Dexter 2.09 Resistance is Futile
I have a stack of things to post about tonight. I toyed with the idea of making one massive post, but decided my brain wasn't organised enough. So I may be spamming LJ in the next couple of hours...
*repeating myself* OMG this series is so suspenseful! I'm absolutely riveted to Season 2 in a way that I never was with Season 1.
I had a hunch that Doakes would become a suspect rather than Dexter--as soon as he walked out on the interview with Lundy. However, from a dramatic perspective I thought it worked wonderfully even if I'd seen it coming. To have Dexter treated as a potential target but assume that he was being watched because he was a suspect was brilliant. The irony was off the charts! And it's just brilliant to watch him under this kind of pressure to see how he copes. I loved his dream and the fact that it was so transparent--everything's closer to the surface now, even if he's still able to think logically through one moment after the next. It's also clear that he's falling back on the bare bones of what his father taught him, clinging to the 'No. 1 rule': don't get caught.
How chilling was that electrocution scene?! Wow. More and more I feel that Harry brainwashed Dexter into seeing himself as a murderer and putting him through that experience where he identified with the man in the chair is a terrifying way for a parent to 'protect' their child. It did, however, help explain why Dexter is so bound by Harry's Code. And that was important in the lead-up to the confrontation with Doakes.
Wow! What an amazing scene that was. It was such a 'classic' scene: hardworking cop who no-one believes confronts murderer on his own without back-up. But of course the audience's sympathies are, as usual, twisted towards Dexter. Despite that I found him truly terrifying in that scene, advancing menacingly on Doakes. Despite the gun, it was clear that the true power in that scene lay with Dexter simply because he'd been driven to the point of no return. It was kill/capture or be killed/captured, and he proved himself willing to do anything. I'm very relieved that he hasn't yet killed Doakes because that would cross such a line. Even when he was just willing to let Doakes take the fall for his crimes I was getting very uncomfortable. My sympathy for Dexter only extends so far.
I'm fascinated to see what he does now. It's clear that locking Doakes up was a stop-gap measure. In the immediate term I have a terrible fear he's going to go to Lila because no-one else will understand. He needs help for his injury, he needs to explain the cuffs... I just don't see him facing Deb or Rita about that and I can't see what story he could come up with.
Lila is of course incredibly dangerous and I love how they've built that up. The sound of her laughing in the station with Dex's co-workers was so menacing and we know that she's capable of pretty much anything, certainly of causing a great deal of trouble for Dexter, even if she only knows/suspects the tip of the iceberg.
It also seems likely that Dex won't make his get-back-together 'date' with Rita. And it feels so close to Deb finding out the truth too. I love how that was handled in this episode, with Dexter's subaudible comment 'Good, because I won't always be there' in response to her mentioning Lundy. Only Dexter would have such an unemotional, practical response to finding out his sister's sleeping with his adversary. He genuinely cares for Deb and worries that she won't be ok if she finds out about him. In the strangest way that makes him a really good brother.
I fear for Deb so much. I'm happy that things are working out with her and Lundy but she has no idea what skeletons are hiding in the closet. Like Dexter I can't imagine the horror of her finding out.
In terms of the Doakes plot, I was impressed to see him actually do some very smart detective work--the GPS tracker on Dex's boat, the offshore lab work (rightly guessing that no-one would believe him back home). Of course he also made the typical arrogant cop mistake of confronting the murderer without back-up, but it was easy to understand why he did so given the fact that he was a suspect himself. And how wonderfully meta-y was that? The cops protecting the true murderer from the suspected murderer, only to have the suspected murderer prove a real danger to the true murderer.
I also found La Guardia (sp?) at her most sympathetic as Doakes' friend in this episode. I liked that her compassion really shone through and she looked so distraught when Lundy refused to listen to her. He's got a real hard edge that's shining through now--again, very effective dramatically as he gets closer to the truth.
Deb looked radiant, I thought. And so cutely awkward as always with her 'I'm sleeping at your place again tonight' comment as public acknowledgment of her relationship. I think it's great that they went the full disclosure path--from personal experience that IS better where relationships between co-workers are concerned, at least when they are serious/committed.
