TV Review: DEXTER 6.10, "Ricochet Rabbit"

I think season six showrunner Scott Buck would especially appreciate me using a quote from Fight Club to describe “Ricochet Rabbit”, that it's like, “polishing brass on the Titanic.”

rating: 2.5

I think season six showrunner Scott Buck would especially appreciate me using a quote from Fight Club to describe €œRicochet Rabbit€, that it's like, €œpolishing brass on the Titanic.€ There was a lot going on in this episode, which is great, but there should have been a lot going on throughout the season. Instead, season six has mostly tread water, albeit entertainingly, and prolonged the most relevant action for the last few episodes. This isn't surprising; most series follow this formula, as has Dexter for the majority of its run, however, the problem is that whereas let's say in season four the rising action was well paced, meaning that it was evenly distributed, the rising action of season six has felt noticeably uneven and the surplus of action in €œRicochet Rabbit€ has put that imbalance in the spotlight. This episode had a lot it needed to touch on and fortunately nothing was left out, much of which I did find intriguing yet not entirely satisfying. First off, let's discuss the aftermath of the wildly dramatic surprise reveal that which we had been reluctantly anticipating basically all season, Dexter realizing that Gellar has been dead the whole time and Travis is not merely misguided, but full-on psychotic. Before diving into the content of the episode, let's step outside the confines of the fictional narrative for a moment. For all those viewers who watch Dexter as it airs on Showtime as I do will recall that at the end of last episode in which the Gellar as hallucination was finally confirmed, the network aired a talking head with the aforementioned Scott Buck in which he discussed how no cast member, save Michael C. Hall and Edward James Olmos (Gellar), knew Gellar was incorporeal. This was done so that Colin Hanks (Travis) could immerse himself in his character without accidentally giving anything away about Travis' true nature. I get how that sounds like a good idea, but this isn't an exercise in an acting course. I can't imagine how Hanks was supposed to accurately portray his character when the key element of said character is absent. The result is not only a performance from Hanks which now seems horribly inconsistent, but also an unjustifiably unbalanced narrative flow throughout the season which betrays its own glibness. This is precisely why so many viewers dreaded the €œtwist€ and why since being suspicious of it I've lamented not revealing it sooner and exploring its value within the story to contrast Dexter as opposed to being used as a cheap trick. Buck and the writers took a big gamble with this and it did not pay off. Moving on, turns out Travis has always been mentally disturbed and probably killed his parents as he deliberately caused their car crash as reported by Detective Anderson (or was it Angel?) after Dexter failed to hide from the official investigation Travis' prescription bottle and Travis' medical records were unearthed. Apparently there were no signs of child abuse in Travis' family and his sister appeared to be a genuinely well adjusted, productive, and healthy member of society which is very interesting as earlier this season we were exposed to The Tooth Fairy and learned about the trauma he suffered as a child and how it directly related to his homicidal behavior. Travis seems to be the first of Dexter's antagonists who is specifically characterized as a killer born, not a killer made. This contrasts how Dexter views his own story from innocent toddler to secret mass murderer. Although the repercussions of this discovery were explored minimally through Dexter's arguments with Harry, I expect it to be revisited as Dexter gets closer to dealing with Travis. The episode did at least fill in the history gap between Travis and Gellar, as well as (perhaps permanently) alter their future dynamic. Gellar's been dead the entire three years he's been missing and was killed by Travis with a sword (€œHe killed me with a sword, Mal.€) when Gellar reacted less than favorably to Travis' proposal that he and Gellar are the two chosen harbingers of the apocalypse. So remember when for the majority of the season Gellar was characterized as the religious fanatic who manipulated the poor, weak willed lost soul that was Travis? Yeah, forget that. Travis was the fanatic all along. Apparently. Going forward from when Travis watched Dexter discover Gellar's corpse then subsequently exclaim, €œYou killed Gellar€, Travis barricaded Dexter in the basement (momentarily of course) and continued to hallucinate Gellar, however, now Gellar also attempts to confront Travis with the truth, but alas, unsuccessfully as Travis retreats in denial and goes from wanting to betray his mentor and turn over a new leaf to more resolved than ever to €œcarry on€ without him €“ see what I mean by uneven? I understand crazy people tend to come off as uneven but if this was handled better the audience wouldn't feel so swindled. And carry on he does €“ Travis wastes no time and immediately recruits a new assistant, Steve, aka Doomsday Adam on DDK's blog (aka Lil' Kev from a hilarious episode of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, a character I couldn't help but see him as), and Steve's wife, Beth, whom also happens to be a religious nutbag and is totally cool with kidnapping and murdering a complete stranger in the name of God after protesting for, like, two seconds. Right. Does this mean Travis won't be primarily working with the Gellar hallucination anymore? Speaking of giving God a bad name, Dexter basically shit all over his attempt at walking a spiritual path calling it €œreligious garbage€ and saying what a huge mistake it was to listen to Brother Sam, the man that meant so much to him just a few episodes back, resolving to from now on only have faith in himself. I'm all for stories about people losing their faith, but this felt undeserved. I know that every season (after one and two) is about Dexter giving something new a try only to ultimately realize it's not a good fit and going back to square one supposedly a wiser serial killer, but I genuinely thought this time around would be different, that Dex would actually be changed and progress as a character and a person. It's very disappointing that Dex seems to just hit the reset button so that once he cleans up this DDK mess he'll have a fresh start for season seven, so dissatisfying. Although, €œRicochet Rabbit€ did end with Dexter saying Sam was right, that sometimes one must submit to a higher power and then called 911 to warn them about the €œwormwood bomb€, so maybe I should hold off on the tears. The other major plot thread I was most interested in seeing followed up on was the Louis story line. Basically, we saw Louis gush about Dexter's awesome intensity to Jamie whom provided Louis with encouragement to show Dex his video game which we learned is actually a first person serial killer RPG. When Dex sees this, he immediately moves to distance himself from the idea and brutally tells Louis that the game is €œoffensive €“ who would choose to be a serial killer? It's a bad idea, do something else.€ Ouch. Louis is so distraught that now I'm thinking he may not necessarily be a closet killer (yet) but he definitely has to have a deeper connection to Dexter, most likely Dex and Biney's long lost brother. Louis is visibly devastated by Dexter's rejection, but helpful the next day at work in accidentally leading Angel into a precarious situation with DDK 2.0. If only Quinn were there to back him up €“ oh yeah, he's too busy being the most hilariously pathetic, cliched alcoholic ever in the history of Miami Metro. This is either going to lead up to Quinn's departure (please God) or his triumphant redemption (something I couldn't care less about). I say let's make room for more capable and admirable supporting cast members (I'm lookin' at you, Anderson). For those that did not see my comment on last episode's review, I posted a link to a report that says the end of this season will set things up for a potential endgame; I think it either has to do with Louis or more likely Deb. We got to witness an interesting development with Deb which was nice to see as I'm eager to watch this character grow almost as much as Dexter himself. It's always fun to watch LaGuerta get stepped up to and Deb finally discovered it was Matthews who was with the dead call girl, Jessica Morris, but doesn't move on it as she hasn't had a chance to check in with her €œsafe place€, Dexter. See, I thought for sure that Deb's therapist would bring her closer to realizing Dexter isn't just what he appears to be. Instead, we heard Debra tell Dexter that it's ok he has a €œfuck load of personal stuff€ he keeps hidden, so I'm at a loss there. Maybe we're being set up for another twist. Admittedly, I will always love this series, however, that doesn't mean I don't acknowledge its flaws, in fact, my passion for the show makes them that much more apparent. €œRicochet Rabbit€ had a lot going on, a lot of action, and I love to see Dex on the prowl with that fire in his eyes, but it isn't enough to have a decent episode in its own right when its working to cap off what is looking like a kind of ugly season. It's one thing when a season is comprised of 20-something episodes but when it's made up of just twelve every single one should be exemplary and this one just felt like a rushed attempt to keep the momentum up and less like a self-contained episode with its own solid statements concerning the over-arcing themes of the season. I'm remaining hopeful that the last two episodes of the season really blow me away, but even if they do I can't help but feel I will still be utterly disappointed by the lack of follow through regarding the spiritual themes, uneven writing, and general resemblance to lesser quality shows.
Contributor

Fed a steady diet of cartoons, comics, tv and movies as a child, Joe now survives on nothing but endless film and television series, animated or otherwise, as well as novels of the graphic and literary varieties. He can also be seen ingesting copious amounts of sarcasm and absurdity.