THIS WEEK ON Dexter: Nebraska
Dexter rolled out this week with his bro 4 life, and afterlife. It was a switch I didn’t see coming. If this was an RPG, it would be a totally arduous but ultimately rewarding side-quest. It didn’t add to the main narrative, but it was an interesting sojourn. Plus!, the loot was fantastic. Dexter gained two talent points that he could place in Sanity, which is clutch.
The cross-country jaunt reminded me a lot of Lolita, though I don’t know why. No, not the creepy pedophilic undertones, but the notion of movement providing acceptance for whatever sort of activities one could drum up with. We got Dexter bombing down the highway shooting at signs and giggling while Ice Truck Killer and his endless foldy-face egg him on. His own motherfuckin’ Emperor Palpatine. Save that he’s a remnant of his Dexter’s decaying brain-stem.
Not content with just parlaying my utterly useless knowledge of Post-Modern fiction into something equally intangible, Dexter’s Brother was rocking out in some Brothers Karamazov existential interpretation of morality. Now that Brother Sam has passed away and Dexter has submitted himself to his godless world, everything is permitted! No Lord above, just engaging in the hedonistic sociopathic tendencies.
Dude impaled a Weed Farmer. My goodness!
Interlude:
The scenes between Quinn and Deb in this episode were appreciated. I don’t know if it was the caffeine crumbling my stiffened front, but I felt a genuine twinge of sadness at their parting. Quinn was a solid dude, when the writers weren’t parlaying his character into a pockmarked boozer and banger of any floozy.
Deb’s arc this season is one that I wish got more time. Femininity has never been Deborah’s strong suit, constantly subsumed by her desire to flourish in a male-centric workplace. How is she going to reconcile her desire to express her femininity with her desire to excel as the Lieutenant. Casting off Quinn seems a saddening move to depart from her more feminine side. The problem is that the alternative is the tiring female trope that LaGuerta trots out. The inability to portray a woman of power as anything other than a bitch conniving twat. Here’s hoping that the writers can tow that line.
We all can recognize that Dexter is a fucking dick now, right? Like, he routinely does douchey stuff. How many times is he going to pawn off Harrison on someone? Oh hey take my kid! Pretty much my only interaction with him is bouncing him on my knee while I look up the mugshots of serial killers and plot their deaths.
Meanwhile, the dude uses Harry’s Code as glorious toilet paper for his blood hungry bunghole. He ices the dude in this episode for threatening him. How many innocent lives does he have to take before we’re all “Aiight dude, now you’re just a serial killer!”
The episode ends with another Dostoevsky riff, the idea that in order for there to be light, there has to be darkness. (Listen I understand that he wasn’t the only guy to make such a proclamation. He just had a beast of a beard and wrote the Brothers K, so fuck you.) When Harry rolled up and got into the car, I couldn’t help be smile at the insanely cheesy moment. Yeah Harry, get the fuck in dude! Without darkness, there can be no light. Of course this notion was established in a ham-handed manner, and we didn’t have Dmitri and Aloysha bantering on for twenty mind-fucking and glorious pages at a time. What can you do?