So, it’s only a couple months until season 6 arrives!
I don’t have Showtime, so I will have to check it out a day or two late online. If you ruin any episodes for me, plastic sheets are in your future for sure. In any case, I checked out the official promo trailer to see what we could expect.
Season 5 was a pit of despair, as Dexter helped Lumen exact her revenge. Then, she left, and he lost yet another female out of his life. So, now that he’s been to Hell and back, where does he go from here?
The Season 6 trailer seems admittedly a little mundane, upon first viewing. The killing in the first scene looks somewhat perfunctory for Dexter: Some guy insisting that God will forgive him, blah, blah blah….
Then, in the following montage images, nothing initially appears altogether compelling, either: Something akin to another ” ‘Santa ‘Mierda’ ” type of festival seems to be going on.
Deb gets some kind of a promotion.
Dexter has a love interest.
He’s raising his son alone.
And, on the surface, it looks like he gives up killing for a while (a quick shot pans to him dumping his slides in the ocean), due to a possible newfound “Faith in God”.
Really? So we’ve got a bunch of repeat stuff from previous seasons going on? Is that it?
Mmmmmyeah. I don’t THINK so.
In previous seasons, there was always a moment where I thought I had something or someone pinpointed. But much like the calculated sociopath we all know and love, they were always a “step ahead”…
Nonetheless, I came up with some likely ideas of what’s going to happen in the season, coupled with a few hypotheses. Watch the trailer before you read my take on it, and then I’ll be totally interested to hear yours. If you’re any of my film friends who were part of the set, and you know what happens already, then “shoosh”, thanks 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsvGslI_KcM
Confused? Don’t feel bad. Half second clips juxtaposed out of order might confuse anyone. That’s probably what they were going for. And who wants to spoil all the fun, anyway?
Me, duh.
So, the seemingly boring opening scene, actually kind of sets the basis for the whole theme of the season. Religious undertones of the Christian nature are definitely going to guide this season; Dexter says something to the effect of “How do you reconcile your belief in a higher power with what you’ve done?” to “Joe” as he lays on his table.
Words upon which he might soon be reflecting more closely…
But let’s backtrack a bit and, true to crime scene style, check the forensic evidence they give us, albeit quickly, in the trailer. Who is this guy on Dexter’s kill table?
Well, my bet is that Dexter learns through work (where he learns about most of his table toppers) about the murder of his high school classmate, “Janet Walker”. Perhaps they were friends, sparking even more of a motive for Dex.
Although some of the shots in the trailer show her laying dead, with a gun in her hand, Dexter probably “gets wise”, pieces together the truth, and learns that her husband had killed her for trying to file a divorce. If he slips through the cracks of the system and ends up a “free man” from jail, we can count on Dexter to be waiting with plastic sheeting and some posthumous pictures of the departed.
Thus armed with “rightful proof” (and a hypodermic needle loaded with M99), he decides to take advantage of his upcoming high school “20 year reunion” and return to let off a little sociopathic steam.
Why do I assume it’s a 20 year reunion? Well, this isn’t a flashback because Dex dons longer locks in his younger years. So, when the banner says “Class of 1991”, you have to do the math and assume the obvious.
So what we see isn’t Joe laying on any old kill table. That’s a high school scoreboard to which he’s strapped.
If you look, you’ll see the lights in the background are consistent with that of what you see lighting up the score at a basketball or volleyball game (although, really, they would be off if it wasn’t connected to an electrical source, so that part is a bit silly).
Dramatic effect; go figure.
Also, lockers line the walls of his kill room, so he’s definitely doing it at the school, probably after everyone else egresses.
He’s even made a special little drape room for Joe, not unlike the fringey plastic thingies you have to walk through to get to a walk in fridge in back of the supermarket.
What looks like a new love interest (the girl going down on Dexter), appears to be some woman he may have known previously as classmates, and subsequently they hook up at that same reunion.
