Last Night Was the Night

Today, despite our raucous celebration of National Punctuation Day (has it been a year already) (and check out that punctuation!), we want to talk about "Dexter."


We just finished watching season 4 on DVD, and we have a minor quibble.

MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT!!! If, like the Solipsist, you are a fan of the show, but (also like the Solipsist) you watch the show on DVD and have not yet seen season 4, and you do not want to know what happens at the end STOP READING IMMEDIATELY!

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!!!





OK, everybody gone?



We actually heard about the death of Rita before we saw the season finale. While we felt suitably distressed (and more than a little irritated) upon hearing this, we didn't know exactly how she would meet her end. We figured she would fall victim to Trinity, and, of course, we were right, but we're kind of annoyed by what most people will probably consider a minor detail.

Trinity, of course, was Dexter's nemesis this season, and his nom de killing came from the fact that he would always kill in threes (well, really "fours," but of course we don't find that out 'til later): First, he kills a young, single woman in a bathtub by slashing her femoral artery; next, a mother is coerced into jumping off a building; finally, a middle-aged father is bludgeoned to death. Rita is killed in a bathtub, but, being the slightly older mother of two, she should have fallen from a great height.

Now, we know what you will say (especially if you've seen the show): Trinity killed Rita to get back at Dexter. She wasn't so much a part of his pattern as a "one-off." Plus, killing her in the bathtub allowed for the striking and symbolically charged image of Dexter and Rita's baby crying in a pool of blood. We get that. Our complaint is not that this ending "doesn't make sense" so much as that the writers could easily have orchestrated the ending so that Rita's death did fit into Trinity's pattern. All they would have had to do is have him kill a random single woman in some episode before the finale. Then, Rita could have "taken her proper place"--the mother--in the chain of Trinity's process. Same shock effect, and more narrative satisfaction.

Yes, we're spending a lot of time and energy on what seems like a minor point--what is a minor point. But with a show as meticulously crafted and plotted as "Dexter," any little slip has a greater niggle-factor. The closer a work of art comes to perfection, the more any imperfections stand out.