THIS WEEK ON Dexter: Just Let Go

I was wrong about this season’s Dexter. If you can draw a thesis from a season of a television show midway through (and I’m not sure you can), then I would argue that it’s not about Faith at all. No sir. That’s the Red Herring. Don’t buy into it. By the end of “Just Let Go”, with Brother Sam dad and Dexter seeing his serial killing brother it became pretty fucking apparent.

This season is about choice of interpretation.

Brother Sam is the linchpin. At first I was certain he was serving as a foil for Eddie James Olmos’ pockmarked Soothsayer of Doom. Both of them manipulate the prophesizing of the Bible. Sam uses it to start a pretty rockin’ Pimp Your Ride operation, James Gallagher uses it to kidnap women and hire poorly performing Lackeys of the Apocalypse. But Brother Sam is also Dexter’s foil, and it became pretty clear where they differ.

Just like Dexter, Sam suffered the slings and arrows of a childhood covered in blood.   He saw his father blast some dude in the mug-piece, much as Dexter slapped around in his mother’s hemoglobin back in the day. Going through life he lived like a thug, probably did some nefarious things involving women’s butts and money and everything. However, his defining moment came when he was released on a technicality or some shit (I should research this if I want to make a strong argument but I’m fucking lazy, aiight?) and decided that it was God’s will.

In doing so, Bruddah Sam threw down his chips on the Righteous Path and began seeing the light in things. It’s trite as fuck but he refused to interpret things in a manner that threw a Cloak of Darkness around that shit. Even up to the point where he was willing to forgive the guy who pushed him into the ground with bullet powder. There was ample opportunities for Sam to think that God had failed him, that the douchebag Nick (was it Nick?) who shot him was irredeemable. He choose not to.

It was his choice on how to interpret things.

Dexter meanwhile is one grumpy curmudgeonly asshole. Whereas Brother Sam seems opportunities to forgive and rock out with The Lord and save people, Dexter sees opportunities to dance in people’s blood. As I mentioned Dex had a rather similar childhood to Sam, but he’s always looked at it through a rather…sociopathic view. This slant has carried him through the seasons, destroying everything in his path. Dexter’s insistence on emphasizing the Dark Passenger is going to be his undoing. And ours too, if the dialogue from last night’s episode is any indication.

Jesus Fucking Christ, just stop saying Dark Passenger already. I’m begging you, writers of Dexter. Begging.

As Sam amply pointed out in a previous episode, there’s more than enough positive things in Dexter’s life. His son. His sister. Dude’s got a good job. A bangin’ body. Things to live for. But much like Batman, the dude needs some serious fucking therapy. Like, Deb is getting therapy? Dexter needs a squadron of psychologists and a teddy bear to hug.

Anyone still searching for the Light/Darkness divide between Dexter and Sam only need to consider the Baptism both of them gave Nick (or whoever that guy was who shot Sam). Sam doused that motherfucker in the Waters of Purification during a gorgeous sunny day. Meanwhile Dexter gave the dude his own “baptism” shoving his silly ass into the water and not stopping until the gurgling gave way.

Light. Darkness. Choice of Interpretation.

The repercussions for how the two characters choose to interpret things seems slanted in Dexter’s direction if only because he’s still sucking wind. But his life is empty, and now (according to the previews) he’s going to go gangbanging with the Ghost of his Brah. At the very least I’m glad to see Dexter finally heading in some fucking direction. This spiraling around the drain is exhausting, and it will be fun to see Dexter actually take a stand.

Even if it’s to go kill Trinity’s son. I didn’t foresee the switch in directions this season, and I hope they’re as exciting as they look. Brother Sam seems to be serving as the pivot to send Dexter into a dark, dark, dark. It took six episodes, but I think we’ve finally been launched into the season’s main trajectory.

Sure it took a long time, but if it’s awesome, who cares?

It depends on how you interpret it.

(See what I did there? Fuck you!)