i love you like i love m&ms, it's logical

[intrikate88]

Goddammit I don't know if anyone besides thunderemerald is keeping up with Dexter but WRITERS HOW IS IT YOU KEEP DOING ALL THESE AMAZING CHARACTER EXPLORATION THINGS THAT I ALWAYS WANTED YOU TO DO. 



I have to say the moment last week where Deb told Dexter she loved him was just so beautiful in the total agony of it all. I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP. And like I don't even know if I want them to be romantic and shit. Dexter will never stop being terrible at romance and feelings; Deb has never been the romantic side of a relationship and basically torpedoes every relationship that gets into romantic commitment (you know. when she's not working out older-male-love issues with a commitmentphobe dedicated to his job who gets murdered, or dating her brother-by-proxy-basically). Maybe they suck at maintaining romantic relationships because they don't really want it. Maybe they should just be codependent partners who know they'll always be there for each other and maybe sometimes fuck or maybe sometimes fuck other people but the point is that they are each other's Person. 

I don't know. I like unhealthy codependent couples and somehow this has landed me right in the middle of incest shipping and I like exploring ways of having a relationship outside of the romantic love --> sex --> marriage paradigm. 

I think it's Isaak asking for Dexter's help that is making me think about the major players in Dex's life this season-- he wants to use Dexter as a target of revenge, and then as an ally... but he wants a mirror, too, an outsider and predator like himself. But Hannah wants her own mirror as well, someone who kills because he's damaged and doesn't think there's any value in possibly being a victim, and she's never quite found her match before. And Deb wants to have her pillar back. She realized she depended on him last season when she was forced to live past the example she had followed her whole life, and now leaning on him is this whole other complicated deal. Everybody wants Dexter to be someone to them, to be a good counterweight and partner, but... he doesn't know how. 

Oh my fucking god, Dexter trying to say that Deb's love is logical and comparing it to M&Ms. I mean, I would say the same thing under the circumstances because I too am an emotionally stunted robot, but hot damn Dexter you are fucking magical in your complete inability to say the right thing. TOTAL MAGIC. But it's not a new thing that Dexter's emotional colorblindness has driven Deb up the wall before; I think the thing that's really giving her even more of a problem is knowing why.

I feel so bad for LaGuerta this season. She really needs an ally, and she and Deb have always been on the edge of being excellent teammates and never quite being able to. And now Mathison's bullshit, get on my boat and I'll sail you back to Cuba myself? Oh FUCK you. Especially when he walks back later and she has to choke down her dignity to get the answers she wants. UGH.

Oh my god Dexter and Deb both on their own dangerous missions, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

Wow, this whole heart to heart moment wtih Isaak, it's so sweet and man, Dex never gets these sort of moments with anyone else. Awww, and Isak says "There's hope for you yet." 

I do like Hannah, I do. I'm glad she didn't die because dude that would have sucked a bag of dicks to survive as long as she has and then get knifed by a damn thug while being held hostage. But I also see her as a narrative tool? This season is all about Dexter letting go of the tight control he's had over his life-- not over his changing interpretation of his Code, but over his human life, and falling for Hannah and being honest wtih Deb is all part of that. He's falling without a safety net and he's trusting without a plastic-wrapped promise of security. Hannah is excellent for being the key to that. I just don't see her as any sort of endgame.

Comments

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

Yeah, okay, SO:

I think the only difference in our reactions is how squicked out I am by the whole Deb-has-feeeeelings-for-Dex situation. I mean, I sort of get it? But? And that scene where she gets all feelingsy on him, it just felt really awkward to me. I know it's SUPPOSED to be awkward, but when I was sitting there watching it, I found myself thinking that I felt awkward in a way that was probably not what the writers intended. But maybe it was exactly what they intended, so whatever. Maybe I was just bothered by how much she was throwing the term "serial killer" around. She just kept saying it, over and over, until I felt the meaning (this is Dexter's Big Secret! it's his WHOLE LIFE!) start to spread thin, like she was just saying "You're a JUSTIN BIEBER FAN, and I'm more fucked up than you are!" or something like that.

Also, I kept thinking about how they were outside and she was being loud and ANYONE COULD HAVE HEARD THEM. But anyway.

>> but hot damn Dexter you are fucking magical in your complete inability to say the right thing. TOTAL MAGIC.

Couldn't have said it better myself. That whole M&M's thing was pure genius. GEEEENIUS.

>> Oh FUCK you. Especially when he walks back later and she has to choke down her dignity to get the answers she wants. UGH.

Jesus, I know, right? I love that we've seen LaGuerta be a raging bitch for so long, but every now and again we get a glimpse of exactly why she's learned to be that way. With Matthews around, and people like him, bitchiness is always going to be a necessity of survival.

