Dexter 4x03

Married with children, living the dream in suburban Florida, Dexter finds himself surrounded by nosey neighbors in the middle of a backyard barbeque. Rita takes Dex aside, because she did call his bluff and call the doctor at the hospital. She’s upset that he lied again about his concussion. She insists he won’t drive for the next ten days. Then the neighbors start talking about random acts of vandalism happening of late, and decide they should stay vigilant catching the culprit. The next day Dex finds graffiti on his front porch. That night, when he arrives home, the neighbors have installed motion-detection spotlights to scare of the local vandal. The neighbors have also decided to organize a neighborhood watch to keep an eye out. Dexter starts to suspect this emo kid who’s chatting up Astor. When he checks finger prints from the can of spray paint left at the porch with those from the kid’s can of soda, they match. At night, he goes out spying on the kid, but instead is pursued by the neighborhood patrol. “This neighborhood is going to kill me,” he quips when he gets back home unseen. The next evening, he decides the wait for the kid to come back home from his vandalism spree, but finds him sleeping in his bed. Then the kid’s father comes home carrying a wrench. Clearly father and son are both vandalizing the community. With a flashlight and a mask on his on his head, and a masked voice, Dexter threatens the father to quit his vandalizing. The security spotlight turns on again when Dex approaches his house, he smashes it with a rake, not realizing Rita saw it all!

Meanwhile the “Trinity Killer” brought his next victim, the mother of two he has been stalking, to an abandoned warehouse. He brings her to the edge of the top floor and talks her into jumping off. Next to her body, he mutters, “Mommy,” and then smears some gray powder next to his victim. Deb has no leads on the bathtub murder case, and LaGuerta is more concerned with the “Vacation Murders.” Then they are informed about the jumper at the warehouse. All evidence points to suicide, but Deb believes this is the victim Lundy predicted. He just happens to arrive and wonders if she has a husband and two children, and if a similar incident occurred thirty years ago. That would clinch the deal. Of course, thirty years to the week an exact same apparent suicide happened at the same warehouse. Still Deb’s colleagues remain skeptical. Det. Quinn also did his homework and runs a list of several other suicides around the same site. LaGuerta and Batista follow a lead on the “Vacation Murders,” and accidentally run into the suspect at his girlfriend’s house. There’s a brief shoot out and then the two flee. Later, Lundy explains to Dexter that the pattern of the “Trinity Killer” is always the same: a young woman in a bathtub, a mother of two falling to her death, and a father of two getting bludgeoned. He kills three and then moves to another city. Now he has returned to Miami to start the cycle all over. In a dark room, the serial killer puts ashes back into an urn, pours a glass of whiskey and a glass of water. Offering the whiskey to an empty chair, he says, “Drink up! You’re next,” and sips his water.

It is hilarious seeing Dexter trying to fit in desperately his new suburban neighborhood, acting the family man, and failing hopelessly. Astor is growing up, and he has a difficult time adjusting to her moods. I continue feeling awkward about Maria and Angel sleeping with each other on the sly. Even more uncomfortable is the scene when Lundy joins Dex, Deb and Anton for lunch. Dex dashes off right away, and soon Deb is excitedly running all the connections between the two apparent suicides at the warehouse – and has no eye for Anton sitting next to her. Deb is finding her relationship with him is increasingly strained. Now that his gig at the cruise ship has ended he doesn’t do anything around the house, and his new gig will keep in Miami every night. It is also fascinating to hear Dex ruminating about his colleague serial killer, admiring his technique and audacity. That cutie Christine is clearly milking Quinn for information on the “Vacation Murders,” giving him a topless massage as he spills information about the “Trinity Killer.” It won’t be long before he’ll get into trouble at work for dating a reporter. The big question for the next episode, of course, is how Dex is going to talk his way out of smashing the security lights. I expect he’s going to have to take the fall, because the truth is even more disturbing.