What I'm Watching: Dexter

Dexter: Season 5, Episode 4 “Beauty and the Beast” (B+)

I'm not sure how much I've mentioned about the episodes titles on this show before, but I should make note of this particular installment's titular brilliance. It's fantastically indicative of Dexter's own perception of himself as the brutish beast and Lumen as the mysterious beauty with whom he now has a unique bond. Dexter is being infinitely more truthful than he ever has before, telling the babysitter a shocking amount of real information and then trusting Lumen with the facts about his wife and the way he operates. After an episode of dangerously close escape attempts, she finally trusts him too, and telling him that others have brutalized her the same way Boyd did too should help fill the next few episodes with some intense hunting and revenge-seeking on the part of Dexter. It's not only America's favorite serial killer who is coming in contact with some despicable people. Deb encountered a horrifying amount of violence in this episode as she had to watch a guy have his throat slit right in front of her, something which the show hasn't really done, even if its first and third seasons when the main villains were murdering people in fairly brutal ways and leaving them to be found by the police. Deb's declaration of “I don't need a good guy” to Quinn does emphasize her need to de-stress after everything she's been through, and spending time with someone who's not as angelic-seeming as Rudy, Lundy, or Antoine may be good for her. Quinn, though, is headed down a treacherous path disturbingly similar to that of Doakes back in season two, and it should be fascinating to see how that one turns out.