‘Dexter’: Don’t go anywhere!

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Thank goodness ‘Dexter’ was shot far ahead of time, because the way this season is trending, it would be cruel and unusual punishment to leave its viewers dangling at any point during the home stretch. Several situations are set to pop on the show and, deliciously, they seem to be outside Dexter’s (Michael C. Hall’s) realm of control unless he does something drastic.

First, Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) has figured out that the Bay Harbor Butcher is indeed in the Miami Police Department and has also ascertained that Dexter hasn’t done the best job possible on some of his cases. Perhaps more sinister, though, is his burgeoning relationship with Dexter’s sister, Debra (Jennifer Carpenter). While Lundy is obviously giving Debra something she needs romantically, so did her last major love, the Ice Truck Killer. It seems odd that Lundy would do something as unwise as date someone within his department, and an underling at that. Is he going to prove Deb to be the unluckiest-in-love woman in the history of time?

Sgt. James Doakes (Erik King), Dexter’s bête noire, is certainly also set to make things happen for our protagonist. Last season, the two of them danced around each other coyly. Doakes suspected Dexter was up to something but lobbed nothing more than insults at him. Now, however, Doakes is stalking Dexter, physically fighting with him and even sneaking into his house.

And Lila (Jaime Murray). We all knew Dexter’s NA sponsor/new girlfriend was trouble when she showed up with her accent and artistry and, as Deb pointed out, her freakishly pale skin. While her sudden turn from Dexter’s soul mate to his worst nightmare is a little abrupt, acts of craziness like setting her home on fire, stalking Dexter’s ex Rita and calling up Dexter’s aborted murder victim are certainly setting her up to have an interesting finale in Dexter’s life. (As an aside, Deb’s abrasiveness can often be irritating, but her unabashed disdain for Lila has been a treat.) The most dangerous people in Miami right now are not the murderers Dexter used to track down. They’re the people he sees every day.

‘Recovery is not an option,’ Dexter realized this episode, meaning he is meant to be a murderer, but the balance is still off in his life. He’s usually so cold and calculating that the freakish panic in his voice when he told a freshly murdered target, ‘Don’t go anywhere!’ and the menace he displayed toward Lila in telling her to back off were unusual for him.

‘The Lila experiment is over,’ Dexter mused last night. But obviously, the results have yet to come in.

-- Claire Zulkey