What I’m Watching: Dexter

Dexter: Season 4, Episode 11 “Hello, Dexter Morgan” (B+)

The title is sort of a dead giveaway for the final line of the episode, but it’s still a heart-pounding, suspenseful hour. I’m glad that Batista and LaGuerta’s relationship can be laid to rest as a plotline now that it’s been officially consummated as a marriage, and I’ll admit that their plan was smart. That was really just a distraction from everything else on the show, and, as both Dexter as his father would point out, that’s one less person Dexter has to worry about being there for in his life. Dexter looking at the multiple versions of himself in the mirror was an inspired and completely fantastic shot, and it’s really quite true. It’s a relief that Dexter punched his neighbor because Rita might otherwise have become suspicious when he doesn’t seem to care that she had almost strayed from their marriage. At least the emotionless killer is learning. Christine did an incredible job of keeping herself together in jail in front of Batista and Deb, and that made her breakdown at her apartment in front of Deb all the more shocking. I honestly didn’t expect her to kill herself, and that moment caught me by surprise and stuck with me. Courtney Ford deserves commendation for a guest-starring arc that at first seemed obnoxious but ultimately proved all too relevant. The final scene with Dexter walking up to Arthur in his office was startling and intense, and that last moment where Arthur seems larger than life is perfectly representative of how Dexter must be filling. Arthur is in a position to really hurt Dexter by threatening his family or exposing his extracurricular activities, while Dexter would have a much harder time proving that Arthur is the Trinity Killer without implicating himself in the mischief as well. Dexter should just have let Arthur jump off the building, but now it’s too late and Dexter has to find a way out of this mess. Never before has he been in such imminent danger with someone who knows all too much about him on the loose. At least his brother had a plan to bond with him rather than out him, but Arthur is an infinitely more dangerous foe.