DEXTER
Season 2 Episode 12
‘The British Invasion’
Teleplay by Daniel Cerone; story by Melissa Rosenberg & Daniel Cerone
Directed by Steve Shill
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So Erik King makes it to the season finale, only to get blown into teeny pieces by the arsonist titty vampire.
Lila breaks into the cabin to find Doakes, and when she asks who he is and why he’s locked up, she understands just exactly what that hunger and darkness is that she senses in Dex.
And since she believes she’s his soulmate, she does what she can to protect Dex: set the cabin on fire, flick open the propane tank, and leave.
Doakes manages to smash his way out of the cage, but just as he’s about to try and put out the fire (mouthing “Motherf*ck—“), the tank explodes, taking him and the cabin with it.

Meanwhile, Deb and hordes of Miami’s Finest are closing in on the area where the cabin is located, so Dex hurries to get there first, only to find the flaming wreck already crawling with cops.
In a gruesome bit, they find the partial remains of Doakes, and once positive ID’s been made, the case is officially closed.

There’s a great scene in LaGuerta’s office, as Lundy breaks the news to Maria, and she then goes through the rest of the episode being faithful to the memory of her former partner (and probably, lover).
Lauren Velez also has a fantastic scene with Jennifer Carpenter, when Deb makes the effort to reach out to LaGuerta; after all, they’re now in the same boat, two women who aren’t sure they can ever trust another man—and themselves—again, given that someone they thought they knew turned out to be a killer. (Of course, in LaGuerta’s case, that isn’t the truth at all, but let’s not tell her that…)

And while Angel is cleared by I.A. over the whole rape thing, there’s a nice little play on the show’s opening credits sequence, as it dawns on Dex that with Doakes framed and dead, he’s a free man. That whole time, I fully expected Lila to be lying in wait as Dex opens his door, but the b!tch had other plans.
After an early morning booty call with Rita, Dex’s jubilation comes to a screeching halt when Masuka tells him that the cabin’s explosion wasn’t accidental (Masuka seems to think Doakes committed suicide this way, rather than be caught by the police).
When Dex finds the SUV’s GPS thingie in the debris, he realizes Lila’s behind the miracle save, so he meets her at the aquarium. There, Dex makes her believe he still wants her, and convinces her that he’s leaving Miami and that he wants to take her with him.

But when he shows up at Lila’s place (with his bag of kill tools), Deb’s there too. And when Lila arrives to find the Morgans there, and with Deb being her usual vitriolic self, Lila twigs onto the fact that something’s not kosher. So she makes like Dex’s kill bag is hers and prances on outta there.
Dex calls her on her cell, making all the appropriate “Sorry” noises, but Lila doesn’t reply.
Instead, she goes on over to Rita’s and abducts the kids.
Dex realizes Lila’s game a little too late, and when he finds the kids missing, he tells Rita to call Deb.
Of course, Rita’s call finds Deb just about to hop into a cab to meet Lundy at the airport (Lundy’s off on another serial killer case), Deb intent on leaving everything in Miami behind for love of the Lundy. But the call from Rita puts Deb in a spot, and in the end, she ditches FBI lover boy to help Rita out.

Dex arrives at Lila’s to find the kids watching TV. Lila then says, “You could have had it all,” and sets the place on fire, as she locks Dex and the kids in.
Dex gets the kids out through a window, which he can’t fit through, and it looks like it’s over for Dex, but he smashes through the burning wall, and Deb arrives just in time to help him.
Dex is singed, but okay; the kids are fine; Rita’s understanding.

Then, it what seems to be an epilogue, we see Lila in Paris, and I’m thinking, Oh, no, what evil has Dexter Morgan wrought? Is Lila now some loony copycat killer?
I also thought, This is rather messy of Dex, leaving that loose end.
But my faith in my favourite blood spatter expert/serial killer is renewed as he pays Lila a visit and takes care of her. (It’s curious though and perhaps a tad hypocritical when Dex accuses Lila of murdering an innocent man; I mean, he was selling Doakes up the river, after all. How different would it have been if the cops had wound up capping Doakes’ a$$? Or if he’d wound up with a death sentence?)