She is sneaking him into some kind of a science supply closet in one shot. (Model skeletons are in the frame, as are the periodic chart on the wall behind) And then, of course, the naked girl starts going down like an elevator… So, does she stay in his life?
Perhaps.
I’m trying to decide if this is the same chic spotted with Masuka as he assesses what looks like an evidence box.
Probably not, because Masuka is going to have “interns” of his own this season
(he divulged that little detail at ComiCon),
so this is probably just a shot of one of those girls with him prior to the slew of sexual harassment charges I’m sure he’s going to get.
Okay, so… next.
What’s with all these dead bodies piling up with strange designs on them?
And what’s with these two new guys – the older one and the young guy? (The young guy is Tom Hanks’ son, by the by). Anyway – we see them in a church sharing some emotional moments. Then, at the end, we get the younger asking “So it’s begun?”, and the elder replying “Yes, it’s begun”
Well, the “mierda” festival (And yes, by the way, I know it’s “muerte” – I’m referencing the funny “Saint of Shit” mistake that was made in one of the earlier seasons) is really not a “Day of the Dead” type thing at all.
Rather, the horse-riding guy with a skeleton painted face is really one of four other men riding on horses.
And the design on their foreheads appears to match that of those found on the bodies. An “A” with what looks like your “Ohm” symbol from undergraduate Physics.
Could they be…? Yep. Four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
We’ve got “Death” on the pale horse, wielding a scythe;
There’s also his buddy on the brown horse with a sword. The details of the two others are ones which I’m too lazy to research, but they’re all there.
And, what’s more, that little “design” drawn on the foreheads of the horses, and on the bodies, is actually a symbol of the Apocalypse itself.
Really, “it” is really “them” – meaning two symbols, one written over top of the other. They are “alpha” and “omega”; the beginning and ending letters to the Greek alphabet, respectively.
That they are written one over top of the other, is consistent with what Christian literature says of Christ – that he is “the beginning and the end”, all in one. They long have been used together as symbols of the Apocalypse. That they are coupled here with the “four horsemen”, undeniably speaks volumes about the “end times” of something this season – metaphorically, literally, or both.
The fact that the young and elder gentlemen at the end are aware that “it has begun”, makes us wonder if “it” is the end of the world being set in motion? Is it the apocalypse? Or are they just planting a bomb in downtown Miami – and it’s just the end for Dexter?
Furthermore, there are a few factoids of which I’m unsure.
Yes, Deb receives some type of accolade, but she doesn’t look too happy about receiving it, as she issues a grim face while being awarded .
Then again, Deb hardly ever smiles (and overacts), so that may or may not be relevant.
At another point, Dexter is dropping what appears to be his slides in the ocean again (like he did the last time he stopped killing for a while). But this time, it’s most likely for a different reason – ones which I’ll address shortly.
In another scene, he has recycled his once “trophy” bearing box into a playtoy for his son.
(I didn’t catch that at first – I thought it was just another useless scene of him showing his capacity for love despite him allegedly not having any emotions).
Might that be his motive for altering his M.O.? He realizes he’s not 100% sociopath, and that if he can love his son, he has more emotional capacity than he thought? As his son gets older, maybe he feels that it’s going to be important to raise him with some kind of “code” – whether it’s Harry’s, his own, or a synthesis of the two, with religion mixed in.
I think it goes a little further though, as far as the motives prompting him to shift the paradigm of his world. We get a dramatic camera angle circling Dexter as he cries out remorsefully over the phone.
So, I’m thinking we have another Rita-esque event imminent. Someone close to Dexter bites the dust here. But I don’t think it’s Deb because we see her crying and being comforted by Angel, so she probably lives to be equally affected by whatever the sad thing is that happens. Plus she already almost died at the hands of Rudy (aka Brian), so that storyline is kind of tired.
