DEXTER – Like Pulling Teeth

• Tweet
• Pin It

I guess old serial killers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The Tooth Fairy Killer was possibly one of the least sympathetic characters on Dexter or any TV show that I’ve seen in a long time! He was an asshole, pure and simple. Every minute he was on screen was excruciating, I just kept saying to myself kill him already! The story here dragged on and on, and it could have been so much better if they had just made him a worthy adversary. It looked promising when it turned out he knew who Dexter was, but he gets dispatched far too easily. It just seemed a waste of what could have been a great character. The potential was there, a serial killer that Dexter had admired from childhood returning to his old haunting ground; it could have made for a great season long arc even. The storyline did lead to some interesting developments, but as a kill of the week I found this one lacking and disappointing.

Another problem I had was that Colin Hank’s character still doesn’t convince me as a killer, especially not a serial killer and definitely not one who could perform such sick, sadistic murders. He just turns the whole homicidal maniac thing on and off a bit too easily for my liking. Their whole religious holier than thou crap is getting fairly annoying too. Have to admit though, the four horseman of the apocalypse kill at the end was fantastic and definitely one of the more inventive killings we’ve seen on Dexter. It was like that chilling moment when we first saw the Ice-Truck Killers handiwork — more of that please! Also I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Professor Gellar; he’s a bit too much of a background character at the moment! The theories on the web that he isn’t real are interesting, but I think I’d prefer him as a real villain rather than an imaginary one, plus the twist is too obvious, and I think the writers are smarter than that!

One thing I really like about this season is the call-back to earlier seasons. It’s not much but it’s definitely an improvement looking at material such as Dexter’s childhood hero, Dexter’s school life, and my personal favourite recalling of  the aforementioned Ice Truck Killer Case. The show is finally starting to respect and use its history,  a really exciting development, and I’m intrigued to see what Masuka’s assistant Ryan is up to with the prosthetic hand, because I have no idea where they’re going with that!

While I didn’t particularly enjoy the means of getting there, the ending of the episode was great. I loved Dexter’s realization that his box of blood slides was worthless. He couldn’t do anything with them; he couldn’t pass them on or give them to his son. He didn’t want to end up like the Tooth Fairy where his ‘trophies’ were all he had left. It was an important realisation and one which may see Dexter fully embrace religion as a new form of providing method to the madness, as well as having something worthwhile to leave behind to Harrison. It felt like a pivotal moment in Dexter’s development and it’ll be interesting to see whether his character turns to religion or something else to give his life clarity.

While I wasn’t that keen on this episode it did have its good points, as much as it had bad ones. It was an average episode of Dexter which had a poor story, a great ending and few little bits that hint at an exciting future ahead for our favourite serial killer.