In case you missed the details in Sunday night’s episode, a close-up of Dexter’s new slide box reveals that, at least since obtaining his new trophy case, he’s filled it with blood slides of 23 victims. So far it appears that Dexter’s got only one kill on his mind, and that’s Trinity; I just can’t imagine we’d get a “filler” episode at this point, where Dexter needs to go get his rocks off while he’s plotting how to take down Trinity.
This episode didn’t really do it for me, as a whole. Oh sure, most of the details we got behind Trinity were neat, but there was just something off about it. For example, I never really get how some of the secondary relationship stories fit in, in a way that makes them interesting, like Batista and LaGuerta. Interesting characters, yes. A relationship I care to see the details of as much as we have, no. You think they’re going to go somewhere significant with their stories, and they usually just don’t.
Now, let’s get to Dexter and Trinity. I may be reading too much into this — and I usually do with this show — but the constant noting that Trinity used a “framing” hammer seemed overly mentioned. I get that a framing hammer is different than, say, a ball-peen hammer or an upholstery hammer, but it just seemed like the show was driving that detail into our heads (no pun intended) more than usual. So, I initially thought they were making a pun on Trinity “framing” Dexter for the murders. Then when we saw Trinity (well, let’s call him Authur Mitchell) give Dexter said hammer, I thought maybe there was something to my theory. Anyone else get that?
Also consider that Dexter now has his prints all over the cremation urn and, most likely, Mitchell has some of Dexter’s blood from the paper towel. Could it be that Mitchell will do a little digging of his own, learn who Dexter really is, and then plant the rest of the evidence to point the finger at Dexter? I think it’s unlikely, but I’m not ruling it out. There are just too many details that wouldn’t add up, including the murders all over the country.
Something else that bugged me in this episode was Dexter’s experiment with Trinity, grabbing the urn. I get that he was seeing what would happen, should he push Mitchell’s buttons, but the sinister look on his face as he held it? And what explanation was he about to give, should Mitchell ask what he was doing? I know if I caught some dude holding an open urn of dead person’s ashes in my living room, I’d be expecting a really good answer and then, yeah, he’d get an ass kicking. Or maybe the other way around.
As far as my Quinn theory on shooting Lundy and Deb, I’m sticking to it. I watched him closely in this episode, and he just seems shifty over this whole Vacation Murders thing, to me. Now that we know Johnny Rose and his girlfriend didn’t shoot Deb and Lundy (or, at least, the girlfriend is very convincing), I’m even more convinced Quinn is behind it. Why else did we not see the shooter’s face, other than to find out the shooter is not Mitchell? The only other possibility would be Anton, and I’m not buying that one.
We end things off with Dexter fully moving into the new home, complete with his slasher shack of goods, implements, slides, air conditioner and all. Maybe it really is time for Dexter to get a new intro, now that the apartment really is history?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Nov 02, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
Dexter said that Trinity’s finished his cycle, and won’t start another for a long time, so he’s no immediate threat and there’s so much he can learn from the older killer in the meantime. If a one-off killer pops up, he would certainly take him down before Trinity.
I thought less of the possibility of framing than the symbolic passing of the torch. Note the camera angle from below at the handover of the hammer, eclipsing the sun.
After Arthur went off on “Kyle,” Dexter did play dumb, saying “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” I thought he was suggesting that he didn’t even realize the nice urn was holding ashes.