Dexter TV Show - Lost Boys - Dexter Recaps, Dexter Reviews, Dexter Episodes | TWoP

Aired 2009-11-29

Previously, Dexter joined the Mitchells for one seriously funked up Thanksgiving and ended up threatening to kill Arthur with a carving knife. Meanwhile, Rita was kissing Elliott in the kitchen and regretting it. Also, Christine graduated from being super annoying to super sketchy when she made a comment about Lundy's crime scene that she couldn't have known. Oh, and also when we saw that she's Trinity's daughter.

We open on a close-up of a syringe with Dexter's face hovering behind it. Dexter's Voice-Over (DVO) is being all ominous and weird about it, which makes us think he's prepping for a kill. But no, it's only Harrison getting his inoculations. Damn, now Dexter's gonna have to worry about Jenny McCarthy and the anti-vaccine psychos too? Like he hasn't already been overburdened this season. Rita's brush with lip-infidelity last week seems to have brought her bitchitude roaring back, as she seems peeved that Dexter isn't more of an emotional basket case (like she is) over poor Harrison's plight. Dex obliges by sweet-talking Harrison through the injection.

That night, we see Dexter has gone and rented out a shipping container to house his various serial-killing paraphernalia and bric-a-brac. As DVO reminds us, it's a lot more secure than a shed in the backyard. Wow, so that little plot device was short-lived. And this now just makes one more thing for Rita (or Deb) to discover that'll make Dex look suspicious. Whatever, moving on. For what seems like the fiftieth week in a row, Dexter has committed himself to killing Trinity. TONIGHT.

Cut to Dexter following Arthur in his car. The plan is to abduct him in the parking lot outside church choir practice, but Art throws a curveball when he drives right past the church. And so, much like the night Dexter discovered Arthur lived in the 'burbs with a (seemingly) happy family, Dexter follows Arthur into the night, not knowing where he's headed. We end up in a parking garage, where Dexter continues to stay out of Arthur's sight. Arthur's too busy staring intently at a mother and her two grade-school-aged children to notice anyway. We've seen Trinity in stalk mode before, so we know this can't end well. But is he looking for another bathtub girl? This mother is young, but not that young. She'd more fit the profile of the suicide jumper, but the cycle isn't there yet. Hey, why don't I stop armchair-serial-killing and follow the story, huh? (Also, apparently the woman is a babysitter or stepmom or something, so I guess we are being led to believe she's a potential bathtub victim, ANYWAY.)

By Joe R

Dexter moves to follow Arthur, thinking he's trying to shake him. But Arthur stops to read the sticker on the back of the car. The one that helpfully gives the names of each of the family members. American parents, this is where your pathological narcissism comes home to roost. So Arthur memorizes the names, then follows the family into an arcade. While DVO starts to get suspicious and wonders if Arthur hasn't fired up another cycle, Trinity embarks upon the oldest child-predator gambit in the book. He waits until Scott (the son) is playing a game by himself and tells him he's a police officer and that his parents ("Nick and Barb," thank you braggy decal!) have been in a car accident. This is such classic Stranger Danger, I half expect McGruff the Crime Dog to appear and take a bite out of crime.

Scott falls for it (the STUPID) and is led by the hand out to Trinity's van. Dexter scrambles to catch up with them, but by the time he realizes he's taken the boy, Arthur's already pulled out the chloroformed rag (man! It's like the greatest hits of child abduction tonight), knocked Scott out, thrown him in the back of the van, and pulled away. Dexter calls after Arthur just before he does, and Arthur sees him.

Okay, so Dexter blew that one. But how would he know Arthur was planning to buck his own pattern and target a young boy? He books to his car, where his phone is ringing. It's Arthur, who tells "Kyle" to back off. He says he'll "preserve the boy's innocence," but if Dexter calls the cops (which Dexter never would, not that Arthur knows that), all bets are off. "I have a process," he says. "As long as it's not interrupted, I'll set the boy free." Somehow, I'm not so reassured. Neither is Dexter. He's so unsettled, he conjures up Harry, who plays Captain Obvious ("he's gonna kill that boy") before settling into his usual guilt-tripping and blaming Dexter for everything. Dexter is still clinging to the idea that killing a boy isn't in Trinity's pattern.

