Thursday, July 11, 2013

My Review of Dexter's 8x02: "Every Silver Lining"


Written by Manny Coto
Directed by Michael C. Hall

Dexter: “You’re wrong about me. I’m a mistake.”
Vogel: “You’re everything you need to be, Dexter. You’re perfect.”

And with those words, alarm bells really should be ringing in Dexter’s ears about now. With the exception of Lumen and Deb, anyone else who has been privy to Dexter’s bloodlust has not turned out to be good for him and it’s pretty obvious that Vogel is going to be joining that line up as well.

I’m not sure if I entirely buy the idea of Vogel being responsible for Harry giving Dexter his code but the maternal streak she showed Dexter alone in this episode certainly means that her chances of manipulating him for a bit are pretty good. Already in this episode she sent him after someone she assumed was the Brain Surgeon and stalking her.

I liked the reveal about Lyle Sussman being more of a victim of the Brain Surgeon as well, even if he was responsible for a victim’s death in this episode before being killed himself. Is it too much to assume that Evelyn herself is the real surgeon and she’s preying on certain psychopaths to do her bidding? I don’t think so.

Evelyn knows about psychopaths in a pretty detailed manner and she knew exactly what to say to Dexter at various points when it looked like he was going to snub her requests as well. She’s definitely an intellectual threat for Dexter and he really hasn’t had one of those in a long while, has he?

This week certainly wasn’t Dexter’s best one. With Vogel getting under his skin and Deb continuing to distance herself from him, it was a little hard not to feel bad for Dexter a bit in this episode.

Speaking of Deb – I’m disappointed that she killed El Sapo (assuming she did, in spite of her fuzzy memory) but the downward spiral has been nicely played by Jennifer Carpenter nonetheless though. Deb made some valid points again to Dexter but at the same time, it was him who managed to save her bacon from being identified as El Sapo’s killer though.

Of course the scenes at Miami Metro still had their moment of tension though. Deb could barely look at Angel or Tom and she couldn’t even snap back at Masuka like she would do in the old days. Even her questioning with Quinn about El Sapo saw her only being inches away from confessing to murdering the guy.

Also in “Every Silver Lining”

This was the first time Michael C. Hall directed for the show. He previously directed the penultimate episode of Six Feet Under’s final season.

Vogel: “Sooner or later somebody’s going to be holding a piece of my brain in a jar. I want you to find him, Dexter and I want you to do what Harry and I taught you to do.”
Dexter: “I don’t take requests.”

Angel admitted to being aware about Quinn sleeping with Jamie but seemed more fixated on Quinn taking the sergeant’s test.

Dexter: “Miami makes more corpses than sunburns and I’m thankful.”

Dexter: “You never felt guilty about what I was doing.”
Vogel: “No, all I ever felt was pride.”

Elway seems to be harbouring some romantic feelings for Deb and Quinn’s feelings for her have been noticed by Jamie as well.

El Sapo (to Deb): “You’re lucky I don’t kill people unless I’m paid to.”

Deb: “Nobody’s coming after me, Dexter.”
Dexter: “How do you know that?”

Standout music: Mama Cass’s “Make Your Kind Of Music” was played in this episode during a gruesome scene.

Dexter: “What if I weren’t here to cover your ass.”
Deb: “Do you really wanna play the ‘what if’ game?”

Chronology: I assume from where “A Beautiful Day” left off.

Although not quite as good as the opening episode, at least “Every Silver Lining” moved things along nicely. Michael C. Hall did a good job with directing the episode and Vogel is certainly proving to be a whole new kind of problem as well.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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