Ads 468x60px

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Dexter Season 6 Episode 9 Recap: The Writing Is on the Wall

Dexter - Episode 6.09 "Get Gellar" recap by Richard Rys - NYmag: If there’s one line that best sums up last night’s episode, it’s when Travis tells Dexter, “The writing is on the wall.” He’s describing the bloody note in his bathroom, of course, but he’s also foreshadowing one whopper of an anticlimax, as we wait another hour for what we’ve suspected — some of us later than others — for much of the season. With all the references to Travis’s Dark Passenger, beginning with the opening lines and sprinkled throughout the show, it seemed inevitable that the Prof’s fate would finally be revealed. We also find out whose ass LaGuerta is covering, but perhaps the biggest (only?) surprise was in Louis’s apartment. Or was the surprise actually the apartment itself? Dude is living large! (As the Prof might observe, “Blessed are the geeks, for they shall inherit the Earth.”). Before we get to those final scenes, there’s a lot of ground to cover in nearly every story line. Read more after the jump below...



With Miami Metro inching closer to finding the Prof, Dexter hides Travis in a South Beach hotel that looks Art Deco swanky from the outside but rather dumpy in terms of interior design. (Hope Dexter is prepared for a hefty housekeeping fee when he checks out; bloody walls and a severed hand in the sink are not covered in most room-rental agreements.) Travis is ordered to stay in his room, so he has a lot of downtime. Luckily, he also has a laptop, which is perfect for stuff like catching up on e-mail, surfing for porn, and updating the Prof’s doomsday website. Thanks to Louis and his tech skills, it seems Travis did God’s Internet work at the old church, which is conveniently located near an open network. In addition to all their heinous crimes, the Prof and Travis are also Wi-Fi thieves.

With four tableaus down and three to go, Dexter deduces that the next DDK victim is Trent Casey, another professor whose book about the second law of thermodynamics (or “2Lot,” since we’re abbreviating everything this season) and atheism seems to have put a few wrinkles in the Prof’s button-up sweaters. It seemed like a great opportunity to pit creationism against evolution and give Dexter some non-believer perspective to contemplate, but in the end, it was just a setup for the ol’ Bowls of Wrath trick. Despite a full police sweep of the lecture hall, no one noticed buckets in the rafters and a pressure plate that would trigger a literal bloodbath.

Speaking of the knuckleheads at Miami Metro, Deb provides a little comic relief thanks to her newfound shrink-speak and the realization he’ll never be the (kill?) table she needs. Quinn’s strip-club bender ended with a backseat romp, where he lost his gun, his phone, and his last shred of dignity to a matronly Waffle House waitress. Continuing his self-destructive streak, he picks a fight with Batista and is unfortunately saved from a bloody ass-whipping by some nosy passer-by (was anyone else hoping Batista would flash his badge, declare he was engaged in official police business, and finish the beatdown?). Back at the station, Masuka — the last guy who should be doling out relationship advice — tells Louis it’s time to man up and make a move on Jamie. As it turns out, the little perv knows of what he speaks; Louis gets laid and we get a shot of the creepiest item in his already very creepy, meticulously displayed toy and comic book collection. Good thing Jamie didn’t see the Ice Truck Killer hand before they hooked up. She says she can handle weird, but that’s probably pushing it. Along with discovering the gamer-nerd intern has a baller bachelor pad and a stolen piece of police evidence, we learn that LaGuerta is indeed covering for Deputy Chief Matthews, which is not much of a surprise, given that he’s the only person besides Deb that LaGuerta has talked to all season long.
Both Louis’s hobby and LaGuerta’s secret are small-time reveals compared to what awaits Dexter in the church, as he prepares to make a tableau of his own starring the Prof. He sends Travis in first as bait, and we’re treated to another exchange that Edward James Olmos, with his rumble of a voice and deadpan delivery, makes both creepy and funny all at once:

Prof: I’m kind of surprised you haven’t burst into flames. God is very kind.
Travis: God doesn’t want to hurt me.
Prof: Don’t fucking tell me what God does or doesn’t want. You have no idea.

Preach, Prof, preach! As Travis sets up his father figure for the kill, Dex takes a moment with Harry to explain that he hopes by killing the Prof and setting Travis free, he’ll become a better dad. Not sure where he’s getting his parental advice — maybe too much Book of Revelation and Dr. Phil? — but enough talk of little Harrison. As Dexter says, there’s work to do, as in the kind involving a tranquilizer and sharp knives. With Travis passed out, Dexter finds a trap door to the basement, where we immediately see a large freezer. Since we know Travis gets by on bologna sandwiches, it’s probably not filled with food. Those who were convinced the Prof was dead all along are finally treated to their money shot as Dexter finds one very frozen Geller corpse. It’s a fun scene, but of all the ways to pull the curtain back, could a body in a freezer be any more boring? For a guy who carved up his own sister and turned zombie horsemen loose in downtown Miami, you’d think Travis would be more creative. Dexter is left wondering whether Travis has been acting alone (and perhaps how unwise it was to rent a hotel room for DDK). Judging by the way Travis is holding that ancient sword in the final frames, the answer is yes.