Dexter speeds on over to the Mitchell homestead, where he finds Jonah home alone. Awww yeah. Oh, whatever, let me have my fun. Anyway, Dex is looking pretty unhinged as he barges on in. Jonah says his dad's on a two-day teaching retreat in Naples, so DVO surmises he won't kill the kid until tomorrow. There's still time. Dex checks the living room and sees that Vera's urn has been restored/replaced. Indeed, Jonah's still living at home too, Dex notes, and nothing much has changed from before the Thanksgiving near-massacre. Jonah says he can't well leave his sister and mother, but we sense there's some fear of leaving on Jonah's part, too. Dexter -- looking TOTALLY CRAZY by now -- grabs Jonah by his face and tries to convince him that he has an obligation to break his father's cycle of violence. And in this case, it means helping "Kyle" in various unspecified ways. "Help me, Jonah," Dexter says again, then dashes off into the night like a lunatic. It's a testament to how fucked up Life with Trinity must be that Jonah seems pretty unfazed by all that.

By Joe R

Speaking of fucked-up life with Trinity, Scott wakes up to find himself in a dark basement with Arthur on the floor building a model train. It's official, model trains have officially become the sole province of the weird and dangerously maladjusted. Trinity calls Scott "Arthur" and won't respond to his questions. Instead, he plays with his trains and makes choo-choo noises.

At home, Dexter researches the Trinity killings and finds cases of abducted young boys in the same cities, the same time periods, five days before each bathtub killing. Since DVO and Harry are both working overtime to make sure we see the parallels between these lost boys and Trinity's lost innocence (not to mention Dexter's as well), I'm just going to focus on the police work. Unlike Trinity's other victims, the bodies of the boys are never found. He looks up the most recent child abduction, five days before the Lisa Bell murder. Dexter, making sure we get it, says, "My God, the boys begin the cycle." Rita then startles him by returning home with the baby. After a vaguely see-you--Tuesday-ish comment about how Dexter always seems to be working late, she says Harrison's not feeling well and will be sleeping in their bed tonight. Fascinating, Rita, BYE.

The morning, Dexter fidgets, worried about where Arthur could have taken the boy. They could be anywhere. To that end, he gets a cop friend to run Arthur's plates (under the ruse that he wants to track down a guy whose car he rear-ended) and notify him when the van is spotted.

Outside Dex's office, Masuka paces nervously. He tells Deb he needs to tell Dex something, but he doesn't know how to say it. This is all because he saw Rita and Elliott kissing on Thanksgiving. But Deb doesn't investigate that far because she's in line to visit her brother. She tells him she'll be granting Christine an interview today, but that she thinks Christine might know more about who killed Lundy than she's letting on. And I think Deb's more suspicious of Christine than SHE'S letting on, but it's not like Dexter's paying attention anyway. He does perk up when Deb wonders if she should take her suspicions to Quinn first. Dexter is understandably and predictably not in favor of telling Quinn anything, saying Deb doesn't know where his loyalties lie. Dex goes to make a swift exit, but Deb practically barricades the door. She's giving a Trinity briefing in a minute and needs Dex's big, juicy, chess-club brain.

By Joe R

In the briefing, Deb mentions Trinity's probable career in the education system, though Dexter tries to pooh-pooh that notion. Dexter trying to slow down Deb's investigation is increasingly coming across as Dexter being a dick. If he's gonna drag his feet on Trinity so damn much, why NOT let Deb get the satisfaction of catching him? Anyway, LaGuerta dishes out orders -- including a moment of not being impressed with Angel, who reacts with bemused chagrin. Oh, right, they're still a thing. After the meeting, Masuka tries to tell Dexter about Thanksgiving, but Dex blows him off.

