SPOILER WARNING!!
After a lighter season, this is the darkest season yet. It is so dark that my wife stopped watching it, even though she really liked the series. It all centers around the bad guy of the season: the Trinity Killer, Arthur, played perfectly by John Lithgow. His killing scenes are horrific, a worthy “adversary” for Dexter.
This season also has the biggest twists. First Lundy is back, which makes Debra even more confused about her life. Then he dies, giving even more drama to Debra. Then we find out that the Trinity Killer is not an isolated man with no human relations, instead he’s a family man and an outstanding member of the church community, someone that Dexter is trying to be.
He’s now married with 3 kids, living in the suburbs. He needs to learn to become a father/husband while at the same time dealing with his killing urges. At first he actually learns from Arthur, and again (it seems a constant theme of the series) he befriends him. But later he learns how he terrifies his family, who’s only keeping a happy facade for the world to see.
But there are more twists! Quinn’s girlfriend turns out to be Arthur’s illegitimate daughter, and she killed Lundy. And she kills herself!!
Dexter is so obsessed with Arthur, he’s almost savoring the killing. So much that he actually saves him from committing suicide, so that he could kill him in his own way!! That’s just crazy! And I knew Dexter was crazy, but this was too much even for him! He plays cat and mouse with Arthur for a long time, which was exciting to watch. He even lashes out in rage at civilians, frustrated that he once again lost Arthur. I loved the scene where Arthur finally finds out Dexter’s real name: he walks up to him, looks at his badge and says: “Hello, Dexter Morgan”. Great scene!
When he finally captures Arthur, they have a great scene together, Arthur accepting his fate. At that point it felt like the season was over, neatly tied up like in previous seasons. The big bad was dead. Dexter was finally free to get back to his family, happily waiting for him on vacation. But this is the season of twists, and the biggest one is right at the end.
That’s a great scene, what happened to Dexter when he was a child, happens to his son. Dexter is obviously sad about Rita, but he’s not crying desperately. After all, he doesn’t have emotions.
Here’s a thought: whenever they get to the end of the series, I think they should have Dexter cry, showing that he finally achieved “humanity”.
That ending was the only logical way to progress this series in my opinion. Without it, Dexter would continue to be what he is, simply beating the new bad guy season after season. Instead, this ending changes his life completely, and I’m very curious how he’ll do that.
Debra also discovers about Dexter’s mother and connection to Rudy, but she still doesn’t know about Dexter’s secret. That would have to be paid off in the next season as well.
I’m really excited about next season, this last season definitely gave renewed sparks to this series.
Season Rating: 5 Stars