Dexter Review: “Ricochet Rabbit”
Hooray, finally the first episode of Dexter practically all year where I don’t have to spend most of it lamenting the stupid, impeding plot twist of Gellar and Travis being one and the same.
That speculation was finally put to rest last week when it was revealed that yes, Travis had killed Gellar over three years ago, and had been hallucinating seeing and taking orders from him ever since.
But now the question is what has happened to Travis? The escape victim said she heard and old man and a young man’s voice, and so when Dexter witnessed Travis talking to himself outside the church, shouldn’t he have been voicing both halves of the conversation?
“Yes, I’m insane. Let’s move on.”
Now Travis doesn’t seem to need to go into “Gellar blackouts” at all and since the realization that he did kill Gellar, is now all-evil himself. It may make the plot more coherent going forward, but if you stop and think for a few seconds, there are a TON of plotholes with this that are too many to even go into, and to all of a sudden just flip a switch and have Travis be evil all the time is kind of an easy way out.
Dexter is kicking himself for ever listening to Brother Sam about mercy, or else Travis would have been dead long ago and this whole thing would have been stopped. But now, the final tableau is at hand, Wormwood, the poison star that will make an appearance in the form of a poison gas bomb at Miami Metro.
Travis, for some reason, inexplicably felt the need to recruit more followers to help him with his work. Seeing as he now realizes he’s been working solo this entire time, I’m not sure why he decided to recruit these people now. And furthermore, taking them from videos posted to his blog is just begging the police to investigate them, which of course ended up happening not like three hours after they’re recruited. And now with one already dead, it seems stupid they were even brought into the show at all, and merely served as a nonsensical plot device to get Dexter and the police back on Travis’s trail.
“Well hey there! I’d love to kill some sinners! Just give me a call at 555-6039.”
Also, it took decades of psychological anguish and disease to get Travis to where he is now. You’re telling me he’s able to get two people to start murdering women in cold blood in the name of God a few hours after meeting them? I just hated this entire development for many, many reasons.
Now the show becomes a bit like 24 as Dexter steps in for Jack Bauer as he races to find the chemical weapon before it detonates. I like that he finally had to break down and call the police for help, as he realized his solo quest for revenge could result in a ton more people dying. He’s usually one step ahead of the cops, but there’s only so much he can do by himself, and in this case, it was nice to see that internal shift.
Quinn’s dicking around finally had some real consequences, as he let Batista get clocked and probably kidnapped as he failed to show up to have his back. I think Deb is starting to have a breakthrough with her psychiatrist that she doesn’t quite understand yet. It appears that she might actually be in love with her brother. That sort of reveal would be a little too out there for this show, but honestly, that’s what it seems like at the moment.
Lewis is a sad panda.
And then we come to Lewis, who I thought was the most interesting person of last episode as it was revealed he bought the ice truck killer hand. And tonight the twist was revealed. His video game is actually about BEING a serial killer! Ta-da! Now, on the surface this sounds like yet another stupid and misleading subplot the way they’ve been all season. I do however, have a tiny, tiny bit of hope that there is in fact more to it than that. Either he’s a killer himself, or he wants that “vicarious thrill” so badly, he might start doing it himself. It also seems like he may know Dexter’s secret, as I do like the whole tracking his search engine theory, and he makes statements like “Dexter never makes mistakes, does he?” So the jury is still out on the relevancy of all this, but I’m hoping there’s more to him than meets the eye.
As for the stupid LaGuerta/Daniels/Deb hooker plotline? I’ve no idea how that will work itself out, but I really hope Daniels kills himself out of despair and the bullet goes through his office wall and takes out LaGuerta at the same time.
All the cards are on the table with Doomsday now, both with the schitzo reveal and the poison gas being the final tableau. After that, the world ends, and unless Travis has about 40 nukes up his sleeve, I don’t think there’s much he can do to help that along.
I know you don’t watch the teasers for the next episode, but next week looks awesome.
I don’t find it strange that Travis could easily talk those people into killing in gods name. There are a lot of religious nut jobs out there. Then again, I may be saying that because I just watched Red State, great movie BTW.
“The escape victim said she heard and old man and a young man’s voice”
I could be wrong but I thought she said that she heard Travis and she heard him talking to someone else. That doesn’t necessarily mean that she heard the other person.
It was an improved episode over last week for sure.
Plus, in an interview this week the head of Showtime said that the end of this season will set up a two-season arc for the final two years of the show which could be really interesting.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/12/02/dexter-series-end-game/
Am I the only one who finds it really uncomfortable to watch Deb and Dexter in a scene together (especially when they’re affectionate) in light of their real-life divorce? If the latest stupid twist ends up being that Deb is really in love with him I think my cringe-worthy meter may actually just pack up its bags and go. And then I’ll become one of those people who isn’t phased by anything, “2 girls 1 cup” notwithstanding. I also now realize EJO was really helping me get through the Baby Hanks scenes, and now that he’s gone I can barely handle Colin trying to prove he’s not just a poor man’s version of his father. Where’s the next Trinity, for god’s sake?
