Dexter: That Night, A Forest Grew - Doux Reviews

Dexter: That Night, a Forest Grew

by Billie Doux Dexter: "You really have a way. You know that?" Lila: "A way of what?" Dexter: "Whatever the hell you want." Raucous sex. That was different. Lila just destroyed an $18,000 windfall, burned up her apartment, and endangered lives because Dexter didn't answer his cell phone. Lila is not a sane person. She must have killed her boyfriend. And Dexter can't see her for what she is. Yet. That last scene with the light bulb made me think he was starting to get it. Dexter will figure it out. If he's not distracted by the three zillion other crises in his life. Much of this episode was Dexter struggling for control with Doakes and Lundy, as well as Lila. Dexter took back control of the investigation with his "presto manifesto," but Lundy figured it out way too soon and now he knows that the Bay Harbor Butcher is in law enforcement. Backfire. (Lundy is good.) Doakes was looking for the police file on the cargo container bloodbath; he's getting way too close. What Dexter did to Doakes was just priceless, like Paul and the frying pan, but on purpose. Doakes is out of the picture... for now. But I can't imagine Doakes will just accept defeat. Will this backfire on Dexter, too? Dan was theorizing that this season would end with Dexter getting caught. I didn't think so, but I'm starting to reconsider. Will Dexter have to kill Doakes? Or – thought – now that suspicion is on someone in law enforcement, will Dexter pin the Bay Harbor Butcher murders on Doakes? There would be some synchronicity to that, for sure. Except that Dexter doesn't harm the innocent. Doakes is a pain in the ass, but he's a good cop, and Dexter knows it. But if he's desperate, who knows what Dexter will be forced to do? Deb's May-September romance with Lundy is apparently about to take off. (Deb was listening to Chopin and Lundy was swearing; it's clearly only a matter of time.) And it might be really good for Deb. Lundy makes her feel strong and empowered, and she's calmer and more in control with him. But it just feels so incestuous to me. Not that there's anything wrong with May-September, because there isn't. But Deb is so obviously using Lundy to work through her Harry issues. Unconsciously, I'm sure. At least Lundy won't try to kill her, like Rudy/Brian did. I assume he won't, anyway. Rita just got rid of her mother, and can you say, hallelujah. Gail turned out to be a liar, like Lila. (Although I doubt Gail ever went nuts with a blowtorch.) I really loved Rita telling Gail to "Shut the fuck up." Dexter desperately needs to drop Lila and go back to Rita, and Gail's departure means one more obstacle is out of the way. The scene at the school with Cody's presentation made it clear that Rita and the kids make Dexter feel connected to the real world. They don't make him feel like a monster, as Lila suggested. But how can Dexter get free of a woman like Lila? What am I saying? All he has to do is prove to himself that she killed her boyfriend, and so much for Lila. Right? Bits and pieces: -- Loads o' symbolism. When Dexter and Lila were having wild and crazy sex, there were shadows on their bodies that looked like spiders. The light bulb probably symbolized that Lila was keeping Dexter in the dark. Either that, or that Lila's lights are out and no one is home. And the burned "cannibal" sculptures looked like dead bodies. -- Dexter revealed another one of his hidden skills to Lila: housebreaking. And she loved it. -- Chopin's nocturne no. 2 in E flat major was my sister's favorite piece of classical music. I'm more of a Mozart woman. -- When Cody was talking to Dexter on the phone, Dexter's voice was childlike. He relates so strongly to kids. Emotionally, Dexter is something of a child. Quotes: Dexter: "You really know what you want, don't you?" Lila: "I hope you don't mind. Some men do." Dexter: "No. I've always found instruction manuals quite useful." Deb: "You and Rita fuck quiet, too." Dexter: "And she's off, right out of the gate." Deb: "Who is she? And are you trying to fuck her or set her on fire?" Dexter: "I didn't do this to you when you were riding the square-jawed guy with the handcuffs." Doakes: "Your past is a bigger mystery than fucking Jimmy Hoffa." Lundy: "He knows how we work. Look how he hits every major theme: political, environmental, religious. In one section, he manages to weave together Julius Caesar, Berlin Germany, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Gandhi." Another excellent episode. Three stars, Billie --- Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

• Next episode
• Dexter season 2
• Dexter home

Tags: Billie Doux, Dexter

2 comments:

1. MarkFriday, September 24, 2010 at 2:21:00 PM EDT

   I thought at the end when Dexter saw she got her light fixed he realized that she really does always gets what she wants. At the same time, the light went on in his head about who she really is.

