Things we learned on Dexter this week:
1. Arthur, The Trinity Killer is really the Quadruple Killer, but that’s harder to say and doesn’t have much of a ring to it. When Dexter watches Arthur kidnap a ten-year-old boy, he realizes that Arthur’s kill cycle isn’t complete until he kills the symbol of his childhood innocence. This means that another boy was killed before the bathtub murder which started season four. The kidnapped boy is the beginning of another kill cycle for Arthur, and if Dexter doesn’t find him, the boy will die. So let’s review: Girl in bathtub is Arthur’s sister, mother falling to her death is his mother, man bludgeoned with a hammer is his father, and the ten-year-old boy is Arthur’s childhood self. It’s all very Freudian.
2. Christine the reporter shot Deb and killed Lundy. She’s the right height, she got to the crime scene wicked fast, and she knew that Deb looked into Lundy’s eyes as he died. Top it off with some crafty interrogation by Deb and Lundy’s murderer has all but confessed. Also, the biggest shock of the night is that she’s definitely Arthur’s daughter. But he didn’t ask her to kill the FBI agent. Instead, she did it on his behalf. But curb your father-daughter sentimentality. She’s clearly becoming a liability to her serial-killer dad.
3. Dexter’s epidermis is showing. Why is our murdering hero getting so sloppy with his cover? Arthur caught Dexter following him. Dexter has been rushing out of the office, blowing off Deb, Quinn, Masuka, Batista—highly trained and suspicious detectives. His excuses to Rita are getting flimsier by the minute. And now, one of Cody’s friends said he saw Dexter sneaking away from their campsite the night he went to kill Farrow (Innocent man. Oops).
4. Much to Dexter’s disappointment, Arthur’s seemingly idyllic family is seriously messed up. Arthur beats his son, terrorizes his wife and locks his daughter up at night (literally). “I’m not like that!” Dexter protests when Harry predicts this as his future. But there are doubts, for as Dexter tells Arthur’s son, “Your dad and I have a lot in common.”
There are only three episodes left in this season and things are starting to get a bit Harry (Pun inexcusably intended). Arthur’s son Jonah is helping Dexter by snooping through Arthur’s things. We know how well it’s worked before when Dexter had an accomplice. Miguel and the rushed, anticlimactic end to season three are enough to make me wish Dexter would always work alone, but this time is different. As Harry’s ghost says to Dexter, "You always did have a soft spot for children."
Still, questions abound. Why does Arthur only agree to see his daughter Christine a few times a year? Is Masuka really going to tell Dexter he saw Rita and Eliot kiss on Thanksgiving? Will Christine lead Deb to Arthur, who could lead Deb to Dexter’s true self?
I would trade the finest key lime pie in the world to know when Dexter is finally going to kill Arthur Miller…the Trinity (actually Quadruple) Killer. Watch Dexter next Sunday on Showtime. It just might happen.
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