20 comments:

  1. who didnt see the Geller reveal coming? really. I was hoping all along that it wouldnt have been as simple as travis hallucinating, but it was. LAME. This season has been on fire, so im gunna let that predictable reveal go in favor of the future developments of the remainder of the season. Louis is a creep and the writers of the show havent been calling back to the ice truck killer for nothing...we"ll see.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I personally don't think the Gellar reveal was meant to be overly exciting. Just like we new "Rudy" was the ITK, the reveal came as a shock for Dexter, not the viewer. I believe the Louis plotline has a big reveal in the waiting. Don't doubt the writers for Dexter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You mean Brian had a son when he was like ten years old? =P

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't think Louis is or could be Brian's son. This is like when people were saying that Massuka's previous intern, Ryan, was Brian's daughter...it's kind of weird that all his students seem to be obsessed with the ice truck killer, but they can't all be related :P

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree that there is going to be something crazy happening with Louis. But I doubt any relation to Brian. As mentioned in the previous post, the numbers don't add up.

    I think the ELIOT search engine provided to Dexter from Louis was invented by Louis and tracks Dexter's keystrokes...Along with Louis seemingly idolizing Dexter, I would say Louis knows more than he is letting on.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Louis could be Brian's real brother as both Dexter n his looks are very much alike

    ReplyDelete
  7. There were only 2 boys and a dead mother in the storage container...don't think there was a third.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Louis is hacking Dexter, the blonde girl that got fired is Louis girlfriend.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think that Louis knows about Dexter and is obsessed with him bc he himself is a killer. Did you see how obsessively clean his place was...that kind of precision reminds me of Dexter. I also think that Louis will beat Dexter to the punch killing Travis in order to prove himself to Dexter.This will lead into a next season where Louis and Dexter have some type of relationship since they know about each other. And the only reason they have added Batista's sister dating Louis is to involve Batista in the Dexter suspicion chain, someone who has been in Dexter's corner all along. He will become suspicious because he is going to start keeping an eye on Louis bc of his sister who will then lead him to Dexter. I know that this is a stretch but I just refuse to believe such talented writers have developed Louis's character this much for no reason and just had him randomly date a new character to the show. This all links together and it is leading down the path to Dexter's demise.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Noone ever said Brian and Dexter had the same father. Louis could be Brian's half brother.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Let me just explain this like Brian actually is Louis' father: If Brian were still alive, he would be at least 44 years old. Dexter is between 40-41 years old this season, and Brian was four years older than Dexter. That would mean Brian could have fathered Louis when he was 20-21 years old. Remember, Brain was released from the mental hospital when he was 21. He probably got out and impregnated a woman, or he had sex with one of the nurses at the mental hospital and she became pregnant. Louis' mother was probably ashamed that she slept with a patient, and so she never told Louis who his father was. Louis is smart, so I don't think it would have been that hard for him to find out who his father was. If it is true; that Brian is his father, then I don't think I would like it if he is also a killer. I think I would like it only if Louis is just fascinated by the crimes Brian committed. I'm just not sure Louis' agenda is a violent one.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm only assuming that Louis is in his mid twenties. Even so, I'm not saying I beleive he actually is Brian's son. I just wanted to provide the numbers and show that it is possible.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Um, Brian was ***ONE*** year older than Dexter. (Again, did anyone watch season one at all?... "You were 3 years old, I was 4") So he would be 42. This Louise guy is about late 20's to thirty-sh (the actor who PLAYS him is 32 years old)

    So unless Brian knocked up a girl when he was 10-13 years old, forget about it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The script says Brian was 5 and Dexter was 3, when they watched their mother die. The books put their age difference as 1 year apart. What's weird, though, is that the kid they got to play young Brian looks older than 5. Maybe that's where our discrepancy in age came from; because the actor looked about 7 years old to me.

    I came up with Dexter's age because he was 3 in 1973, when Harry found him and Brian in the bloody shipping container. You are right, Brian would be at least 42. It would still be possible that Brian fathered Louis; like I said, though, I don’t think that is the case.

