Dexter - Truth Be Told

 

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It climbed inside me that day and has been with me ever since…my Dark Passenger.

In Truth be Told, Dexter is dealing with memories of his mother’s death. He’s dealing with being there when it happened. And Dexter wants to know more. It seems after some investigation into old newspaper reports that his mother was involved in stolen coke and her death was directly because of that involvement. Just the same, the trauma derived from that childhood experience.

Angel’s stabbing, during the investigation of a “working woman and amputee”, by Rudy because he was “getting close” leaves those in his department worried about his recovery while the estranged wife visits him. The marriage, no matter how Angel might want its repair, just can’t recover unlike him. But some blood on his collar, later tied to Rudy’s own found on cotton located by Dexter in his trash in the back of his apartment could very well be the downfall of the Ice Truck Killer. Rudy, feeling threatened by Debra, sets in motion a faux “proposal dinner” in order to secure her while Dexter tries to communicate to his sister before she is yet another victim. The conclusion of the episode has Rudy in a rented boat, confidant look on his face, perhaps awaiting a confrontation with Dexter.

“not the product itself but the presentation”.

Rudy, the prosthetics doctor, Debra’s lover, decides to execute a “lady of the night” with a prosthetic arm to “throw the detectives off his trail”, as a diversion. As he cuts off her oxygen through a chokehold, he had already drew up on her body how he’d cut up her body. But he has a way of conducting his murder and dissection. To him, an “artist”, his activities must be coordinated and executed in a specific and precise way. He tries to hide the fact she is an amputee, but Vince realizes it when they are investigating the victim’s body. A videotape with the victim telling Captain Matthews (Geoff Pierson) and his department (LaGuerta was deadset against press releasing a different person as the killer) that they fingered the wrong man. This video recording does prove that she was handing upside down (tear sliding down her forehead, noticed by Debra) inside a residential home with a very big room (noticed by Doakes, seeing windows from afar). The ongoing rivalry between Matthews and LaGuerta is further elaborated when he sees fit to remove her from her lieutenant post in favor of a “real hero”, as a “restructuring plan” will be underway in the apartment. All of this departmental/office politics plot doesn’t necessarily move the needle for me much at this point in the series, except we see the shifting of roles above Dexter and Debra in their police department. The story is laid groundwork to be better understood at a later date it appears. Or of course, despite being about Dexter for the most part, those that work alongside him, are part of his life, or a target of his Harry’s code serial murder should also be detailed and developed so that the entire show benefits from such execution.

…a calming oasis in the center of my confusion.

Rudy’s handiwork continues to excite Dexter, sometimes distracting from the trauma of his memories, other times directly triggering a crippling reaction (especially if a bloody crime scene mirrors his own mother’s). The series continues to build towards the grand confrontation between serial killers, with Debra caught in the middle. That Debra fell for the very psychopath he was in pursuit of, and Rudy tells her this as he applies a chokehold on the yacht, is quite ironic…none the more ironic, of course, than Debra being the sister of adopted Dexter.

My favorite scene: Doakes sees Dexter leaving after LaGuerta announces that Angel would be okay, pins him against a wall to confront him about how unfeeling he is regarding his friend’s recovery, with Dexter telling him to get his fucking hands off him. I liked it because Dexter isn’t smiling and compliant in the efforts to get along, but Doakes’ antagonism finally provokes him enough to respond in kind to how he too often approaches him. Quite frankly, Doakes is an asshole and too often he speaks so untoward to Dexter that his being able to not respond similarly really does speak to the fact that he’s a sociopath. Because few would tolerate Doakes’ shit.

This episode further follows Rita’s frustrations with Paul’s continued presence in her life despite being in jail after Dexter set him up for failing to stay clean. She doesn’t know that, but Dexter actually provokes her to allow the kids to realize that their father isn’t some patron saint. He’s in jail and will be for quite some time. She has shielded her kids from the real Paul, admitting to him upon a jail visit that he will have to embrace who he really is, that she was a victim instead of them, in order to see them. Almost always a victim, Rita’s strength has been on the uptick thanks to Dexter’s encouragement and willingness to tell her what she often doesn’t want to hear but must in order to be happier and less defined as Paul’s victim unable to move on with her life.