'Dexter': John Lithgow to kill in threes

Like the third season of "Dexter," the fourth will feature a long-term guest star, only instead of Jimmy Smits playing an assistant district attorney, John Lithgow will portray a character planted decidedly on the other side of the law.

According to Showtime's press release, "Lithgow will play Walter Simmons, an unassuming, mild-mannered suburbanite who has been living a dual life as one of America’s most prolific and deadliest serial killers. Dubbed the 'Trinity Killer' because of his proclivity to kill in threes, he relocates to Miami after being tracked by FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine). Brought on to assist in the investigation of Miami’s latest serial killer, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) becomes fascinated with Trinity’s killing methods and his ability to evade capture for almost three decades."

Lithgow will be featured in all 12 episodes of Season 4, which is scheduled to premiere Sunday, Sept. 27, on Showtime.

While Lithgow has acted in as much drama as he has comedy, here's hoping that he's allowed to utilize a bit of his comic experience on "Dexter," which tends to be at its best when it employs gallows humor.

— Claire Zulkey

"Dexter": OMG! Dex and Deb say, 'I do!'

Those who follow the gossip rags may have known that on-screen brother and sister "Dexter" costars Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter have been quietly dating for a year and a half.  Now, the relationship is a little more permanent. According to US Magazine, the pair eloped in California on New Year's Eve and plan to walk the red carpet together at the Golden Globes on Sunday. 

We're having a hard time coming up with a tasteful onscreen-brother-and-sister-get-married joke, but feel free to come up with your own.

--Claire Zulkey

'Dexter': Closing out the third season -- the Morgans are gonna be all right!

I was trying to figure out what specifically it was about this season of "Dexter" that failed, by and large, to elicit that sensation of horrified delight that I felt with the first season, and I think it's that the audience saw so little of Dexter the Serial Killer. We rarely saw Dexter (Michael C. Hall) kill someone simply because it was on his list of things to do -- each murder was a part of a much larger storyline.  And while I can see the appeal of ideas such as "What would happen of Dexter got married?" "What would happen of Dexter had a friend?" I think back to my days as an "X-Files" fan and remember that I always liked the stand-alone episodes of the show more than the ones that were tied into the bigger plots.

With tonight's finale, other than groaning over Maria Laguerta's (Lauren Velez) assertion that Deb Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) was one of the smartest cops she knew, I was left trying to remember what happened earlier in the season that made each end-tying moment so significant.  Why would the Skinner care that Dexter killed Freebo? Also, whatever happened to that Internal Affairs lady who was hanging around earlier in the season and, really, all Dexter needed to do to deal with Ramon Prado (Jason Manuel Olazabal) was listen to his daddy issues? And aw, happy endings for two cops dating people they possibly shouldn't. Everything worked out perfectly. Everything!   

Dexter: 'I killed my brother, and I killed yours too. Nyah nyah nyah.'

I know that there is one more episode left in this season of "Dexter" but I wonder if and how it can top last night's, thanks to Maria LaGerta's (Lauren Velez) detective work, Dexter's (Michael C. Hall) showdown with his archfrenemy Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits), and of course that sexy music-video-style bachelor party.  I say this cynically, however, not breathlessly.  We know from previews that Miguel's brother Ramon (Jason Manuel Olazabal) faces down Dexter for the murder of his two brothers.  But the Ramon Prado storyline throughout the season has seemed choppy and unfulfilling.  He's a menacing guy because he has a temper and a scary bald head and mean eyes but that doesn't make him frightening (for me, still, no bad guy on "Dexter" has been as scary as the Ice Truck Killer).  And while the Skinner is still on the run and a violent killer, he's too panicky and mysterious to really be interesting as a character. 

What I'll miss about Miguel Prado isn't his hulk or how eerily tiny his eyes were in his big face, but the cattiness between Dexter and him.  There was something inherently feminine in their friendship, despite the murderous undertones -- the way they became BFF so quickly, hung out together all the time without really much than superficialities to hold them together. Then the copycatting started, and the witchy comments and backstabbing and front-stabbing.  What's going to happen on the show now that Dexter's gotten Miguel out of the way?

Ah, but even though Dexter finally killed Prado, he still has to figure out what to do with the body.  Who is he going to frame? How will he ensure that Maria LaGuerta doesn't find out the truth? And is he actually going to get married on top of all this?

-- Claire Zulkey

'Dexter': Don't get involved!

They should have titled this season of "Dexter" "Season Three: Now It's Personal." Not a crime can be committed in Miami without it affecting a member of the police department somehow.  Miguel Prado's brother is murdered.  Deb Morgan's boyfriend, a confidential informant, is nearly killed.  Angel Battista's girlfriend is beaten up and now Ellen Wolf (Anne Ramsay), the public defender and friend of Maria Laguerta (Lauren Vélez) is dead. There must be only about 20 people living in Miami. 