But oh wow, I cannot wait to see what happens when she starts going after Dexter, because you KNOW she will. I predict that Dex and Deb will have to team up and kill her (maybe using Hannah to help, since LaGuerta won't expect her?), and Deb will take over the captain's chair. But while I think that's where the show is most likely to take it, oh my god do I ever hope they think of something better. Especially since this whole season has been, compared to their last few, deliciously unpredictable. I mean, I thought Isaak was going to be the Big Bad! The fact that he isn't, is throwing me for a loop. So ANYTHING GOES at this point, as far as I'm concerned.

>> Wow, this whole heart to heart moment wtih Isaak, it's so sweet and man, Dex never gets these sort of moments with anyone else. Awww, and Isak says "There's hope for you yet."

This was the most amazing scene this show has had in a very long time. The end.

>> He's falling without a safety net and he's trusting without a plastic-wrapped promise of security. Hannah is excellent for being the key to that. I just don't see her as any sort of endgame.

Me neither, but mostly because did you see her face after Dex's confession at the end of this episode? She looked legit freaked out. And we all know she's kind of a loose cannon.

Also, Dexter learning to trust / losing control? When was the last time THAT ended well? Between that and LaGuerta catching up with the trufax of the BHB case, I am seriously starting to wonder if season eight will just be DEX AND DEB ON THE RUN.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

She just kept saying it, over and over, until I felt the meaning (this is Dexter's Big Secret! it's his WHOLE LIFE!) start to spread thin, like she was just saying "You're a JUSTIN BIEBER FAN, and I'm more fucked up than you are!" or something like that.

It is starting to get that way as a whole. And... I don't know if that's on purpose, but I think it thematically kind of works? Like she's clinging to this definition that's mixed up in all the people she's arrested and Brian and the definition technically fits except she can't make it fit entirely. And she also can't make her feelings fit, and she can't express them, and so it was just that whole explosion of everything gone wrong. As a scene for them connecting or whatever, it didn't do anything, but as a scene of Deb being desperately lonely in all she's going through, trying to control it by sticking labels on everything, and then the furious wrung-out frustration of it all when those labels fall off... that's how it worked for me. Idek, really. I just see her really wanting things to be as simple as feelings for Dexter = boyfriend Dexter, or serial killer Dexter = heartless piece of shit and it just never works. So yeah: SERIAL KILLER! and I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU are things she just keeps saying in hopes they'll start meaning something and they never do.

Yeah, I thought Isaak was too, and now we have almost nothing to go on for who the Big Bad is going to be! I don't want LaGuerta to have to die, I agree, I want better for her. But damn I am more on the edge of my seat about her investigating than I am about basically anyone else, good heavens.

She looked legit freaked out. And we all know she's kind of a loose cannon.

Haha, ANOTHER reason I don't predict her lasting beyond the end of the season. I expected her to go UH HONEY HERE'S SOME SPECIAL TEA JUST FOR YOU right there and then, lol.

Also, Dexter learning to trust / losing control? When was the last time THAT ended well?

So, like, EVERY season there has been the plotline of Dexter opening up to somebody in some way, right? And it always ends up with it being a case of "two can keep a secret if one of them is dead". In the last ep, he was contemplating how Hannah's not bothered by him killing, but he might have a problem with his inability to truly connect on other levels. So yeah, I expect this will all end up in betrayal and bloodshed, but I don't think he'll soon forget that there is a possibility for him to grow up emotionally and genuinely connect.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

>> So yeah: SERIAL KILLER! and I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU are things she just keeps saying in hopes they'll start meaning something and they never do.

I think you just magically made me like that scene more. Like, to the point where I'm going to have to rewatch it with that in mind, and see how I ~feel~ afterwards. Your interpretation of Deb is, I think, absolutely 100% spot-on. She's always been a label-sticker-onner -- you kinda have to be, to a point, in order to be a good cop. I think this is just the first time she's been forced to apply that skill to something other than THE LAW (because, let's face it, when was the last time Deb examined her own life this closely?), and now that I'm looking at that scene that way, it's pretty fascinating.

>> I expected her to go UH HONEY HERE'S SOME SPECIAL TEA JUST FOR YOU right there and then, lol.

HA, same! And since they've already established (I think?) that Dexter will eat what she cooks, it wouldn't be terribly hard for her....

>> In the last ep, he was contemplating how Hannah's not bothered by him killing, but he might have a problem with his inability to truly connect on other levels.

Yeah, but the beauty of this plotline is that he's starting to think he CAN connect on other levels! Like, if Hannah can, and if Isaak can (or if his perception is that they can, because in Dexter's mind, everyone is more human than he is, but who's to say how much either of them ever truly connect?), then surely Dexter can, too! So what will screw him over more in the end: actually being able to connect, or thinking that he can but not really knowing how?

