Episode Title: "Take It!"
Writers: Manny Coto & Wendy West
Director: Romeo Tirone
Previously on "Dexter":
As Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) plotted with Lumen Pierce (Julia Stiles) to find the men who tortured and raped her, those same men tried to move the bodies of their previous victims only to lose them on the road following an accident. With the police now investigating motivational speaker Jordan Chase (Johnny Lee Miller) and his head of security Cole Harmon (Chris Vance), Dexter and his new partner-in-crime planted evidence that sent the cops after Boyd Fowler, the real killer whom Dexter had already dispatched.
Elsewhere, the sting to catch the Santa Muerte killers went badly as several people were shot and Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) was forced to kill one of the murderers before he could harm his next victim. Afterwards, Sergeant Angel Batista (David Zayas) tried to comfort his wife Lt. Maria LaGuerta (Lauren Vélez), but she refused to take any responsibility for the fiasco. At the same time, Debra's lover Detective Joey Quinn (Desmond Harrington) hired his friend and possibly corrupt cop Stan Liddey (Peter Weller) to follow Dexter. Stan soon came back with news of Lumen's existence and the fact that Dexter had her stashed at his old house.
When Dexter broke into Cole's home, he was briefly attacked by the man before Luman knocked him out. After their escape, Dexter and Lumen were surprised to discover a picture of Cole, Boyd and Lumen's other attackers posing together as teenagers decades before.
Story:
Dexter goes to one of Jordan Chase's seminars pretending to be one of the lost souls looking for his guidance. Even Dexter is creeped out by Jordan's fans and by the fact that Jordan himself seems to have a lot in common with Dexter's thought process. After the session, Cole approaches Dexter on Jordan's behalf and brings him back to his suite. While there, Jordan seems to know quite a bit about Dexter's background and assumes that he is there to find purpose in his life after the murder of his wife. Jordan also tries to discretely ask about the Miami PD's progress on the murder case, but Dexter deflects the question back to the department.
Back at the police station, LaGuerta is mobbed by the press before she warns her cops that there will be consequences for the shootout at the club. Debra confides in Quinn that she is disturbed that she doesn't feel any remorse for shooting the killer. LaGuerta tries to get Debra to back her version of the events and bury Cira (April Lee Hernandez), but Debra refuses. In response, Debra finds out through a news report that she's been suspended pending an investigation. At the same time, Lumen gets a call from Owen, her ex-fiancée who wants her to come back home with him. She agrees to meet with him the next day before bringing Dexter his supplies to eliminate Cole.
At her meeting with Owen (David Paetkau), Lumen listens as he offers to take her around the world with him. But when she leaves, she is blindsided by Stan who tricks her into hitting his car in order to get her name and driver's license info. He also notices the suspicious supplies in the back of her car that she had purchased for Dexter. Stan reports his findings back to Quinn, who is wary of giving Stan more money. Stan then threatens to tell Debra about the investigation if he isn't paid. Lumen arrives at the hotel and prepares Cole's murder room with him. She soon realizes that Dexter has been doing this for a long time and that Boyd wasn't his first victim. When their first attempt to grab Cole is foiled, Lumen is astonished that she actually fell asleep in Dexter's presence and felt safe.
The next day, Dexter tries to slip away from the rally to catch Cole on his security rounds, but Chase calls him onto the stage and encourages him to relive the moments in which he found Rita's body. Amazingly, Dexter actually opens up and tells the crowd how he felt and even Lumen is mesmerized by his account. Unfortunately, Cole spots her and chases her through the hotel. She makes it back to Dexter's room, but Cole breaks in and begins choking her. Dexter arrives and subdues Cole. He then sets Cole up on the table and finishes the job as Lumen looks on. He then confesses his past to Lumen and reveals exactly who he is to her. She in turn seems to accept him.
At the police station, Debra discovers that Cira was the one who sided with LaGuerta and sold her out. But Angel tells Debra that he will tell the investigators the truth and stand by her regardless of what his wife says. As Dexter leaves the hotel room with Cole's body hidden in his baggage, Jordan approaches him again to thank him for coming to the stage. Jordan also inadvertently reveals to Dexter that he is also one of the men who tortured Lumen. Dexter shares this information with her as they dispose of Cole's body together. However, they are both unaware that Stan is watching them and taking photographs.
Breakdown:
Even more so than last week, the various narrative threads of "Dexter" have started coming together. The investigation of Dexter by Stan and Quinn has finally dug up some actual dirt on Dexter even if they're still in the dark about his real motives. And for the first time, they seem like a real threat to him.
This episode was also Michael C. Hall's best episode of the season. The sequence in which Dexter went on the stage to talk about Rita's murder was a brilliant device that got Dexter to openly explore those feelings in ways that he never would have vocalized on the show. It was an amazingly well written sequence as well. It was also fascinating to see Dexter try to blend in at the seminar. One of the reasons he stood out was the fact that he wasn't chanting along with the crowd. He also had the line of the night when he said "I've never been around so many people that made me feel normal...really normal."
But it was also interesting to see that Jordan is actually quite similar to Dexter. Dexter actually had a few thoughts which Jordan then immediately vocalized on-stage. There have been hints that Lumen has something similar to Dexter's "Dark Passenger," but it seems to be going around. Jordan seems to share it and possibly Debra as well. After what she's been through (and even what he's gone through with Rita), Debra didn't seem that surprised that Dexter felt that some people didn't deserve to live.
Lumen continues to play a bigger and bigger role this season, as she has now become the one woman in Dexter's life to truly know who he is and really accept it. At this point, I'll be highly surprised if Dexter and Lumen don't form some kind of romantic attachment, given how well they interact with each other. They are both fundamentally broken people, but they do seem normal around each other in a way that Rita and Dexter never could.
The subplot with Lumen's ex-fiancée wasn't explored as thoroughly as it could have been. If the actor stays around for more than one episode, than it may have potential. But as a one-off appearance, it didn't work. It was far more entertaining to see Stan tricking Lumen with the faked car accident. He may be corrupt, but he's apparently quite good at what he does.
Earlier this week, the producers of this show promised to top last season's cliffhanger. As much as I enjoy the chase of "Dexter," I'm willing to bet he'll finally be caught by one or all of his colleagues and tried for Rita's murder (one of the few deaths for which he is actually innocent). But I'd be perfectly happy if Dexter simply just relocated away from his Miami PD freaks and kept on killing.
One final note: LaGuerta has become completely unlikable in the last two episodes. She's gone from supporting character to flat out villain for her abuse of authority and attempt to make Debra take the fall. I didn't think I could hate her character any more, but she found a way. On the other hand, Angel is a lot more interesting now that he isn't attempting to back her story. That moment between Angel and Debra was almost worth those horrible bar fight subplots from earlier in the season.
Almost, but not quite.
Crave Online Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
