Review: DEXTER S7E04, RUN (Or, The Season Stops The Tailspin But Still Needs To Pull Up)

While it may just be the radically lowered expectations brought on by the previous two horrible episodes speaking Episode Four of this latest series of Dexter actually seemed a step in the right direction. A tentative step, sure, and by 'right' I actually mean 'any direction other than the ridiculously awful direction things were going in', but hey ... you take what you can get. And at least now there's a fighting chance that I won't want to ram a screwdriver into my ears every time that Deb or Dexter speak.

In terms of plot points Run is arguably the most straightforward and simplistic episode of the season so far with only two stories touched upon. First there are the pseudo-Ukrainian uber-hitmen drug runners - and if there were a less ridiculous way of describing them I would be happy to use it but, well, there just isn't - who decide the way out of police attention is to give the police what they want. Namely, a killer for their dead cop. It won't be the real killer, of course, he's being eaten by fish and is too intricately involved with the real organization. So they'll just talk their bartender into writing a fake suicide note and shooting himself in the head instead. Simple. Also, the head pseudo-Ukrainian uber-hitman - you know, the one who speaks with a British accent instead of a Ukrainian one - is sad because the dead killer was his son. Aw. Poor guy. Also, they now know who Dexter is and where to find him.

Remember: As ridiculous as the above paragraph sounds, this episode is an improvement. That will become harder to believe when you read the next paragraph.

Storyline two revolves around Speltzer. You know, the 'roided out gravedigger who likes to dress up like a minotaur and chase women through homemade mazes. Yeah. That guy. [Remember: Improvement. Yeah.] He's been picked up by police and Deb works a confession out of him which is promptly thrown out because the arresting officer neglected to properly inform him of his rights. So they let him go again. So Dexter hunts him down and takes less than thirty seconds to find the earrings Speltzer keeps as mementos of his victims in the glovebox of his RV - you know, the RV that was impounded and searched by police who were looking for EXACTLY THESE EARRINGS as evidence against him but clearly failed to find them despite them being in the most obvious place ever - before Speltzer turns up, catches Dexter unaware, knocks him up and decides to play hide and seek with Dexter in a maze spanning multiple floors of a warehouse complex while wearing his bull mask and wielding an axe.

Wait a minute! How does a 'roided up ex-con who lives in an RV and digs graves for a living have the money to build and maintain a three floor maze? Is he paying rent on this place? And when did he have the time to set the thing up when he's just been out of jail for a day or two? Is this, like, his secret, default, just in case of emergency maze? It's such a ridiculous situation that even the show directly acknowledges that it's a ridiculous situation without ever putting in any effort whatsoever to make it less ridiculous. Remember kids: Don't look behind the curtain. Also remember: This episode is an improvement.

Anyway. Dexter gets away from Bull Man then catches him later that night and cremates him on graveyard grounds. Which means, yes, a variation from the normal ritual.

And this is why - despite how completely and utterly ridiculous the plotline of the story this week is - there was actual improvement this time around. Good lord, amidst all the silliness there was some actual character development. One, Dexter himself actually makes some adjustments and compensates for the fact that he has been found out by changing his normal routine and burning his box of blood slides along with Speltzer. More importantly, in the ongoing, weepy, "Why won't you just accept who I am?" conversation with Deb - which, yes, is every bit as weak as that sounds - Deb finally argues against Dexter using some good points. Namely that Dexter is directly responsible for Rita's death and that there's no chance in hell a sociopathic serial killer should be allowed to raise a child. The child himself is still treated as nothing more than a prop - all Harrison has ever been treated as throughout his entire life - but, hey, at least someone stated the glaringly obvious.

It's all somewhat for naught, of course, as Deb quickly backs away from one of the only reasonable positions she's ever taken and everything resets to the same bland blah by the end of things but, hey, you'll take what you can get.

[Having just re-read this article I feel I can safely and definitely say that, Good Lord, this season is just ridiculous.]