Dismembering “Dexter” 4.10: Lost Boys

A lost boy and his lost girl

Last night’s Dexter ramped up the action considerably, sending our favorite psycho crimefighter on a wild goose chase for a missing kid and throwing nuggets of information at us over its shoulder as it careened toward the last two episodes of the season. But if I learned one important thing from last night’s episode, it is this:

Never list the names of your family members on the side of your SUV, unless you are actively recruiting a child-snatcher to put one of your kids down for a dirt nap.

All the jazz on this week’s killer episode, after the jump!

Dex in the arcade

Since Kyle blew the lid off his mealy codependent relationship with Arthur, he’s left to classic sleuthing to figure out where Trinity is and what he is up to this week. Turns out he’s up to no good, and that Lundy’s “Trinity Killer” moniker isn’t entirely accurate: Arthur actually has FOUR kills per cycle, beginning with a 10-year-old boy who precedes the bathtub chick by 5 days.

It seems that Arthur is mourning the death of his own innocence 5 days prior to the accidental death of his sister, Vera … which makes me wonder what happened to the real Arthur prior to his sister’s blood shower? Was it the first time he saw her nekkid? Did he cheat at Parcheesi? Hoping we’ll find out …

For now, all we know is that Arthur naps a kid, holes up in a bomb shelter of an on-the-market house and makes the kid put on adorable cowboy jammies and play with trains for a few days before burying him in wet cement at a Four Walls build site. Considering today’s kids and their attention spans and savvy tastes, they’d probably rather he just get right to the cement bath part, but whatever – it gives Dexter a few days to track them down and of course save the kid at the last moment … even though he doesn’t manage to catch Trinity, who of course still needs a new name.

Courtney Ford as Christine

Meanwhile, Deb has put together that Christine is the bitch who shot her and Lundy, and thanks to her persuasive way with her partner, Quinn, has even gotten a DNA match linking Christine with Trinity, which is more than Dexter even knows. So it looks like Arthur had Christine before he found this new family and keeps her secret, leading to some serious daddy issues for Christine and some delicious acting moments for Courtney Ford, who for the first time actually gets to show that she’s more than just this season’s contract rack.

Back in Ritaville, it looks like she may be back on Dexter’s trail (again) after Cody gets into a fight with a kid who insists that he saw Dexter leave the campsite during their Young Sailors in Love overnight. Hmm. I’m as tired as the next guy of the whole Suspicious Rita thing, but would it necessarily be a bad thing if she figured things out, at this point? I’m kind of ready for Dexter to leave the burbs already.

Deb-You-Taunt! of the Week

My favorite Deb moment this week came when Masuka tried to block her from getting into Dexter’s office, saying he had something important to tell Dexter but that he hadn’t figured out how to say it yet.

Deb’s response:

How gay ARE you?

John Lithgow Creep-o-Meter

Child-killing is pretty much a board-sweeper, and combined with the way that Lithgow can make something as innocuous as eating a hamburger look like an act of sexual aggression, Johnny-poo hits his season high this week with a full 100% creepy.

So where are we … right, Dexter has gone in one-half a season from cold-blooded but kind-of morally justifiable monster to kid-saving superdad. On the one hand I don’t like the fact that he’s been humanized so much … this season it seems like his Dark Passenger got left back at a rest stop on the way to a Four Walls build and he’s been operating on his own. Which is interesting, and allows the character to grow a bit.

But are we stuck with supercop Dexter from here on out? Kind of goes against what the show was originally about, doesn’t it? Sorry, Dex – but I’m kind of hoping the bottom falls out in the next two eps and sends you into a tailspin that gets you back to the Dexter we came to love in the first place.

Thoughts?

RATING (OUT OF 5):

This week’s Dexter was rated TV-MA for gratuitous gumming of hamburgers, attempted child murder, and boobies.

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