DEXTER Recap: “About Last Night”

Oh, has it been an interesting week. I come to you from the final days of a sinus infection, replete with fever and headaches. Also, “Pushing Daisies” and “Dirty Sexy Money” got the axe, breaking my TV heart. But, on the brighter side, my friend Mike found the joy of “The West Wing” for the first time (after badgering from yours truly) and I finally got to see the return of Jack Bauer in “24: Redemption.” Not a wash, certainly, but the week got better as it went on.

Now, on to the review…

Only three episodes left in this season and things are getting intense! We were left at the end of last week with the image of Prado entering Ellen Wolf’s home office with a lecherous look in his eyes…and a frightened look in hers.

Well, it turns out that Prado was on a side mission in “The New Miami Vice” featuring Dexter and Prado. This was none too pleasing to Dexter, as no one expected it to be. I loved the fact that he really does view himself as a teacher to Prado. It added a whole lot more sting when he found out that not only did Prado deviate from the lesson plan, but that he left easily found evidence in her house. It made Dexter both a friend who had been betrayed and someone who had failed as a teacher.

I knew it was a fantasy sequence, but I was really hoping that Dexter had actually snapped and was trashing his little hovel of an office/lab. It would have definitely topped headbutting Sgt. Doakes as the best Dexter freakout ever. But, alas, our favorite crime-fighting duo are hitting the links tomorrow, as Dex waits to…umm…take care of Prado.

But the buddy drama was not the only thing going on tonight, as we finally found out the identity of the Skinner, and found Anton in great peril.

I’m really proud of Deb for putting this all together. It seems to me that ever since Anton entered the picture, she has maybe had a bit more of a reason to care and dig in to the case. She’s put all of the pieces together, learned to accept some help, and try to get the bad guy. I am intrigued by the manhunt that will now commence. Maybe the Skinner storyline won’t last the entirety of the season, but I fear that searching for two weeks and traversing the city will get old in a hurry. But, we will see, even though, from Showtime’s awful previews for next week, it seems that the Skinner will be taking a backseat to Prado’s descent into madness.

Before we go on, does anyone else have an issue with Showtime’s previews for the next episode? I mean, I feel like I have to watch them because a lot of you guys do and I don’t want to be caught off-guard and then seem like an idiot. But, at the same time, I feel like they give away way too much of the next episode. Anyone who watched the scenes from last week knew that Ellen was missing and that Prado might have lied to Dexter. Those were two giant threads of this episode. Now, they show us a huge kiss between two characters that is a real game-changer, it seems to me. C’mon Showtime, tighten up the screws for these last three episodes. Keep the intrigue at a 10!

But I digress…

Last week, in the comments, right after Becca had some lovely comments (Thanks, Becca!), Ryan talked about the possibility of the Internal Affairs storyline being a waste. That thought kept coming up in my head through this episode, and I was starting to agree. But, then I saw the scene outside the station after Deb had pulled some tricks out of the Jack Bauer Guide to Interrogation. (If Fox hasn’t started on that, I totally will give them the option to do so. For free, even!) There were some trust issues that were really interesting to play with and their resolution amongst the chaos of rescuing Anton was a nice series of moments. So, for now, I’m chalking it up to sort of a red herring, but it could easily set up more, particularly if Quinn goes into next season.

Overall, a great episode and a nice cap to a mediocre week in TV land. I look forward to talking to you all next week. And, remember, have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

What do you guys think? Was the Quinn Internal Affairs storyline a waste of time or is it still leading to something? Also, will Dexter take care of Prado differently or will it be business as usual?

— posted by Philboy

Philboy is GMMR’s resident Dexter analyst. He spends his days studying Communications at Purdue University and his nights failing at keeping up with all of the TV shows he loves. His can’t miss shows are “Dexter”, “Chuck”, “True Blood”, “Life on Mars” and “Pushing Daisies”. The thoughts running through his head for this week are, “Is there life on Mars, really?” and “Jack Bauer is back. Maybe Ned the Pie Maker needs a new job.”