Dexter Season 4

[entelein]

You know, I kinda wish that I didn't even know that the end of the Season 4 finale was supposed to be so shocking. I am not sure what's up with people needing SO BADLY to Twitter about even that much, when it so very obviously colors the expectations of people who haven't seen it yet.

And if you're the type who thinks being spoiled on plot elements of a TV episode or movie or whatever is not a big deal, I am here to tell you that that's how YOU enjoy media, and changing that for other people on purpose makes you a dick. If you accidentally spoil something, well, I suppose there's lenience to be found in the sentencing ...

Anyway. I felt like me knowing that the season finale was OMG SO CRAZY TWISTY SHOCKING really, really diminished Rita's death for me. And that's a shame, because in a lot of ways I've really been digging where this marriage has been going. There are so many lies, and yet so much sincerity as well. For a little while now I've felt like Dexter is the story of Pinocchio, and Harry was a pretty fucked up Gepetto. Dexter's realizations about his trust in his sister, his caring for his children, and his negotiations in his adult relationships, especially with Rita, meant the puppet was becoming a real boy, slowly, but surely.

However, since Dexter seems poised for tragedy, I am unsure he will ever conquer his dark passenger. He will make a mistake, he will let things get too personal - his humanity will be his downfall.

Poor Rita. And poor Harrison.

So yeah, finale not as shocking as it could have been for me, because I don't have the luxuries of cable and Tivo like other people do, sucks to be me.

However, in looking for other reactions to the episode, I found out that there's a huge contingent of people that really hate Rita, and were glad that she was killed. For their sakes I sort of want her to come back as a ghost in Dexter's head, since he relied on her so much for normalcy, -- she can be hanging out with his Dad, dispensing advice, freaking out over what a monster he really was all along. *evil grin*

Seriously, what is with the Rita hate? It's sort of like when I found out how much people hated Rose in the new Doctor Who series, mostly citing how she wasn't worthy of The Doctor's awesomeness. (Other way around, kids. Other way around. He certainly doesn't deserve Donna Noble, either. Also, and feel free to express disbelief, but I can't wait until 10's reign is over. Tennant is cute, but I miss 9's gravitas, and I miss wacky goofy Doctor behavior that can't be seen from space.) Also, what the fuck with the previous marriage plot item with her that was never revealed or explored? Is that for next season? Why was it never dealt with?

Comments

[addlepated.livejournal.com]

I burst into a chorus of "Ding, dong, the witch is dead!" (seriously) at the end of the episode, and I'll tell you why:

1) She's so whiny.
2) She's so needy (what is that, jump on Dexter when he walks in from a 12 hour work day and tell him he has to build shelves now? what?? grab a hammer, lady.).
3) Her sudden and enormous bazongas this season were highly distracting.
4) She's so darned... naive? codependent? something. You just know she's the kind of person where she can get screwed over and over and over and she'll beg for more.

Wait, I'm sorry, change all the tense in my post to PAST TENSE because she's DEAD!

My husband is sad she's gone because of point 3).

[entelein.livejournal.com]

It's so funny to me that I didn't really notice the boobies - I only thought once or twice, "huh, they're really giving her cleavage-exposing sundresses." My co workers today were also talking about her rack, and how gross they found it. One was quoted as saying, "They're Miami tits," which made me laugh for days.

I dunno, Dexter's a freak, and as far as she knows, he's an oddly emotionally-detached recovering drug addict cheater who saw his mother get killed as a wee child. If she weren't as freaked out about his lying issues, I'd probably hate her myself. ;)

[addlepated.livejournal.com]

But she's not freaked out enough! She's totally willing to take any excuse he tosses at her and swallow it whole. I dunno, I just have a particular anti-kink about doormat women and her whole character rubbed me the wrong way. Having someone with smarts and inquisitiveness would, of course, have cramped Dexter's style, but maybe she was too much like people I've known for me to warm up to her.

On the other hand, I love Deb to pieces. ;)

[entelein.livejournal.com]

I wish the actress playing Deb was a lot more talented. She had some pretty great moments in Season 4, but overall she's just a horrible actress.

I dunno, Rita could be pretty strong. I think she knew that people could make mistakes - I mean, she's lied to Dexter, too (her mysterious first marriage, which Dexter decided would be dumb to even confront her about, considering all his horrible secrets), and she came totally clean about the kiss with her neighbor, and she refused to deal with Dexter until he went to AA meetings, etc. I don't think fluttery sweet emotionality = doormat.

Plus, what makes this difficult is that we rarely see anything that's not through Dexter's eyes. He's an unreliable narrator simply because he's so broken and inhuman, you know? We're seeing Rita as a lot more sickly sweet than she probably actually is. I mean, think about it: the scene with her and Miguel she was very similarly sugary sweet fragile, a doll for Miguel to fool. But when she was hanging out with Syl, Miguel's wife, she was pretty down to Earth. It's very subtle, what the show does, but we do see people being filtered differently when Dexter is around (or other psychos are around and we're being shunted into the story via their POV).

I think that they definitely telegraphed her ending (even though I didn't guess she'd die) by making their weekend getaway lead-up as schmaltzy as possible, but I totally took this as being through Dexter's eyes, which explains the glowing sunlight earlier in the day when the kids go off to Disney World and Rita's getting in this happy bright yellow cab, etc., and the shot of the moon and skyline all sparkling and stuff when he's dumping Trinity in the Gulf Stream. He's trying to find movie perfection in order to survive.

[addlepated.livejournal.com]

Yeah, true. Maybe it's just that they didn't do much with her this season and she was just kinda a lump. A lump with big boobies. ;)

I don't think Jennifer Carpenter's that bad, although she does sort of freak me out because it seems like she's always on the verge of tears.