Sunday, May 31, 2009

My Review of Dexter's 3x06: "Si Se Puede"


Written by Charles H. Eglee
Directed by Ernest Dickerson

Dexter: “My dad used to say ‘be careful what you think you know about someone; you’re probably wrong.’”
Miguel: “Smart man.”
Dexter: “Sometimes.”

Yes, the same man whose lies that were revealed from the previous two seasons have soured Dexter’s overall view of him. Harry might have been economical with the truth but there’s no doubt that’s he got Miguel’s number. Too bad that Dexter isn’t as easy to persuade nowadays.

Much as I like Jimmy Smits in this role and as much as I would like to go against all odds and think that Dexter may have finally found a friend, a friend that he can totally be honest with in Miguel, the truth is that Harry’s right. You don’t need powerful observational to come to that conclusion, just common sense.

Unfortunately Dexter seems to be leaving his common sense behind him whenever he’s around Miguel. It’s true that Miguel does have Dexter over a barrel (and that will be something he’ll inevitably use to his advantage or as revenge) but Dexter seems to think that Miguel is on his side and thanks the results of this episode, he’s gonna remain thinking that.

Harry told Dexter earlier on that Miguel wouldn’t be able to accept the real him and when Miguel kept asking Dexter uncomfortable questions about Ethan, Dexter’s response was to test Miguel. For that, Dexter showed some smarts but unsurprisingly enough, the test backfired on Dexter.

Dexter was hoping that Miguel wouldn’t be able (or would out right refuse) to bring Clemson Gull within his proximity. In fact it very much looked Miguel would refuse, he was citing enough reasons why neither of them should risk but it was still a shock to me as well as Dexter when he agreed to get Clemson.

Dexter noted that Miguel seemed to have a similar enthusiasm for killing bad guys as he did but Harry also pointed out that Miguel would sell him out in a second if they ever got caught. During Dexter’s fevered attempts of getting Clemson away from the courthouse, it very much looked like that Miguel was going to live up to Harry’s words. I guess now would be a little too soon for him to do that.

That being said, even though Miguel earned Dexter’s trust by helping him escape with Clemson, Dexter still wouldn’t let Miguel actually see the process in which he kills his victims. It’s obvious that Dexter would find some way of taking some control back from Miguel. Here’s hoping that he’s right about Miguel not holding a grudge for Dexter deceiving him though.

If Dexter and Miguel’s friendship is dangerous, then it’s nice that Rita and Sylvia are allowed to have a far normal friendship. Unlike their respective others, they’re not setting out to dismember bad guys but instead decide that working together in real estate could be a good thing.

Rita desperately needs a career for herself and Sylvia clearly seems to think that Rita could have a knack for real estate. I’m actually gonna be sorry to see this friendship fizzle out because if Miguel is unlikely to survive past this season, then Sylvia won’t either. Still at least her and Rita have the healthier friendship, compared to Dexter and Miguel of course.

Speaking of healthy, Angel seemed to be in a very good place this week as well. He finally managed to get a date with Barbara and all he had to do was not to fall for a honey trap. Come on, was there anyone who didn’t immediately realise that hooker wasn’t a set up? Either way it did its purpose and got Barbara to realise that Angel might be worth taking out for a meal.

Meals were also the rage for Camilla as well who wanted a key lime pie. It’s great to see her back, even though it’s under the sad circumstances of her having lung cancer. Dexter himself looked pretty crestfallen with her deteriorating state but there were some odd hints in the episode that Camilla wanted Dexter to kill her. Will he? Should he even?

Deb herself also had a hard time of it in this episode. Finding out that Wendell was the latest victim of the Skinner certainly put her on edge and with good reason. For a second, I thought she was going to think that the skinner was killing people because of her personally. She certainly wouldn’t have been wrong to have jumped to that conclusion and she was especially worried for Anton.

However thinking Ramon might have been the Skinner was a stretch in a way. Ramon’s volatile and dangerous and certainly not panicky when it comes to torturing people but even that’s not enough to make him the skinner. It was smart though that Deb at least looked into the option discreetly.

Also smart was that when she and Quinn discovered exactly what Ramon was really up to – torturing drug dealers to learn where Freebo was, she still played things by the book. Even Maria and Angel who weren’t overtly enthusiastic about her hunches couldn’t fault her this week.

Then there’s Yuki. She further made herself look bad by threatening to tell the station about Deb working with IA. Deb retaliated by telling Quinn that Yuki was investigating him. Quinn wasn’t all that surprised when he heard this but was he lying when he said that Yuki was doing it out of revenge? Yuki certainly seems vindictive enough and Quinn’s mostly okay.

Also vindictive was Ellen Wolf in building a smear campaign against Miguel to Maria’s disappointment. However it does look like Ellen might have good reason to go after Miguel though, especially given the strokes he pulled with the whole Chicky Hines thing.

Also in “Si Se Puede”

The title means ‘yes, you can’, ‘yes, we can’ or ‘yes, it is possible’.

Harry (to Dexter): “I understood. I just couldn’t accept it and Miguel won’t either.”

Harry dressing up as Dexter during one of the fantasy sequences was perhaps one of the strangest things the show has done in a while.

Dexter: “Ramon’s got anger issues. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Deb: “Aw, you do care about me.”

Anton: “You sounded kinda upset on the phone.”
Deb: “Yeah, kinda upset in person too.”

Wendell’s body was a lot gorier than any of the previous victims of the Skinner that we’ve seen so far.

Dexter (to Miguel): “We took out the garbage twice. We should both quit while we’re ahead.”

Maria: “Life catches up.”
Dexter: “So does death.”

For a minute there, during that exchange, I thought Maria was going to say something about Doakes.

Camilla: “Dying I can do. Hell, I’m doing it. The pain is unbearable.”
Dexter: “How bad?”

Deb (to Yuki): “If you weren’t such a fuckwad, I’d feel sorry for you if you weren’t in IA where careers go to die.”

Quinn’s hair grew a lot in this episode that I found myself liking him more and more. He looks better with more hair.

Harry: “We only see two things in people. What we want to see, and what they want to show us. You don't know Miguel any more than he knows you.”
Dexter: “You're not seriously going to lecture me on relationships after the debris field you left behind?”

Deb (re Ramon): “How do you want to do this?”
Maria: “Book him. I want to inform the family.”

Chronology: A day since “Turning Biminese”.

“Si Se Puede” has it’s moments as an episode but it’s not the series or this season at it’s best, even if it is still of very high standard though. For that I can’t complain too much, just can we have some more on the Skinner please?

Rating: 7 out of 10.

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