TV Review: DEXTER 6.8, "Sin of Omission"
I don't hate this season by any means, and I very much appreciate what its trying to accomplish, but it doesn't feel like those goals are being achieved at all.
rating: 3
Before getting into Sin of Omission, I must address the news that Dexter will continue for at least two more seasons. This is a necessary fact to consider for the audience because it reflects a concern I've had with the show all season. Although I was happy to hear the news because I'm a huge, long-time fan and am not ready to say good bye to the show this year, I'm afraid Showtime's attitude toward the series will end up being more detrimental than beneficial. It seems as though they're willing to milk the series until its dry and as much as I'd like to see Dexter continue for another six seasons and a movie, that's only if each season is of the highest quality, meaning it successfully exhausts its resources to take the character as far as it can possibly go. Instead I fear the producers are content to tread water and preserve the status quo until the ratings won't justify keeping it on the air or Michael C. Hall gets tired of the role. As much as I love Dexter, the show just isn't living up to its potential and I'd rather it end strong than linger in mediocrity. After a couple exciting episodes that really got the most out of its stories concerning Dexter's struggle to establish a relationship with God, Sin of Omission failed to maintain that struggle yet succeeded in exploring another relationship of Dexter's which he has neglected that with his sister, Debra. Deb has long since complained of Dexter's inability to offer any intimacy but has always been willing to overlook that deficiency because Dexter would always be there for Deb when she had problems at work or with her boyfriends. Now that Debra is gradually growing into a more mature, self-possessed, independent person, she doesn't lean on Dexter like she used to and so it makes sense that his emotional absence in their relationship is not so easily swept under the rug. I'm glad that Deb finally confronted Dexter about it, albeit not in the most clear manner possible (Dex needs someone to sit him down like a child and basically spell out what's going on when it comes to any kind of emotional issue), because although they didn't actually have a conversation about their relationship, it further contributed to what the show has been teasing the audience with since the end of last season that Deb will discover who Dexter really is and what he does. This was also heavily pointed at in the scene where Deb is telling her therapist about Travis' sister, Lisa, and how she had no idea her brother was a killer, even stating, No, I don't think going to kill me. New addition Detective Mike Anderson has also on more than one occasion noticed how extraordinarily perceptive Dexter is, again suggesting Dexter's carefully constructed guise may actually be exposed. This is the exact kick in the butt the series needs to rekindle that sense of tension that has been missing all season. Remember how suspenseful it was in season two when Doakes and Lundy and the feds were on to Dexter? And again when Quinn was trailing Dexter with Liddy in season five? If Debra finally figured it out, it would be even more substantial a development than Rita's murder and it would bring back to the forefront what makes Dexter so intriguing that he chops up human beings for fun! Too often the series downplays this fundamental aspect of the character in favor of a more heroic, super-detective type of role but what made Dexter such a fascinating show in season one was that it consistently questioned issues of morality and psychology. Anymore, however, Dexter is a series that follows a good guy who tries to kill bad guys and it resembles too many other less ambitious, mediocre police procedurals. Speaking of the supporting cast, which has never felt more nonessential than in this episode, LaGuerta pressured Deb to not pursue a case that involved a dead prostitute seemingly to improve her and Deb's precinct's statistics, but in actuality to protect someone. This bothered me because although it was not explicitly stated who LaGuerta is protecting, it has to be Matthews so why bother attempting to shroud this in mystery? Quinn got wasted with Masuka in a strip club which was kind of funny but felt completely unnecessary. Do we really still have to pay attention to how heart broken Quinn is? If so, then it better lead to something like Quinn's departure from the series otherwise this is just a waste of time. While we're on the subject of wasting time, why did the audience have to witness Angel telling Louis to stay away from Jamie? I just can't imagine how this could significantly contribute to the season's arc. Unless it culminates in Louis acting on the enormous crush he so obviously has on Dexter. At least the Doomsday Killers' (or DDK as the show so vehemently insists we refer to them now) scenes weren't as wasteful in terms of plot, however, I don't feel as though this story is any longer sufficiently engaging in matters of faith, despite attempts to include it in the narrative. For instance, when Dexter is tracking down Gellar he has a conversation with a priest who suffers from Alzheimer's. Dexter actually confesses he's killed a lot of people to the priest, not because he counts on the man to forget, but because he does crave absolution of his sins. The thing is, like I've discussed previously, the series' writers never seem to know if they want to write Dexter as being burdened and pained by his Dark Passenger, or if they want to write him as one who feels liberated when satisfying his dark urges. Spirituality, the pursuit of the divine, isn't about guilt or where you go when you die so I wish the producers didn't focus on Dexter's spiritual path through Christian lenses as personally I feel it is the most misused and misunderstood of the major religions. I know it's a touchy topic and one that is incredibly subjective so I understand the show's tendency to not more directly approach it, however, if you're going to do a season that focuses on religion and spirituality, you need to dive in with both feet because half-assing it is only going to produce weak results. So when Dexter discusses darkness and light, such as when he asks at Brother Sam's funeral if Sam changed him, brought out Dexter's inner light who in turn passed it on to Travis, it just feels vague and shallow. When Dexter used a bible verse to guilt Travis into helping him find Gellar, it's obviously not the way in which Sam intended Dexter to use it. It was interesting to watch Dexter speak openly with Travis at his lab and again at the diner because it's one of the few instances in which two serial killers who are aware of each others' proclivities interact, but it didn't feel even a fraction as intense as when Dexter interacted with Trinity or Brian because Doomsday is just too split and underdeveloped. The other vague element of DDK is of course the ongoing debate of whether Travis is hallucinating Gellar or if he's a flesh and blood individual. I'm absolutely convinced, as I explained in detail weeks ago, that Gellar is indeed an extension of Travis' fractured psyche and this episode provided the audience with what will later be seen as evidence of this theory. Again, when Gellar did show up in Sin of Omission he was never seen by anyone else, he turned up exactly when he was needed, and disappeared just as suddenly. Writer Arika Mittman included a couple lines from Dexter to try and keep it from feeling too one-sided when he referred to DDK's latest victim, Travis' sister, Lisa, now The Whore of Babylon tableau manifest, as being all Gellar, because there were no bible page numbers found on the body as well as stating outright, Travis has his own Dark Passenger that walks, talks, breathes, and can be killed. The former line doesn't really suggest anything one way or the other and the latter only solidifies what will ultimately be revealed. Last week I expressed that if the writers did reveal this earlier rather than later it wouldn't be such a transparent attempt at empty shock value and would actually provide the show with the opportunity to explore the role of both characters' Dark Passengers in terms of the series' greater themes of psychology as well as the season's themes of moral and spiritual responsibility, and I'm disappointed this has not yet occurred. I don't hate this season by any means, and I very much appreciate what its trying to accomplish, but it doesn't feel like those goals are being achieved at all. DDK is just crazy and doesn't feel very threatening on a physical or spiritual level and the opportunities to explore issues of spirituality aren't being fully utilized. This episode had Dexter being a detective and actively engaging with and pursuing his antagonists but it feels too rote to be genuinely exciting and with a premise as unique and ambitious as Dexter's, that truly is a sin of omission.