TV Review: DEXTER – Season 6 – “Get Gellar”

By RACHEL REITSLEFF / Contributing Writer

Posted: November 28th, 2011 / 10:08 AM

Rating: TV-MA
Stars: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, Lauren Velez, Desmond Harrington, C.S. Lee, David Zayas, James Remar, Aimee Garcia, Geoff Pierson, Edward James Olmos, Colin Hanks, Billy Brown, Josh Cooke
Writer: Karen Campbell, series based on the books by Jeff Lindsay
Director: Seith Mann
Network: Showtime, Sundays @ 9 PM
Release Date: November 27, 2011

Magic is the art of misdirection, so one could call this season of DEXTER a bit magical, given the revelation at the end of the episode “Get Gellar.” Certainly, Edward James Olmos as Gellar has seemed far too fierce and solid to be anything but the antagonist he’s appeared to be until now. The revelation of what the character actually is explains a lot, but it still doesn’t mitigate the fact that Gellar and his protégé Travis (Colin Hanks) have been less than fascinating company, for all their skill in creating striking crime scenes.

BE WARNED – SPOILER ALERT!

Dexter (Michael C. Hall) puts Travis up in a hotel to protect him from Gellar. Gellar posts on his old web site since the first time his killing spree started. Dexter tries to rescue a popular atheist professor, who he guesses will be Gellar’s next target. Unfortunately, Dexter’s warnings go unheeded and the man is indeed killed. While Lieutenant Deb (Jennifer Carpenter), Dexter and Masuka (C.S. Lee) are examining the body, the victim’s blood is dumped on them from above. Dexter encourages Travis to contact Gellar, in the hopes that they can find the professor this way. One hand is missing from the latest victim’s body – Travis finds it in his hotel room, with writing on the wall in blood demanding that Travis bring Dexter to the church where Gellar has been killing many of his victims.

Dexter’s father Harry (James Remar), or rather Dexter’s imaginary version of the late police detective, appears to Dexter. Harry wonders why Dexter is so intent on saving Travis from Travis’ “dark passenger” Gellar. Dexter feels that if he can help Travis find a new life, maybe there’s hope for Dexter to become a better father, though not a better person (Dexter feels it’s too late for that). Before Dexter arrives at the church, Gellar sternly lectures Travis that God will give him one more chance and offers to embrace Travis. When Dexter arrives, he finds Travis bound on the floor with his mouth taped, but still alive. Dexter finds a trapdoor and seeks Gellar below it. Dexter finds Gellar – dead in a coffin-sized ice chest. Dexter realizes that Gellar has been dead for years and Travis has actually been committing all the murders himself, schizophrenically imagining that the professor is doing the killings.

That’s a huge plot twist that explains why Travis has such a flat, passive affect and why Gellar always seems so unyielding. At least the characters now make sense, but this still doesn’t make them intriguing. If anything, Travis’ severe split personality would appear to make him less challenging for Dexter as an opponent, though Dexter may have qualms about killing someone who truly doesn’t know what he’s doing. This will be an interesting wrinkle when and if it appears.

In other developments, Quinn (Desmond Harrington) has accidentally left his gun in the car of his older one-night stand. Batista (David Zayas) resentfully gives Quinn a ride to pick up the weapon. Quinn needles Batista so relentlessly that the two get into a fistfight.

After a visit from the father of the prostitute whose death was ruled a drug overdose, Deb decides to reopen the case, despite objections from LaGuerta (Lauren Velez). It’s not especially surprising when it turns out that the police commissioner (Geoff Pierson), formerly the department’s captain, was the customer who broke the prostitute’s rib when he tried to revive her.

Masuka’s eager-beaver lab assistant Louis (Josh Cooke) finally brings Batista’s sister/Dexter’s babysitter Jamie (Aimee Garcia) back to his expensive home. Louis collects a lot of things – including (we see but Jamie doesn’t) the missing Ice Truck Killer arm stolen by Masuka’s previous lab assistant and sold on eBay. Louis had cleared traces of the sale for Masuka but said they buyer couldn’t be traced.

This last raises some good questions. Is Louis a serial killer himself or just playing some very strange games? While not on the scale of “Get Gellar”’s other revelation, it certainly offers a lot of possibilities. Meanwhile, Dexter is grappling with a dilemma that’s new to him as far as an opponent who in the most literal sense doesn’t know what he’s doing. It’s a worthy subject, and we can look forward to seeing what both actor Hall and the show itself will do with this conundrum. It’s just a disappointment seeing that Dexter is neither tempted by what’s on offer nor faced with a formidable foe. Whatever Travis thinks, we can be pretty sure he’s not speaking for the Almighty, so Dexter won’t be grappling with the divine, just a lost soul.

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