“Get Gellar” – Season 6, Episode 9

Taadaa…what do you mean you saw that coming? Gellar was dead all along, go figure…

This twist was so obvious you could have figured it out before the season even began. I’m just glad it’s finally over. The DDK storyline has got three episodes left to salvage itself from being a complete disaster – a few flashbacks to Travis’ killings and a decent confrontation with Dexter should be enough to regain some dignity.

This episode itself did have a few nice moments though; the scenes between Deb and her councilor were great in summarizing all of the events that have happened to her, the new owner of the ITK’s hand being revealed as Louis was an interesting surprise and my personal favourite was the ‘raining blood’ crime scene at the University – fans of Slayer will no doubt appreciate that one.

It’s important to remember that Dexter is still a fantastic show and the DDK ‘twist’ has been more of a stumble than a fall from grace. The idea of Dexter having a rivalry with another killer inspired by a psychological ‘dark passenger’ must have sounded very original and exciting back in the writer’s room, it’s just a shame it wasn’t executed better. If this dynamic was revealed earlier than now it would have made a huge impact, when Dexter first grabbed Travis would have been a great opportunity, but sadly it’s limped on for nine episodes and has become more of a relief than a revelation.

This season has felt up and down for some of the other characters. Quinn should really be past the break up with Deb by now, the conversation he had with her in episode 7 should have buried that but it seems the writers didn’t know what else they could do with him. As for Batista, since his reaction to Deb’s promotion and a bit of a mid-life crisis he’s not done much other than brawl with Quinn and play the over-protective brother to Jaime.

LaGuerta on the other hand has made a few strong cameos. Her cover up of the hooker’s death was all done for Daniels sake it turns out, surely at some point this will play into her own agenda in the future. Fans of 24 may feel that LaGuerta is becoming the new Sherry Palmer, but she’s still got a long way to go before she takes that crown. It was really nice to see Deb stick up to her and give her an ultimatum for re-opening the case, who knows maybe Deb will eat those words if Daniels steps in and tries to fire her.

What’s probably going to take our attention for the remainder of the season now is Louis’ interest in the Ice Truck Killer’s prosthetic hand. Surely he must be working with Masuka’s previous intern Ryan, so what’s their deal? Do they know anything about Dexter being ITK’s brother? There are a lot of questions that could be asked about this and towards the end of the season we could get some interesting developments.

Deb’s is probably heading for some sort of dark epiphany during her therapy sessions, hearing her list all the crazy stuff that’s happened to her other the years, was ace. It’s easy to forget just how much she’s been involved with each season’s killer, from ITK to Trinity she’s suffered in some way or another. Sooner or later the penny is going to drop and Deb will realize things have never been quite right with her brother, chances are this won’t be focused on until next season though.

Overall, a lot of this episode just felt like we were going through the motions, they should have just exposed Gellar’s death last week when Dexter ended up in the church with Travis. Let’s just hope the last three episodes can really push the envelope for Dexter, finishing of Travis, seeing what happens with Deb and finding out what Louis’ intentions are should keep us happy enough until next year.

7/10

Scene of the Episode – When the team discovers the latest DDK victim and gets doused in blood. A huge nod towards Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ and a nice bit of gore to remind us how gruesome this show can go.

Reviewed by Rich Jepson, cult TV enthusiast and author of 24: Terrorism Through Television.