Elsewhere, Quinn seems dorkily happy to see that Deb is agreeing to the interview with Christine. This bitch has him wrapped tighter than Captain Matthews's asshole. Christine lip-services about how great this profile is gonna be for Deb, and while Quinn continues to dork around, Deb makes up an excuse to go see Angel for a moment while Quinn escorts Christine to the Box. Because where else would you conduct a friendly interview but the interrogation room? Anyway, when they're gone, Deb goes and asks Angel to observe the interview. He's lead on the Lundy shooting, remember.

Back in Trinity's Basement of Warped Childhood Diversions, Arthur plays with his trains while "Arthur" refuses to put on the pajamas that have been laid out for him. He refuses to do anything Arthur tells him and screams that his name is Scott. Arthur hands him a figurine of a man and woman together, says something about Father drinking and Mother paying the price, and then exits the basement with cold indifference.

Dexter shows up at Scott's parents' house offering to help in any way he can. As he steps inside and sees Scott's mother weeping, DVO appears to feel momentarily guilty for knowing who took Scott, but then makes with the usual justifications about how the police would just screw things up. He asks Scott's dad if there's any additional information that might help the search. No dice. Dex leaves with nothing but flyers. But in the car ride home, Dex has a thoroughly illuminating conversation with the ghost of his dead father, wherein he surmises that the boys' bodies never showed up because Arthur disposed of them in secret ... probably at the Habitat for Inhumanity build sites. Well, now Dex is in business.

By Joe R

So Christine conducts her interview while Angel observes on the TV in his office. God, no wonder the soaps are a dying genre when this is what Angel chooses for daytime TV. Deb shows Christine crime scene photos of Lundy's dead body, which Christine handles like they're hot potatoes. Deb stares intensely at Christine as she talks about how she just stares at those photos all day, looking for the slightest clue. At this, Christine gets antsy and says she's got enough. Deb, totally calm and in control, asks how Christine, given where she lives (60 minutes from Lundy's hotel) could have gotten to the crime scene so fast. Deb's got her clocked at a 15-minute lag time. Christine says she was in the car on the way to the gym when she heard the scanner. From his office, Angel perks up and says (to no one there) that she's lying. Meanwhile, Christine's practically clawing at the walls looking for a way out. Deb's still cool, almost smug now. The old Deb would have been elbow-deep in Christine's hair, bashing her down on the table by now, but new detective Deb just smiles. She's knows she's got something, and she's content to watch Christine squirm, see how this plays out. I'll say it again, if this show has written any character consistently and with excellent growth, it's Deb. She finally, almost mercifully, shows Christine the way out.

Deb then hightails it to Angel's office, where he's flabbergasted that Christine's lying. He remembers talking to Christine at that crime scene -- full makeup, no bed-head. She hadn't just rolled out of bed. Deb's more interested in how squirmy she got at the Lundy photos. And she tells Angel what Christine said about Deb looking into Lundy's dying eyes. They're momentarily interrupted by Quinn, who gets an awkward look from the two of them. Angel says they need to tread lightly, given Quinn's connection to Christine.

Dexter shows up at the latest Habitat for Inhumanity build. They've made a lot of progress since Arthur tried to kill himself. They're well into the masonry phase. Dexter looks through the rooms but finds nothing. He's not-subtly flipping out when he gets a call from Jonah, who hasn't been able to find anything incriminating on his dad. Dex tells him to look in his internet search history, and he finds some real estate listings. Jonah offers to send the link to "Kyle," but Kyle doesn't have email. Jonah has the sense to find that weird but doesn't follow up. Dex just tells him to fax the list to the Kinko's by his house. Dex assures Jonah he's doing the right thing. "How come you're the only one who can see my dad for what he really is?" Jonah asks. And, because this show would wither and die if it passed up the opportunity to underline the theme in triplicate, Dexter replies that they've got "a few things in common."

By Joe R

Rita's waiting to pick Cody up at school, and listening to the radio report about the abducted boy, when she spots a skirmish. Luckily, she doesn't have Harrison with her and is able to run up to find Cody and another kid brawling. Turns out this other punk has been saying he saw Dexter leave the Junior Sailors' campout from a few episodes ago. In a nice twist, it's not the absence that got Cody fighting but the assertion that Dex left camp because he was too scared. Rita apologizes to the mom of the other kid and is all, "Boys, am I right?" The terrible actress playing the other mom is like, "If my child said that's what he saw then I believe him." See YOU Tuesday too, lady.

