Dexter – Dexter gets a new best man

(Season 3, Episode 11 – “I Had A Dream”)

First of all, bravo to those who called what was going on with Dexter in the trunk. When I read some people making that guess, I knew it had to be right — it only made sense.

Even for a second-to-last episode, I didn’t see the final events of this one coming so soon. I thought for sure we’d see those … results … come about in the final moments of the finale. For that I’m very happy, as for once things aren’t playing out just as I expected.

I’ve said before that I thought Ramon could be working for Miguel as a killer lap dog, but I wasn’t sure until now that Dexter thought it. I can’t imagine that we’ve heard the end of what Oscar was really doing at Freebo’s place that night, and at the same time we’ll learn a lot more about Ramon and Miguel. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Miguel was a red herring of a ring-leader all along, and it’s someone else who’s been heading up this army of wackos all along. But who?

This show gets downright brutal in its visual portrayal of violence at times, but it’s amazing how horrific simple words can be. Anton’s description of what he experienced at the hands of The Skinner was chilling, more so than seeing the aftermath.

I think I may have an idea of what Quinn is all about. Recall that, in this episode, Angel noted that the department servers were down for a while. That was definitely not a tiny detail. Someone was using that time to hack the servers in order for Miguel to have the ability to track who was doing what on the department’s computers. It would have to be someone on the inside, right? My money’s on Quinn, for really no other reasons than for him being on the inside and that he’s still got to have something to reveal this season. Then again, it’s possible he’s just a new cast member to take the place of Doakes, but I’m not buying that dead uncle story one bit.

Dexter’s a good actor when it comes to throwing suspicion off himself, but the scene in Maria’s office wins Dexter a virtual Oscar. I was really surprised that Dexter allowed the lab results to pinpoint Miguel to Maria, as Miguel in a court of law wouldn’t be good for Dexter at all. Then again, Dexter was never planning on Miguel to live long enough for that.

As I said, the killing of Miguel so soon was a bit of a surprise. I honestly thought it was going to end up one of the final scenes of the finale. Then again, that would be too much like last season with Lilah, wouldn’t it? Dexter waiting by Maria’s door with the syringe was surprising, though it was clear the voicemail was meant to set Miguel up.

It’s been mentioned before that possibly Deb or Rita will find out the truth about Dexter, with one of them dying because of it. If that speculation’s true, I’m wondering if I should assume it’s going to be Deb rather than Rita at this point. Deb fishing around in department records isn’t going to do Dexter any good at all, and it’ll only be a matter of time before Deb figures out who Dexter’s mother was, then who Dexter’s brother was. Then again, didn’t Camilla destroy those records?

Right now Miguel’s death seems rather anticlimactic, but with a full episode left for the season, I’m sure Miguel’s promise of this not being “over yet” will come true.

Quotes:

Dexter: “Deb!”
Deb: “Blow me.”
Angel: “My sister never says that.”

Dexter (V.O.): “Miguel probably thinks he’s getting lucky. Looks like he’s getting screwed.”

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Dec 07, 2008 @ 22:50 EST5EDT