Dexter“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
Original Airdate: Oct 12, 2008
Valeria – TwoCents Reviewer
Valeria@twocentscorp.com
Dexter is experimenting with adulthood. Although he hasn’t technically committed to raising the baby along with Rita, he’s still involved in her life. Personally, I think this is a pretty big deal, and probably says a lot about Rita – she’s still with a man whose child she is carrying, but who is, up until now, unwilling to fully commit to her. I can’t quite put my finger on what this says about Rita. Any ideas? So even though their relationship is in an awkward state of limbo, Dexter and Rita, along with the kids, engage in some grocery shopping.
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[photo: Showtime.com]
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Dexter
ReplyDelete“The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
Original Airdate: Oct 12, 2008
Valeria – TwoCents Reviewer
Valeria@twocentscorp.com
Dexter is experimenting with adulthood. Although he hasn’t technically committed to raising the baby along with Rita, he’s still involved in her life. Personally, I think this is a pretty big deal, and probably says a lot about Rita – she’s still with a man whose child she is carrying, but who is, up until now, unwilling to fully commit to her. I can’t quite put my finger on what this says about Rita. Any ideas? So even though their relationship is in an awkward state of limbo, Dexter and Rita, along with the kids, engage in some grocery shopping.
As a sidenote, I love Dexter’s little sociopathic quirks – one of them being the fact that he alphabetizes his shopping lists.
Although Dexter doesn’t view himself as ever being able to be a family man, it’s obvious that he cares for and dotes on Astor and Cody, as if he was their father. I suspect that he sees an innocence in them that he wishes he still possessed. Astor was approached by a man around the same age as Dexter, and with many of the same characteristics. Charming, attractive, mid-30s, keeps to himself. Unfortunately, this man has not honed his predator-sensor in the same way that Dexter has. So while Dexter knows that this man is a pedophile, this guy has no idea that Dexter is so ready to kill him.
Another body showed up with a piece of skin precisely and cleanly sliced off. The Homicide Department thinks it’s Freebo. But that’s impossible because Dexter killed Freebo. Looks like a new serial killer is on the loose. I wonder how Dexter’s going to relate to The Slicer (my nickname for the mystery murderer). Luckily, Dexter is able to manipulate the situation – as he always does – to get the cops off of their Freebo search.
Dexter tells Deb that she’s going to be an Auntie. I think that he told her in order to decide how he should be acting. Dexter always reacts to a “real person” situation based on how the real people around him react. Surprisingly, Deb is super excited about it. Which is a surprising reaction, I always took her as someone that would be very much against having children, let alone children in general.
Dexter is feeling around his way when it comes to Miguel Prado. Their awkward situation finds steady ground when they get on the topic of fatherhood. Miguel assures Dexter that he’s making the right move by not jumping into fatherhood with Rita, and after a few rounds of Rum, Dexter reveals to Miguel the dark relationship between him and Harry. Of course, Dexter leaves the details nice and blurry, but he’s never told anyone how disgusted Harry was when he found out the reality of Dexter’s need to kill. Hopefully, this bonding over crappy fathers and fear of fatherhood will be enough to keep Miguel off of Dexter’s back about where Freebo is dead and buried. But what’s really interesting about their relationship is that Miguel could be an actual confidante for Dexter – someone that he can reveal all his secrets too. Of course, this relationship is doomed – Dexter can only be 100% with other sociopaths.
Deb’s relationship with her C.I., Anton, gets a little bit intense. She gives him a call to meet her at a specified location to talk about a dead drug dealer, and well, she acts just a little too happy to see him. So, when he refuses to give up information, and he lights up a joint in front of her, Deb’s face is sad and angry and reluctant when she has to arrest him. When Anton is released from custody, Deb meets him at the nightclub where he plays with his band. Deb feels “not good” about what happened. Anton feels the same way. In fact, he’s even written a song for her, as an apology. It’s about a mean skinny bitch (puta flaca mala) that teases him. Deb is that skinny bitch.
Rita drags Dexter into a pre-natal yoga class. Rita loves it. Dexter wants to kill himself. He doesn’t feel like being as beautiful as the golden flakes of dust. But in a telling moment about reasons why Dexter isn’t sure about fatherhood, Dexter is reluctant to touch Rita’s growing belly to send positive intentions to it. He doesn’t want to hurt it.
The truest emotions that Dexter has, always involve children. Like I said before, I think he’s real with children in a way that he can’t be with other adults. So, I think that Dexter’s fears from his relationship with Harry. Dexter knows he’s a monster, because Harry killed himself after realizing how murderous his son is. So, Dexter thinks that his monster self will always creep in, even when he doesn’t want it.
So, it’s understandable that he’s more freaked out by the prospect of being a father to a child that shares his DNA, as opposed to being a father figure to Astor and Cody. His fear has some truth to it. He ends up adjusting his code by stalking and killing the pedophile that approached Astor in the grocery store. So yes, he does have a monster self, but that monster reacts in the only way it knows how to a genuine human emotion – the feeling a father has every day worrying about keeping his children safe.
So Dexter reaches for Rita’s growing belly. Sends out his positive intentions. Prepares for everything that fatherhood is going to offer.