TV Review: DEXTER – Season 6 finale – “This Is the Way the World Ends”

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Contributing Writer

Posted: December 23rd, 2011 / 05:05 PM

Stars: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, Lauren Velez, Desmond Harrington, C.S. Lee, David Zayas, James Remar, Aimee Garcia, Geoff Pierson, Colin Hanks, Billy Brown, Josh Cooke, Jordana Spiro, Rya Kihlstedt
Writers: Scott Buck & Wendy West, series based on the books by Jeff Lindsay
Director: John Dahl
Network: Showtime, Sundays @ 9 PM
Release Date: December 18, 2011

Season Six of DEXTER hasn’t been one of its best, but it largely makes up for this with its biggest cliffhanger ever. Wait, we have to wait until September to see what happens next? Say it ain’t so!

SPOILER ALERT

In “This Is the Way the World Ends,” Dexter (Michael C. Hall) has survived Travis’ (Colin Hanks) attempt to burn him alive. However, Dexter is now adrift in the open ocean and believes he’s going to die. He mourns that he won’t get to see his toddler son Harrison grow up. Dexter is rescued by a group of boat people; Dexter returns the favor by killing a man who’s trying to rob the group and they all swim ashore.

Deborah (Jennifer Carpenter) and her team are still trying to catch Travis, or the Doomsday Killer, as they call him. A drawing leads them to correctly conclude that Travis intends to observe the upcoming solar eclipse from atop one ofMiami’s tall buildings and possibly conduct a sacrifice as he does so. Deb wants Dexter to go back to the abandoned church where Travis was hiding out before and do more blood analysis. Dexter promises to do so after he and Harrison participate in Harrison’s school pageant, with father and son dressed as lions for the Noah’s Ark theme. Deborah tells Dexter she loves him; Dexter, presumably thinking she means this in a sisterly way, says he loves her.

Travis believes Dexter is dead, but finding Dexter’s driver’s license (Travis acquired this during his attack on Dexter), he goes to Dexter’s apartment and sees Harrison with babysitter Jamie (Aimee Garcia). Travis also finds the Ice Truck Killer arm that Dexter’s admirer Louis (Josh Cooke) has shipped to him, so far without Dexter’s knowledge.

Travis manages to kidnap Harrison from the school and takes him to the top of a building. Travis kills the uniformed police officer stationed there and prepares to sacrifice Harrison, but Dexter shows up. Travis is astonished to find “the Beast” is still alive and Dexter offers to let Travis kill him if Travis will just let Harrison go. Travis puts Harrison into the elevator and orders Dexter to inject himself. Dexter appears to comply, but if there’s one thing you don’t want to do with a serial killer, it’s make him do something that can easily be faked. Dexter easily overpowers Travis, renders him unconscious, dumps him in the car trunk and takes Harrison home.

Deborah et al arrive at the rooftop too late. Travis is gone and they have no idea where he went. LaGuerta (Lauren Velez), of all people, comforts Deborah and says she’s confident Deborah will catch Travis. Deborah goes to her therapist (Rya Kihlstedt), who encourages Deborah to tell Dexter how she feels, though she should be prepared for Dexter not to reciprocate.

Dexter has set up a kill room in the abandoned church, and Travis awakes on Dexter’s table. Dexter feels that perhaps he is meant to be where he is and what he is. Dexter has absolutely forgotten that Deborah told him to be here to look for clues, and Deborah, remembering this, figures this will be a good place to talk to Dexter. So Deborah comes into the church, and just as soon as Dexter brings his knife down on Travis, he looks up to see Deborah staring at him.

And that’s the climax of the season. The proper words for the sentiments engendered by this would best be expressed by Deb in one of her more colorful utterances and the editor won’t let them be written here. Suffice to say that the title of “The Is the Way the World Ends” is given whole new meaning by this moment.

Otherwise, the episode is good, but not an absolute knockout. We’re intrigued by where the whole subplot with Louis is going – this is clearly going to factor into next season. We also get to see C.S. Lee as Masuka unleash his Yoda impression (it’s pretty good). Quinn (Desmond Harrington) and Batista (David Zayas) are left in uneasy détente and LaGuerta returns to showing some humanity, which is a good thing for both Deborah and the audience (the head-butting scenes between captain and lieutenant were getting a little redundant). There’s some fun to be had with Dexter and Harrison in their lion costumes. The mural by Travis (actually by the DEXTER art department) depicting Dexter as the face of the Beast is a memorable image, one that Dexter handles with his usual quick thinking when he knows the homicide squad is about to see it – he just punches out the face of the mural, leaving the rest intact.

However, Travis has shown himself to be such a complete lunatic that we’re not especially in fear of what he’s going to do next. As long as we thought Edward James Olmos’ formidable Professor Gellar was running the show, it seemed like Dexter might have to use his unique skills to prevent an apocalyptic act of some kind, but this angle seemed limited to Dexter thwarting Travis’ poison gas from taking out Miami Homicide. Bravo Dexter, but Travis got less rather than more dangerous afterward.

We are concerned for little Harrison, but on a meta level, we can guess that, as dark as DEXTER gets, killing the main character’s toddler son might still be a bit much (especially if Dexter the character is meant to be able to function for the next two seasons). Likewise, since we know the show has been renewed, we know that Dexter will have to survive the confrontation with Travis somehow. Still, Travis seems like such an idiot for telling Dexter to inject himself at such a distance that it’s easy for Dexter to fake it that the psychopath’s takedown seems anti-climactic. The Season Six arc provided a lot of striking tableaux but not the kind of mind game that DEXTER has shown it can provide.

But damned if the season doesn’t end on one big open-mouthed what the hell happens next stunner. As Deb would say … oh, right, we can’t say that. But we sure think it.

AGREE? DISAGREE? LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK – COMMENT BELOW!

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