Dexter – Season 5

This review considers that you have seen Season 4, as it deals with clear storytelling points that may spoil your viewing pleasure of the fourth season.

The fifth season of our favorite serial killer Dexter picks up right after the death of Rita at the hands of the Trinity Killer (played almost flawlessly by a really creepy John Lithgow). However, as we know, Dexter has already offed Trinity, while the police and FBI are looking for him. In the meantime, Quinn (Desmond Harrington) suspects Dexter had something to do with Rita’s murder, and hires crooked detective Liddy (Peter Weller, total beat-up Robocop) to check up on him.

Quick-mouthed Liddy, hungry for getting on the “gracious” side of the police force again, will really make it tricky for Dexter, whose inner dark passenger will lead him to Lumen (Julia Stiles), a victim with a newly dark passenger born out of revenge.

Despite how relatively easy Dexter seems to have moved on after Rita’s death, the series seems to have had quite a subtle change. The biggest one seems to deal with Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), who after many years of seeing things black and white, wrong or right, is finally beginning to see the gray areas, which will hopefully lead her to accept Dexter and his dark passenger.

On the other hand, Dexter was able to create a somewhat emotional connection with someone. Lumen  saw all of Dexter like no one was able to after Harry’s death, and it gave something to him. Their psychologically messed up romantic relationship was rather… tender. We got so see Dexter like we’ve never seen him before — less than perfect, and making rash decisions.

Having said that, despite the more than chilling introduction of a group of sadist rapists that kidnapped blond women and tortured them until they finally killed them to get rid of the evidence, they sort of fell flat. We didn’t get to know as much as we would’ve liked to know about Jordan Chase (played convincingly by Johny Lee Miller) and his “minions”.

We also felt kind of cheated by Debra choosing not to see who was behind the plastic cover to finally discover Dexter, as we felt all the season was building up to that moment. But it leaves it for the upcoming season.

Overall, Season 5 wasn’t at the level of the masterful Season 1, which was cleverly linked to Season 4, but it wasn’t as bland as Season 3. We sure hope that the production knows when to end the series, to not make it overlong or tedious. Let it go out with a bang. Hint: Finish it next season, and we’ll buy the whole show.

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