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S01.E03: Smoke Signals


Whimsy
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Dexter hopes to have a chance to makes things right with Harrison, which is proving to be tough to do when there’s a full-fledged crime investigation that Dexter himself has caused. Harrison joins the high school wrestling team and quickly makes a name for himself at school. Meanwhile, a true crime podcaster from LA arrives in Iron Lake and befriends Dexter’s police chief girlfriend.

Original airdate 11/21/21

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Dexter thought of dumping the body in a mine BEFORE remembering that the town has a community crematorium? WTF??!!

The "Runaway" killer is also an embalmer?? Not a likely skill for a billionaire or a delusional truck stop baron...

Barney Fife Fail count: Even civilian guide dogs should not be touched by strangers. How does he not know Police K-9 rules???

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They finally call in the K9 units but give Dexter plenty of advanced notice to lead the scent away to nowhere.

BTW, John Oliver had a segment about forensic science, turns out it's not science at all, just something police departments came up with to boost convictions.  He said in particular the blood splatter analysis is mostly made up BS, so that was funny watching the blood splatter guy in this episode and thinking about what Dexter used to do in the original series.

But I guess Dexter had to worry enough to visit the mine, sabotage the crime scene for the K9 unit and finally burn the crematorium.  Guess they had the mine scene just to have him encounter the bear, before Dexter goes to a so-convenient isolated incinerator near by.  Oh and it has curbside access, so get out of the parking lot, walk a few feet, don't even have to go inside!

I'm thinking eventually Harrison is going to catch Dexter doing one of these clandestine activities.  Boy is suppose to be whip smart and has UFC moves so he's a sound sleeper when Dexter is skulking around the cabin or disappearing in the middle of the night?

So in this episode, two catfishes, the chubby kid being bullied at school and the father getting a FaceTime call from the guy whose remains Dexter just incinerated.  BTW nobody notices all the ashes around town all of a sudden?  Can DNA be detected in ashes?

What's the deal with the killer?  He drugs the girls, lock them in a room -- that didn't look like a motel room when she ran out -- then releases them so he could shoot them and drain them?

Not much of a sport either, he has a high powered rifle with laser score and he just waits for her to run a few dozen yards to shoot her in the back.  Can't be much thrill of the kill, nothing like the catharsis Dexter feels.  Guess the motives or whatever drives him will be spelled out eventually.

I don't understand how she seemed to go into some motel, maybe the only one in that small town, and all of a sudden she runs out into the wilderness, isolated so he can take his time lining her up with the laser and kill her?  Nobody around but nobody heard the gun shot?  So she chose to go to some place far away from the town?

 

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So, Harrison is very smart and has strong sense of justice. He’s also very good at lying, quickly (and smoothly) defending Dexter in front of the school principal when asked about how he ended up in foster care.

Is the show trying to setup Ethan as a school shooter and Harrison being a saviour etc?

Connection between Harrison and Audrey makes more sense now with her backstory, the loss and abandonment.

Dexter trying to connect with his son, I find the phase is quite slow. Hope this father/son’s emotional journey will be fully explored.

Harrison grabbing the school bully by his throat, is this the dark tendency that Dexter is worrying about or just a skill that he picked up in foster care?

Can the type of gun be identified based on thermal images? Does Dexter have bionic eyes? 😳

After spending days worrying about Matt’s body, thank you to Audrey and the white buck, Dexter suddenly got an idea to dispose all in some kind of sanitation incinerator? Convenient huh… 🤔 

They show us how mysterious and methodological the kidnapper/killer is. He better be a super, extra creepy big bad wolf or else I’ll be disappointed.

Why would Kurt lied about face-timing Matt? Is he afraid that the investigation will lead Iron Lake PD to his secret cabin and his (alleged) hunting activities? 🤔 

 

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So, Harrison is asked by the butcher if he's Jim's son, and he replies "That's what they say!" hmm The Dexter writers in the past were known for fake outs. This line probably got many suspecting even more that "Harrison" is not the real Harrison -- so he likely is the real one. (It could also be reference to the fact that the name isn't Jim.  Ambiguous.) But I think he's lying about Hannah being dead and other things of his past. Or maybe she is dead but he killed her. Lots more to come out about the kid. The school kid being bullied does look to be a candidate for shooting up the school, with Harrison stopping him. But that could be a fake out too - too obvious. 

Edited by Pike Ludwell
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Hmm didn't think of the Columbine possibility.

The bullies seem to be close to high school age as is the chubby kid.  Harrison and Audrey seem to be older actors.

Audrey is always glammed up.  Probably some kind of a model cast to play her.  Her hair is done up, in cold weather?  Why not wear caps?

 

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3 hours ago, Pike Ludwell said:

So, Harrison is asked by the butcher if he's Jim's son, and he replies "That's what they say!"

