My Review of Dexter's 3x01: "Our Father"

Written by Clyde Philips
Directed by Keith Gordon

Old Man (re Oscar): “Did you know him well?”
Dexter: “Not as well as I thought.”

After reading the first four books over the last couple of weeks, I was really looking forward to a brand new episode of the series and FXUK’s decision to air the third season earlier than usual couldn’t have happened at a better time as far as I was concerned.

Things certainly felt a lot more different here than usual. Dexter talked about evolving and things changing and his murder of Oscar Prado was certainly something unexpected. The reason for that being the fact that Oscar wasn’t Dexter’s intended victim for that particular evening.

No, it was the rather unpleasant drug dealer Freebo that had the honour of making it to Dexter’s hit list and Dexter’s sense of vetting took an interesting. Pretending to be a jittering junkie made sense as Dexter needed to get close and in spite of Freebo’s protestations, Dexter seemed to gain his trust rather quickly.

The problem was that when Dexter went to actually kill Freebo, he made the cardinal error of killing Oscar instead. This is probably the first time that Dexter has murdered an innocent person so to speak and his inability to react in a way is worrying. He realised his mistake (albeit too late) but aside from some initial shock, he wasn’t exactly overcome with guilt.

However he might not have to be either as Deb learned pretty quickly that Oscar wasn’t at Freebo’s place during the night of his death for noble reasons. Oscar being a junkie might not be a massive surprise but it’s not exactly the kind of thing that absolves Dexter either.

Killing Oscar was certainly a moment of bad judgement but researching him at work was another sloppy move on Dexter’s part. With Doakes out of the picture, every other regular has no reason to suspect Dexter of not being quite what he seems, so I guess that’s a good reason why Miguel has been drafted in.

From the moment they met at the crime scene, Miguel Prado (good casting with Jimmy Smits) seemed very suspicious of Dexter but the latter didn’t pay any attention to it until he got summoned by Miguel a second time to the crime scene.

I have to admit that Miguel even caught me off guard with the quick fire way he asked Dexter about researching Oscar online. Miguel also seemed utterly unconvinced when Dexter told him that he wanted to understand more about Oscar. That’s a shame because Dexter’s usually very good at getting him out of tight spots.

Miguel could be a very formidable threat to Dexter if the writers have the stamina to keep him going all season. Being the older brother of Oscar and a prosecutor was enough to have him even more determined to nail Oscar’s killer. Dexter’s really going to have to watch himself with this guy. Miguel pretty much has trouble written all over him with a capital T.

Of course Miguel and Oscar weren’t the only issues that Dexter had to deal with. Deb had good reason to be pissed with him as well. It might be a brother’s prerogative not to notice when their sister’s cut their hair for the first time in a long while (very long in Deb’s case) but not showing up for a commemorative piss up for a dead parent, yeah I can see why Deb would be less forgiving about that.

Dexter’s issues with Harry played out over the episode but unlike other shows who tend to practically bludgeon viewers with main characters having parental issues, I liked the way the show dealt with them. Dexter was right about Harry’s code needing to evolve but spontaneity is not Dexter’s best of bedfellows. I guess some people do need to be control freak.

Rita’s pregnancy reveal at the end of the episode made a lot of sense. I’m not big on baby plots but I think the idea of Dexter fathering a child could raise some interesting issues. What if on the off chance that a child parented by Dexter doesn’t wind up becoming a sociopath? Stranger things have certainly happened, I’ll give you that. Also was it me or were there a lot of sex scenes with Dexter and Rita? I’m not complaining mind.

Dexter playing Dad with Cody and Astor has always been one of his endearing parts and often has given the character a degree of humanity that he would probably casually dismiss himself. The parent day segment was mildly touching as Dexter faced his toughest crowd yet: ten year olds who are not really impressed with the delicacies of blood spatter.

When Dexter wasn’t getting all the interesting moments (like having to attend Oscar’s funeral, listening to Miguel talk about being broken, etc), Deb also found herself in demand by both Quinn and Yuki but for different reasons.

With Quinn it seemed to be relentless flirting, though he did give her a lead with Anton but Yuki seemed more interested in getting Deb to become a snitch. As much as Deb protested that she couldn’t spy on her friends, I have a nasty feeling that she’ll be taking up Yuki’s offer within the next few weeks.

Another noteworthy point with Deb this week was her getting kicked off the Oscar Prado case. Okay, so she really should’ve applied tact when telling everyone in the office about Oscar being a drug dealer (I thought Miguel was going to rip her a new one, never mind LaGuerta) but seeing as Deb was the only to have any kind of advancement on Oscar’s case, maybe Angel made the wrong decision on that one.

Also, what the hell happened to Tegan? If we didn’t see that bit of flesh cut off at the end of the episode, I would’ve been convinced that it was Freebo who murdered her but I just don’t envision Freebo surviving beyond the next episode in order to become a season big bad. Given that Lila was more or less the baddie of last season, this new killer has a lot to live up to.

Also in “Our Father”

I loved the opening and ending with Dexter at the dentist. For a show that largely deals with dismemberment, the sense of humour is always spot on.

Dentist: “How was your summer?”
Dexter: “I went to the carnival. I even won a prize.”

I wasn’t really surprised when it was revealed that Maria and Miguel once had a thing. Props to Maria for mentioning it to every one else though.

Angel (to everyone): “When this is official, when I trade this in for a gold badge, drinks are on me.”

Dexter: “More interested in scoring tar.”
Freebo: “Another yuppie turned to the dark side.”

Angel got promoted to detective sergeant in this episode. Deb also talked about getting her shield as well.

Deb: “What is it you think Quinn did exactly?”
Yuki: “You don’t get to blow me off and still ask questions.”

Rita: “What happened to ‘do not call’? It’s three in the morning.”
Dexter: “Not in India.”

Freebo – Fred Bowman who killed two college girls. Possibly three if he did actually murder Tegan but I’m not convinced that he did.

Angel (re dog in the car): “Man’s best friend, eh Dex?”
Dexter: “Not today.”

Miguel: “Some people say the soul lives on forever.”
Dexter: “I hope not.”
Miguel: “That makes you a cynic.”
Dexter: “A scientist.”

I noticed in the cast that no-one has been added and that Michael C. Hall is now a co-executive producer for the series.

Dexter (re LaGuerta): “She’s been in better moods.”
Deb: “Yeah, I didn’t exactly brighten her day.”

Angel (re Deb): “If I bounce her, she’s gonna hate me.”
Maria: “You’re her boss, not her friend.”

Deb went on a spree of giving up smoking, drinking and men. She already gave up on abstaining from the booze so the others will undoubtedly follow suit.

Miguel: “Losing my brother is going to leave a pain in my heart that is never going to heal. Do you have a brother, Dexter?”
Dexter: “Just a very loud sister.”

Rita (to Dexter): “All I want is chocolate pudding and you. Not necessarily in that order.”

Chronology: Hard to say but it did seem like a good few months have passed since “The British Invasion”.

For an opening episode, we’ve had better but “Our Father” was certainly a good opener no less. Some moments were intriguing, some were sweet and most importantly, there’s another serial nutter to challenge/amaze Dexter for the duration of the season.

Rating: 8 out of 10.