The ending made absolutely no sense. Rita went to the airport in a cab, forgot her ID, left a message for Dexter, then returned home (I presume) in a cab. So we have to suppose she dismissed the cab, went in to get her ID (a ~30 second stop), then planned to call another cab to take her to the airport? Why wouldn’t she ask the cab to just wait outside for a minute or two?
Also, the ending presumes Dexter missed Rita’s call. Storywise that seems unlikely, since in the first ten minutes Dexter made a big deal about answering/not answering the phone during the car chase. The writers clearly missed an opportunity here: They should have had Rita call while Dexter was in a precarious spot, e.g. lying in the coffin, and have him consciously ignore the call. That bit of regret at ignoring his wife’s last words to him could have haunted him for at least the first episode of next season.
The ending IMO was tacked on strictly for its shock value, without any consideration of story logic or any good foreboding in the episode itself. “Didn’t see it coming” isn’t always a compliment; they could have just as easily had Rita hit by a bus. I think the writers were too in love with the idea of creating a clear parallel between Harrison and the young Dexter to completely think this thru.
I also believe Julie Benz will still be on the show, probably as a counter-weight to ghost Harry. Great, after suffering thru Dexter’s own voice-over and Harry as devil’s advocate essentially leading the viewer by the nose thru Dexter’s thoughts (really, the two devices are redundant), now we’ll have Dexter talking to his dead Dad and wife, each arguing opposite sides of his split personality, the “Dark Passenger” and his “Better Half”.
One possible escape hatch for Rita’s death: Maybe Trinity didn’t kill Rita. Maybe the neighbor saw Rita come back to the house, stopped by, and offered to drive her to the airport (save her a little cab fare). He then made a play for her when they were alone in the house, Rita rebuffs him, things turn violent, and Rita is killed accidentally. Neighbor then tries to cover his tracks by staging it like a Trinity killing (the details are all over the news). It’s a stretch, but one that is far more plausible than assuming TK did it.
No. By “moving in” I mean just moving in, to help with the kids. I haven’t picked up on any sexual chemistry between Deb and Dexter, although I can’t say it won’t happen later. I looked for it in the scene where Deb told Dexter what she’d learned about his mother. When she said “I love you” and told him how important he was to her, I looked for some softening in her eyes, something that would reveal their real life husband-wife relationship. But it wasn’t there, and I think it was deliberate. It would have been a wink at the audience.
I like the idea of Harry being the Dark Passenger. People have said all along that Dexter may have turned out differently if Harry hadn’t assumed he was beyond help. Tell somebody something often enough and they’ll believe it.
Someone on Sepinwall’s blog suggested that Rita might be back next season, as another voice for Dexter to listen to. Sort of a good angel/bad angel thing. It’d be kinda hokey but maybe the writers could make it work.
Mitchell was a school teacher, deacon, and 4-Walls volunteer. He earned his living through teaching, used the 4-Walls volunteering as a cover to travel the country murdering people, and ostensibly the deacon thing was to make him seem to be an upstanding member of the community. However given his conversation with Dexter at the very end, it is indicated that he was genuinely religious, so that was another reason for his involvement with the church and the 4-Walls organization.
Arthur’s body was dumped very close to shore, maybe it will be found early next year. Dexter was supposed to dump bodies way offshore after his first batch were found.
Because she missed the flight and the next one wouldn’t be for a few hours?
I like this a lot!
I agree. It’s also hard to believe that the baby is just going to sit there in a pool of blood without moving for several hours. I don’t know how mobile the kid is, but he must be crawling by now.
That’d be interesting, and it’d give some reason for the kiss subplot. But in the Hall-Lithgow interview after the show, Lithgow goes on about the real meaning of what he was saying to Dexter about fate, when he was on the table. So it seems that Lithgow thinks Trinity did it, even though the writers could go another direction and he wouldn’t know.
I don’t understand the criticism, killing Rita off is masterful.
As many have said, it’s a worthy reboot to get back our edgy, loner Dexter. It shatters his illusions of family while still keeping him saddled with responsibility - this keeps things interesting as Dexter will still be stressed by what remains of his family but not tempted to change because of them.
Astor and Cody may well end up with Paul’s folks, good writing setting up that plot device this season. Harrison could remain w/ Dexter without hindering the killing too much which is nice for we the viewing public.
It’s EXCELLENT writing that Deb found out about Dexter’s past, truly great pacing. The way Dex’s adoption went down is unrealistic but the secrecy is understandable and the show has methodically dealt with how these secrets keep coming out. Some of Dexter and Laura’s records were destroyed and the show dealt with how difficult that was and how it took the cooperation of individuals besides Harry. In the end, there were still tangible records and people who didn’t remain silent forever - that’s very realistic.
Watching Deb get closer and closer to the truth has been tense and thoroughly entertaining; just when you thought she’d given up, she’d make a little progress. We’ve seen Deb grow into an amazing investigator, watched as she confronted suspicions that she’d rather let lie. What a great way to set the stage for next season. It totally tracks that she would pull Dex closer as a result of the news, it even distracts her from the weirdness of Dexter’s presence at Arthur’s.
