  Matt Gerald as Ray Speltzer and Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan (Season 7, episode 4). (Randy Tepper/Showtime)
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When did Dexter become True Blood?
The fourth episode in the seventh season of Dexter, which aired Sunday night on The Movie Network and Movie Central in Canada and on Showtime in the United States, certainly had a lot at stake.
SPOILER ALERT: This is a review of the Dexter episode titled Run, and is meant for people who saw it. If you don’t want to know what happened, now’s the time to bail.
So Dexter Morgan, played by Michael C. Hall, has made some big changes. His compulsion to kill? Still there. But the way he does it?
When Dexter finally trapped the super-evil Ray Speltzer, played by Matt Gerald, Dexter killed his victim with a stake to the heart. That's right, a wooden stake. I half expected Speltzer to turn to ash, but then I thought, oh wait, wrong show.
Even more significantly, Dexter then burned his blood slides along with Speltzer. The blood slides were a far more meaningful loss.
Documenting all his past killings, the blood slides were Dexter's trophies, as his foster sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) had pointed out disapprovingly in the previous episode.
"It's time for everyone to move on," Dexter said before saying goodbye to his "friends."
The only reason Speltzer, a serial killer of young women, was free was that he got off on a technicality after confessing to murder. Turns out he had not verbally confirmed that he understood his Miranda rights when he was arrested, and that was enough to set him loose.
Okay, I'm naive, I admit it. I don't understand the laws from state to state or province to province. But my God, would that really happen? Could a man who confessed to murder be set free, immediately, on such a small technicality? And no one even thought to give the police a heads-up on that? Maybe it does happen, I don't know, but I sure as hell hope not.
It all culminated with Dexter showing Deb smoke drifting into the air from a chimney, and telling her, "It's Speltzer."
"Did you do this for me?" asked Deb, who was seething mad at Speltzer for mockingly standing outside the church where the funeral for his most recent victim was being held.
"No," Dexter admitted. He did it for himself, as always. But then he added, "How do you feel?"
Deb paused and said, "Glad. What does that make me?"
"Human," Dexter answered.
So he's an expert on that now?
Other story lines:
Deb correctly pointed out to Dexter that his wife Rita (Julie Benz) is dead BECAUSE of him. She was murdered by the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow), but had Dexter never engaged the Trinity Killer, Rita still would be alive.
Ukrainian mobster Isaac (Ray Stevenson) clearly has a special thing for cop-killer Viktor, who subsequently was killed by Dexter. Were Isaac and Viktor brothers? Lovers? It's touching that Isaac is so loyal. Too bad Viktor was such a reckless tool.
When Deb got into the bathtub early in the episode, I thought to myself, "Has any female character in any TV show or movie ever entered the bathtub or the shower without something bad happening?" Dream sequence or not, my theory was re-confirmed.
Okay, after the strip club has been raided, like, a thousand times, I understand why the strippers still would be there. They work there. But word gets around. Why the heck would there be any customers in that strip club if it has been getting raided every single day?
Finally, I know that Dexter's son Harrison now represents hope and purity in the series, even though Dexter barely ever has to deal with his own son in practical terms. But as Dexter shipped off Harrison to go and see his grandparents (Rita's mom and dad, plus Rita's two kids from her previous marriage) for "a couple of weeks," I couldn't help but think, "Will we ever see Harrison again?" Not in terms of Harrison being in any danger, but in terms of, "Wouldn't it be easier right now to tell this story with Harrison safely elsewhere?"
For now, Harrison has been packed away, just as Dexter's routine is blood-sliding away.
bill.harris@sunmedia.ca
@billharris_tv
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