I took that as a reference to “Jim” not being Dexter’s real name (and also a truthful answer).

I’m wondering if this Iris they keep mentioning will turn out to be Audrey’s birth mother.

Theory: the lie about the FaceTime call was because he was caught out acting like he was celebrating something (killing the runaway) when he should be worried (or grieving, as Dexter’s voiceover pointed out).

Whacked-out highly unlikely theory: Harrison (who is brilliant and has mad skillz) DeepFaked the FaceTime call because he’s been on to Dexter all along and is trying to help him. The longer people think Matt is still alive, the more time Dexter has to get rid of the body.

About the ashes: it is odd nobody seemed to notice them, though anyone just looking out their windows would probably assume it was just snowing. No idea if Matt’s DNA could be extracted from the ashes, but with no body remaining it’s that much harder to tie the evidence back to Dexter. I did think though that he should have stayed by the incinerator long enough to make absolutely sure the body was completely incinerated.

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That's some odd thrill killer, if all he does is lock girls in motel room, let them go and then stand in the doorway and shoot them in the back. I thought he was going to let her get away so he stage some kind of fucked-up hunt.

Burning up Matt's body - been there, seen that. He did the same thing to Ray Speltzer, but in a much more entertaining way. Of course he was still alive for a little chat before he went up the chimney, but still. Dexter should know that even when a body is burned in a crematorium, there still bone fragments left with the ashes.

Okay, show - we get it. The cops there would make Barney Fife look like Joe Mannix. You don't need to keep hammering at it. "Corpus delict....WHUT?" And then he's stupid enough to squat down to give "What a good boy yes you are" scritches to the tracker dog? He actually seems to be mentally challenged. I guess he's the comic relief, the way Masuka used to be, but Masuka was smart and really good at his job.

 

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How about this guy - Olsen?

 

 

 

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4 minutes ago, AngelaHunter said:

image.png.1988ffe1e0dfdff6cb33b6117ab67cfd.png

 

How about this guy - Olsen?

 

 

 

fredric-lehne.png

I was thinking it could be two of them. The Caldwell guy got scared after Angela mentioned 'The Caves'. One guy does the trapping and whatever and the second guy does the shooting and embalming. Or any combination of the above.

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1 hour ago, preeya said:

My money's on him: 

 

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Yeah, when he got out of his car to help Audrey, there was music playing similar to the era as the other songs playing in the motel (or whatever that place is). Of course, that could be another intentional misdirection.

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21 hours ago, aghst said:

Guess they had the mine scene just to have him encounter the bear

...

BTW nobody notices all the ashes around town all of a sudden?

re point 1: Was that Pavlov's bear, or just a filler scene to kill time?

re point 2: Public crematorium in a hunting community? I figure people use it all the time, and people are used to random ashes at any time of the day or night.

 

19 hours ago, paigow said:

Dex heard the shot while creating the blood trail... so the "Kill Motel" could be near the highway

I think it was an underground room and the entrance to it is in the campground area that Harrison and the other kids broke into. Caldwell (to me those look like Brown's eyes) seemed to get pretty antsy when Angela told him they'd be sniffing around the area, which probably triggered the need to get rid of her so she wasn't found there.

 

17 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

I took that as a reference to “Jim” not being Dexter’s real name (and also a truthful answer).

I’m wondering if this Iris they keep mentioning will turn out to be Audrey’s birth mother.

Theory: the lie about the FaceTime call was because he was caught out acting like he was celebrating something (killing the runaway) when he should be worried (or grieving, as Dexter’s voiceover pointed out).

Whacked-out highly unlikely theory: Harrison (who is brilliant and has mad skillz) DeepFaked the FaceTime call because he’s been on to Dexter all along and is trying to help him. The longer people think Matt is still alive, the more time Dexter has to get rid of the body.

re point 1: I think so too. Have we heard him tell an outright lie yet? I wonder if maybe he tries to never tell a lie.

re point 2: Not only that, but perhaps also the "Hunter"'s first victim, years ago?

re point 3: Suspecting that Caldwell is the "Hunter", I think it's more likely he's trying to wind up the police investigation so he can continue his own activities.

re point 4: Another theory is that Harrison knows the truth about his dad and stepmom (perhaps discovered material after her death?). Some kids become their parents, and some rebel to become the exact opposite. He's demonstrated that he tries not to tell a direct lie, and he stands up against injustice (bullies), which may be clues that he will be the one to finally bring his dad to justice.

 

12 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

That's some odd thrill killer, if all he does is lock girls in motel room, let them go and then stand in the doorway and shoot them in the back. I thought he was going to let her get away so he stage some kind of fucked-up hunt.

I think the cops bringing part of their focus to the location of his victim (the campground and its underground prison) forced him to abbreviate his ritual. It's probably much more involved when he has the luxury of time.