Arthur's at the hardware store (this guy spends a LOT of his free time at hardware stores...when he's not spending his free time murdering people) when he gets a call from Christine, who is continuing her episode-long unraveling. She says she needs to see him, but he blows her off. They both end up expositing that they only meet a couple times a year (Thanksgiving night and her birthday, it sounds like), because Arthur already has a family who need him. "I need you, more than they do," Christine cries. Arthur, unmoved, hangs up before she can say, "I think I'm in trouble."

Back in the creepy Basement of Abduction, Arthur has returned with food. He plays an old vinyl record (Connie Francis?) and tells young "Arthur" he can eat only when he's put on his pajamas. Poor Scott, who's really been throwing himself into the role of defiant stoic here, cannot resist the allure of delicious cheeseburgers for very long. He puts on the PJs.

That night, Dexter is casing the houses on the list Jonah faxed to him. Six empty, and now this one, with a couple screwing in front of a shade-less window. Drapes, people, damn. He gets a call from Rita, who's dealing with sick Harrison. She whines for him to come home. On the way. Dexter tries one more house. He creeps downstairs, and we see the wood paneling looks awfully familiar ... but it's not Arthur's hideout. It IS the hideout for some squatters, a mother and her dirty children. "My babies just need a place to sleep at night," the mother pleads. Dex promises not to rat them out. Okay, that was weird. It feels like the show was going for poignant there when it really just felt random.

By Joe R

Back home, Dexter picks up Harrison and takes the kid's temperature. Rita tells him her ex-husband's parents called and would like to take the kids to Disney World some weekend. Rita assures Dex Paul's folks are nice, it was Paul who was the "abusive black sheep" of the family. Plus, Rita says, it'll be good for Cody. She explains the fight and Cody's reasons for defending Dex. Rita doesn't appear to be at all suspicious, but she does say that Cody wants to quit Junior Sailors. Dexter totally doesn't care and goes to give Harrison a cool bath while Rita cooks dinner.

Deb and Angel are at her place, puzzling over the Christine situation -- both what she might know and how they should handle Quinn. Angel says they should "think outside the box," so we know Miami Metro is on the cutting edge of 1998 language. Deb's got something outside the box for him: Christine's the same height as the shooter. Angel's intrigued but neither knows WHY the hell she'd kill Lundy. He wants to do a DNA test, but they have nowhere near enough for a warrant. Deb's got an idea, though. One that lives outside a certain box.

Dexter bathes Harrison while DVO tortures him about Cody's fight -- the night he left the camp site WAS the night he killed Innocent Farrow, remember. For some reason, this sparks an idea: "Trinity's not the only one using his family as human shields."

Meanwhile, Quinn has officially blown his stack, having been told about Deb's suspicions. He screams that Christine didn't have anything to do with the shooting and accuses Dexter of being behind this. Man, Quinn has developed quite the hard-on for Dexter in such a short time. Deb rightly wonders what the shit Dexter has to do with this, and Quinn backs down like a chump. Deb, being kind, allows that she might be wrong about this, but Quinn's a good cop and he knows what it's like to have a hunch like this. Quinn's pissed Deb told Angel, making him look like an asshole. She tells him not to make it about him. Just help them get the DNA evidence, exonerate Christine, and then be free to shove it up Deb's ass whenever he likes. (Masuka just got phantom limb pain, wherever he is.)

By Joe R

Speaking of Masuka, Deb takes the Christine sample to him and needs it analyzed ASAP. Despite his protests that Project Runway is on, he gives in. Deb won't say who the sample belongs to, though.

The morning, Dexter still has eight houses to check for Arthur. He gets a call from LaGuerta hounding him for the blood report (on the SANDWICH GUY -- damn, Dexter, there's dragging your feet and there's this). His mouth promises the report in a half-hour, but the missing-child flyer on his lap says "half past whenever I kill Trinity."

