHING” right when Dex was struggling with forgiveness or vengeance. I’ll miss Brother Sam, he’s certainly been a more interesting part of the show than LaGuerta’s ever been. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141/30 "2011-11-12T07:01:28Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Obviously it was in his head. So maybe Dexter has some screws coming loose. Obviously Brian appearing instead of Harry is an indication that by not honoring Sam’s request, Dexter has finally decided to turn from the light all the way. Hence he sees Brian, who was purely evil, rather than Harry who had his best interests at heart even if he was a terrible parent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dexter-11-6-11-just-let-go/602141.md?page=1)