Where to from here?!
*repeating myself* OMG this series is so suspenseful! I'm absolutely riveted to Season 2 in a way that I never was with Season 1.
I had a hunch that Doakes would become a suspect rather than Dexter--as soon as he walked out on the interview with Lundy. However, from a dramatic perspective I thought it worked wonderfully even if I'd seen it coming. To have Dexter treated as a potential target but assume that he was being watched because he was a suspect was brilliant. The irony was off the charts! And it's just brilliant to watch him under this kind of pressure to see how he copes. I loved his dream and the fact that it was so transparent--everything's closer to the surface now, even if he's still able to think logically through one moment after the next. It's also clear that he's falling back on the bare bones of what his father taught him, clinging to the 'No. 1 rule': don't get caught.
How chilling was that electrocution scene?! Wow. More and more I feel that Harry brainwashed Dexter into seeing himself as a murderer and putting him through that experience where he identified with the man in the chair is a terrifying way for a parent to 'protect' their child. It did, however, help explain why Dexter is so bound by Harry's Code. And that was important in the lead-up to the confrontation with Doakes.
Wow! What an amazing scene that was. It was such a 'classic' scene: hardworking cop who no-one believes confronts murderer on his own without back-up. But of course the audience's sympathies are, as usual, twisted towards Dexter. Despite that I found him truly terrifying in that scene, advancing menacingly on Doakes. Despite the gun, it was clear that the true power in that scene lay with Dexter simply because he'd been driven to the point of no return. It was kill/capture or be killed/captured, and he proved himself willing to do anything. I'm very relieved that he hasn't yet killed Doakes because that would cross such a line. Even when he was just willing to let Doakes take the fall for his crimes I was getting very uncomfortable. My sympathy for Dexter only extends so far.
I'm fascinated to see what he does now. It's clear that locking Doakes up was a stop-gap measure. In the immediate term I have a terrible fear he's going to go to Lila because no-one else will understand. He needs help for his injury, he needs to explain the cuffs... I just don't see him facing Deb or Rita about that and I can't see what story he could come up with.
Lila is of course incredibly dangerous and I love how they've built that up. The sound of her laughing in the station with Dex's co-workers was so menacing and we know that she's capable of pretty much anything, certainly of causing a great deal of trouble for Dexter, even if she only knows/suspects the tip of the iceberg.
It also seems likely that Dex won't make his get-back-together 'date' with Rita. And it feels so close to Deb finding out the truth too. I love how that was handled in this episode, with Dexter's subaudible comment 'Good, because I won't always be there' in response to her mentioning Lundy. Only Dexter would have such an unemotional, practical response to finding out his sister's sleeping with his adversary. He genuinely cares for Deb and worries that she won't be ok if she finds out about him. In the strangest way that makes him a really good brother.
I fear for Deb so much. I'm happy that things are working out with her and Lundy but she has no idea what skeletons are hiding in the closet. Like Dexter I can't imagine the horror of her finding out.
In terms of the Doakes plot, I was impressed to see him actually do some very smart detective work--the GPS tracker on Dex's boat, the offshore lab work (rightly guessing that no-one would believe him back home). Of course he also made the typical arrogant cop mistake of confronting the murderer without back-up, but it was easy to understand why he did so given the fact that he was a suspect himself. And how wonderfully meta-y was that? The cops protecting the true murderer from the suspected murderer, only to have the suspected murderer prove a real danger to the true murderer.
I also found La Guardia (sp?) at her most sympathetic as Doakes' friend in this episode. I liked that her compassion really shone through and she looked so distraught when Lundy refused to listen to her. He's got a real hard edge that's shining through now--again, very effective dramatically as he gets closer to the truth.
Deb looked radiant, I thought. And so cutely awkward as always with her 'I'm sleeping at your place again tonight' comment as public acknowledgment of her relationship. I think it's great that they went the full disclosure path--from personal experience that IS better where relationships between co-workers are concerned, at least when they are serious/committed.
Where to from here?!