'Dexter': 'About Last Night'

It's official: "Dexter" has turned me into a monster. While I wondered whether the excess gore on tonight's episode, specifically Anton's (David Ramsay) stripped flesh and Ellen Wolf's (Anne Ramsay) cadaver in its various forms (being waved by Harry, being dug up by Dexter (Michael C. Hall) or on the medical examiner's stretcher), was really necessary, I at the same time found that all the ickiness helped contribute to one of the best episodes of the season. 

The tension of Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) and Quinn (Desmond Harrington) tracking down CI (and Deb paramour) Anton before he got skinned to death  wasn't just the only thrill of the episode. Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) succeeded where everyone else before him failed: He made Dexter Morgan "feel something real." Unfortunately for Miguel, that thing is anger and betrayal. After Dexter let Miguel into his murdering world  (so long as he obeyed the Code of Harry), Miguel went and did Thing 1 that you're not supposed to do: murder an innocent person -- in this case defender Wolf.  Miguel lied to Dexter about the murder, lied again about ensuring his trust (with a shirt covered in cow's blood, not his from the Freebo murder) and then generally revealed that he'd be disingenuous pretty much the whole time Dexter had known him. 

'Dexter': Debbie Downer

It's hard to decide where Deb Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) is weaker: detecting or choosing her boyfriends.  In Season 1 of "Dexter," she dated the Ice Truck Killer, and wasn't aware of that until he was about to murder her.  Now, in Season 3, she unwisely falls in love with Anton (David Ramsay), a confidential informant.  After finding out that her shady partner, Quinn (Desmond Harrington), had never officially processed Anton, did Deb report Quinn and his strange dealings? No, of course not. She told Anton that Quinn was off-duty when it came to being a CI for the skinning-killer case.  Afterward, they made the date that all doomed couples make, where one thinks he or she is being stood up when in fact the other is being skinned alive.  "Where IS he?" Deb wondered, and I thought, "You dope, he's dead, or close to it."  I'd feel bad for her character if she weren't so ridiculous.  But bad decisions are what women in Miami seem to make.  They all apparently date or marry criminals or, in the case of Ellen Wolf (Anne Ramsay), the assistant district attorney, open their door to people who knock during the middle of the night.  Of course she didn't know that Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) had just returned from a tag-team murder with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) and had a taste for blood, but even so, didn't she have a peephole? 

'Dexter': 'Do I see plastic sheets in your future?'

"Isn't this a bit..." "...morbid?" Dexter conversed with his friend, the terminally ill Camilla (Margo Martindale), in tonight's episode. They were discussing her funeral plans, and I so hoped to see Michael C. Hall in a scene with a funeral director, but a "Dexter" and "Six Feet Under" crossover episode will have to wait. 

Tonight's episode wasn't any more morbid than any other episode in the series but it did pose a number of ethical dilemmas mixed with a stronger than usual ensemble episode.  Is it right to kill a person who wants to die? How about someone who represents murderers? Should you tell your CI secrets and then kiss him? And who do you invite to your wedding? 

'Dexter': A partner in crime?

Michael C. Hall is such a good actor that his good looks sometimes are easy to look past, but in the most recent episode of "Dexter," his character was downright sexy. What made Dexter so appealing?  That he was being bad.

So OK, in real life, there's nothing attractive about a guy making the woman who is pregnant with his child cry. However, Dexter plays Mr. Nice Guy so much with his girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) and her kids that it was refreshing to hear him tell her "no" so abruptly when she asked him to go house-hunting with her. Dexter was smarting from the concept of having to give up his murderous bachelor pad, but something else was going on to make him behave so coldly, and I liked it. It was even fun to see him setting up his kill room on a cruise ship and talking a wee bit psychotically to his murder victim: "I want to thank you for reminding me to take moments for oneself." 

Good news for 'Dexter' fans: Seasons 4 and 5 are on the way!

This just in: "SHOWTIME has ordered two more seasons of its award-winning top-rated drama series 'Dexter,' it was announced today by Robert Greenblatt, Showtime President of Entertainment," according to a Showtime press release. "Seasons four and five will consist of 12 episodes each, with production on season four set to begin next spring in Los Angeles." 

What these seasons will contain for our favorite serial killer remains to be seen, but we're going to hold out hope that Dexter (Michael C. Hall) lets his soon-to-be-wife and children in on his secret and they become TV's first serial-killing family. The family that slays together stays together, right?

--Claire Zulkey