You forgot to point out that one of the serial killers you can be in Lewis’ game is the Bay Harbor Butcher… Dexter was shook hard when he saw that. Lewis doesn’t act like he knows about Dexter yet, but why would he pick that killer out of all the ones ever? Hmm….
@Sam is right, religious nuts will do anything. Travis’ file says he was a master manipulator so it makes sense, I guess..
–also, Red State is a superb flick!
@Mandy
Obviously he would pick the Bay Harbor Butcher for his game because in the universe Dexter takes place in, that is one of the most prolific and famous serial killer cases in history. We’re talking an extremely high body count and all the victims were other killers. That makes it a prime candidate for Lewis’ video game.
did i not comment on last week’s review that deb will realize she is IN LOVE with dexter? wait for it, people, it’s happening.
@Guy Incognitus White yes, there were quite a number of victims found, I don’t think the case got near as much press or caused as much alarm as many of the other cases they’ve dealt with. To the public, I wouldn’t see it as very climactic. Bodies found, killer explodes. The end. There was no public outcry, panic, etc. In the Dexter universe, there are much more ‘known’ killers. The main thing that makes the Bay Harbor Butcher more fun to play as, I guess, is the thrill of killing other killers? But how much of that would even be know by the public… I mean, around 30 body bags is nothing compared to some killing legends throughout history. Just saying it’s suspicious, (as if we didn’t know) and makes me wonder what Lewis really knows about the real Butcher.
I thought the scene with Lewis showing Dexter his game, and Dexter being all “Why would you want to choose to be a serial killer” was beautifully acted. I couldn’t tell if Dexter was just saying that stuff to “Mask” his identity, or if he was really offended by it as he would rather not be a serial killer.
It does seem like Travis has integrated the Geller part of the personality into himself, as he is moving, looking and talking differently now. He seems like an amalgamation of the two characters.
So….looks like Deb is “in love” with her brother, or at least I am getting that idea from next weeks preview and bits of this episode. I know they aren’t biological bro and sis, but that is still beyond creepy if she confesses her love towards Dexter.
Not the best season of Dexter so far, but still better than most of the dross TV that is out there.
“You’re telling me he’s able to get two people to start murdering women in cold blood in the name of God a few hours after meeting them? I just hated this entire development for many, many reasons.”
Unfortunately we have historical evidence of this type of thing taking place, especially with religious fanatics. I didnt mind this at all.
What’s interesting to me is that THAT bothered you, but Dexter calling 9/11 specifically ABOUT Doomsday (which means that the police force is going to NO DOUBT listen to the call in order to figure out who this “anonymous” source is to help break the case) didn’t seem to. He didn’t even disguise his voice!
Is anyone else bothered that Lewis would go up to Dexter, a man whose wife was murdered by a serial killer only two seasons ago, and ask for his thoughts on a game apparently about the joys of serial killing?
Granted i can’t really recall any scene that establishes that he may be even be aware of this, but i figured most people at the department would have known, or at least Dexter’s closest acquaintances like Masuka or Jamie would’ve known; people Lewis was spending a lot of time with.
So barring the possibility that he’s just ignorant of Dexter’s history, the only other explanation for his behavour was that he knew Dexter was a serial killer and was seeking approval from him.
I’m hoping that Deb realizes she do love Dexter and kind of caught up on what he really does in his private time. Then Daniels kill Deb in the last episode, which will be quite shocking. But the next season will be great though as we may see Dexter finally put La Guerta and Daniels on his table.
@Mandy
Don’t forget that the Bay Harbour butcher was a case followed by the FBI not only Miami Metro, which means it was bigger then the usual killers in Miami, plus Lewis could have choosen the Bay harbour butcher cause of him working for Miami Metro he could have acces to more details of the case maybe. Anyway liked this episode, was hoping for a bigger clif-ending than Dexter calling the police but I bet I’ll get that next episode
i think the whole deb in love with dexter thing is setting it up so that WHEN she finds out he’s a serial killer, they will have set precedent for why she is conflicted about turning him in.
i believe she will find out about him if not end of this season, then next season and the final 8th season will be whether or not she will turn him in.
she won’t, because she is his safe haven and she is in love with him as they so overwhelmingly elaborated on in this episode.
This show has become almost complete shit. I really hope the 2 seasons they have left will be the last so they can finally have Dexter be found out and everything come to light to all around him. The only bright spot in the season is the Lewis subplot which seems to be developing for next seasons big storyline which could be Lewis finding out all about Dexter and possibly blackmailing him or based on Dexter asking him “how do you know whats it’s like to kill someone?” maybe pushing him toward killing someone. I do think he knows more about Dexter than has been revealed because why else would he ingratiate himself into every aspect of his life unless he had some ulterior motive.
It took Deb 5 seconds to tie Matthews to that hooker.
What the hell is going on?
The most obvious piece of evidence was right on top of the box and Laguerta and Matthews never took a second to get rid of it.
LaGuerta was even there when Deb said leave it on my desk.
Laguerta has to be throwing him to the wolves or this is really bad writing.