Contributor: Gregg Wright
I suppose the degree to which you enjoyed this episode of “Dexter” depends a lot on whether or not you saw the twist coming, because even more so than the previous installment, this episode relies heavily on its need to maintain the illusion that Gellar exists as a living, flesh-and-blood person, right up until that final moment when Dexter discovers the frozen body of Gellar in the basement of the church.
Unfortunately, the theory that a Norman Bates-style twist was coming has been floating around the web for some time now, and the narrative assumes that the audience will not have even considered it as a possibility. But for those that did, each new episode has made it progressively more clear that the twist was on its way. So when we finally get to that final moment, it doesn’t illicit the intended “WTF?” reaction.
Of course, this isn’t really comparable to something like the situation with “LOST”, where the writers had plenty of time to read up on fan speculation and had a chance to play on expectations (though, whether fan theories resulted in any actual story changes, I don’t know). It would have been great if the writers of “Dexter” had anticipated that viewers would predict the twist, and subverted their expectations.
But can I honestly criticize the show for this? I know of at least one person (a friend of mine who also watches “Dexter”) who was quite impressed and surprised by the twist. Did the twist work for most audience members? Or did it seem overly telegraphed for most? Would I have found the twist so predictable if I hadn’t been exposed to fan speculation so early in the season?
You probably remember me saying a lot of this, more-or-less, in previous reviews. I had these fears before now, and this episode only confirmed what was already suspected. I’m actually kind of glad that the twist has come and gone. Given how much this foreknowledge has affected my enjoyment of the show, it’s easy to forget that I thought it sounded like a pretty cool idea when I first heard it. But now I’m just glad the show can move on and stop relying on the buildup to the twist.
It would actually be a bit unfair to say that the twist is the only thing the episode had going for it. This subplot that started out with Masuka taking on Ryan Chambers as an intern, and then slowly morphed into a subplot a