By Mikhail Shevchenko
Contributor

Bloodless yet informative, the latest episode of Dexter showcases Professor Gellar’s past and Marshall’s involvement in their apocalyptic rampage.

This recent episode, while tame with regards to bloodshed, was filled with details of how Gellar and Marshall work and exactly what it is that Travis Marshall brings to the table. In a confrontation with Dexter, Travis, who turns out to be a former student of Gellar’s, reveals that he was too squeamish to kill any of the victims himself. This spares him from Dexter’s table and further demonstrates to Dexter to influence faith can have on a person. Since the first episode of the season Dexter has been becoming more understanding of the power that faith can have on people. I’m sure the time he’s spent with Brother Sam and seeing how a “shepherd’s” guidance can affect one’s “flock” played a role in Dexter’s stay of execution for Marshall.

While I’m on the topic of Brother Sam I have to say I’m kind of glad he got shot.  That means that Dexter’d on the hunt and relaying his own special brand of justice.  It hasn’t been too frequent that we’ve seen Dexter kill this season. So far Dexter has only killed four times this season and two of those times were in a single episode. It is, however, interesting to note that none of Dexter’s kills were identical or followed his usual modus operandi. He’s been improvising more and more this season and I for one am looking forward to seeing how he’ll dispose of his next victim.

One thing that I’ve been enjoying seeing this season is the dichotomy between the types of religious men Brother Sam and Professor Gellar are. What is even more compelling are the similarities in how each cares for their followers. While the two have drastically different interpretations of how God works the two nonetheless care for those that follow them, Gellar shows his dedication to his pupil by continuing to hunt for victims even though the local media in Miami is publicizing his involvement in the killings. On that note I have to say that him yelling “he’s not bigger than god” while making Marshall run over a couple is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen on television.

One thing that was noticeably absent from this episode was Ryan the intern.  It seems that Masuka and his former intern aren’t getting back together anytime soon. That’s a shame because I think Ryan brings out the creep in Masuka and creepy Masuka is hilarious. We get to see more hijinks courtesy of Quinn and Batista as they further investigate the Doomsday Killer.  Quinn screwing a key witness in the investigation is going to create some blowback for the department. This is going to be the first test of Deborah’s mettle since she’s ascended to the rank of lieutenant and regardless of how she deals with it LaGuerta is going to use this to her advantage somehow. L Guerta’s another character that hasn’t been too visible as of lately.  I can’t say that I miss her too much; I was never a fan of underhandedness when it came the politics of her job.

I’d have to say that the best part of the episode was the preview of what to expect next week.  The pacing of this latest addition of Dexter seemed a little slow, although it did add gravitas to the telling of Gellar’s past and further showing the dynamic between him and Marshall. I can’t wait to see what next week brings us and what kind of biblical scenes we’ll see recreated next.

Images from dextergr.blogspot.com.