TV Show Review

TV Review: DEXTER: Season 8, Episode 9: Make Your Own Kind of Music

Yvonne Strahovski Michael C Hall Dexter Make Your Own Kind of Music

Dexter Make Your Own Kind of Music Review. Dexter: Season 8, Episode 9: Make Your Own Kind of Music was exactly what fans of series expect from the series and nothing more. Almost everyone in the episode was outsmarted by Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall). The two people that outsmarted him by the episode’s end were surprising, especially the last individual.

The writers of Dexter are strange people: they show their cleverness in small ways and their complacency in large ways. On any other top-tier horror TV show like The Walking Dead or Hannibal, the writers would do the complete opposite (i.e. attempting to keep the viewer guessing: what’s going to happen next?). In 99% of Make Your Own Kind of Music, the same old Dexter modus operandi was employed over and over again.

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It was not until the end of the episode that complacency was extinguished and a little reality was shone into the Mojoverse. Dexter Morgan made a decision that he should have made last season but he couldn’t because Dexter‘s producers had one more season of show to fill and wanted to keep the show’s location in Miami, Florida. The fact that Dexter is dragging Harrison Morgan (Jadon Wells) into his decision shows what a bad parent Dexter truly is (no matter how much he loves his son). It would be smarter to leave him with his grandparents but Dexter does not have the courage, brains, or foresight for such a decision (a child raised by two serial killers versus a child reared by Paul’s parents along side his brother and sister. Which of these two choices would a rational person choose? Which would produce the best result?). These were questions Dexter never asked himself or considered.

It was that 1% of Make Your Own Kind of Music, alluded to earlier, that salvaged this episode, reminiscent of the Travis Marshall revelation in season 6 of Dexter. This reveal wasn’t a complete surprise like Marshall’s but it was good. With only three new episodes remaining in the series, hopefully this person will get explored. This killer was clever and had a duplicity that rivaled Dexter’s: he knew Dexter was watching him at the restaurant. He stabbed Dexter’s tires before he entered it and sat down. He knew it was a trap yet willing stepped into it.

This person and the person he sat down with at a table before the credits rolled can not let Dexter live. Dexter will not stop hunting him. The only way for the two people sitting at the table to live in peace is if Dexter is dead. Its kill or be killed.

This fact and its inherent consequences present Dexter with a problem (finally): this killer is smarter than Dexter. Dexter topped his med school class, not an easy feat. His opponent, as a teen, out-smarted every adult that knew of him and his existence. As a teen, this person was able to pull off a legerdemain Houdini would be proud of. Could Dexter have focused himself in that way at that age? Its doubtful.

Keep in mind: this new killer snuck in and out of Dexter’s apartment like a skilled ninja, leaving nothing but his “protégé present”. This created a serious narrative issue that was completely skipped over by Dexter‘s writers: how did he get a nearly two hundred pound dead body from the parking lot of Dexter’s apartment complex all the way to the second floor, past all of those apartments with no one seeing him? What did he do with the body when he was opening up Dexter’s door? Lean it against the railing? This was one of those logic black holes the writers: a.) hoped the viewer missed in Are We There Yet? or b.) hoped it would be accredited to the new killer’s undisclosed skill set.

Either way, it has only served to make the killer that much more ominous and threatening if not magical.

For more Dexter reviews, photos, videos, and information, visit our Dexter Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, or “like” us on Facebook.

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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