    Louis is in Masuka's intern program, so he has to be in his early twenties, unless he didn't go directly into college after high school. Brian could have screwed a nurse when he was 18 and in the hospital. That would make Louis 24 years old.

    In the end, this is all speculation. We can't know for sure, unless we are told differently. It's possible, but I agree that it's not the most probable explanation for Louis' obsession with Brian Moser. Personally, I just think Louis is a serial killer fan who wanted to own a piece of killer memorabilia.

    Script source: http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Dexter/
    Episode 1.12: Born Free
    Page #: 33, bottom scene description.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Nicholas:

    Thanks for the script notes, so 5. In the book it was 4, so that's what came into my head, but that's just splitting hairs really.

    Louis would only be 24 years old if he went right out of high school into college and bumped into this as his first career path. He is significantly older than the rest of the interns, and considering the money he has, we can assume the entry into the program is just a ruse and he is quite a bit older. On Dexter they pretty much always cast actors that are the exact age, or close to the age of the character. Like I said, the guy who plays Louis is 32, so I'd have to believe they would cast someone mid 20ish to play a low 20's character.

    Deb/Jen is the sole exception. She is 10 years younger than Michael C. Hall IRL, but Deb is obviously not. Her age is never given but I've put her down for 4 years younger than Dex - the the storytelling isn't always consistent. In the hospital during Dexter's blood crisis, she looks about 8 years old and Dexer looks about 12, and on the hay ride she looks about 14 and he looks about 18, so maybe 5 years, but then again, the kids who were bullying him at school were specifically accusing him of having sex with his sister, which intones that they were hanging out a lot in high school (hence the accusation). I believe Deb references once that the only high school friend she had was her brother. (Another reason they were probably picked on so much) so that would say 3 or 4 years apart. I wish I knew for sure, it's always bugged me.

    Anyway, it's nice to be able to talk Dexter minutia with someone who knows their stuff and can reference scripts! Thanks Nicholas!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I also enjoyed reading this convo, Nicholas is very smart and knows his stuff. I enjoy having facebook discussions with him cos he acutally knows facts, and can express his opinion intelligently without simply shooting others down.
    Good on you boys.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I searched forever trying to find a script so I wouldn't have to physically put in the DVD. With all the searching I did, it might have been much easier to just put the DVD in. I was sure Brian and Dexter were 4 years apart, but I can't even remember how I originally reached that conclusion. I don't guess it matters, now that you have pointed out my mistake.

    I just knew the script would be specific on the details. It's all just confusing trying to remember all these dates for no other reason than to share trivia with other fans. Even though I was wrong, I do enjoy the feedback, because we can't correct ourselves if no one points out our mistakes. I just like to learn as much as I can about the characters and the show.

    You're welcome, and thanks back to you, fellow DEXpert!

    ReplyDelete
  18. what no one seems to pointing out is that the "whore" that travis let go said that she heard two voices. if travis is hallucinating how did the girl hear another voice? she cant possibly hear travis's hallucination too

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anon Nov 30 2:36 - The cat's out of th bag...Travis definitely has multiple personalities. Just watch the video that the show's runner posted that clearly states Gellar is not alive. What I thought was cool about the shooting of the show is that Gellar (A.k.a Ed Olmos) was basically the only actor on set (other than Michael C. Hall)that knew Gellar was not actually alive. During the shoot at the restaurant, they initially had a place setting in front of Olmos and the writer/producer had to go over and whisper and ask him, "Do you think Gellar would be drinking coffee."...Olmos quietly asked to have the place setting removed as he was given free will to govern his character. Not even C. Hanks was in on it when taping the first 9 episodes. Call me a geek...I thought that was nifty.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Not-a-Dexpert-but-a-fan:
    Didn't Louis just trip over the Ice-Truck killer hand? A ocd-type collector and a violent-game maker but not quite obsessed with any serial killer in particular? Obsessed with Dexter because he's an insecure boy for his age and Dexter seems cool and collected (to the misguided eye ;-)? I just think Louis is going to find out or be really close. Maybe Deb will be able to stop him, being in with the big boys after saving Matthews ass (or after taking him down, Laguerta taking his job and Deb moving up). Maybe Batista lieutenant, if he survives.

    I think the whole show has that nature-nurture discussion as a theme. And I'm definitely a nurture believer so I would like it if the shared or not shared father of Brian and Dexter has got nothing to do with the serial killing compulsion of the two, but rather just the trauma and raising after. Could Harry be Dexters father? And why was Harry so negligent to Deb? Just no time left taking care of changing the direction of Dex and/or his responsability in Laura Moser's death, the possibility being Dexter's father? Guilt having cheated on deceised wife?
    Please correct me with your facts!

    ReplyDelete