Dexter season 5 episode 10 review: In The Beginning
The clock is ticking, as the end of Dexter season 5 approaches. And, as Billy discovers, the pieces are being moved into place...
This review contains spoilers.
5.10 In The Beginning
I’ve noticed the signposts that things on Dexter are about to get deadly serious, because this story, in particular, was almost entirely devoid of any humour, even the very dark variety the show can do so well.
But then the season was always going to have an explosive finale, from the moment that Dexter saved Lumen, and with her a huge can of worms that got unleashed.
Before In The Beginning, we didn’t really get much of a handle on the sort of person that Jordan Chase was under the marketing driven exterior, but now how nasty a piece of work he is has finally been revealed.
I couldn’t help but be impressed with the elegance of his plan to have Dexter/Lumen eliminate the last of his associates, and to get them arrested before they got to him. It seems to be working rather well, except that Dexter’s possibly an even more ruthless killer than Chase can even guess.
I’m not going to go into the details of what transpired, but some of the scenes with Lumen this week were quite harrowing, and what interested me most was to see Dexter’s reaction to them. He’s a seriously reformed sociopath, if such a creature exists, and the tenderness with which he treats Lumen was genuinely moving in places.
This is turning into the oddest love story ever, but that doesn’t make it any less watchable, with both actors firing on all cylinders.
My only problem with this was where it ultimately led them, as I’m not sure that, given what Lumen had been through, she could actually handle being physically intimate. But in the context of their most unusual allegiance, their union made some sense. I accept that.
Given the emotional journey that Dexter is making, one can’t ignore how badly the last season ended for him, and what another blow like the death of Rita might do to him.
But it’s not just him that’s on the edge. There are strong hints that at the end of season 5 life’s not going to be the same for most of the key characters in the show, with a simultaneously crisis enveloping them all.
The two who look most likely to come to the fore are Debra and Joey Quinn, who are both close to working out the chain of disappearances and linking it to Dexter.
Liddy has stumbled into Dexter and Lumen’s hobby, and that might be a fatal mistake. I’m curious how he thinks he’s going to present his case, because he stole equipment to spy on the couple, and as he’s not got a warrant for the surveillance, almost none of the evidence he’s got is admissible in court. But clearly those aren’t things he’s bothered about.
Two more episodes to go, and we’re on the edge of a disturbing precipice, wondering how long the fall takes. I’m not even going to attempt to guess where we’re being taken and what the consequences for all concerned might be. It’s a white knuckle ride and there’s no getting off now.
I so want Lumen to survive, if just for Dexter’s sanity. But maybe her destiny just isn’t that neat or it’s just an implausible resolution for her to live?
The only certainty is that we’ll know soon. Tick-tock, tick-tock!
Read our review of episode 9, Teenage Wasteland, here.
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