June 26, 2013

This upcoming Sunday, Jun 30th, Showtime’s ‘Dexter‘ returns for its 8th and final season! And one of the things I’ve always loved about the show is the time it takes to set up its key story threads for the entire season; meaning it usually takes a good 3-4 episodes before I get a feel for the overall direction they’re heading in. And with that, there are often interested side stories that seem prominent at first but then never pan out. Now, I’m sure there are plenty of plot threads you’re all wondering about – whatever happened to Lumen? Is Jordan Chase presumed dead, or in hiding? Whatever happened to that hottie Masuka started dating while setting up Dexter’s bachelor party? Inquiring minds want to know. But for right now, here are 6 of my personal curiosities. With the final season fast approaching, might some of these get mentioned again or resolved? Only time will tell!

Whatever happened to Angel Batista’s daughter Auri? If you recall all the way back to Season 1, Angel Batista (David Zayas) was in the process of separating from his wife. His one ray of sunshine, the thing he’d say would always keep him going was his daughter Auri. We got to see her sporadically throughout season 1. In season 2, he mentions bringing her to the beach with Dexter’s step-children to Lila. But by season 3, she was only mentioned once when Angel discovered that Dexter was expecting a baby with Rita and he told Dex that having Auri was the best thing he’d ever done. Perhaps his daughter and former wife got tired of all the serial killers in Miami and moved out of town? Neither has been mentioned since Season 3, although in that time period Angel (briefly) re-married with LaGuerta (Lauren Valez) and his younger sister Jaime (Aimee Garcia) has moved in with him and currently works as Dexter’s nanny. Hope you’re doing well wherever you are, Auri!

Whatever happened to the internal affairs investigation against Quinn? Looking back in retrospect, it’s kind of hard to imagine Dexter without the character of Joseph Quinn (Desmond Harrington), but Joey didn’t make his first appearance until the beginning of Season 3 when he switched from the narcotics division to homicide. After being partnered up with Deborah (Jennifer Carpenter), she immediately keeps getting harassed by an internal affairs agent named Detective Yuki Amado (Liza Lapira) who’s aggressively trying to convince Deb to “get close” and “spy” on Joey Quinn in exchange for a recommendation for her badge for her cooperation. When I say aggressive, I mean bordering on stalking and blackmail! Yuki did not play around. What unfolded over the course of Season 3 was as follows. Yuki keeps harassing Deb. Deb finally tells Quinn about her. Quinn confesses it’s an old fling that has it out for him and nothing more. Yuki comes back at Deb saying the real reason they’re after Joey is because he killed a cop. (Whoa.) Joey explains that it was complicated. He knew a cop was on drugs and by not reporting him, he OD-ed. And then, that was it. The main storyline of Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) and his relationship with Dexter took front and center and Yuki just kind of… gave up? I wonder whatever happened to Detective Yuki Amado?

Remember that innocent victim Dex kills in Season 4? Does anyone remember (or care) about the totally innocent victim that Dexter kills in episode 7 (“Slack Tide”) of season 4? It was that creepy, sleazy photographer Jonathan Farrow (Greg Ellis) who took pictures of women that were bruised because it “made them more beautiful.” Then the girls in his pictures started turning up dead. Dexter snags him and takes him out. But then Batista walks in with Farrow’s assistant, the true culprit behind the murders and Dexter realizes he killed a totally innocent man. A sleazebag for sure, but still innocent of murder. And then… he kind of shrugs it off. We never, ever hear about this again after this episode. Considering this is in complete defiance with Harry’s code, you’d think this kill would hold more significance, but it appears… it doesn’t.

Whatever happened with the death of Stan Liddy? In Season 5, convinced that Dexter was hiding something in regard to Rita’s murder, Quinn hires an old associate Stan Liddy (Peter Weller) to do some spying on his co-worker, at the same time that he’s just started a romantic relationship with Dexter’s sister Deb. (Wow.) Eventually, his feelings for Deb make him second guess his side project and he wants to drop his private investigation. But now that Liddy is hot on Dexter’s trail and convinced that there is in fact something off about him, Liddy won’t give up! It eventually leads him to a confrontation with Dexter in the Season 5 finale which costs Liddy his life. At first, the police find a drop of Liddy’s blood on Quinn’s shoe and pin the murder on him, but after some noodling with the blood work, Dexter manages to clear Quinn’s name for the time being. Yet… no one was ever curious as to who really killed Stan Liddy? Given the circumstances regarding the Dexter, Quinn, Liddy triangle, just seemed odd that no one ever truly put it all together. Then again, we know very little of Liddy’s background. Maybe he has no family or anyone that cares that he’s gone?

Whatever happened to the new Trinity Killer? I have to admit something. The time table regarding Rita’s murder never quite sat right with me. I mean, there is mention of it in Season 5 that clarifies that Dexter was at the raid on Arthur Mitchell’s house at the time the murder was estimated to have taken place, but deep down, a small part of me wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe someone else killed Rita. And so when I saw the preview for “Nebraska,” episode 7 of Season 6 where Dexter treks (with his imaginary brother Rudy in tow) to investigate the suspicion deaths of the remaining Mitchell women, I was tremendously excited at the potential return of the Trinity Killer through his son Jonah (Brandon Eaton) taking up his mantle. Part of me wanted to believe that maybe Jonah started continuing his father’s work with Rita as his first victim. Alas, as much as I (and other fans) wanted them to go in a radical direction with the Jonah character as the potential new Trinity, he was only in one episode and spared by Dexter for not really being directly responsible for their deaths. Jonah’s sister committed suicide & blamed his mother whom he accidentally killed. Just seemed like a missed opportunity judging from what the promo spots for this episode promised.

What was up with Ryan Chambers and the Ice Truck Killer evidence? An interesting sub-plot that started in Season 6 and then concluded in the beginning of Season 7 was the Ice Truck killer evidence that was stolen from lock-up by Masuka’s new intern Ryan Chambers (Brea Grant). Ryan eventually sold it on-line in a private auction to a collector which turned out to be Louis Green (Josh Cooke), ironically enough Masuka’s replacement intern for Ryan and eventually the boyfriend of Dexter’s nanny Jaime. (All surprisingly convenient in retrospect.) Slightly obsessed with Dexter, Louis ends up sending him the arm back from the Ice Truck Killer case and suddenly has a hate-on for Dexter because he rejects the notion of his serial killer video game. So, it appears that Louis never actually knew that Dexter was the Bay Harbor Butcher? And I guess Louis himself was never an aspiring serial killer as was suggested by the end of Season 6? The twist was a nice change of pace, but whatever happened to the arm? Well, in season 7, Dexter returns it to evidence and has a conversation with Masuka where Masuka explains the whole story. Looking back, it just seemed like Ryan’s sole purpose was to show up, steal the arm, sell the arm, get fired? Ok, and make Masuka sweat a little. It was a potentially interesting character for the opening of Season 6 that eventually got dropped in favor of Louis.

Looking back at the previous 7 seasons, were there any other moments or plotlines you felt were left unresolved?

It’s ‘Dexter‘ week here on FEARnet, so here’s what we talked about earlier this week. Stay tuned tomorrow for our favorite ‘Dexter’ killers!