Back at the Joseph Quinn House of Easily Manipulated Walking Boners, Quinn asks Christine what her Christmas plans are. What about her family? She says they're not close. She also notices that her toothbrush is gone, and she's not at all suspicious when Quinn says the cleaning lady must've thrown it out and then immediately produces a brand new one. Smooth, detective. Real smooth. In fact, she only gets pissed when she tries to get in his pants and he's not into it. She asks if Deb said anything to him. Rapidly unraveling -- again -- she complains about the shitty interview Deb gave and then says she's gonna be late for work. Quinn begins to look concerned.

Christine calls her dad from the car and has to leave a voice mail message. "We might be in trouble," she says. "We have to talk about that woman. In the bathtub. That night. When I was little."

In the basement, Arthur plays with his train set and generally ignores Scott's questions about when he can go. Scott finally gets fed up and kicks at the train, then kind of awesomely crosses his arms and demands to be taken home to his parents. I like this kid. He clearly has no respect for Arthur and his weak-ass toy trains. Lest you think Arthur would react to such insolence with anger or violence ... uh, nope. He just looks sad and starts singing along to the record. Then he starts crying, and Scott asks why. "It was Vera's favorite song," he whimpers. He explains all about Vera and keeps repeating that it wasn't his fault. Scott is moved by this and says he's sorry about Vera. "If it makes you feel any better," he says, "you can call me Arthur." Aw. What a sweet corpse this kid is. Scott says they can play trains some, and then Arthur can take him home. He's probably just being naïve or Stockholm-y or whatever, but I like Scott, so I'm secretly hoping he's setting Arthur up. Arthur calls "Arthur" a dear boy and an innocent. "Promise me you'll always stay that way." Scott: "Uh, sure." Arthur then offers the kid some ice cream. And before you start getting visions of this unbalanced old man and adorable child bonding over shared Neapolitan, we see Arthur load up Scott's ice cream dish with drugs. He promises that after Scott finishes, "I think it's time we let you go free." Lies or horrifying metaphorical truth?

By Joe R

Miami Metro. Dexter checks on the real estate listings over the phone, then hands in his blood report. Dexter must've been one of those people who could write an entire term paper the night before it was due. No wonder Quinn hates him so much. Dexter's cop friend shows up and says they found the van he's looking for by a nearby diner. Dex uses that info to narrow down the real estate listings. He finds the place he's looking for then darts for the elevator, blowing past Masuka. Deb catches him by the elevator and they both commiserate about being at their wits' end. Then, off-camera, there comes a terrible screech. "DEEEEBRA MORRRGAN!" It's that tragic old informant woman. Or, as Deb describes her to Dex, "Dad's old fuck-buddy." Throw another one on the list of phrases I never want to say out loud. DVO tries to sound profound about uncovering Harry's secrets while Dex himself is all "Peace!"

So the awful tragic woman, Valerie, apologizes to Deb for being so harsh in her assessment of Harry. She says Harry dumped her for another informant and it still hurts. Okay, they needed one of these slags for a second appearance and they opted against Adrienne Barbeau? That's weird. Anyway, Deb asks if Val knows the name of this other woman. She doesn't, but she starts to talk about how she basically stalked and terrorized this woman after the fact. Before the story goes anywhere interesting, Masuka calls her back to the bullpen with news.

Angel and LaGuerta flirt by the elevators for the half-second it takes Masuka and Deb to approach them with the news: Christine's DNA results are in: she's related to Trinity. Is she ever!

Cut to Dexter, feverishly searching this empty house for signs of Arthur or the boy. None. But in the backyard, he uncovers a bomb shelter. He scrambles inside, and we see he's at the right place. Train set, record player, fast food wrappers. Arthur doesn't tidy up nearly as well as Dexter does. This must offend Dex on an OCD level. So Harry shows up for perhaps his most pointless appearance of the season. I'm not even gonna gloss over it like I normally do, because you people need to know: "1960s Miami. Cuban Missile Crisis. Irony is, places like this were meant to keep people safe." It gets worse! Dexter: "I hate irony." WOW. All-time low for Harry, there. Dex spots the half-eaten ice cream and realizes he just missed them.