Edited by Starchild
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17 hours ago, WaltersHair said:

I see they have a Doakes 2.0. For about 2 seconds of Dexter's interview the guy was eyeballing him hard.

I thought that too! I can't tell if he's really suspicious or if this is an indication of Dexter's paranoia.

 

The incinerator was really quite the contrivance, but that's not that unusual for this show- things always conveniently popped up when the original Dexter needed to move the story along.

My money is on the billionaire being both the kidnapper and Audrey's bio dad.

The motel room/basement was really weird. I definitely thought motel room the first time they showed her coming out of the bathroom. I don't think she'd be that comfortable staying in someone's house, especially if someone was coming in and dropping off food while she was in the bathroom. It definitely looked like a low end motel room. Also, she looked shocked when she went out the door. Perhaps she was moved while she was sick?

 

ETA: one thing is bothering me though- I can't believe Angela isn't more disturbed by the revelation that "Jim" basically abandoned his kid. I mean, he's the bio dad, and Harrison goes to live with his stepmother? In Argentina? She knows the kid has never visited before and neither has Jim made any trips to South America. There are no pictures of Harrison in the cabin. Jim has never mentioned his existence before. I know she was perturbed in the previous episode but she sure got over it quickly. For that matter, I think it was pretty sucky of Dexter to just blithely assume Hannah would be forever willing and able to take care of Harrison. If I recall, she took Harrison fully expecting that Dexter would show up and meet them. Dexter may not have known Harrison was in foster care, but that was certainly willful ignorance. It never occurred to him Hannah could get sick? In a car accident? Tracked down by someone in law enforcement or someone she crossed in some way?

 

 

Edited by Tatum
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3 hours ago, Starchild said:

re point 1: Was that Pavlov's bear, or just a filler scene to kill time?

re point 4: Another theory is that Harrison knows the truth about his dad and stepmom (perhaps discovered material after her death?). Some kids become their parents, and some rebel to become the exact opposite. He's demonstrated that he tries not to tell a direct lie, and he stands up against injustice (bullies), which may be clues that he will be the one to finally bring his dad to justice.

I think that would be Chekhov’s bear. Pavlov’s bear will just salivate if Dexter rings a bell.

Interesting Harrison theory. I hadn’t thought of that! Could be he showed up in Iron Lake only for that purpose.

Edited by CarpeFelis
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You'd think Dexter would have scoped out places to move to which would have easy disposal of body parts.

But he presumably wasn't planning to kill in Iron Lake so he had to go check out the abandoned mine, though he seemed prepared with the high tech snow shoes and the headband light.

HOWEVER, shouldn't bears be hibernating in the winter?  And would they hibernate in an old mine?

 

 

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Dexter is lucky Hannah took care of his son as long as she did. She had no reason to, Harrison wasn't her kid. 

So Harrison seems to want to help the little guy and doesn't like bullies. I wonder if he knows about Dexter going after bad people. Dexter isnt asking his son any questions. We don't know how much Hannah told him or taught him. 

They keep mentioning Iris, was she Audrey's mother?

Didn't they establish that there's cameras, wouldn't they see a person running around in the woods with a jacket? 

So the "runaway" killer seems more interested in embalming the bodies instead of just killing them. 

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This is a dark and dreary show.  Jen Carpenter's role is just embarrassingly awful.  I'm slightly interested to see how the story will go concerning Harrison, and I like Audrey.   I'm predicting this will be a one season series, unless they change the locale and the rest of the cast.

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1 hour ago, chediavolo said:

Is the actress that plays Angela trans? There is something about the voice. No, it doesn’t matter, I’m just curious. She’s very pretty. 

You don’t have to be trans to have a deep voice. I get called “sir” on the phone often enough to want to change my name to Peppermint Patty, but have been through childbirth with the stretch marks to prove it.

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The Deb thing is getting old. I get it, Dexter has a lot of guilt and Deb screeching at him constantly is his self inflicted punishment, but enough already.

I can't tell if Harrison is sloppy writing, or if there is some twist coming up. I did not think Harrison's quick Spanish to the teacher was anything a 7th grade kid couldn't master after a week of Spanish class and certainly did not come off as a very native speaker to me. It may be a petty nitpick but the writers chose to throw it in there. Agree also that Hannah would have planned better for Harrison or at least let Dexter know what was going on, since clearly she had a way to get in touch with him all along. I hope he is lying because if this is the best the writers could come up with it's pretty lazy.

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On 11/21/2021 at 6:05 AM, paigow said:

the town has a community crematorium?

Are these actual things?  I assume (hope?) that they are for disposing of animal carcasses, but I've never heard of one before. 

On 11/21/2021 at 3:49 PM, paigow said:

Argentina might have an elite elementary public school system... Or Hannah was the best home school teacher ever...

