Apples-oranges. 
I think LaGuerta would have stopped herself, but we’ll never know.
LaGuerta gave Deb permission to sleep with whomever she wanted, praised her for putting her personal life ahead of her job. Someone other than Deb might be able to live by that philosophy and not screw cases up, but not Deb.
It would have also made him late for the wedding.
Early on, Doakes mentioned Dex’s black belt in judo as something unusual and suspicious for a lab rat to have.
I missed that. Thanks for the update, Bryan. 
Can you remember which episode, perchance?
Why? Deb wasn’t…
And if he’d gone to the A&E at my local hospital, he’d have been lucky to get out the same day!
Not all plot lines need to be brought to conclusion, the IAD issue might never come back. The Sopranos had a bunch of stuff that was never finalized. The 1 people talked about a lot was the Russian guy from the Pine Barrens episode.
Not specifically. It had to be first season, possibly the second or third episode, when Doakes was becoming established as the ongoing antagonist (well, except for the ice-truck killer, of course). Later on, there’s a brief fight between Dexter and Doakes at a shipping yard where Dexter surprises Doakes by throwing him against a cargo container. Though I don’t recall any scenes of Dexter training, it’s clear he can take care of himself.
That said, I thought the fight with the skinner was somewhat truncated and the timing contrived, especially in that Dex wakes up a convenient five minutes before the cops come rolling in, sirens blaring.
I think the blood on the wedding dress symbolizes the intrusion of Dexter’s secret life into his new family.
I agree. Great symbolism there.
Can someone explain how Dex managed to get free of the ropes? Did the loop slide off when he tipped the table over?
Yes, but only because he purposefully broke his hand in the process. I think right before he tipped the table over he was voice-overing about how a wolf will chew off it’s leg if it’s trapped.
I broke my hand and I had a much smaller splint then he did, it just covered my hand. What he had was for a broken wrist or arm.
I think he was trying to cover up the laceration from the Skinner’s knife on his forearm.
I didn’t catch that he got out by breaking his hand until Rita said, when he apologized for having the cast, that he couldn’t have done it on purpose. Then Dexter looks at the camera-that part was pretty cool :).
I thought the Skinner’s tie up job of Dexter was horrible. A little kid could have done a better job. As soon as I saw it, I knew Dex was going to tip over the table and escape. It was all wrapped up way too easily.
I agree with SWB about Rita. Annnnnnnnoying. Deb is much less annoying than she used to be. They never went anywhere with Deb looking into Harry’s background and finding out about Dex’s mother. That, along with Quinn, leaves a couple of loose ends.
Not ‘loose ends’…added weft to the weave!
No, I think Miguel really acted alone on that one. The “dirty work” referred to beating up suspects, the unlawful arrests etc…
My take on that scene is that Ramon reacted strongly because all the bullshit Miguel fed Dexter about his darkness were what his brother Ramon had confessed to him he felt. Miguel wasn’t the one who got high inflicting righteous pain, Ramon was. Miguel got high on power.
So hearing that his brother betrayed his trust, while at the same time attributing himself the “glory”, yeah, that’d make Ramon tick.
Ramon is pretty much the anti-Dexter : a very emotional guy who has trouble dealing with some of his most extreme emotions. That’s why he drinks, and that’s why “think of the children !” works - his love for his kids is also a strong emotion.
Well, in the books he has to deal with Astor and Cody becoming monsters themselves because of their abusive dad. I could see the birth of Dexter’s kid as a trigger for this - feelings of abandonment, things like that. Although I wonder if psycho kids would be acceptable for US TV 
I could see that. Pretty anticlimactic, but witnessing the effect of his outing as a nutjob on his loved ones, wondering whether in the end he relates to them, then realizing he’s fully human and never needed to kill seconds before the Big Zap ? Cheesy, but could work.
Nah.
Another possibilty, but more whimper than bang. I could however picture an ambiguous ending à la Sopranos, that would hint that maybe he’ll retire, maybe not, it’s left for the viewer to decide.
Not enough closure.
Could work. Or, darker still, Rita finally figures out who he is (about damn time), threatens to rat him out, and he has to kill her (according to the law that states whoever gets close to him has to die sooner or later). He then ends up raising the 3 kids on his own, and keeps on killing.
This is really dark.
The people who’ve gotten close to Dexter deserved what happened to them, even Doakes. Rita doesn’t. HBO’s brave, but I don’t think they’re that brave. Dex hasn’t killed an innocent person yet. Camille doesn’t count, since she asked for it.
HBO doesn’t have any qualms about ending a drama series without closure. We got lucky with The Sopranos, Oz, and Six Feet Under, but look at Deadwood and Carnivale.
Has the series caught up with the books yet? Would HBO and Lindsay have an agreement not to write something that would have a negative impact on either the series or the books?
Has the series caught up with the books yet? Would HBO and Lindsay have an agreement not to write something that would have a negative impact on either the series or the books?
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I think the series has surpassed the books, especially in quality. The first two were decent, but the third was ridiculous IMHO and I hope none of it makes it to TV. There was a bit in the beginning of this season where Dexter says something about evolution and when things started to kill (can’t remember the exact words), that may slightly echo some of the third book as there is a spirit/god/devil like thing that talks about inhabiting simple cells up to human beings and causing chaos/murder. I don’t buy the TV Dexter training Rita’s kids to be like him, although part of that may be that the TV series has not really portrayed the kids as abnormal, where the books portray them as mini-Dexters.
Dexter isn’t on HBO, it’s on Showtime. Not sure if that makes a difference, though I think overall, Showtime’s shows are a bit on the cheesier side and not as high quality.