Dexter season 6 episode 4 review: A Horse Of A Different Color

This review contains spoilers.

6.4 A Horse of a Different Color

At the very start of this story, Dexter’s mind becomes focused on the killer who’s making a name for himself in Miami Metro – and that name is Doomsday. The graphic nature of the four horsemen tableau underlines that the series’ characters are dealing with no ordinary killer, and it also provides the first real challenge that Debra Morgan’s been presented since her promotion.

I just loved how LaGuerta tries to screw it up for her, only to have the end result entirely flip and Debra to become an immediate TV success. The writers really hate Maria these days, and seem intent on having every devious plan she devises backfire utterly. I’m not sure where all this is leading, but it could boil over into her doing something so drastic that it ends her career, or has even more serious consequences.

A real surprise for me was how Vince reacted when he discovered that Ryan took the arm, and was selling it in an online auction. While Vince might be something of a pervert, and easily distracted, he’s actually a person of some integrity, it appears, something Ryan wasn’t prepared for. I’ll go out on a limb and say that I’m sure the appendage that Ryan sold wasn’t the one she borrowed, but maybe a copy she made from it. Twisty turns to be had there yet, I suspect.

The greater significance of this plotline, I think, is that something from the Ice Truck Killer case is coming back to bite Dexter, maybe a piece of evidence that connects him with it.

But in amongst the various twists and character development, the elephant in this room is most certainly the existence, or otherwise, of Professor Gellar. In the scenes in which he appeared this week, not one other person looked at him or acknowledged his presence. Even the terrified woman that Travis slept with didn’t look at him when he brushed her hair. But maybe we’re meant to think this, so when it’s revealed he exists, we’ll all be freaked out?

There are still some compelling reasons why he might still be Travis Marshall’s version of Harry, not least because he disappeared three years previously. What’s also interesting is that he’s the creative one of the two, where Travis is the muscle. This could point to a multiple personality disorder, where sometimes he’s Gellar, and occasionally he’s both of them. In terms of the creepiness factor, they’ve certainly got it, and working their way through the Book of Revelation like it’s a football playbook is especially gruesome.

What didn’t really light my fire this week was the whole subtext about faith, which seemed rather forced. While I generally like the Brother Sam character and what Mos Def is doing, in a few of the conversations he had with Dexter, I was half expecting him to come out with lines from Mystery Men, uttered by the Sphinx.

I can rationalise Dexter’s interest in killers who think differently from himself, an interest with Trinity that got Rita killed, I recall. But the idea that he’ll embrace God before the end of the season I don’t see as plausible, however much the writers do love their contradictory elements.

There was only one fatality this week, and Dexter killed nobody. Given the history of the show, I’m certain that low a body count can’t continue for long. And, the Doomsday Killer(s) are also going to have their work cut out, because coming up soon they’ve got to deliver a “Two hundred million lion-headed cavalry”, according to the Bible. I think Dexter is about to get crazy!

You can read our review of episode three, Smokey And The Bandit, here.

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