It's Thanksgiving. Dexter is obviously expected to spend the day eating turkey with Rita (Julie Benz), the kids and Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), but he's pulled into having dinner with the Mitchell's when eldest son Jonah (Brando Eaton) invites him along, if only to ensure that Arthur will be on his best behaviour. See, it turns out that the Trinity Killer's veil as the "perfect family man" is moth-eaten upon closer inspection, and Jonah seems genuinely fearful of what the day might bring without Dexter there to divert his father's attention. So, posing again as Kyle Butler at a loose end, Dex joins the Mitchell's for an eye-opening family get-together...Dex quickly realizes, through unmistakable body language and an atmosphere you can cut with a knife, that the Mitchell family are essentially besieged by their patriarch. Arthur keeps his teenage daughter Rebecca (Vanessa Marano) locked in a bedroom decorated for a seven-year-old, punishes Jonah for damaging his car by ruthlessly breaking his finger like a twig when nobody's around, and his wife Sally (Julia Campbell) is actually a nervous wreck who treads on eggshells when her husband's around. For Dexter, this is all a huge surprise, as he'd been led to believe Arthur was an expert in living a double-life, and has been treating him as an involuntary serial killer guru. So is Dex the proven expert in this relationship, or is Arthur's twisted family an omen of how dysfunctional his own family will inevitable become with him around?
The main subplot saw Rita hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for her family, with Debra and single father Elliot in attendance, all waiting for Dex to return home from a crime scene. Even Masuka (C.S Lee) gets to join the shindig after being invited as Debra's "wingman" -- a little peculiarly, as I don't really see why Debra would need a partner in an environment she must be comfortable in. But hey, it gets creepy pervert Masuka something different to do on the show, and there are a few amusing scenes as he tries to fit into a family environment.
Predictably, the redundant subplot concerned Angel (David Zayas) and Laguerta (Lauren Vélez), who are again growing closer despite trying to keep themselves apart. At this stage, I'm guessing one of the pair's not going to make it to season 5, as their sudden infatuation feels like a fairly calculated way to try and make us feel a bigger emotion when one of them dies, but I could be wrong. Maybe it really is intended to be a flash of brightness in a show that otherwise OD's on tension and dark chills. Here, Angel gets some closure on an old case involving the murder of a man's wife, but when he goes to break the good news he discovers the husband's been in a vegetative state for the past seven years. So, having realized how your life can be irrevocably altered on a whim, this inspires Angel to admit he loves Laguerta. Yawn. I think the guy in a vegetative state echoed how the audience feel about this storyline, but at least they didn't drag out the cliché of the good news reviving him.
While the Mitchell family storyline was deliciously subtle and tense at times, I'd have liked more reference to Arthur's suicide attempt last week. It makes sense that his family would perhaps not want to broach the subject in front of him, but why didn't Dexter raise the issue? He was the hero of the hour, after all. And what had Arthur proffered as a reason for his actions? It also confused me that Arthur was suddenly incapable of keeping his family man persona intact around friend/saviour "Kyle", at a time when it would have been doubly important to do so. I can understand Dex picking up bad vibes from his wife and kids, but Arthur came across as quite reckless at times -- before totally losing his grip at the dinner table, calling his wife a c*nt in front of Dex, then strangling Jonah when the boy cracked and started ranting about Arthur's behaviour.
Still, around this time the episode punched to life, with Dex's anger boiling over at the mistreatment he's been witnessing and surprising Arthur by throttling him with a belt and dragging him into the kitchen to threaten him with a knife. The astonishment and fear in Arthur's eyes (and Sally's come to mention it) was fantastic, and as Dex beat a hasty retreat he knows he's essentially blown his cover as acquiescent Kyle, and Arthur may start to realize where his interest in him truly lay. And it's always fun when Dexter's prey are aware they're a target.
Of course, I haven't even mentioned reporter Christine (Courtney Ford), who is revealed to be the shooter who killed Lundy and injured Debra. I think the suggestion last week that someone of Masuka's height fired the gun was too much of a giveaway, as in the comments of last week's review I speculated that Christine must be the culprit -- as she has a motive (to create her own news stories) and is the only character of comparable height to Masuka. So, the reveal didn't quite land the big punch it was intended to, sadly. And anyway, as we learned from Lila in season 2, any woman who regularly bares her boobs in Dexter is a villain. Start to worry if Rita gets a topless scene.
However, as a second punch, in the dying seconds of the episode we see Christine answer her front door to... a very stern-faced Arthur Mitchell, to greet him with a curt "hi, dad." I'm predicting this final twist will split the audience, with some believing it's an outright ridiculous development, while others just like having their imaginations stoked some more. I'm willing to see what happens next week before condemning this surprise, as it could work very nicely, or it could prove a step too far.So, did Christine escape her crazy family home but find herself still under daddy's thumb, tasked to be his "cleaner" when things go wrong? I assume she knows he's a killer (Jonah seems to, as well), so he must be angry that his daughter's the one keeping the hotel bludgeoning in the news. Is Christine just as sick as her dad, but in a different way (letting her own misdemeanors fuel her career)? Do the other Mitchells know about Christine, or is she an estranged member of the family Arthur's kept secret? Will Arthur now use Christine to trace this "Kyle Butler", and will she deduce that he's actually the blood-spatter expert she regularly bumps into down the Miami Metro?
Overall, "Hungry Man" was interesting and provocative stuff, slightly let down by the fact it didn't feel all that plausible at times (even allowing for the tenuous grasp of reality Dexter often has, let's be honest.) There were some sizeable developments, though; even Masuka saw Elliot make a move on Rita, so are the Morgan's headed for separation by the finale? I guess the surprises with Christine and Arthur won't sit right with everyone, and the fact his family are a browbeaten mess did seem to just come out of nowhere (or were there clever signs earlier in the season we missed?), but you can't deny this episode worked very well in terms of shaking the season up for the last three episodes.
22 November 2009
Showtime, 9/8c
written by: Wendy West directed by: John Dahl starring: Michael C. Hall (Dexter Morgan), Julie Benz (Rita Bennett), Jennifer Carpenter (Debra Morgan), Desmond Harrington (Det. Joey Quinn), Lauren Vélez (Lt. Maria Laguerta), David Zayas (Sgt. Angel Batista), James Remar (Det. Harry Morgan), Christina Robinson (Astor Bennett), Preston Bailey (Cody Bennett), Julia Campbell (Sally Simmons), Brando Eaton (Jonah Mitchell), Courtney Ford (Christine Hill), John Lithgow (Arthur Mitchell), Vanessa Marano (Rebecca Simmons) & Clayton Mattingly (Neighbour Kid)