By Joe R

Meanwhile, Trinity pulls into a parking garage. Is Scott already dead? Who knows? He's here to meet with his dumb daughter. She's all sorts of agitated and jittery and she goes right into describing how one night, when she was five, she didn't stay in the car like Arthur told her to, and she saw him kill a woman in a bathtub. Arthur tries to tell her she dreamed it, just like she thought. Christine says it wasn't ... and she knew it wasn't, when it happened again in the same house, 30 years later.

Back at the bomb shelter, Dexter ransacking in vain, looking for clues. He's wrecked with the thought that he was too late to save the kid. Particularly when he thinks of Harrison or Cody in Scott's place. Dexter's sense of empathy has become pretty well developed by now, huh?

Christine, looking sweaty and bug-eyed and crunk, pulls out a stack of postcards Arthur sent her, each corresponding to a bathtub murder location. Looks like Lundy wasn't the only one obsessing. And seriously, that's two people who were able to track Trinity's killings across the U.S. of A. What the fuck was the FBI's problem they couldn't track this guy? "It's all right!" she tells him. "I protected you! That FBI agent, Lundy, he was starting to get close, but I stopped him." She says she was watching when Arthur bumped into Lundy and saw that Lundy was putting things together. "So I shot him!" Arthur grabs her by the shoulders and shakes her. She assures him she made it look like other killers, "the police had no idea." Yeah, "had." Well, they're starting to ask questions. Arthur looks very freaked for a moment but then composes himself. He thanks her for putting herself at risk for him. Christine crazies that it's way more than what his other kids would have done for him. Arthur softly assures her he's not gonna let anything happen to her. He kisses her on the forehead and hugs her. I start laying down money on him snapping her neck, but he simply sends her home, retreats to his van ... and flips out on the steering wheel shouting "STUPID FUCKING CUNT!"

At the bomb shelter, Dexter makes a discovery. The "dust" on the ground is actually cement powder. Turns out Dexter was right to think of the Habitat for Inhumanity build. He just got there too soon. And indeed, we see Arthur zip Scott's body into a bodybag and prepare to drop him into a grave of wet cement. Dexter shows up, and the two killers face off. Arthur tries to get "Kyle" to go away and let him do this. Which is funny, because as far as he knows, Kyle isn't a serial killer to whom his urges are normal. Anyway, Dex lunges and Arthur kicks the bodybag into the cement. They both struggle over the shovel as the body sinks. "I can't stop this," Arthur semi-pleads. "I can," Dexter replies. He wrests the shovel away, cracks Arthur with it, and goes to pull the bodybag out of the cement. It's a hell of an effort, but he does it, and Scott's alive (if unconscious) when he opens the bag. While Dex does that, and I sit here and freak out about the prospect of being buried alive in cement, Arthur apparently has time to leap tall cinderblock walls in a single bound, because Dex turns around and he's gone. Dexter lets loose with a Shatner-worthy "ARRRRTHURRRRR!" So look for week's episode to open with Dexter once again vowing that this week he's DEFINITELY gonna kill Trinity.

By Joe R

Christine paces back at her apartment, waiting for her dad to show up. There's a knock at the door, and she calls out "Daddy" even before she opens. Unfortunately, it's Angel, Debra, Quinn, and a few uniformed officers. She's under arrest. She looks reproachfully at Quinn, who looks reproachfully at Deb. Who looks more crushed to have Quinn mad at her than she should be.

Back at Casa Dexter, Rita greets him happily and tells him that abducted boy from the news was found. They enjoy the blissful silence for a moment, before Harrison starts crying. Dexter volunteers to go get him, and we see him holding Harrison in the nursery, promising that nobody's ever going to hurt him. "Especially me." Whatever that portends.

Joe R wonders how Dexter can not kill Trinity for one more week before the finale. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.

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