"Amazing how easy it is to hide your true self from people, huh?"
Before I get into this episode, yet another roller coaster of extraordinary shocks and surprises which feels like the second instalment of a four part season finale, I'll reiterate this: Dexter is the protagonist, and we see everything from his point of view, thus sympathising with him via letting us see his internal monologue. Doakes, on the other hand, is the chief antagonist. We're not privy to his inner thoughts, and we see him through Dexter's eyes.
Yet, if we remove the biases which the show cleverly gives us by doing these things... Dexter is a monster, a villain, a bad man. And Doakes is good, noble, right about everything and, yes, the hero. A flawed one (the shootings), but his flaws are born of moral outrage. But it's clever of the show to play such interesting games around the concept of who is the hero and who the villain.
The scenes between Dexter and Doakes, as they duel verbally, are exquisite here. Dexter may have him in a cage, but Doakes has the upper hand in other ways. Now that he knows, he understands Dexter. He has the upper hand in the ethical debates. He's positively gleeful when he realises that Dexter's code means that he can't kill him.
It's clever how the script misdirects us, seemingly giving Dexter reasons to kill Doakes... but he just can't. Framing him, though? Is that really consistent with the code of Harry?
Then there's Lila's horrifying acts with the naive Angel. The rohypnol... she's not going to frame him for that, is she? She's a truly deadly woman. A real contrast with LaGuerta, who is really pulling out he stops to exonerate Doakes. Yet Lundy can't accept her evidence because her earlier behaviour means she can't be seen as credible... and it's a nice touch that he's angry at her precisely because he may be right. Curious. Is all this perhaps an elaborate ruse to get Dexter after all?
And yet what lingers in the mind, even after all that, is Harry's hushed up secret, and why he took his own life- after training Dexter up to be what he is, he sees the reality and can no longer live with hmself. Oh my. That's dark. And Dexter now knows.
Superlative telly, obviously.
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