Dexter - Crocodile

I remember going through the first season of Dexter quite anticipating how this angle, from the perspective of a serial killer (of very bad people) and how he views the world, other people, and his own self.

Dexter trying to fit within a societal construct that he feels no emotional connection towards yet “acts the part” is probably one of the most striking aspects of the show to me. The fanciful macabre personality that does its happy dance throughout each episode is obviously a huge lure to the show, but I think Dexter’s attempts to be “human” when he clearly understands that his whole life is an act performed reasonably well without those around him (except Sgt James Doakes, it seems) realizing it is a major draw to me, personally as a viewer. In “Crocodile” Dexter observes that he can logically reason the victims’ pain but can’t feel it. He’s seemingly physiologically divorced of the feeling needed to understand a victim’s pain on that emotional level many consider necessary to be identified as human. He can only observe and add to the performance and hope he’s convincing enough. Doakes doesn’t fall for it and Dexter wonders why he’s the only one who is unsettled by him.

“I think he’s trying to impress me…and it is working.”

“There are no secrets in life…just lies that hide beneath the surface”

So, Dexter and Rita keep getting close to "you know", but she's still (rightfully) hesitant / apprehensive about "sealing the deal." Dexter eyes a new victim with a spot of blood soon to join his collection of slides (Sam Trammell of True Blood) for the trophy case; Sam's Matt Chambers murdered a kid after getting wasted (Dex had been keeping up with his trial, noticing his fake tearing up). Meanwhile, the ice truck is found, with the killer leaving severed fingers "on ice" for Homicide to find (painted finger nails exactly as Dex finds in his house by the killer). A drug-lord named Carlos Guerrero (Rudolf Martin) was responsible for the hit on an undercover cop and his wife. Sgt Doakes (Erik King) had been banging that dead cop's wife; this explains why he's so attentive to her while she's in ICU (she was shot). Norberto Cervantez (Cristos) is the thug of Guerrero's responsible for actually committing the murders, with a piece of his arm flesh pried away in the mouth of the dead cop damning him. Norberto, despite his hand in the actual murders of a cop and his wife, is eyed by LaGuerta (Lauren Vélez) to be a source that condemns the drug-lord, but he receives multiple stabs by a prison cop with a shiv. Meanwhile, because Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) "helped" find the ice truck, Captain Tom Matthews (Geoff Pierson) has LaGuerta (much to her obvious disgust) promote the young cop to Homicide off of Vice. We get a look at Debra's bad taste in men, all cozy with some auto mechanic later discovered to be married (a double date had her and the guy out with Dex and Rita). Regarding the severed fingers—Dex determines that the fingers were cut away post-mortem. A flashback has Dexter's adoptive father emotionally wounded by a crook getting off undeserved because of a case against him in court that wasn't good enough to send him to prison. This episode is busy, but the ice truck ongoing storyline seems to have had little traction due to the emphasis on the cop and wife's murders. With most of the focus on the characters and their lives absent the crimes (except for the cop and wife murders, that is), there's less time spent on the grisly activities that often infiltrate focus. There's always some irony, which is what I love about this show: when Dex re-assures Rita that the "elephant in the room" (sex) can stay over in the corner (that he is willing to wait as long as she desires until "the time is right"), she tells him he's the most decent man she knows (if only she knew about "the other side" of Dex)!