
Showtime
Dexter is a show that relies on suspense. The show's latest episode again stretched the audience, beguiling us across all plot threads yet without ever truly delivering much advancement. Last week presented several cliffhangers, virtually all of which we still hang from expectantly this week. Why? Ostensibly to keep us at the edge of our seats.
These cliffs begin, of course, with the subject of last week's recap: Lumen Pierce from Minnesota, the battered young woman played with authentically throaty-voiced trepidation by Julia Stiles, who saw Dexter kill her captor and becomes captive once more to our own serial killer, who is trying oh-so-desperately to win her trust. The cliffhanger proposes, like all the rest, a question to which we already can (unfortunately) guess the answer: Will Lumen flee with knowledge of Dexter's kill and, as the vision of father Harry Morgan suggests, lead to baby Harrison growing up to visit Dexter on death row?
Spoiler alert, folks—the answer is a resounding nope. At least not yet.
The episode also bluntly creates several other faux-dramatic situations: Is Dexter's charming Irish nanny truly quitting in a huff? What'll happen when Quinn finally approaches Jonah Mitchell and connects Dexter to the alias he used with the Trinity Killer's family last season? Oh, and that Santa Muerte cult—is Deb really breaking through and about to find the culprits? Is Angel still in trouble with internal affairs for his bar fight? Wait, Lumen's successfully run away, trampling through a creek to the road! Is that car going to pick her up? Is LaGuerta actually going to...