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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

Is it just me or is this season of Dexter moving at a glacial pace? I’m not one of those TV fans who complained when someone wasn’t getting whacked on the Sopranos every week. I don’t think Dexter particularly needs more murder, not that it would hurt. What’s really bugging me is that there seems to be very little character progression and even less forward momentum. “Si Se Puede” (“Yes We Can”) was not a bad episode, per se, in fact it focused on one of my favorite aspects of this season: the friendship between Dexter and Miguel. But at the midway point for the season, I was expecting to be on the edge of my seat, or at least seeing more set-up for events that will put me there soon.

But no. Rita gets a job working in real estate for Miguel’s wife. Deb’s witnesses in the Freebo case keep getting killed by the Skinner and she still hasn’t kissed her cute informant friend Anton. Angel asks out the undercover vice cop. Ramon tortured a man with soda, which was admittedly pretty entertaining, in a sadistic way.

The bulk of the episode was about Dexter trying to keep Miguel at bay by putting his sanity and loyalty to the test with a risky plan to kill a man already in prison. Turns out, Miguel is insane for vigillante justice and all too gung-ho to help Dexter out, even when the break doesn’t go exactly according to plan. There is something dark and dangerous in Miguel’s quest for justice at any cost, too, and both he and Dexter had overbearing fathers and a lack of any close male relationships. No wonder they seem to fulfill something within each other. I loved Dexter musing that Miguel, by the end of the episode, really seems to be his first good friend. And it was something I had never thought much about before. Dexter has Rita, he has his co-workers who are also friends, but he has no one who has ever been as understanding about what Dexter is (without being as nuts as his gross English titty vampire NA sponsor Lila.) Lila was possessive of Dexter’s secret as a power-play, while Miguel sees himself and Dexter as a real team. But I am sure that there is something deadly lurking beneath Miguel’s inviting smile. He is smart and very flexible with rules when he feels threatened or offended. I wonder if he’s not as much of a loose cannon as his brother Ramon after all. I’d almost wonder if Miguel is the Skinner for this reason, if not for the fact that he admires Dexter’s ability to actually follow through on Miguel’s dark wishful thinking. Besides, my money’s on Deb’s partner Quinn being the Skinner. Every victim has been related to the drug trade in some fashion and he’s being investigated by Internal Affairs for suspicious behavior during his time in narcotics. Plus, he just acts sketchy as hell.

All in all, I’m a grumpy TV blogger this week. True Blood and Terminator are the genre shows I’ve been enjoying most this season. (I think House is the most consistently good television show this season, overall.) But, as the season finale looms, I expect Dexter to heat up and slice its way back into my heart. That’s more than I can say for Heroes.

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Theresa DeLucci

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