“Just Let Go” opened with Dexter meditating on free will and how the choices we make define us and closed with what I saw as a promise that Dexter is going to fully embrace his identity as one who does God’s dark work, an acceptance that should prove for some riveting story telling.
I was very happy with Just Let Go because it answered all of my concerns about the season while adeptly balancing its elements within the episode, but to be honest, Im still reeling from the endings shocking return of an old character. Before getting into the conclusions big reveal, however, Ill say this episode demonstrated great scenes (with one exception) for all the characters and where the plot was not necessarily further developed, the characters certainly were. My one issue with Just Let Go concerns Debs hopefully final meeting with her appointed precinct therapist and her decision to throw a party. I understand technically why Deb needs to meet with this doctor, and I think its been a good decision to show the audience these meetings to help facilitate Deborahs transition to lieutenant, but I also believe this character has fully served her purpose and to make her recurring would feel unnatural and hinder further development. Concerning the result of this meeting, granted Deb has always displayed a strong desire for a satisfying social life, even finding success on occasion (albeit briefly and off camera), that social life has always come second to her career and Im pretty sure the last thing I would ever expect Deborah to do is throw a party. Deb likes to party, not host them. This scene offered very little besides an excuse for Quinn to get royally plastered and embarrass himself by causing a big messy scene. I very much like the character of Deborah so I understand we need to follow up on her relationship with a regular cast member and coworker, but Ive never liked Quinn even if he occasionally made me laugh and I hope the two characters resolve their drama by next episode because it is not worth exploring any further as it cant result in anything constructive. Grow up Quinn. A more minor aspect of that scene that I found interesting though was the exposure of Masukas new intern, Louis. It revealed that Louis is actually present as an intern because he is researching a video game and it was the second time he exhibited a strong admiration for Dexter (in the first instance Louis called Dexter a rock star, a term previously reserved for beloved character, Special Agent Frank Lundy just another one of the many call-backs that can be found throughout this season). I wonder if this string of interns that are fixated on and impressed by serial killers is supposed to be a cheeky stand-in for the audience or if it will actually amount to something more substantial. The fact that I cant tell I think is a failure on the shows part as it is a bit distracting. Moving on to this seasons Big Bad, while I was slightly disappointed Dexter did not yield any results from following Travis so far, the episode did do a sufficient job of further illuminating the motivations of and circumstances surrounding the Doomsday Killer, an area which I feel up until this episode had been a bit too dim. Now before moving forward I think its only fair to issue a *potential spoiler alert* as I cant discuss Doomsday without acknowledging where I think were headed with these characters. Its been subtle yet present and after reading it in another review of last episode as well as in an excellent comment on my review of Angel of Death, I think Im almost completely convinced that Gellar is actually dead and is currently being seen by the audience as a hallucination of Travis much like Dexters hallucinations of Harry and his brother, Rudy/Brian, the Ice Truck Killer. Think about it Gellar has never physically influenced or directly interacted with another character that didnt end up dead and if he werent a hallucination, why would Travis even be necessary to Gellars plans when the poor kid cant bring himself to hurt anybody? Although weve seen the two in public, Gellar only ever addresses Travis and only does so in order to guide him or goad him into being aggressive, and when Travis cant bring himself to harm anyone, the Gellar personality either steps up and takes over (which would explain why Dexter detected two distinct styles of dismembering the horse riding victim and how Travis was able to kill the victims he has so far) or is absent (due in no small part to Dexters little chat with Travis) which subsequently allows Travis to be merciful, such as tonight when he released that woman he hit with his car (which he was driving but it was Gellar who stepped on the gas). It stands to reason that somehow the two characters met, maybe because of a shared affinity for religious artifacts, due to some extenuating circumstances Travis ended up killing Gellar, and because he so clearly cant handle the responsibility of hurting anyone, has since snapped (or maybe was always quietly unhinged) and overcompensated by hallucinating a religious experience in which God has spoken to Gellar and commanded that they work together to herald the impending apocalypse. Or maybe Gellar is alive and has been in hiding due to his controversial work dealing with the Annesserat (sp?) Code and just doesnt like to do heavy lifting so he found some fanatic to help him murder a bunch of people in order to usher in the apocalypse. But I believe the aforementioned theory makes more sense and also explains a lot such as why Dexter had yet to see Gellar and Travis together, why Gellar slept with a bunch of his grad students (one of whom has an Om tattoo on her back) and that during her interrogation, Gellars former assistant, Clarissa Porter, vehemently stated she didnt know had beliefs he was an academic. Either way we got insight into how and why Doomsday is doing what he/they are without giving everything away which I think is a very successful execution of a captivating antagonist thus far. As to why Dexter could not stick to following Travis, he was quite preoccupied with tracking down Brother Sams murderer. I enjoyed this well-paced investigation very much because it reminded the audience of Dexters unchallenged talent for reading a crime scene as well as his true role as a detective while also putting Dexters newfound spiritual awareness to the test with fantastic results. Additionally, it coincided with Detective Andersons investigation which included the hilarious interrogation technique, The Flamingo. More seriously though, Im so pleased to see Anderson holding his own and not flirting with Deb. Both characters are so much cooler individually. Watching Dexter attempt to honor Sams dying wish to forgive his killer by confronting Nick, the ex-con whom Sam baptized, as opposed to following the usual routine, was incredibly fascinating, but ultimately I was so much more satisfied to see Dexters anger get the best of him as he avenged his friend when Nick clearly displayed no remorse by drowning him in the same waters he was baptized in because it seems this act has crystalized Dexters understanding of his role in relation to God that he is a kind of angel of wrath or vengeance, something the audience has always more or less been aware of. And of course, this unusual behavior has also released from Dexters psyche the visage of his brother, Biney whom the audience has not seen in over four years. This is an extremely exciting development and I cant wait to watch the two characters directly interact again as weve really seen them do in only three other scenes out of the entire series. Just Let Go opened with Dexter meditating on free will and how the choices we make define us and closed with what I saw as a promise that Dexter is going to fully embrace his identity as one who does Gods dark work, an acceptance that should prove for some riveting story telling.