Rita’s death will probably distract Deb even further but eventually, after we watch Dexter squirm over his sloppy involvement with Arthur and having cops all over his house, Deb is going to start piecing it all together.
The great thing is that Quinn really is Doakes 2.0 (good observation Sage Rat!) and Quinn’s involvement is going to force Deb to make a choice instead of sublimating her suspicions. I’ve got good odds that Quinn ends up dead and Deb will still have to be the sole arbiter of Dexter’s fate.
Uhhhh, come on guys, Dexter is constantly associating himself with, not just a criminal element but a murderous element of society. He played fast and loose all season and it would be unrealistic as hell if his involvement with Trinity didn’t bite him in the ass.
The seasons always end with Dexter patting himself on the back, once more convinced that he’s on the right path no matter how much crazy shit has gone down in the finale. The primary theme of the season is family and reconciling the coexistence of serial killer and family man. Dexter needed to feel some consequences of his actions.
I always have to suspend disbelief regarding time compression, work absence, and fingerprints (Dex often eschews gloves and we almost never get shots of him wiping shit off). However, the writing is pretty tight overall, things don’t stay [del]buried[/del] at the bottom of the ocean, secrets come out.
Dexter spent 1/2 a season fucking with Arthur, I’d be thoroughly disappointed if Dexter’s most chilling enemy had met his end having only stressed Dex a bit. Rita’s death is Dexter’s chickens coming home to roost but it is not the beginning of the end, Dexter has always been on a slowly unraveling crash course.
Could be a custody battle between Rita’s mother and Paul’s parents. I guess in that case Dexter might side with Paul’s parents. Don’t think they were ever seen on the show before last night.
It would be hard for Dexter to run around and whack people if he was a single father of a very young child but I guess he can always get Debra to babysit.
Whoever killed Rita, unless Dexter is able to cover up the whole murder, he’ll be suspect #1 for quite a while. As the forensic investigator on the Trinity killings, he’d know best about the MO, so they’d assume he wanted to kill his wife and tried to latch it onto Trinity’s bodycount. It’d just be too big of a coincidence to say that Rita was a randomly chosen final victim of Arthur when Dexter is so close to the case.
While Dex is under heavy scrutiny (or under arrest), Deb will probably try to clear his name by investigating his whereabouts, but will probably stumble over something that points her in the direction of figuring out at least that he’s a murder, if not the “bay harbor butcher” himself. If next season ends without Deb finding out, I’ll be very surprised. Between the Skinner, Ice Truck killer, “Doaks”, and now the Aruthur/Rita connection, there’s just way too much serial killerism connected with Dexter to overlook. Most likely she’ll have to decide whether to cover for him or turn over what she knows.
She’ll probably figure out that Dexter is, biologically, Harry’s son (making them siblings for realsies and not just via adoption), and feel an even stronger family bond, prompting her to cover for him in exchange for “one hell of a fucking excuse” from him.
For someone so clever, I hate how Dex keeps his blood slides. You’d think someone with his knowledge of serial killers and how they’re caught would know that taking souvenirs is a huge liability. Hard to explain away having blood samples from several missing-presumed-dead people hidden in an air conditioner. I understand that, as a killer, he’s compelled to do these things, but he controls his urges enough to only kill bad people and only in a very untraceable way, you’d think he’d be able to control the impulse to collect souvenirs.
That shit gave me nightmares, and we even watched Run Fatboy Run afterward as a palate cleanser. I woke up sad that Rita died. It’s the closest to a real death that I’ve ever had for a fictional character.
I think Dex will move back into his old apartment, probably with Deb and Harrison. I’m not sure about Astor and Cody. I can see them sticking around, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if they’re shipped off to some grandparent.
I think she’ll find out only because I’ve heard that she knows about him in the books. But don’t forget, they’re cops, so of course they’re going to be close to all these things. Also, all the things you’ve mentioned Deb is equally connected. She dated the Ice Truck Killer, her boyfriend was The Skinner’s last victim, she worked with Doakes and Rita is her Sister in law. She’s just as connected as Dex.
Something I’ve noticed a lot of in these last half-dozen episodes is Dexter sneaking around when his cellphone loudly goes off. Seems to me he shoulda set that puppy for vibrate.
Yeah, but I only meant this would be too much of a coincidence for Deb to overlook, not for the police to. Deb obviously knows she’s not a psycho killer, so you’d think she’d consider all this psycho killerism surrounding her family a bit suspect. She knows that Dexter’s real brother was a psycho killer and she had no idea until he tried to kill her, and probably figures he’s crazy because of how his mommy was killed. Sit alone in a room with that train of thought for 15 minutes and you’re likely to wonder why your kid brother isn’t also a psycho killer… and why he seems to get intertwined with psycho killers so often… and so on.
By “moving in” I mean just moving in, to help with the kids. I haven’t picked up on any sexual chemistry between Deb and Dexter, although I can’t say it won’t happen later. I looked for it in the scene where Deb told Dexter what she’d learned about his mother. When she said “I love you” and told him how important he was to her, I looked for some softening in her eyes, something that would reveal their real life husband-wife relationship. But it wasn’t there, and I think it was deliberate. It would have been a wink at the audience.