So, listen, Dexter fans. That episode was a big step up from the last couple of go nowhere bore fests, but that final twist was completely ludicrous. When some of you were saying in comments how obvious it was that the reporter was behind the shootings of Deb and Lundy, I didn't want to believe you because a.) it sounded stupid and b.) I have a vested interest in journalists being portrayed as non-serial killers. But the more you guys argued for that point, I realized that was the case. I was prepared to find out that she was behind the shooting. I was not prepared to find out that she was Arthur Mitchell's daughter. I mean, it already stretches credulity that Miami has this many serial killers, but now they all have to be related? This is like when Heroes made everyone a Petrelli.
I mean, I suppose the show can figure out a way to make all of this make some sort of sense eventually, but the initial twist doesn't seem terribly smart. And it was a sour note on an episode that built nicely to a boil. It started out with a bunch of stuff that was pretty lame, then mostly got rid of that in favor of the things that are working on the show. I don't know that anyone was terribly excited to see that LaGuerta and Angel went to see some guy whose wife was murdered. And then it turned out that he was in a coma. And THEN the two went down to the beach and declared their love for each other. It was so bad that my friend who'd never seen an episode of the show and chose to watch this one laughed at it. Maybe this would work if the actors had any sort of chemistry, but it has never stopped feeling like the show just tossed this storyline at these actors to give them something to do.
Meanwhile, back at the Morgan ranch, Dexter's desperation to get Deb to come over for Thanksgiving was a little off-putting (when are the warning bells about her brother's extracurricular activities going to start ringing for her), but most of the rest of the stuff worked. I was a little down on how the show seemed to be speeding up the Rita and Elliott pairing last week, but much of it felt more organic this week, even if the episode's whole, "OH, IT'S A GOOD THING I HAVE TWO OVENS" and "I'M MASUKA AND I'LL NEED AN OVEN FOR MY LAVA CAKE" thing was pretty telegraphed. Dexter has been spending a lot of time away from the house this season, and even if he's never going to turn into someone like Arthur with Rita and the kids, even just keeping up the facade of being a normal family man is going to be something that gets in the way of what he really wants to be doing.
But, honestly, almost all of the stuff with Dexter hanging out with the Mitchells for Thanksgiving was pretty much everything I've wanted the show to do with the plot from the time John Lithgow first came on the scene. It was also surprisingly subtle for the show until it wasn't, everything boiling away under the surface until Arthur was breaking his son's finger and calling his wife a cunt and locking his daughter up in her room. I suppose it's a little unbelievable that Arthur's this big of a monster and no one seems to have noticed, but, again, the show seems to be using some of the more under-the-radar serial killers of history as a model for him, most obviously the BTK killer. The weird hatred his family feels for him and how quickly that could spin into something approaching Stockholm syndrome all played very believably. I was less sold on the idea that the daughter would throw herself at Dexter like that (or that her mom would be sort of OK with it!), but you can't win 'em all.