Dexter - Born Free

I needed to wrap up the first season of Dexter, doing so with “Born Free”, the final showdown between two serial killer bros on opposite ends of their pick of victims. Rudy, obviously, believes Dexter should free himself of the Code of Harry, while Dexter is at a crossroads, having to choose between Rudy or Debra because one of the two would have to die. The convenience of the plot is a bit of a contrivance—Deb happens to reawaken from a drugged sleep just after Rudy and Dexter finish talking about being killers and all that dialogue regarding deciding to choose embracing the darkside totally—but I don’t think at that time in the first season, anyone watching felt Rudy would escape intact. Dexter’s journey was really just getting started. Paul does keep calling Rita, hoping she’ll relent in her stance towards believing he had relinquished his sobriety and listen to his claim that Dexter was responsible for setting him up, begging her to look for a missing shoe because he was dragged by the foot while unconscious. Even Paul’s kind sponsor arrives at Rita’s house, trying to convince her that Paul had truly reformed from his drug use. Sure enough, the ending casts doubt on Dexter as Rita does indeed—plot convenience alert!—find Paul’s shoe. This after Rita hugs and kisses Dexter after the whole ordeal with the Deb kidnapping situation. The freedom Dexter had to just moonlight as a serial killer of the most depraved in Miami is under duress because Sergeant Doakes is now following him. The entire episode, Doakes is constantly questioning Dexter, having always believed he was deserved of suspicion…that something was off about him. So that tension between them continues. I LOVED a scene where Doakes tries to get physical and Dexter subdues him with an arm/throat lock…Doakes is the tough guy with the crude, confrontational style, and Dexter, the lab blood guy he always belittled, is able to hold him against the wall of a cargo hold. Doakes spends most of the episode, though, helping LaGuerta try to secure leads, with Batista, an epiphany while stuck in a hospital room with a patient from a psyche ward constantly repeating himself over and over, getting the idea that perhaps Rudy is actually from an institution and his fingerprints there could prove his real identity. The episode also follows the route of a lot of cold-blooded psychopaths who torment their captives by proving to them that they feel no sympathy and quite apathetically tell them they will die very soon as Rudy informs Deb her time on earth is very short. So Dexter must decide if he will join Rudy as a serial killer team (keeping it in the family) or his “fake” sister, Deb. Dexter, the Code of Harry remaining intact, chooses her (no surprise, really) over Rudy, conceding the allure of “letting go” in favor of making sure he could no longer harm anyone else. And the episode, as was the case throughout the entire season, continues the breadcrumbs leading Dexter to Rudy…encouraging memories as the episode places Dexter in the past, seeing his child self during some dark times, such as hiding from his mother before her murder, time with his older brother, and the bloody murder itself that changed him forever. Rudy rattling those memories free as Dexter constantly is reminded of the lure of the “born free” mantra (no code, no restraints, just kill as much as you want, to whoever you want), with those memories just opening up out of the cage that contained them is part of what leads to that marvelous celebratory delusion of Dexter being congratulated for his find work killing Rudy (Rudy was found upside down with his neck slit, a staged suicide by Dexter, forgoing any glam recognition for taking him out). The Rudy/Dexter scenes are important because this is that next challenge that confronts Dexter and his upbringing by Harry, his purpose questioned and nearly fractured. The clever trick to upends Rudy, using his own prosthetic works against him in replacement of Deb in the hospital, is the difference…the killer impulsively approaches the bed, ready with the knife, stabbing not long after. Dexter’s code allows him to put that impulse to use in a different way…and that is how Dexter makes sense of it and how Harry made sure if his “son” was so traumatized he couldn’t break free of the desire to kill that at least it was pointed towards the worse of the worst. Angel being the figurehead in leading the police to the residence where Rudy had Deb bound to the table, enabling Dexter to keep her safe through an interrupted altercation with Rudy was a cool development. The subplot involving the department going through political upheaval thanks to an egocentric captain, his feud with LaGuerta, and the newly hired Lt Pascal (Judith Scott) doesn’t necessarily resonate with me all that much, but I’m sure it has its eventual importance and relevance for the series as it continues into the second season. 3/5