Dexter Review: “Slack Tide”
Posted by Barrett in Latest News, Reviews, Television & Web Series on November 9th, 2009
While this past week’s episode certainly had an air of déjà vu about it, I still think it was one of the best Dexter episodes we have seen in a while and a worthy follow up to last week’s episode.
This could have to do with the return of Dexter’s recreational kills. The writers have certainly put his Dark Passenger on the back burner this season, steering clear from the weekly kill and working more on character development and the such, which is cool and all, but it does get a little boring after a while. Maybe that is why they called the episode “Slack Tide”, which Dexter informs us means that the tide is just sitting there waiting, not coming in nor going out.
So yeah, the cops find a human arm in the stomach of a dead alligator and their investigation leads them to a fashion photographer with a taste for the disturbing. His ‘art’ takes these beautiful models and covers them in bruises and blood creating shocking photographs that even Dexter admits are pretty creepy. The guy had been charged with suspicion of rape in the past but he had gotten away with it and now, unfortunately, the cops can’t come up with any further evidence to link him to these crimes.
Dexter takes this as a sign for him to step in with his own unique take on justice. While Dexter’s methods doesn’t require any search warrants and the like, there is a pesky something that gets in his way. Four pesky somethings to be exact: his family.
And, in what is now becoming a predictable yet interesting pattern, Dexter turns to his new buddy buddy Arthur Mitchell (Trinity) for advice. Despite Harry’s complaints (Harry wants him to just kill Trinity and get it over with) Dex heads out into the woods with Arthur to cut down an unruly tree for some reason. Whilst expertly starting up chainsaws and swiftly slicing through massive tree trunks, Dex asks Arthur how he manages to have any time to himself when kids require so much looking after.
Arthur explains that it is a parent’s job to give their kids a push out into the world by getting them to join clubs and sports and the like, which subsequently will give the parents more free time to go out killing people and just be really creepy in general. As always, Dex takes this advice to heart and returns home with several pamphlets for little kid activities. A sort of sailing boy scouts group is an instant success with Cody, but he strikes out with Astor, who is much more content scowling and grumbling than playing soccer or doing ballet.
On their way back from their tree-chopping excursion, Arthur and Dexter hit a deer in the woods. The animal is wounded and Dexter insists the animal be put out of its misery. What’s interesting is that Arthur freaks out! He can’t do it! For some twisted reason he has roamed the country killing countless innocent people and yet he can’t kill a deer when it is on the ground helpless in front of him. Dexter kills the animal, intrigued at Arthur’s reaction, yet feeling no remorse himself. For the next half of the episode we get glimpses of Arthur cutting, sanding, and leveling various pieces of wood… a relatively normal task that John Lithgow manages to make incredibly creepy… and at the end we see that he has constructed a coffin. That can’t be good.
Meanwhile in the world of smaller plotlines that not many people have cared about up until this point, Quinn takes a break from screwing his reporter girlfriend and manages to get all up in Dexter’s grill again. Dex tries to force Quinn out of his personal life by threatening to bring Quinn’s darker side into the spotlight. In accordance to the common theme of this episode, this blows up in Dexter’s face and Quinn makes it his mission to find some dirt on our favorite serial killer. Tailing Dex as he scouts out his fashion photographer victim, Quinn gets some suspicions regarding Dexter’s secrets. What does this mean? Well, it basically means that a less cool Doakes is in this season. Whereas Doakes was a badass cop who always knew Dexter was hiding something, Quinn is a dirty, douche bag who happens to stumble upon some suspicious questions… We’ll see where this goes but I don’t see many scenarios in which Quinn will last the season, which would mean no more of his girlfriend’s boobs. Tear.
Pleased with his success at getting at least one kid busy, Dexter’s parade is rained on by the ever present Debbie downer that is Rita. She informs him that he must be a chaperone for Cody’s scouting excursion and she snaps at him for not wanting to go. In her defense, the best excuse Dexter can come up with is that he has “stuff” to do over the weekend…
So Dexter takes Cody and three other boys out on his boat from one dock to another and they set up camp with the rest of the group. Around the campfire, the other chaperone tells a scary story involving a killer and a bloody hook, which Dexter hilariously criticizes in his head. Dexter is asked to tell a scary story and so he starts telling the dark story of the Trinity killer who is “born in a bath tub of blood” and the other chaperone is forced to cut in with a silly ending more fit for small children. As always, it is fun to see Dexter try to fit in with groups of normal people during his personal time when he can’t just hide behind the cover of being a lab geek.
After putting Cody to bed, Dexter realizes that it is only 9 o’clock and he is all alone… the perfect time to slip away and kill a murderer, right? Despite the fact that rushing has never served him well in the past, Dexter sneaks off and meets up with his victim in one of the coolest kill rooms we have seen yet. With the victim being a fashion photographer, Dexter has used his studio for the kill room, utilizing the strobe lights, movie slideshows and an eerily illuminating light table to create a terrifying atmosphere. The photographer denies having anything to do with the murders, but Dexter doesn’t have time for this, he did his homework, he knows the truth, and he finishes the man off in a move that can only be described as kill-tastic.
Taking a trip back into subplot territory, Debra continues her investigation into Harry’s relationships with his C.I.s. She meets up with an annoyingly open older woman who describes her sexual encounters with Deb’s dad and the meeting is so off putting that she decides to stop looking into the matter (for now). If Dexter had normal emotions he would be wiping some sweat from his brow because his mother was next on Deb’s list. Taking this opportunity, Dexter shreds his mother’s file, but he saves her picture and puts it in one of his drawers. This most certainly won’t come back to bite him… right? Unfortunately with this investigation out of the way, Deb has nothing to do but focus on her theory that Trinity not only exists, but that he killed Lundy. Not good news for Dexter because if she gets the cops in the right direction, how can he kill Trinity or what happens if they find them hanging out in the woods cutting down trees together?
Dexter makes it back to Cody’s camp in time to make a morning breakfast but the episode ends with a shocking twist as Dexter comes into work the next day to find that Angel has arrested the photographer’s assistant with concrete proof that he was the one who killed the models. Dexter is floored, he has killed an innocent person, he has broken the code yet again. While it is true that just last season Dex killed an innocent when he killed Miguel’s brother, but that was out of self-defense and it was questionable as to how innocent the Prado brother actually was. And, with this being the first innocent person that Dexter has performed his entire ritual on, he will doubtlessly have to struggle with the idea that the differences between himself and Trinity are getting thin.
