Last week I commented that I hoped they didn’t have the road kill guy turn out to be the big villain, because he seemed kind of lame. But then he started to grow on me - by showing that he noticed the ring impression, I thought maybe I misjudged him just like on the surface you’d misjudge Dexter as a shy, meek guy. I thought they were setting us up for an interesting game of cat and also cat.
But I guess not. I suppose the girl he saved may become the villain - that’s a tricky situation.
Had the same thought about Road Kill Guy. After the ambulance and hospital scenes, I was expecting him to stick around for a couple more episodes. I was certain the doctors would find Dexter’s knock-out drugs in RKG’s system, but he escaped before they could take a blood sample. I wonder if someone will stumble upon the abandoned kill room?
The LaGuerta/Batista stuff dragged the episode down a bit (again), and it looks like they’re going to actually expand that storyline.
The nanny interrogation scene was just a bit over the top, but I liked the subtle reference to the Ice Truck Killer from the first season. Deb really should be remembering what she found out about him in last season’s finale…
P.S. Season Four DVD is currently on sale at Target for $19.99!
Dexter uses some kind of animal control tranquilizer, it would have been funny if the hospital would’ve had a record of two guys who apparently knocked each other out with (possibly) different kinds of animal tranq.
Since they both boogied out of there it’s conceivable that there won’t be any fallout from the mistake with Fowler but it was an episode that had me wishing the writers hadn’t taken it that far - I can only suspend disbelief so much.
Won’t Julia Stiles just become Dexter’s new buddy? It makes sense to kill her so Dexter probably won’t, it would be against the code after all. 
I think the situation has potential. It also has high suck-potential but I think it’s an interesting way to cover some new ground on Dexter and I’m going to keep watching.
I like the way Quinn is handling his suspicions about Dexter. It seems pretty realistic to me and actually has me liking Quinn more than I did - which was not at all.
I loathe the baby cop working with Deb - boring with a side of BORING. Give Deb a good story line. Also, if baby cop is somehow involved in the murders I’ll be very disappointed as we’ll have to see more of her…and it would be stupid.
No one gives a ripped shit about LaGuerta and Batista’s drama. LaGuerta was ruthlessly ambitious and still an okay person and a pretty good cop - I liked that character. Now she’s boring and so is Angel. Blegh.
I fell asleep through much of the middle, but thought the ending was great.
I liked how Dexter didn’t really feel any sense of relief after killing Fowler. He thinks he’s a sociopath, but he’s really not. Character growth: I like it.
I was also really surprised when Fowler’s victim appeared at the end. I thought he was opening the back door (after hearing a car door slam, no?) so I was really shocked to see the girl standing there.
I think a romance with her is a real possibility. Saving her from Fowler can help assuage his guilt over not saving Rita. And, of course, the victim has seen Dexter kill her captor, which can’t be a bad thing. I have no idea where they’re going to go with all this and this new development has intrigued me.
Nitpick: Once again, they show Dexter living way beyond his means. He probably makes less than $100k per year, yet has a mortgage on a nice home in the burbs he isn’t using, and now he can afford to raise three kids PLUS a nanny of royal pedigree* who can conveniently work 24/7. Cheerfully.
Of course, she seems too good to be true, and it’d be a real waste of talent to just use her as the nanny, so maybe a romance with her is in order. I hope they don’t make her a twisted psychopath like his AA sponsor.
*Maria Doyle Kennedy played Catherine of Aragon in the recent Showtime Series, “The Tudors.”
On the baby cop with Deb - its a paralel to the first season where Deb was a beat cop wanting to be a detective - baby cop will likely become an “almost” victim.
He probably doesn’t have a mortgage.
Rita owned her former house (the pre-marriage one) outright, getting it from Paul who’d won it gambling; Dexter owned the house left to him by his biological father; he’s been earning a fair whack for a long time and doesn’t seem to do anything that requires spending much money; and on top of all that, it’s highly likely that they got a big insurance payout after Rita was murdered.
Lots of people with far less money manage to raise 3 kids and pay for childcare while they work.
I was under the impression that he was fairly well paid, I think they mention that he went to Med-School at one point, so I was guessing the pay scale for blood splatter specialist must be on par with at least the low end of doctor salaries.
But in anycase, as others said, he doesn’t live a particularly lavish life-style (his apartment is pretty small and I think he inherited the boat), so I don’t really have any trouble seeing him living beyond his means even if he doesn’t make that much.