The finale winds up with a montage as we see Deb and Angel getting commendations from the force, and Dex running with Rita and the kids in slow mo (we just lacked the friendly family dog, really).
During the voice over, Dex says that his relationships are no longer part of the mask; they’re something he needs now, and if that makes him vulnerable, so be it. Harry would disapprove, but as Dex claims, he’s no longer Harry’s disciple. He’s his own master now.
And as he places a new (and thus far empty) slide box in his secret AC hiding place, Dex says stuff about finding new rituals in his perpetual lot in life.
He ends by asking, “Am I evil? Am I good? I’m done asking those questions. I don’t have the answers.”
Then, as he shuts the AC while looking straight at us, his riveted audience, he asks, “Does anyone?”

Parting shot: My thoughts on the finale and Season 2 in a future installment of In-Between Seasons.

(Image courtesy of sho.com.)

DEXTER
Season 2 Episode 10
‘There’s Something About Harry’
Written by Scott Reynolds
Directed by Steve Shill
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

This one’s a fascinating installment, as Doakes spends the entire episode locked in the cell in the drug cabin, alternating between goading and debating with Dex, and in the final portion, trying to talk reason with him.
But it’s not all Doakes, though. There are still the subplots.

Rita visits Dex and begins to tentatively reach out, not yet willing to start dating again, but maybe, just to hang first, with Dex and the kids, at the beach.
Meanwhile, Angel gets to have his daughter for a day, and wanting her to have some fun (“… ideally more fun than she has with her mother…”), tags along on the beach outing. That however, puts a crimp in Lila’s plans of having Angel finish re-painting her walls. So the gross, English titty vampire gets Angel to her place later in the evening, has wild sex with the guy, then secretly takes some roofies she bought on the sly, which conks her out cold in the bathroom. She bashes her head and Angel finds her unconscious, forehead bleeding, and he calls an ambulance.
Crazy bee-yutch is up to something…

On the Deb-Lundy front, there’s a little scuffle as Lundy casually blurts out that he won’t always be around, particularly once the Bay Harbor Butcher case is closed. This pisses Deb off, as the hope she had for their relationship lay in her not knowing what would happen when the case was wrapped up.
Lundy, on the other hand, understands that this is what he does: he catches serial killers, and they don’t all live in Miami. He also thought that as soon as the case was closed, that Deb’s fascination with him would shrivel up and die, which strikes Deb as the sweetest thing any guy’s ever said to her. Their conversation is interrupted however, when they get a hit on one of Doakes’ aliases (used during his Special Forces days), and a car rental.

So, at the cabin, Dex drugs Doakes and gets his fingerprints on some kill tools, which he dumps in a place he knows they’ll be found quickly.
Meanwhile, his conversations with Doakes bring up some Harry stuff, and he finds out that Harry didn’t die from his heart disease, but rather from ODing on his heart meds.
Trying to work this all out, Dex’s plan for Doakes is put on fast-forward when some goon who had a deal with the late Jimenez starts to text the drug dealer’s cell, which Dex now has. When it’s clear that the goon is about to show up at the cabin, Dex intercepts him, and brings him, drugged, to the cabin.
Dex then proceeds to kill the goon, while Doakes tries to convince him not to. The sight of all that blood makes Doakes quiet and all he says to Dex is, “Stay away from me,” which triggers a memory.
Three days before Harry’s death, he walked in on one of Dex’s kills, and for the first time, he saw the reality of his Code and the training, he saw exactly what he’d made Dex into, and after throwing up, all he could say was, “Stay away.”
And it dawns on Dex: it’s his fault Harry committed suicide. He caused his adoptive father’s death.

(Image courtesy of sho.com.)