The shocking 'Dexter' season finale: Read this review if you've seen it
by Ken Tucker
Okay. Who saw that ending coming? I didn’t. And, yes, I remember that I’m the guy who was complaining about what a whiny pain in the butt Rita was becoming earlier on in the season.
But it says everything about the excellence of Dexter that the season not only gave us a completely satisfying, firm conclusion to John Lithgow’s superlative run as this season’s chief villain, but also sent the series spinning into a whole new direction for next season.
First: The hour began right where last week left off, with Dexter confronted by Arthur in the police station. Pretty soon, we saw a Dexter typical of this season: pressured, pulled in a number of directions, distracted and off his game. Having decided that Arthur had to die and fast, he began a wild car chase (“Do you even have a plan here?” said the Harry at his shoulder — bravo to James Remar for excellently understated work all season). And of course, in the midst of the chase, Rita called our guy, which led to dinging an innocent citizen’s car, which led to Dexter losing his temper with some investigating cops just after Dexter thought he had Arthur trapped where he wanted him.
“I didn’t follow the code — I lost it,” Dexter berated himself.
Meanwhile, Deb finally discovered that Dexter and the Ice Truck Killer were brothers. And congratulations to Jennifer Carpenter for a performance all the more remarkable this season for the fact that she had to play so many scenes of extreme emotion — cycling through falling in love with Lundy all over again, witnessing his death, suffering survivor-guilt over that, and now… this — and Carpenter did it without repeating any of her reactions, making Debra experience each fresh pain in a different, beautifully distinct manner.
The episode was building to the moment we’d waited for all season: Arthur on Dexter’s killing table. I cheered at the screen when Dexter slammed the hood of the Mustang down on Trinity’s head and said with reptile warmth, “Hello, Arthur Mitchell,” making ironic fun of the way Mitchell had greeted him.
Lithgow got to play his final scene immobile, strapped down, but fully capable of making us believe that, even at his most physically helpless, Arthur’s psychotic confidence enabled him to take command. He lectured, trying to deny Dexter a pure triumph, saying, “I was following my path. God led you to me.”
And once Dexter had dispatched Arthur — with the sharp end of a hammer, an impeccable touch — we got the Dexter ending we’d wanted: Our man dumping Trinity’s body over the side of his boat, and a shot of Dexter raising his head in vast relief, framed against a blood-red night sky.
And then we got the ending we didn’t see coming. The fearful symmetry of Dexter finding his son Harrison sitting in a pool of blood (“Born in blood, both of us,” in Dexter’s voiceover phrase), and Rita murdered in the bathtub.
“I’m what’s wrong — this is fate,” said Dexter.
Wow. I did not see this coming at all. When Dexter calls Rita's phone and he figures out she's still in the house I fully expected him to walk in on her banging the neighbor guy. When I saw her in the blood tub I could not believe it. This has major implications for the future. Dexter has struggled with being a family man all season and now I can't imagine he'll keep Aster or Cody, but what about Harrison? And how is he going to explain why Trinity targeted his family? Did Batista see Trinity in the police station? I can't wait until Fall for these answers.
No comments:
Post a Comment