A First Kiss, A First Kill

Now that Jordan Chase is aware of their partnership, Dexter and Lumen prepare for the worst and send Harrison to live with Astor and Cody in Orlando for the time being. Lumen visits Emily Birch, the woman whose blood was in Jordan's vial, and discovers the identity of the fourth rapist - a banker by the name of Alex Tilden. 

Meanwhile, Debra finds a set of thirteen DVD's in Cole's house, all containing recordings of women being raped, and Liddy witnesses Lumen and Dexter plotting a murder with his surveillance equipment.



Dexter 5.10 Review - 'In the Beginning'

Guest Starring:

Angela Bettis as Emily Birch
Scott Grimes as Alex Tilden

Maria Doyle Kennedy as Sonya

with

Peter Weller as Stan Liddy

with

Jonny Lee Miller as Jordan Chase

and

Julia Stiles as Lumen Pierce



Debra points Jordan and his attorney towards the forensics room.
Image copyright of Showtime.



This week's episode of Dexter certainly raised the bar, both for this season and for the series as a whole. After finally achieving a state of peace with Astor in 5.9 and returning her home to Orlando, Dexter and Lumen resumed their hunt for the rapists responsible for Lumen's torture and kidnapping. Now that Jordan Chase is aware that Dexter and Lumen are working together, Dexter prepares for the worst and gives Harrison to Sonya to take up to Orlando, and out of harm's way.

With Harrison safely out of the picture, Dexter and Lumen begin to prepare their plan of attack, but are suddenly forced to withdraw their plans, after Debra links Dan Mondale to Boyd and Cole and discovers a collection of thirteen DVD's containing footage of the men raping their victims. As it turns out, instead of the original five victims, there are actually a total of thirteen victims altogether, including Lumen.

Fortunately for Dexter, he manages to steal Lumen's disc easily enough, after a rather serious scene with Masuka and gives it to Lumen to take care of. After watching herself getting tortured, Lumen tells Dexter that she wants to be the one to kill Jordan Chase. However, after some investigative work, Dexter discovers the identity of Lumen's fourth rapist - a banker by the name of Alex Tilden.

Meanwhile, Lumen visits Emily Birch, the woman whose blood was in the vial in Jordan Chase's bathroom. Here she learns of Alex Tilden and sets up the premise of the remainder of the episode. Lumen also discovers an interesting fact about Jordan Chase - that his real name is actually Eugene Grier, the fifth boy in the photograph. With all these ambigious plot holes nicely addressed, Lumen and Dexter spend the rest of the episode planning and preparing for Alex Tilden's demise which, after a near encounter with Debra and Quinn, they finally manage to take down. It was quite interesting witnessing Lumen commit her first murder, and in a lot of ways it rung a similar bell to Miguel Prado way back in Season 3. However, Lumen and Dexter's following scene after Alex's death was definitely unique and quite touching, one that seperates Lumen from Miguel, and also to a certain extent, Lila.



Dexter waits in his bedroom while Lumen watches the rapists' DVD.
Image copyright of Showtime.



Liddy's developments took another leap forward this episode, as he witnessed Lumen practicing her stabbing technique with his surveillance equipment. Now fully aware that Dexter and Lumen are preparing to kill, and with the footage recorded on surveillance, Liddy has almost enough evidence to get Dexter arrested. However, he does have one glaring flaw - the surveillance equipment was borrowed from the Police Department by a forged signature. It will be interesting to see where this leads.

Debra's developments also took a huge leap forward, as she put two and two together this episode, and came up with a theory - that victim no.13 is a vigilante, and is taking the rapists out. Unbeknownst to Debra, she is right on the money, which puts both Dexter and Lumen in an ever tightening noose, as they are forced to fight against two major factions - Jordan Chase and the Police Department - whilst a third faction, Liddy, secretly observes from afar. It will only be a matter of time before this house of cards comes tumbling down, and the real question is - who will still be alive at season's end?

On a side note, has anyone else noticed the distinct absence of Batista and LaGuerta's storylines? Granted, they still appear in every episode, but only to further the police investigation of the Barrel Girls case. In a way, i kind of miss seeing them have their own mini subplot, which is quite ironic, considering i was bagging out their storyline earlier on in the season (see 5.2 - 5.5 for more info!), but in a lot of ways this is a good thing. With so many major story arcs being developed, Batista and LaGuerta's lack of storyline helps fuel the suspense of each episode, and keeps the story pressing forward strongly.

Overall, here are my final marks for the episode:

• Potency of the season's theme(s): *********
• Editing & Scenes of Relevance: **********
• Lead character's connection with audience: ********
• Lead actor's effectiveness in role: *********
• Secondary character's connection with audience: ********
• Secondary actor's effectiveness in role: *********
• Visual Effects: ********
• Music Appeal: **********
• Originality of the episode's narrative: *********
• Integration and effectiveness of multiple story arcs and character relationships: ********

Overall Mark: 88 / 100

Grade Percentage: 88%

With only two episodes to go, Dexter still has a lot of loose ends to tie up before the season's end. Although my comment is premature, i still have a nagging feeling that we will have a similar scenario to Season 3's abrupt and somewhat rushed ending. I sincerely hope that i am wrong about this, but let's face the facts - unless someone offs either Liddy or Jordan next episode, we will be faced with a hectic finale involving two major threats to Dexter and Lumen's existence.

Here's hoping to a good two weeks of Showtime! *raises glass*