Dexter Season 7 Episode 2 "Sunshine & Frosty Swirl"

          Well episode two starts directly after the conclusion of episode one where Dexter tells Deb he is a serial killer. Dexter follows Deb after she runs from his apartment to vomit in the street. What a perfect reaction. I first noticed that once they started talking to each other, Deb was disgusted by Dexter. She was absolutely horrified that her father taught her adoptive brother how to kill people. This scene must have taken forever to write because it is absolutely flawless. Deb punching Dexter was the perfect reaction to Dexter’s sassy, “well what are you going to do now,” question. It was definitely something Deborah would do.

          I was pleasantly surprised when Deb brought up the topic of rehab. I didn’t expect the episode to head in this direction to happen which made it even more enjoyable. While Harry tried to channel Dexter’s killing toward evil people, Deb is trying to stop it all together. This is perfectly seen when Deb asks Dexter, “If you can channel your urges, why can’t you control them?” We have seen Dexter attempt to stop killing in the past, but he didn’t try hard enough. Now that he has Deb to keep him accountable, maybe he’ll succeed. However, forcing Dexter to enter Deb’s rehab could backfire. Addicts need to enter rehab for themselves otherwise its a lot harder to stay clean. 

          What probably stuck out to me the most was when Deb said she still loved Dexter. She is a Lieutenant at Miami Metro Homicide that loves her serial killer brother. Can you think of anything more genuine and ironic? Sibling love: nothing is better.

          LaGuerta is getting dangerously close to finding out that Travis was murdered. It seems like this happens almost every season. I’m starting to wish that LaGuerta was killed in season one like in the books.

          Deb seems to be replacing Harry and his teachings. The “Code of Deb” has already started with the first two rules: be honest and tell Deb when the Dark Passenger is tempting him.

          I’m not 100% sure what Louis’ role is in the show but he is definitely creepy. I’m pretty sure he knows Dexter’s secret and he’s not afraid of him. Maybe because he’s a serial killer too! Anyway, I hope that LaGuerta will catch onto Dexter but Louis will get caught instead. Its basically the exact same situation that Doakes was in.

          Dexter has taken it upon himself to stop Louis. Instead, he should be honest with Deb and Deb will stop him. Then all of his bases will be covered. However, this obviously wont happen because its the easy way out and it won’t thrilling.

          Well Dexter obviously didn’t choose to go that route after he drugged his sister. Not a smart move dude. Somehow, you managed to not kill Louis and called your drugged up sister for help. I’ve got to say I’m proud. I’m rarely (if ever) proud of Dexter but I am excited that I am. I would say that Dexter is changing but in reality, I highly doubt it. Throughout the whole show, Dexter has barely changed. The code is the same, his method and routines are the same, the only thing that changed was in season four when he realized he could have a family and be a serial killer. Well that ended well didn’t it? I thought Dexter might become religious in season six, but Brother Sam was killed off halfway into the season and things went back to normal. It is a little late to see a radical change in Dexter, but I am completely open to the idea.

          For the first time, we see Ray Stevenson as the main antagonist. He’s charming, business oriented, charismatic, a great actor (unlike Colin Hanks), and a brutal killer. I can’t wait to see where his character goes and how he becomes more evil.

          Overall, Randall the prisoner seemed to hold a lot of the core beliefs and values of this episode. Dexter thought Randall was able to change from being a killer to a normal human being. However, we learned that he just wanted to have a few days of happiness before he killed himself. This could be foreshadowing the ending of Dexter, but it could also be a false ending. Either way, I am excited for this season and what it will bring.

What "Blood" Means to Dexter

The River of Life

Of all the serial killers ever recorded, Dexter Morgan is by far my favorite. Before you start freaking out and assuming I am some sort of lunatic, let me assure you that he is entirely fictional. The character Dexter Morgan is the star of the Showtime TV show Dexter.  The show is currently on it’s sixth season and it is doing very well.  So far, every season has outperformed it’s predecessor and has incorporated copious amounts of blood. Season One of Dexter revolves around the idea of blood and what it means to a serial killer. The viewer is thrown into a gruesome dilemma where they don’t know if they should cringe or applaud Dexter’s behavior.  After a while, Dexter fans begin to view blood in a new way.  Dexter has changed the ways people view blood, helping viewers see it as a profession as a bloodstain pattern analyst and as an inner calling to a serial killer. 