THOUGHTS THOUGHTS.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Ha HAH, I got into your head. You're totally right, law is a good profession for someone who defines her world with labels, because it's not even a moral or ethical area to get philosophical and analytical, it's a world where there is defined legal and illegal ways of doing things. And then there is a clear path of gathering solid support to prove that something illegal was done.

But see, when she and Dexter were children, she was disappointed that Harry spent so much time on Dexter and taking him hunting, but she never asked why that was necessary. She's always known that Dexter didn't express emotions but she never asked what caused that. She's an investigator and a curious person, but I think what she chooses to look for is evidence to support what she's already thought of, not things to analyze for new conclusions. So here are these GIANT concepts that she didn't think of before, here is the evidence dumped in her lap, it's all completely backward. Horribly illegal things are done by a good man. Love that doesn't fit any romantic definition just kinda gets uncovered instead of developed. It's not connection; it's the systematic and total breakdown of Deb's entire life and way of thinking. The most central person in her life does not fit into her life: there is basically no fucking next step from there, except for making an entire new way of living.

So what will screw him over more in the end: actually being able to connect, or thinking that he can but not really knowing how?

BOTH! XD

Dexter: HANNAH HANNAH GUESS WHAT I CAN LOVE YOU

Hannah: I... I... do not have luck with men supporting me in living the life I want... um... congratulations, you can love, here have a congratulations pie!

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

>> She's an investigator and a curious person, but I think what she chooses to look for is evidence to support what she's already thought of, not things to analyze for new conclusions.

THIS THIS THIIIIIIIIS. It's funny, my first instinct was to say "Now Deb will have to learn to think more like Dexter," but that's not true at all, is it? Dexter thinks the same way -- his hunches tell him who his next kill will be, and he seeks evidence to support the hunches so he can follow through.

Actually, though, they're learning the exact same thing at the exact same time. That people (in her case, Dex; in his case, Hannah) don't fit neatly into the little boxes you make for them, and sometimes you have to let go and let them be who they are, let them mean what they mean to you, and let yourself react accordingly.

Huh.

YOUR SCRIPT IS ALREADY CANON IN MY HEART.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

Well I'm quite a bit of the opinion that the real reason Deb has SUCH a problem with Dexter- this problem where she keeps treading the same ground, keeps stuttering over the same accusation, doesn't seem to have a linear developing acceptance/understanding of who he is- is because what she really has a problem with is herself. Like you said, she goes with her hunches and then tracks down the proof; he's just made it an explicit function. She tries to reach out and embrace people but ultimately concludes she's too much, too fucked up to be loved completely, and so is always with one foot out the door; he has the back door of a knife with every relationship. She has a desire for justice that is extremely visceral and emotional instead of simply rational; he has internalized the Code so much that his lizard brain pings him and divides his world into the category of People Who Need To Die and Everyone Else.

I've always seen Deb as being a lot like Dexter in many ways, although almost coming at that from the opposite direction, and the beauty of discord here is that Dexter is everything she is scared to let herself acknowledge that she is, and he has it all laid out neatly and organized for her to see. She wanted Speltzer to die. She wanted Hannah to die. She has never bothered to cut off her interest in justice at the point where she hands over evidence she's collected: she will judge them all just fine, jury not needed. She can comfort herself with the fact she does it with a badge, but Dexter has his motivations stripped bare, and so that's really painful for her to see.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

1. She can comfort herself with the fact she does it with a badge, but Dexter has his motivations stripped bare, and so that's really painful for her to see.

YES. Just... all the yes ever.

2. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WEEK'S EPISODE.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

I WILL WATCH WHEN I GET HOME TONIGHT. I don't have Showtime so I have to wait til Monday to get it. ACK.

I NEED IT NOW. I swear to fuck that tv is out to kill me with emotions.

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD HOW WILL YOU SURVIIIIIIVE.

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

NO IDEA. Regina completely broke my heart on Once Upon a Time, Nolan then stomped on it in Revenge just afterwards, I can always depend on the internet to give me something about the Avengers or Natasha to make me want to hibernate, AND THEN THERE'S DEB AND DEXTER AND THEIR FACES.

[trickseybird.livejournal.com]

I lost my shit at the end of the last season, I just never thought they'd do the pseudo incest storyline and the big reveal

[intrikate88.livejournal.com]

I thought they'd do the big reveal eventually, and I thought it would be seasons ago, but no, it happened like right when it was supposed to- right when it was the worst timing for Lt. Deb, and that's so perfect. And I'm glad they're acknowledging that Deb and Dex have always been first for each other, and working out what that means.

So really, it's a cool season.