Dexter - It's Alive!

Dex can't get it up

 This first episode of the second season just hit all the right notes with me. Dexter can't kill. He tries to stab a poisoner at an occult store who supposedly "curses" folks to death. Dex wants to know how this guy poisons them and seeing the killer whip up a type of demon personality doesn't work. But Dex draws his knife up and he simply can't kill the guy. LaGuerta moved to Homicide out of the authority role is tough for her, but even worse is an assignment to partner with Debra. Raphael worked for some giant brute named "Little" Chilo (Matt Willig), found brutally murdered and laid out on rocks near the ocean. Doakes--following Dexter everywhere, believing he's suspicious--becomes a pain for Dex, causing him to have to be innovative and elusive. Paul begs Rita "to find a shoe" in order to get out of jail and point out Dexter as the one who framed him with heroin injected in him and left to be discovered, killing his parole...she actually won't help him! Dexter is such a mess because of his "kill drought". He leaves the cap on his camera lens before taking pictures of the dead Raphael, fucks up an attempt to kill Chilo because he didn't have enough tape around him on the table (even his face cut for a blood drop to keep as a trophy goes awry), loses Chilo after his breaks from the tape around him, and can't become erect when Rita disrobes and basically invites his member inside her. It doesn't get better for Dex: his underwater gravesite body dump of thirty victims was discovered by scuba divers and now his crimes are no longer secret. Dexter has been needing that major heartbeat. The kind of heartbeat Harry had when Dex almost shot him with a gun after an excited episode (Harry had to go to work instead of taking Dex boar hunting). The flashbacks give us insight into that dynamic between Harry and Dex (as a teenager trying to figure out how to turn his psychopathy into something less dangerous). Meanwhile Debra tries to act tough but she's traumatized by the events of the last season when Dexter's bro almost killed her...locals see her and point with excitement, "That was the girlfriend of the Ice Truck Killer!" One guy at a bar lays a hand on her shoulder, with Debra bringing the smack to his nose. Debra agreed after some brief haranguing to go out with Rita so he could "go bowling" (attempt to kill Chilo)...so the bar is where a conversation includes Rita's admitting missing "the good side" of Paul (and wondering why he still gets to her) and Debra realizing that who their monstrous men sometimes made them feel wasn't real, that what was real is how they felt.

Dexter really struggles. He doesn't have the usual control. I enjoy the show when he's under pressure, fighting against that urge to kill and how if he doesn't, that ability to truly function becomes a deterrent to his life. I really actually like how the episode features LaGuerta trying to work within the confines of her job, while her new boss (who took her position) is in a shitty relationship with a cheating fiance wanting to dish and vent her troubles...LaGuerta fighting back the "I don't give a shit" feels cracked me up. 

But all the bodies Dexter left in the ocean now discovered produces further challenges to disrupt his life. At least Paul is dead. Yep, he doesn't convince Rita to tell the police about where his shoe was found at her house, so after leaving the phone angry he gets into an altercation with another inmate and is killed. One less problem he will have to contend with. Rita, of course, will have to tell the kids and deal with the aftermath. At least their last visit with him involved Candyland absent some game pieces. 4/5

***Dexter bowling as a substitute for killing starts out swell but just can't compete. Focusing on strikes can't quite compete with that lopsided urge to kill***

***The sexual dynamics of Dexter and Rita just doesn't seem to ever mesh. The chemistry is just off. A damaged Rita and psychopath Dexter seems like a mishmash of awkward sexual tension***