   ReplyDeleteReplies
   Reply
2. ChrisBThursday, March 21, 2013 at 8:17:00 PM EDT

   Lila always seemed arty and eccentric; now she's crazy. The fire and the making Dexter promise he will never leave was just creepy.Like Mark, I saw the lightbulb at the end as a metaphor for Dexter seeing the light. Or, maybe that's just too obvious.

   ReplyDeleteReplies
   Reply

Add commentLoad more...

We love comments! Just note that we always moderate because of spam and trolls. It's never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.

Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) Please DOUX follow usDoux Reviews has been on the web since 2004 and features thousands of episode reviews of the best classic and current television shows as well as many book and movie reviews.

Shiny and New

• Stranger Things: Season Five (series finale)
• Nero the Assassin: The Girl (season finale)
• Pluribus: Season One
• The Mighty Nein: Belonging
• It Welcome to Derry: Winter Fire (season finale)
• Movie(s) review: Mission Impossible 1-8
• Movie review: Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie

Classic Goodness

• The Leftovers: Solace for Tired Feet
• Movie review: Idiocracy
• Movie review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
• Book review: The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett (Discworld 24)
• Movie review: Thankskilling
• Series review: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• Evil: Vatican III
• Doctor Who: The Wheel in Space and The Space Pirates

Articles and Features

• Samantha's Favorites of 2025
• JRS' Best of 2025
• Josie's Best of 2025
• Mark's Best of 2025
• Juliette's Best of 2025
• Mini Comic Reviews: December, 2025
• Morella's Best of 2025
• An Honest Fangirl's Best of 2025
• The War Between the Land and the Sea: A Prelude
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld: Introduction and Hub
• What Are You Reading? (Cozy Autumn Edition)
• Billie's Ten Rules of Television

Doux Turns Twenty!

• Doux Reviews Turns Twenty!
• Doux Top Ten Movie Reviews
• Our 10,000th Post

Recent Comments

Get this Recent Comments Widget

We Love Comments

And sometimes they form comment poetry.

Categories by Sam T. Cat

• All Things Star Trek
• All Things Star Wars
• Billie's Favorite Movies
• DC Multiverse
• Disney Movies
• Groundhog Day-esque
• Let's Doux Christmas!
• Marvel
• Much A-Doux About Shakespeare
• Pride & Prejudice
• The Shark Page
• Time Travel

Please DOUX follow us Contact us at billiedoux at gmail dot com. Would you like to write for us? We're always interested in reviewing more new and classic shows. Apply here!

Featured Shows # 3 Body Problem 24 A The Acolyte Agatha All Along Agent Carter Agents of SHIELD Ahsoka Alias Alien: Earth Andor Angel Arrow Avatar B BatmanTAS Battlestar Billions Breaking Bad Bridgerton Buffy C Charmed Community Continuum The Crown D Dexter Doctor Who Doctor Who Doom Patrol Downton Abbey E Eureka Evil The Expanse F Fallout Farscape Firefly The Flash Forever Knight Fringe From Dusk till Dawn G Game of Thrones Giri/Haji The Good Place H Hannibal Highlander House of the Dragon I Interview with the Vampire Invincible It: Welcome to Derry iZombie J Jessica Jones Justified K Kaos L La Femme Nikita Lazarus Project The Leftovers Legends of Tomorrow Lessons in Chemistry Loki Lost Lucifer

M The Magicians The Mandalorian Manifest Merlin The Mighty Nein Mr. Robot Mrs. Davis N Nero the Assassin Nikita Normal People O Orphan Black Outlander P Peacemaker Peaky Blinders The Penguin Person of Interest The Pitt Pluribus Poker Face Pride & Prejudice Prison Break The Prisoner QQuantum Leap R Ragnarok Rectify Resident Alien Rings of Power S Shadow & Bone Shadowhunters Six Feet Under Slow Horses Smallville Squid Game StarTrek StarTrekDS9 StarTrekDSC StarTrekPIC StarTrekSNW StarTrekTNG StarTrekVOY Supernatural T The Tourist Travelers True Blood True Detective Twin Peaks U Umbrella Academy VVampire Diaries Veronica Mars W WandaVision Watchmen Westworld What If...? The Wire XThe X-Files Y Yellowjackets For much more, check out the All TV Reviews index.