Anyway, sometime during that same scene where Dexter’s crying on the phone, he either gets shot, stabbed, or starts to experience stigmata out of his torso.
The image is juxtaposed neatly before showing the iconic statue in the church (Or “Mannequin”, if you watch “Nurse Jackie”), where Jesus is bleeding from the same region on his body.
So whatever terrible thing he has just learned on the phone, is coupled with some type of miraculous, religious, or eye-opening event. Maybe he was issued a wound that just barely misses a vital organ by a mere modicum of distance?
Something of that nature looks likely to happen to cause Dexter to have renewed faith. Or just faith of some type for the first time, in his case. The previews slowly start to point that way, as it looks as though he is crying in a church in one scene, and getting even closer to his son.
This would be relevant and possible because his victim at the start of the trailer cites biblical references about being “washed in the blood of the lamb”.
Dexter scoffs as he takes a hammer to Joe’s head; However, following whatever life altering happenstance there is that ensues, it may hit closer to home for him than he thinks. Remember Brian Moser – his brother? And how he told Dexter they were “Born in Blood” the day their mother perished? Perhaps this season, Dexter is “born in blood” once again, but this time it is in that of “The Lamb”…
Other previews point to him believing that his acts may indeed be righteous. He purports that he “removes evil people from the world, so maybe he is being called to a higher purpose”. If Harrison grows up seemingly normal, Dexter can neatly hide his nocturnal events from him.
But I get a feeling that as he progresses into a toddler from infancy, he will begin to exhibit early sociopathic behavior.
Whatever miracle befalls Dexter coupled with “what to do about Harrison”, might cause him to think he should do the same thing for Harrison that Harry did for him.
However, my guess is that it’s going to be modified. He’s not going to quit killing, but instead take on what he does best accompanying the faith that it’s his “calling”.
Another interesting new face is that played by Mos Def.
He appears a few times throughout the previews, the first of which is actually out of a mug shot.
His name is Samuel Wright on the mug shot. But instead of potential “table top” material, it rather looks like Dexter is working with him at some points.
A prophet perhaps? That was my first thought. Interviews in which he admits to playing a character “Brother Sam” confirm to me he has some religious-type role. I think he plays a key element in helping Dexter not only kick ass and take names, but also guide and mold whatever this forthcoming faith based change in himself will be about.
Finally, we see snakes being used for devious purposes. A new random guy toward the end, is carefully holding up the slithering thing at night, his face in a snarl, as if planning to use it in a harmful manner.
Sure enough, it looks like Vince is dropping what appears to be a snake into an evidence bag at one point.
I might be totally wrong, and that could just be the rafia looking stuff found on (or sewn onto?) the dead body and arranged into the apocalyptic symbol (both are stringy, so it’s hard to tell)
The purpose behind the snake, however, isn’t just to leave dead bodies around Dexter, though. It looks like it’s going to have a fun metaphorical element in this season. Snakes have long been representative of the devil – the serpent offering Eve the apple, and so on.
Furthermore, the final image of the montage session with which they leave you, is a snake swimming quickly by… a “snake in the water”. Which may be the director’s way of insinuating that either someone close to Dexter might not be altogether trustworthy, or that Dexter’s duty is now to rid the world of evil people; that everything happens for a reason, and his was to become a sociopath so that he could do just that.
But I’m not sure where the “snakes” take us to in the end. If it’s purely metaphorical, I get it. His new righteous path is to rid the world of “snakes”. Perhaps that’s why he dumps the slides – the old slides were based off his old code. He may feel compelled to start over under a new faith based code.
But, if it’s actually apocalyptic, what are they going to do? Kill the world with snakes? Dexter Morgan: Season 6(66)… Snakes on Plane(t)??
I tend to think it’s either the former, or a combination. Which brings us back to the beginning: He must “reconcile with God what he’s done”… by what he’s about to do…
…Reach out and cut snakes 🙂
<3~A watch?v=RsvGslI_KcM