TV Review: DEXTER - Run 7.4 & Swim Deep 7.5

I wouldn’t say that I’m quite over the distinct lack of enthusiasm just yet (I’m not talking about Dexter, go read the link) but lets just say I was very bored the other day and decided that I owe it to my main commenter Ruben to get my thoughts down on paper in relation to Dexter’s fourth and fifth episode “Run” and “Swim Deep” respectively. I am really enjoying season 7 of Dexter a comment I’ve made in just about every review up to now but for me 7.4 “Run” has been one of the most exciting so far, I know 7.5 “Swim Deep” was also very good but I’ll get to that in a moment. I suppose the Speltzer (Matt Gerald) story line would not be something that was just allowed to go away when he escaped during “Buck The System”, but I didn’t expect it to come back so quick and in such an action fashion, I’m glad it did though as Speltzer is the story which is going to help Debra understand about the gaps in the American legal system.

“Run” actually started in a completely different way to what I imagined it would, with Speltzer being captured by Crockett and Tubbs aka Quinn and Batista and then sent to prison for his crimes when Debra wound him up during an interview, a very satisfying little scene I thought. However, no sooner was Speltzer in custody he was released thanks to some over zealous policing methods and him failing to say that he understood his rights. That was all sufficient to prove Dexter’ point though, and now he had Speltzer all to himself.

It didn’t go where I expected it to from that point as Dexter was the one who found himself captured and having to “Run” through the maze as Speltzer played a game of cat and mouse with him, this was really good and was probably just a little reminder to us all that Dexter is a worthy physical adversary for anyone.

When Dexter offed with Speltzer I thought it was a great scene, one of the best Dexter kills scenes that I have seen. The way Dexter mimicked Speltzer as he lay on his table screaming, I thought it was brilliant, last time I saw Dexter that un-composed was during season 6 when he drowned Brother Sam’s (Mos Def) killer. Not only did Dexter get rid of a problem in Speltzer but he has also decided to do away with one of his own rituals, his trophy blood slides were incinerated along with Speltzer. A way for Dexter to be more careful, I’m pretty sure that’s the idea. I don’t even remember him calling Debra but she was there to pick him up very happy that her brother has just committed another murder.

“Swim Deep” was another brilliant episode, now that Dexter’s done with Speltzer he had Ukrainian Mob boss Issak Sirko (Ray Stevenson) to deal with, and deal with him he did, even without killing him, it was brains instead of brawn for Dexter on this occasion in a move that will pay off for a very long time. I was expecting a brilliant scene to come our way as Issak lay in wait for Dexter returning to his apartment, but instead what I got was still a brilliant scene just not how I’d imagined it. Dexter noticed instantly that his curtains had been messed with, left a message on his voice mail and lured Issak out into the open, “Hello handsome” were Issak’s words when he finally came face to face with Dexter.

It was a brilliant move from Dexter which saw Issak brought over to the wrong side of town and walked straight into a rival drug cartel’s bar. The likely outcome, they will kill Issak, Dexter has done nothing wrong and his problem is rid of. Problem is Mr Sirko can kick some serious ass, or shoot some, whatever but I’d say it’s a good job he’s in prison now as Dexter may have found this guy a handful.

Clearly from this episode Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) is going to be the main character this season, I see another Dexter/Lila thing going to happen here. Dexter has already figured out that the story she is telling in relation to her involvement in various murders is lies, what we don’t know yet, is she still doing it? Maybe she is, either way I can see her involvement in the show growing in the next few episodes. You can’t help but think that Debra will become involved in the story between them at some point, she did with Lila but at that time she didn’t know her brother was a killer, maybe Debra will have to kill Hannah to protect Dexter, I guess we will wait and see.

I am still loving season 7 of Dexter, it really has been brilliant up to now and I’ve no doubt that will continue. La Guerta is on the verge of having the Bay Harbour Butcher case reopened and now that Debra has herself involved in that she can feed Dexter with the information he needs to protect himself. I wasn’t expecting the Louis and Issak stories to be done with so quickly and you know what? Like Brother Sam in season 6 I’m going to miss Issak Sirko.