Dexter season 6 episode 10 review: Ricochet Rabbit

This review contains spoilers.

6.10 Ricochet Rabbit

Having kept a good degree of Travis’ true nature hidden for nine episodes, in the first couple of minutes the writers of Dexter revealed just how utterly nuts he is. Even the imaginary Professor Gellar turns up to explain he’s died at his students’ hands, but Travis isn’t having any of it, because he’s madder than a box of frogs.

However, what’s great about insane people is that they’re never alone, and very soon he’s found a couple who are either terminally stupid or just as unhinged to do his bidding.

Where I think this episode went slightly wrong was during his pursuit of the poor woman he abducted and released. Given what she’d been through, you’d reasonably think that she’d want company, lots of company, rather than to place herself in a location where she was vulnerable. And actually, if you were a hunter, would you go after the same prey twice?

I guess Travis has an insanity plea on this one, but the victim is condemned to death by her exceptionally poor choices.What worked best here was Dexter’s conversations with the just as imaginary as Prof Gellar, but generally more helpful, Harry. As these discussions got more heated, I began to wonder if Dexter’s own internal debate had moved beyond needing a ghostly arbiter, and he was providing his own critique on the life he’d chosen to lead. Although, when he discovered the scheme that Travis was about to unleash, Harry was eventually able to convince him to do the right thing and call the cops.

The collateral damage of Dexter’s actions has always been an element of the show, because the DDK isn’t the first sociopath that Dexter’s kept away from law enforcement, and that worked out very badly with Trinity. There’s a fine divide between allowing him to get to them first and obstructing conventional justice, which he appears to cross rather too often. A smarter Dex might use the cops to find his prey and then move in for the kill, and that might even be more challenging for him.

But back to this episode. Much of what went on here was the building of structures on which the final two stories of season six will swing. We’ve got Travis intent on using a weapon of mass destruction on Metro homicide, Angel likely to kill Joey if he lives long enough to do so, and Debra on a collision course with La Guerta and her corrupt boss, Mathews.

They’re all fine sub-plots, but I think the real reveal of the next two episodes will be the identity of Louis, who I’ve a suspicion is a relation of Dexter’s. Or, that relation could be Ryan, and the relationship is uncle/nephew/niece. I could be totally wrong, but the Ice Truck Killer keeps coming back into the frame, even after Dexter’s brother got ditched in Nebraska.

The amount of plot lines I’ve just detailed would strongly suggest that a good number of these won’t be resolved, and they are in fact destined for exploration in season seven and eight. So it will be interesting to see which are tied up, and those that are left in reserve. I’m really hoping that Edward James Olmos comes back into play as Professor Gellar, because he’s a great actor and he’s not really been given his chance to shine yet. That said, Colin Hanks is actually much better than I was expecting, and is delivering a suitable amount of creepiness with each turn of the screw.

Season six has been somewhat lumpy in places, but I’m optimistic that as we reach the end of the season there’s going to be some surprises that I can’t predict, or even guess.

You can read our review of episode nine, Get Gellar, here.