THIS WEEK ON Dexter: Circle Us

It only took seven episodes, but I am almost certain this season of Dexter has wrapped its murderous tendrils around my intrigue. This week’s episode, Circle Us, seemingly kicked off the beginning of the season’s sprint to the finish line. White-knuckled, butt-clenching excitement. Totally awesome, dudes. I suppose there is some truth to the axiom that my fellow Morgan watchers hammered into me: it’s a slow boil, it’s been every season, et cetera. And while I disagree on the macro level, since last season was a runaway train cart, it may be paying off in season five.

Excelsior! You win. Don’t ever say I don’t keep an open mind.

At the centerpiece of last night’s episode was the revelation that our favorite mustachioed renegade, Boyd Fowler, rolled with a legit posse. True enough, we knew that he wasn’t alone in his raping and pillaging, but by god, he rocks out with Jordan Chase? Take it! Take it! Or at the very least, he was childhood friends with Chase’s head of security. Molto interessante! Despite the fact that it eerily echoes the plot of a show that just wrapped up its inaugural season, I can get down with this storyline.

Everything is much more complicated when you have a multimillion dollar motivational speaker at the center of it. God damn, what did those boys do as they grew up together? My friends and I ate Wendy’s every day and played Diablo II until our eyes bleed. But Boyd Fowler and his boys? They killed ladies and left them to rot in a swamp? That’s some seriously bad parenting on all their families behalves.

Meanwhile, Dexter and Lumen continue to flourish into a couple tied together by blood lust, and vengeance. If you didn’t think they were going to blossom into the Bonnie and Clyde of murder and retribution in the Miami area, I have to ask you if you’re still skeptical about them after last night. I mean, she like, totally hugged him. When is a hug from a cute blond chick a hug? Especially when she shares your desire to murder those who wrong? Fucking never!

As well, I have to kick into Lumen’s corner when it comes to murdering rapists. I mean, let’s suppose they didn’t dispose of a laundry list of ladies in the swamp, and those dudes are serial rapists. Underpinned by the mantra of Take It!, which got really uncomfortable all of a sudden? I’m going Emperor Palpatine on this one. Wipe them out, all of them!

But considering they also electrocuted them and preserved them in formaldehyde? Yeah, you guys are cool to go.

An overarching theme of this season is the uncomfortable bonds that tie people together. Boyd and His Boys Debauched partake in actions truly heinous together as a ritual that if not bonding, certainly bonds them together. In addition, Dexter and Lumen are a couple who are bonded together out not only from the repercussions of people like Boyd and the Lieutenants of Suck, but out of their ruined psyches. I’m not sure what the writers are going for when it comes to this investigation, but it’s interesting to see the nexus of horror, and the bonds that stem from creating it, and stem from being affected by it.

There’s a lot of other things going on in the show, but none of them really hold my interest. And if we’re finally strapping rockets to our crotches for the typical seasonal descent into madness, I’m fine with them being whisked away. Quinn is beginning to waver on his looking into Dexter. Fuck that Robocop guy, too. His delivery drives me insane. Angel and Maria continue to fight, this time because she made a blunder fantastic in a night club regarding the Santa Muerte boys. That’s really the best they can give us regarding those two? Continued marital bickering? I’m not saying they’re talking me out of tying the (noose) knot, but at the very least, they’re giving me pause.

Are any of you actually enjoying the subplots? I’ll give you this: the intersection of Quinn, Deb, Lumen, Robocop, and Dexter now that the Fowler et Company murders have been made public has the potential to be interesting. Quinn has seen Dexter with Lumen, and should the investigation into the murders lead them to the missing but alive Lumen, shit could be poppin’ off. Big poppin’! It almost seems too obvious that Quinn is going to lead himself to his own destruction. Are they pulling a double reversal here? Is Quinn going to end up saving Dexter, or sacrificing himself for Deb?

I don’t know, but color me intrigued.

This week’s episode sold me. It’s a shame that they had to sacrifice six episodes to set the pieces of motion, but fuck, they’ve finally flicked the first domino. Strap aboard the murder train, I think the rest of the season is going to be the typical insane-o, oh my gosh how will he get out of this?, entertaining ride.

Thoughts? Hit the comments box, you turkeys.