What I’m Watching: Dexter

Dexter: Season 4, Episode 4 “Dex Takes a Holiday” (B+)

Giving Dexter some space with a necessitated weekend trip for Rita and the kids is a good thing, and he certainly doesn’t meander around during his alone time. Only moments into the episode, he’s already designated his target, a killer who differs from his usual prey in that she’s a woman and she’s a cop. The actress who portrayed Zoey is Christina Cox, who improves considerably on her performance in “Defying Gravity” with an impressive turn here. The most striking scene was when she pulled Dexter over, and even though I knew it was going to be her, he didn’t seem to have any idea. Part of the intense effect of it was how it represented that something menacing that exists about someone suspicious in uniform, sort of like the T-1000 from “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” or Ana-Lucia when she popped up in one of Hurley’s vision on “Lost.” The spectacular swing around of the camera to reveal who the cop is puts a frightening lump in your throat which really makes the scene so much more powerful. Zoey’s threat to shoot Dexter and blame it on his attempt to rape her is both ultra-serious and funny, as Dexter asks her what it is about her and rape, especially since we know that Dexter doesn’t care about sex at all and would never think of anything like that. It doesn’t fit into his code, and it’s his code that leads him to a surprising revelation right before he kills Zoey. His exclamation that he’d rather risk Rita and the kids knowing the truth about him than lose them is a major development for Dexter, and it’s pretty shocking and well done. The Trinity Killer’s reaction to the sight of Lundy was very intriguing, and the way he almost forced Lundy to suspect him was quite interesting. The reunion of Lundy and Deb was expected but short-lived, as it’s likely that one of them won’t survive the shocking shooting which felled both of them. The fact that both LaGuerta and Batista turn to Dexter to talk about their relationship provides some nice comic relief, and it reminded me of when LaGuerta had the hots for Dexter in the first season and constantly tried to flirt with him while hating on Deb. This episode got me thinking a lot of the first few episodes of the show, specifically when Dexter was happy that Rita didn’t want to have sex. Clearly rape would be the last thing on his mind.