TV Review: DEXTER: Season 8, Episode 6: A Little Reflection

Dexter A Little Reflection Review. Dexter: Season 8, Episode 6: A Little Reflection showed that the Showtime TV series was still capable of surprising even the most jaded and ardent fan. Episode 1 of season 8 housed a tepid revelation. This episode contained two surprises, one worthy of the series, and one that proved its perpetrator had gumption and was inexplicably stupid.

As a TV critic, there is a constant battle between revealing too much about a TV show episode within the context of a TV show review (a no-no since this is not a recap) and diving into the meat of what happened in the episode and exploring all of the narrative avenues that might blossom from those events.

The former will be the nature of this review.

Regarding the first surprise, this is pure speculation but Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling) might be Master Mold incarnate. She already showed how treacherous she could be by taking detailed notes on Dexter and studying Dexter without his knowledge or consent. Why is she taking and keeping such detailed notes? For a book? The good doctor has had multiple agenda items up her sleeve all along, the greatest of which showed itself in this episode i.e. creation.

I have to say that I never saw this coming and I can usually see plot twists coming from a mile away. In this case I am glad that I did not. Knowing that it was going to happen would have ruined its surprise. The pivotal scene where Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) made his decision was completely believable (in the context of what Dr. Vogel suggested beforehand and what was said during the scene).

It had shades of Bruce Wayne’s decision and what he endeavored to create in the final pages of Frank Miller‘s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. That character had a creation infrastructure around him to assist him plus years of experience and know-how. Dexter has the prerequisite experience as well plus Dr. Vogel and Harry’s code but does he have the follow-through and the resolve to do what is necessary?

What will his sister, Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter), say when she finds out what Dexter and Dr. Vogel are up to? I can not imagine that she will be pleased. It might even reawaken the urge to kill Dexter thus terminating the emerging, metaphoric fetus in the womb.

The second surprise of the episode was big but of a different variety. That surprise was a specter from the past, one that plied their craft before making a grand entrance. The mechanism this spiteful ghost employed could have been the hammer struck that ended everything but that was a narrative impossibility. This is episode 6. There are 6 episodes left in the series and those episodes couldn’t be carried by the show’s second-stringers. They weren’t built to buttress that kind of weight.

I was surprised this person had “the sand” to show their face again in Miami. Why are they in Miami? What is their purpose? These are all questions that beg to be answered but the viewer will have to wait.

I consider this episode to be the best of the season so far. The hunt for the brain killer was standard fare and it ended as such. This episode might be the beginning of something particularly great.

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