TV Review: DEXTER - The Dark...Whatever 7.10

I think this will probably go down as the least enjoyable episode of Dexter’s seventh season so far, I really didn’t feel like there was a whole lot going on here. It seemed like it was taking a step back towards the days of seasons five and six with Dexter questioning the killer inside him, otherwise known as his “Dark Passenger”, a scenario which new girlfriend Hannah McKay found totally ridiculous. “The Dark… Whatever” was ultimately an episode of Dexter questioning whether he even has a dark passenger at all, and thanks to a few “chats” with Hannah and Harry he came to realise that maybe he is the “monster” that he has talked about so often in the past. I still enjoyed this episode immensely, and I suppose there is no point on dwelling in characters gone, but one thing I have to say is that Issak Sirko (Ray Stevenson) was a big miss this week and it felt like the writers were attempting to fill the void with lesser story lines.

This episode did set a couple of things in motion, most important of those is the ever increasing threat of La Guerta and Matthews finding out that Dexter Morgan is the Bay Harbour Butcher. As yet they don’t know for sure, but I have said for weeks now that the circumstantial evidence is certainly mounting up against him and following this instalment I now think that this seasons finale named “Surprise Motherf**ker” will be the big reveal to all that Dexter Morgan is a serial killer, that story will roll into season 8 for sure but I’m not sure as yet how it will run, as always I can only speculate. I can’t really see them arresting Dexter by the end of this season or at the beginning of the next, what I think will happen is that Dexter will go on the run, we saw at the beginning of this season in “Are You…?” that he has a massive stash of fake passports and foreign currency. Personally, I think that will be a great story line as Dexter will be doing exactly what he done at the beginning of this seasons, squirming to get out of situations, he’s always better when he is having to dodge bullets.

What was the point of Hannah’s father (Supernatural’s Jim Beaver) being involved here? He served no useful purpose other than Dexter quenching one of his cravings. You knew from the off that this guy was no reformed character, can I borrow $20k? Of course you can! Yeah right, your reformed dad has turned up after years, he was a dick when you were younger and now he wants $20k to invest in some crab business or something like that. I knew where this was going from the moment he arrived at Hannah’s door.

The same could be said for The Phantom Arsonist, a character who was introduced a few episode’s a go for no apparent reason whatsoever, turns out this was to fill this weeks void of no Issak or other Ukrainian mobsters to be dealt with. I actually thought the fire safety guy would be the arsonist as Dexter thought, but it was a good enough little twist I suppose which led to the real criminal, a guy who had offended as a child but been clean since leaving his stint in juvenile detention, you see where we’re going with this? Yes, that’s right as a kid The Phantom Arsonist also enjoyed the same urges as Dexter, what was no great surprise was to see this dude on Dexter’s table by the end of the episode, only to let him go before killing Hannah’s father. The arsonist was introduced only for Dexter to realise that his “Dark Passenger” did not exist, a thing he really already knows, right?

I have speculated in the last few weeks also that Hannah might be the first of Dexter’s love interests for a while to make it through to another season of the show. I don’t necessarily think that has changed but maybe she won’t be with Dexter, maybe she will be behind bars giving up Dexter to save her own ass, especially now he has killed her father. Although I don’t think Dexter lied to her about what he had done, he told her she’d never have to worry about him again, now reading between the lines when your boyfriends a serial killer you should get what that means. Rolling towards this season’s finale is certainly going to be fun and I can’t wait to see how it works out, roll on next week’s “Do You See What I See?”.