My Review of Dexter's 6x05: "The Angel Of Death"

Written by Scott Reynolds
Directed by SJ Clarkson

Dexter: “I don’t believe in angels but I do believe there’s a constant struggle with light and dark in the world.”

And no truer words were probably uttered by Dexter either for that matter. There is a struggle between light and dark and this one certainly saw one bit of light being taken out of the mix – Brother Sam?

While I’m glad this guy remained a positive influence on Dexter, couldn’t the show have waited a bit longer before killing him off? Wouldn’t at least two or three more episodes with Brother Sam been too much to ask for? I hate that another potentially great ally in Dexter’s corner is taken out of the equation.

So, who actually killed the redeemed former jailbird then? There was a part of me that thought Brother Sam’s shooter could be Travis, intending to kill Dexter but the trailer for the next episode seemed to indicate that someone from that gang Brother Sam was rescuing one of his charges from were responsible. I guess it could be very much that after all.

It’s a shame that Brother Sam was taken out too soon though. While this season still needs to step up a gear, Brother Sam has undeniably been a massive highlight and just liked seeing Dexter having a male friend who didn’t turn out to be a whack job for a change. Oh well, I suppose I can pleasure in Dexter getting vengeance on behalf on his friend’s part instead.

Speaking of vengeance, I loved that Dexter and Travis actually had an encounter in this episode after all the background checking that Dexter had been doing on him. It’s just too bad that Dexter let Travis go in order to close in on Gellar. You think with the whole Trinity debacle that Dexter would never make that kind of mistake again. I can’t help but feel he’s going to live to regret it as well.

As for Travis himself, yeah, there was more conflict but I am beginning to think he is actually starting to enjoy his kills. He might talk a good talk about the world being doomed and voicing fears about failing God but even Dexter saw through that and even warned Travis about Gellar’s true intentions towards him.

I liked that Travis seemed to question Gellar after his altercation with Dexter. He even made some lame excuse so that he couldn’t help Gellar with his latest victim but Gellar obviously knows how to push Travis’s buttons and I have no doubt that Dexter’s little pep talk will have all been in vain by next week.

Amazingly, it’s not just Travis that Gellar seems to have quite the impact on as well. Clarissa (if she’s not actually involved in Gellar’s antics but I’m willing to bet that she is) definitely knew more than she was letting on and her devotion/understanding to Gellar is worrying to say the least. Sadly for Miami Metro, Quinn’s inability to keep his dick in his pants means that their best chance of making progress has well and truly been screwed. No pun intended.

Quinn’s increasing stupidity this season is really taking newer heights that I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a secret competition between him, Maria and Masuka to see which one of them can be the incompetent and unprofessional. Right now though, I think Quinn is beginning to beat the lot of them. I know it sounds terrible but if loses his job this season, I don’t think I’ll feel all that bad for him.

As for Deb, it’s nice that she’s still settling in with her new role and while there are obvious struggles, she’s not screwing up as badly as some expected her to. Okay, maybe the argument with Jamie she had over Harrison seeing gory pictures didn’t totally paint her in a good light but it’s no worse than Quinn, Maria or Masuka’s collective screw ups in the last few weeks and at least she started opening up to her therapist as well, which should be helpful to her.

Oh yeah, while we’re on the thorny topic of Masuka – nice thinking to use the new intern to cover traces of the mannequin being auctioned online but there is no way in hell he’s actually going to get away with this and I have a feeling that despite being fired, we haven’t actually seen the last of Ryan either.

Also in “The Angel Of Death”

We’re counting down to Revelations 12:60. We’ve already had 12: 37, 12:42 and 12: 44, thanks to Gellar and Travis.

Masuka: “So, my question to you is ...”
Louis: “... Can I make this problem go away?”

More evidence that seems to suggest Travis can only see Gellar is that no-one seemingly reacted to Gellar in the nightclub. I’m still not sure if Gellar really is Travis’s version of Harry though.

Travis (to Gellar): “It’s sad. All these people here are doomed and they don’t even know it.”

Dexter (to himself): “I understand the urge to end someone’s life but what’s the fascination with ending the world?”

Mike’s foot in mouth syndrome continued this week during his conversation with Dexter. Don’t slag off your co-workers, Mike. Okay, maybe you mouth off Quinn.

Clarissa (re Gellar): “He likes to stir up trouble, make people think. That’s why everyone loved him.”

Deb: “Yeah, I’m a mess. Maybe I do need to go to therapy.”
Dexter: “No more than me.”

The episode implied that Clarissa had a sexual relationship with Gellar, who is being dubbed as the Doomsday killer by the press. Deb also moved into the home of a murder/suicide case this week as well.

Dexter: “Gellar’s pulling you towards the darkness, Travis, not the light.”
Travis: “You don’t know.”
Dexter: “Oh trust me, I know more about darkness than most and Gellar is pure darkness. You need to find someone else to follow.”

Chronology: Straight from where “A Horse Of A Different Colour” left off.

“The Angel Of Death” certainly lived up to it’s title and it’s definitely a more enjoyable episode than the previous one but again, it does feel like we need something bigger to happen right now. I suppose in some ways, Brother Sam’s death is possibly a good step in the right direction.

Rating: 7 out of 10