America’s favorite blood splatter expert Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) returns for a fifth season to restore the balance between the innocent and the guilty with the tip of a blade. Dexter’s world will never be the same after the events in season four, and the thought of his real life and hobby coming out for the world to see makes season five an intriguing one.
Season four started on a high note, with the events from season three wrapping up with Dexter killing “The Skinner” and getting married to Rita (Julie Benz). Everything seemed to be going well and the mood was happy going into season four. When season four started Rita had already given birth to their son Harrison and they moved from Rita’s old house to a house in the suburbs. Clearly things are changing in Dexter’s life, and that doesn’t settle well with his “dark passenger.” His urge to kill and his new family life don’t go together well and he starts to get anxious to kill again. Also, the new baby is a pain to deal with, and Dexter always finds himself tired and off his game around work. At his worst Dexter fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a tree. Nothing bad came out of this accident besides for a concussion, but it made Dexter realize he needs to do a better job of spreading his time out.
Meanwhile there’s a new serial killer on the loose in Miami. His name is the “Trinity Killer” (John Lithgow) because his killing spree is always the same three kills detail for detail. First he murders a young woman in a bathtub, then forces an older woman with two kids to jump to her death, and finally bludgeons a father of two to death. Dexter later discovers the process started with the abduction of a ten year old boy.
Season four was also eventful as it was the return of Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine). He retired from the F.B.I. but is back in Miami on personal business to hunt down the Trinity Killer. He had to go on this investigation independently because Trinity does such a good job of hiding his crimes and being sporadic about it that Lundy couldn’t convince the serial killer even existed. The original hunt of the Trinity Killer started with Lundy, but ended with Miami Metro taking the case and then once it was solved the F.B.I. took the case to clean up the edges and find the killer.
With the return of Frank Lundy came the complication with Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) and her current boyfriend Anton (David Ramsey), who she met when he was a confidential informant to her last season. Deb starts to fall for Lundy again, and begins to work with him on the case. But when they started getting close, they were shot by some unknown person, who turns out to be Trinity’s daughter, in the middle of the night in the parking lot of Lundy’s apartment. Deb survives, but Lundy doesn’t.
Dexter decides to pick up on where Lundy left off with his hunt of the Trinity Killer. When he discovers Trinity’s identity, he is surprised to find that the guy is a family man like Dexter. The shocker made Dexter curious about what this guy was like so he starts to get to know Trinity. Things get dangerous when he realizes the killer isn’t the good guy he portrays. Dexter decides he has to kill him as soon as possible, but things get complicated and eventually the killer finds out who Dexter really is, and advises him to stay out of his way. Dexter continues to pursue him and on the final episode successfully catches and kills the Trinity Killer.
Everything seems to be ending well for Dexter when he returns home that evening. He’s supposed to pack and head on vacation with Rita who left earlier that day. Dexter didn’t go with because he wanted to kill Trinity before hand, so he told Rita he had work. When Dexter arrived at his house he listened to a message on his phone from Rita from earlier that morning saying she forgot something and was heading back home before leaving for the vacation. When he called her to see if she made it he heard her phone in the house followed by Harrison crying from another room. He rushed to the room to find Rita dead in a bathtub full of her own blood with Harrison sitting there crying with blood on him. This image mirrors Dexter’s experience when his mother was killed in front of him and his brother.
It was a tough way to end an incredible season of Dexter. It sets up for an exciting fifth season, with a lot of potential. The biggest question is whether Dexter will be discovered as the man he really is, or can he clean up his mess before anything goes wrong? Also, how will Rita’s children react to their mother’s death and how will Dexter be able to care for them while trying to take care of himself? Expect all these questions and more to be answered in what could possibly be the best season of Dexter yet. The season premiere is Sunday, September 26th at 9 o clock central time on Showtime.
