Dexter – “First Blood” (5.5) – review

After rescuing Lumen from her horrific imprisonment, Dexter tries to convince her to leave Miami and return home to her family. Although the trauma that she suffered has made her both physically and mentally fragile, Lumen is determined to find the men that tortured and raped her and exact a justice on them that Dexter is all too familiar with. Now, Dexter’s fallen angel has become an avenging one.

Episode five was mild for a Dexter episode, but it was still better than most shows currently running on television. Dexter is slowly becoming unraveled, and he is getting sloppy in his serial killer activities. This is only emphasized when he almost kills the wrong man under Lumen’s erratic assumptions. Upon seeing his victim wearing an ankle bracelet, Dexter realizes he needs to be more careful and that he must get Lumen to leave town. Meanwhile Deb’s affair with Quinn is only heating up as he continues to find out all he can about Dexter. Angel and Maria’s new marriage is on the rocks. The couple is desperately trying to trust each other and hold onto their marriage. However, when Maria takes on a secret assignment to bury Angel’s bar-fight investigation, it only fuels Angel’s suspicions that she is hiding something else from him, besides a retirement fund.

Was this week’s episode good? Well, I felt it did jump the shark a bit. The show opens with Lumen and Dexter sharing a weird “serial killer” probation plan and meeting at a diner. Its seems he let the woman who saw him kill another man out into the real world rather quickly.  I understand the need to move the plot, but this sudden “fast forward” made the episode feel disjointed from last week. I seriously thought I had missed an episode, but Dexter’s inner monologue made me forget the obvious writing “leap of faith.”  

It was quite obvious that Lumen was not leaving, even when Dexter took her to the airport and saw her check in. He also foolishly gave her his real name; we all know that is going to come back to haunt him. This episode definitely showed how Dexter has unraveled since Rita’s death, and Lumen is just the catalyst to bring him crashing down hard. I like the slow churning plot twists presented this episode. I suspect things are about to pick up and this is just the calm before the storm.

All taken in…a good epsiode for any other show…but a timid romp for Dexter.