In which the right thing is being done by several people, and Quinn doesn't get invited to the wedding.



First of all, the actress who plays Ellen the lawyer reminds me of Ellen Barkin. Where have I seen her before?

Most chilling moment, hands down: Dexter reacting to Miguel's suggestion of killing Ellen with the cheerful promise to keep an open mind and meaning it. Which tells you a lot about how far Dexter has drifted; but in the end he comes through, refusing to kill her, which was a relief for several reasons, not least of which was that I like the character and her developing relationship with LaGuerta. sizequeen last week speculated Miguel would decide Ellen deserves to die for defending criminals, and indeed he did, taking the vigilante concept of self-appointed judge, jury and executioner to its ultimate conclusion. As the audience isn't privileged to his thoughts the way we are to Dexter's, there is no way of telling whether or not he meant it when in the end he told Dexter Dexter's refusal was the right thing to do, or whether he meant it earlier when he told LaGuerta that he understands reopening the Chicky Hines case wasn't personal. Time will tell, but the minor subplot with his wife Sil, and her attempt to confront him which had bad consequences, doesn't augur well. Plus if Dexter's opening dream is any indication, even he understands subconsciously that Miguel's casual and easy acceptance of killing is something disturbing, not something good.

My own guess, that Camille would be the first person Dexter kills out of compassion, not serial killer need, also came true, but that wasn't difficult to see. Though I was surprised how long it took for him to reach that conclusion; again, it says something about Dexter that he more easily contemplated killing Ellen thank killing Camille, when one would have been murder and the other basically assisted suicide. As last week, the Camille scenes were very moving and emphasized the most "human" part of Dexter. Her bringing up Brian didn't surprise me - there had to be some pay-off before her death to the fact she had seen those files - but I hadn't expected this to lead to Dexter's confession about killing his brother to the dying Camille, something he hadn't shared with anybody, including Lila. With all the talk about Catholicism before, one couldn't help but be reminded of absolution asked for and granted by Camille's reaction.

As I said, I really like Maria LaGuerta's befriending of Ellen. It's an interesting parallel and contrast to Dexter and Miguel, complete with sharing - LaGuerta giving Ellen the Chicky Hines relevant testimony, Miguel telling Dexter about the black widower - then argument (LaGuerta accusing Ellen of starting a smear campaign against Miguel Prado, Dexter not agreeing to kill Ellen), then reconciliation. Ellen bends the rules of her profession, Miguel bends the rules of his, but Ellen's rule-bending consists of assisting in the arrest of her client (whom she still intends to defend, but who she acknowledges needs to be arrested first) while Miguel's resulted last week in a murder. LaGuerta and Dexter are both opening up to their respective new friends emotionally, and believe they now know who said new friends are - Dexter's phrase "I know who Miguel is" from last week is echoed by LaGuerta's "I know you now" this week, and in both cases, it's a bit fast, and one wonders - do they? But that is indeed the risk of friendship.

Meanwhile, Deb after having believed Quinn's implication that Yuki is only after him because of some personal vendetta and jealousy is confronted this week with the possibility this isn't so at all. It's still Yuki's word against Quinn's, but at least neither is her friend. Anton, however, has become a friend a bit more than that, and so she bends the rules because she doesn't want to see him end up dead. Me neither - nor do I want him to be the serial killer in town, because Deb so doesn't need that again - so I'm cautiously rooting for them. And am impressed by Deb's figuring out the Skinner's victim observation m.o.; I really like it when characters are shown to be competent.

In conclusion: good episode, and I'm still completely uncertain where all of this is leading to.