Many real life serial killers claim to have an “inner calling” that tells them what to do and how to do it. Real life serial killers have an M.O. or Modus Operandi (latin for Method of Operating) and Dexter has one as well. He binds his victims to a table with cling wrap and “teaches them a lesson” by telling them the monster that they are by hurting innocent people. Next, Dexter slices his victims’ right cheek with a scalpel in order to collect a blood sample for his collection.  Finally, he kills his victim (usually with a single stab to the chest). After the victim is dead, Dexter cuts the victim into pieces, wraps him or her in garbage bags, and dumps them into the ocean. The most crucial part of this ritual is the collecting of the blood. Dexter collects the blood so that he can later look upon the slides and remember all of his intimate moments with his victims. These slides are his trophies and without them, he can become hostile.

For example, in the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the book that the first season was based on, Dexter impulsively kills a man who rapes and murders women. In order to escape his own crime scene undetected, he is unable to complete his ritual and take a blood sample as a trophy. Dexter’s becomes hostile, uneasy, and extremely anxious because he doesn’t have that blood sample to add to his blood slide collection. He becomes so uneasy without that blood slide that he ends up stealing a sample from his workplace. Many of Dexter’s actions are directly related to blood, fueled by bloodlust, ending in bloodshed. 

Dexter’s bloodlust sometimes puts me on edge. As his inner calling to kill becomes stronger, the show becomes more intense. After the tension becomes unbearable, Dexter kills another guilty victim, and the climax drops off into peaceful bliss. In these situations, the flourishing of blood becomes crucial. As the tension rises, less blood is shown so that your immunity to it decreases. Than all at once, a grisly bloody scene shock and horrify you. Surprise bloody twists sometimes happen as well. In the end of the fourth season, the climax occurs as Dexter kills his nemesis serial killer, and I felt relieved. Then in a bloody twist, Dexter comes home to find his wife brutally and shockingly murdered. After watching that scene, I was so confused and furious. No television show had ever made me feel that way. If these scenes were made to be family friendly without any blood, the shock factor would significantly diminish.

Dexter’s profession happens to be perfect for a serial killer. As a bloodstain analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department, he has access to suspects files and records. With these files, Dexter can find and kill the guilty people who have successfully escaped the justice system. This allows him to feed his inner demon which keeps him satisfied. When he is at work, he analyzes different murders. The camera always focuses on the gruesome murder and the surrounding blood. This can make the show hard to watch at times when the murders deal with amputation or skinning people alive.

Dexter benefits from being a bloodstain pattern analyst because he is able to work with and talk about blood all day without seeming strange.  Although the show does not say this, but Dexter would be a less efficient serial killer without his job. Without dealing with blood every day, I think that Dexter would feel a stronger need to kill, thus increasing his chances of getting caught.  Instead, he temporarily replaces his need to kill by working with blood and catching murderers with the police department.

The first time I watched the show Dexter, I was horrified by the concept. I could not imagine enjoying a show that glorifies a serial killer. After a few episodes, however, I slowly began to change my mind. The violence seeped its way in and numbed me to the horrific murders that took place.  While I still may be horrified sometimes by the thought of blood, Dexter will always be fascinated, consumed, and compelled by it. In the first season, a serial killer know as the Ice Truck Killer kills prostitutes, drains their blood, cuts them up into pieces and leaves them out in public. When the I first saw this, I was horrified while Dexter on the other hand began to get excited. Someone is killing prostitutes the same way he kills the guilty citizens of Miami. Only this person kills without any blood. Dexter’s head starts to spin and he says, “No blood. No sticky, hot, messy, awful blood; no blood at all. Why hadn't I thought of that? No blood. What a beautiful idea!”