Storyline definitely unpredictable which is a good thing. I rather like the “baby” cop. She has enough attitude to not back down under Deb’s demeaning comments or get defensive. And because of that I think Deb is gaining more respect for her. Maybe hotshot detective under investigation will lose his position and we’ll have an opening. Another woman in the mix could be good.
Like the nanny, but she really is too good to be true. Something’s not kosher.
So far this season looks promising.
Psst! It’s not “living beyond your means” if you live within your means. 
At any event, I know a few people who have 24/7 nannies. They all make well into or over the $300s.
He’s not raising three kids now. He’s raising one baby. And the nanny said something about how she didn’t have many expenses and could get by with just what she’d make by nannying, rather than looking for a job in her old field, making me think she’s not getting paid a whole heck of a lot by Dex.
Didn’t he legally adopt them when they got married, or did I imagine that plotline? If so, he’d be on the hook for child support even if the grandparents raised them, no?
Of course, the kids would presumably get social security.
Why are we calling her “baby cop”?
The season seems to have an over-abundance of boring sub-plots. I guess thats the downside to having a large cast, you need to come up with something for them to do during times when the “main” story line doesn’t really need them.
The show kinda abandoned its premise after the first season. Dexter is more a violent vigilante then a serial killer, he rarely kills because he “needs” to anymore, and he’s gone from emotionless sociopath to overly angsty family man. I vacillate between whether or not this is supposed to be character growth, or just the writers deciding a serial killer drama was a little to ammoral for audiences.
Of course this season had him bludgeon a random dude to death in a restroom, which isn’t really serial killer like or vigilante liked. Maybe we’re entering the third phase, were he’ll just be a violent thug.
Why is Deb so angry about having to work with a uniform? It seems super cliched that she’s all “I’m a big important detective and she’s just a cop!”
No one in the neighborhood will talk to her. She saw the importance of having Batista with her. This cop knows the neighborhood and knows about the ritual behind the murders. Sooo unimportant to the case right? :rolleyes:
Loved the Julia Stiles reveal. I felt it viscerally, as if I had just been caught doing something unthinkable to be caught doing. Bravo for that.
I agree, Beef, I was kinda thinking roadkill guy would be like The Skinner, a Big Bad but not Dexter’s Big Bad.
From everything I can see, Dexter lives well below his means, not above.
Which brings me to a point. Wasn’t there a voiceover where Dexter says that this is his first kill since Rita’s murder? I remember thinking, “What about the dude in the restroom?”
Speaking of the dude in the restroom, isn’t it odd how they went from the scene of him bludgeoning the dude to death, to a shot of him all cleaned up for Rita’s graveside service? I realize that the clerk was MIA, but surely even a backwoods dockside fueling station has an attendant if they have their fuel unlocked? So where was he? How did Dexter dispose of his body?
Finally, I know that AMH had Hodgkins Disease, which is thankfully in remission. But I know that the actor was bald for quite a few months following his chemo. Is he wearing a wig in these scenes?
Yea, the bludgeoning thing is pretty weird. Aside from what Lisa already mentioned, It’s always been a big deal when Dexter broke “the code” even accidently. But in this case he just flagrantly violated it, and hasn’t looked back since.
It’s been on the “previously on Dexter” segment since week 2 so presumably it’ll come up again.
'Cause I don’t know the character’s name, might be Cira? :o I believe the actress is April Lee Hernández but I’m not even 100% on that info.
I’m just disappointed by Deb and the junior cop thus far. Having Deb mentor someone isn’t a bad storyline, it would indeed parallel her own rise to detective and I think a story in that vein has potential.
I agree that Deb’s reaction to the Latina officer is a little off but I can buy it as Deb having weird feelings about being in charge or looking after a younger detective, particularly someone like herself. Basically, I can give Deb a pass.
But the Latina detective/baby cop/lady-possibly-played-by-Ms. Hernández is annoying the piss out of me. I think the actress is doing a shitty job. There’s something off and wooden about her performance, so much so that I was starting to wonder if it would turn out that she was the one committing ritual murders.
I’m sure now that she’s not a bad guy which is good because that would have been a silly storyline but I’m equally sure that she and Deb don’t have any chemistry and that the storyline the writers ARE pursing is dry as dust so far.
I don’t recall that offhand, but if so, sure, if Paul’s parents actually bother to ask for support. Since there was no mention of it, it’s kinda up in the air what the whole situation there is beyond kids are with them and Cody still talks to Dex on the phone.