I hadn’t thought about this, but… if you think of them as sort of Keystone cops of murder, it might be even more entertaining. Remember “Ex-Police” on SNL – I think it was Dan Ackroyd and somebody else – would bungle their way through a confrontation, usually shoot down some poor innocent schlub, and settle back all self-satisfied about a job well done after? Like that.
If I recall, Deb had the same objection to being called “the girl who broke the barrel girls case.” She kept saying it’s not a solution, just a theory.
In one of the first episodes Dexter says “With the solve rate for murders at about twenty percent, Miami is a great place for me.” Looking online it seems like the national rate is somewhere in the mid 60% range. So, yeah, Miami Metro (at least the department portrayed in the show) is pretty terrible.
I didn’t recall that line, and for me it puts a whole new light on the show. I had thought that the people were some kind of elite team, so I was bothered when the did illogical stuff or failed to do things. But, if they’re SUPPOSED to be a bunch of ass clowns… well, that makes the writers super-geniuses. 
So Quinn must know that Dexter killed Liddy, right? I guess he’s keeping it to himself to protect Deb?
I don’t think he knows, but I’d bet he thinks so. He knew that Liddy was bugging Dex, and he knew that the videos were taken from the van.
Wow lots of complaining about the season in here! While I don’t really disagree with the points you guys brought up, I didn’t notice 90% of them until reading this thread. I really liked this season.
One thing I would have changed is handling the Dexter and Lumen relationship a little differently. While it would have been great to see her stay for a while, they obviously had to break them up. They should have done that at the beginning of the first episode of the next season though. It would have been a lot more dramatic like that. We would have them together at the finale and the couple of months before the season premier to think of them as a couple. Then the sudden breakup for maximum dramatic effect.
I agree that your way of handling the relationship would be preferable. It is possible, though, that the season was already written and produced before they had a commitment for another season. Perhaps that had something to do with wrapping up the issue this season.
Somehow I think Dexter’s description of the murder helped Quinn decide he don’t know nothing - “Knife was expertly plunged into the victim, death was instantaneous”
I think Quinn knows that Dex killed Liddy, and my impression is that Deb knew exactly who was behind the tarp.
Most of the dialogue in the denoument seems to underline that both Deb and Quinn know the score and that they’re actually pretty okay with it. Completely OTT, but more in line with the book, for whatever that’s worth.
Yep. Not sure if that line has any basis in reality, or if it was made up in the book or made up in the show. My guess is it was from the book.
I don’t think Deb knew. I like that the writers left it open as a possibility for us to debate, but she was too normal with Dexter afterwards. She have no reason to suspect it was Dexter.
But (assuming the divorce doesn’t affect things too much) I think she will find out something soon. She’s too good of a cop and Dexter is sloppy now.
Miami-Dade’s homicide clearance rate is considered low, but they solve around 44% of their cases.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/may/24/cold-case-chronicles-most-murders-go-unsolved-flor/?print=1
The Miami-Metro Homicide department as portrayed in “Dexter” is almost indescribably incompetent. They are so entirely bumbling, unethical, unobservant, and ignorant of the legal requirements of their profession, not to mention wholly lacking in any form of common sense, it’s basically an insult to police officers everywhere. I still enjoy the show, but they delivered some real whoppers this season.
-Apparently the M-M brain trust never heard of establishing a perimeter? They failed to do that at least 3 times this season.
-No one told Deb her star fruit stand witness called the police station in Spanish?
-No one asked Liddy for a badge number when he checked out several thousand dollars worth of equipment? Yeah Right. I have to show more ID than that to get a ballpoint pen at the government office where I work.
-No one thinks there’s anything wrong with a husband and wife in a supervisory relationship? For reals? This has never been allowed in any workplace I have experienced.
-It doesn’t bother anyone that TWO of their detectives have had sexual relationships with serial criminals? -
I have long believed that “Dexter” and “Burn Notice” occupy the same universe, since only under the microbrained M-M could such a quantity of large explosions and fatalities of ominous bad guys go unremarked. Indeed, in a recent episode of “Burn Notice” Michael Weston talked to someone from the “Miami-Metro” police department. That made me LOL.
I don’t see how Deb would have any inkling that it was Dexter behind the tarp. She does not know anything that would connect him with the case. Remember, she does not know that Lumen was the 13th victim. I don’t even think that possibility *was *left open, as from all she knows about the case it would not make sense to think Dexter was involved.
Presumably, she could’ve just recognized her brother (and/or Lumen) despite the tarp. With that, there wouldn’t really be any need to piece anything togeather more then she already had.
I’m pretty convinced the last two bits of dialouge between the Morgans were at least meant to hint that Deb knew Dexter was the vigilantes accomplice. Of course, its quite possible that the writers themselves haven’t written the story arc for the next season and so don’t know if that’s actually what’ll happen.
Seeing as they were just talking about Quinn, it seems more likely that she’s talking about Quinn’s investigation of Dexter being over.
Deb simply isn’t the sort to think that her brother is helping a vigilante to commit murders and accept it out of hand. She’d get all up in there on Dexter about it.
I don’t know. They deliberately wrote scenes in which Deb identified with #13. There was one scene in particular where she confessed to Dex that she was beginning to wonder if she was a monster because she felt that some people didn’t deserve to live. It was a compelling scene for the two of them because before it was Deb the white knight and Dex the dark knight fighting evil people. Deb was beginning to see what Dex had seen all along – that sometimes you have to stand outside of the law to provide “justice.”
The worst, IMO, was calling in the CSI unit because they got a report of shots fired at an empty warehouse…and then allowing unarmed civilians to mosey around the area before they secured the scene.
Oh they were definitely hinting all through the season that Deb may be OK with what Dexter was doing, and I was almost certain that was where the final episode was heading, which is why I was so disappointed when they wussed out in the end and had her let them go before finding out who they were.
Deb did not know it was Dexter behind the tarp or she would not have fired a shot. I think maybe that scene was a set up (hopefully) for next season when they finally end the show and let someone besides the viewer find out what Dexter does.
Personally I hope season 6 is the last. None of these premium cable shows really go past 5-6 seasons usually…most TV shows can’t stay fresh a whole lot longer than that. Some can, most can’t. I LOVE Dexter but I’d rather them go out with a bang then start to suck.