Dexter is very smart and Rita, well, Dexter is very smart.  I assume Harrison inherited his intelligence from Dexter.  I didn't really see how taking the same test a second time would show that Harrison didn't cheat on the first one.  Assuming he did cheat (and I actually don't think he did), most people would remember the answers to a test that they had just taken a short time earlier.

7 hours ago, Starchild said:

(to me those look like Brown's eyes)

I agree.  Of course, they could film the scenes using Brown and then reveal it to be someone else.  I wondered why the killer even bothered wearing a mask (other than as a plot contrivance).  He was presumably alone in his cabin.   The victim was running away and appeared to be quite a distance from him.  Even if she had escaped, she couldn't have recognized him. 

 

55 minutes ago, Tippi said:

Jen Carpenter's role is just embarrassingly awful.

 I loved her in the original, but have to agree with this take.  And did Harry just stop being Dexter's conscience?  Seemed like something happened near the end of the original, but I can't really remember.  If nothing else, looks like Deb and Harry would alternate being Dexter's inner voice.   I guess the executives didn't want to spring for both actors to return. 

 

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The whole retesting trope was also in The Tuskeegee Airmen movie. They were accused of cheating on an exam because most of them scored 90+ per cent. They were forced to rewrite the same test and the scores improved. Duh

Edited by paigow
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1 hour ago, Sakura12 said:

So the "runaway" killer seems more interested in embalming the bodies instead of just killing them. 

I got disoriented and thought I was watching "Six Feet Under" for a moment.

 

1 hour ago, Tippi said:

Jen Carpenter's role is just embarrassingly awful.

Awful, awful, awful. How wrong I was when I thought TPTB couldn't destroy her character any worse than they did in the OS.

So what surname is Harrison using to register at school? It was never mentioned, was it? Maybe he uses Rita's name. seeing as how his father and foster mother are and were serial killers.  I did like the principal asking Dexter, "And where were YOU?", when she found out Harrison was left adrift, deported, and put into foster care in Florida when Mama Hannah went toes up.

 

50 minutes ago, Bulldog said:

And did Harry just stop being Dexter's conscience?  Seemed like something happened near the end of the original, but I can't really remember.

I'm pretty sure I recall Ghost Harry bidding Dexter adieu for good at the end of the abysmal Se08, saying Dexter didn't need him anymore. Even a ghost can take only so much stupidity and bad writing.

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53 minutes ago, Bulldog said:

I didn't really see how taking the same test a second time would show that Harrison didn't cheat on the first one.  Assuming he did cheat (and I actually don't think he did), most people would remember the answers to a test that they had just taken a short time earlier.

I would assume there were multiple versions of the test with slightly different questions/answers.


That said, get over yourself, Principal Victoria, it's a class placement test, not the SATs. What possible reason would he have for cheating? The privilege of winding up in a bunch of classes for which he is not ready? Epic bragging rights over a class of like, 50? Also, if the test is short enough for him to be able to look up all the answers in 15 minutes, then I blame the test proctor for stepping out. The whole thing just seemed weird and clunky and a way to highlight that Dexter isn't a very supportive dad (then again, he met his own kid for the first time in 8 years a few days prior, how would he know whether or not his kid is the cheating type?).

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1 minute ago, AngelaHunter said:

So what surname is Harrison using to register at school? It was never mentioned, was it?

Haha, no, the show probably couldn't find a logical way to explain how Harrison's school records were accessed yet there is no paper trail linking him to Jim Lindsay as his custodial father. Best just to ignore the details. I would assume Hannah had used a completely made up last name.

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Teacher: Good morning class! Give a big Iron Lake welcome to our newest student Harrison Doakes!!!!

33 minutes ago, Sakura12 said:

I would think he'd have whatever surname Hannah got for them. But then you'd think they'd wonder why he was using his step mom's last name. 

 

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9 hours ago, paigow said:

Does Dex live that close to the camp?

The kids went there when they joined the search, and they came back around the same time as the others, so probably not too far away.

 

6 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

I think that would be Chekhov’s bear. Pavlov’s bear will just salivate if Dexter rings a bell.

Interesting Harrison theory. I hadn’t thought of that! Could be he showed up in Iron Lake only for that purpose.

OMG you're right. I knew that. Damn my aging brain.

It's possible that Harrison doesn't know, but they're setting him up as smart and capable enough to be Dexter's real adversary (not the cops). But perhaps he was looking for his dad and followed up on the news of the missing girls. Either way, watching Dexter in an existential struggle with his own son would be an interesting way to cap the story.

 

2 hours ago, Bulldog said:

Are these actual things?  I assume (hope?) that they are for disposing of animal carcasses, but I've never heard of one before. 

...

I wondered why the killer even bothered wearing a mask (other than as a plot contrivance).  He was presumably alone in his cabin.   The victim was running away and appeared to be quite a distance from him.  Even if she had escaped, she couldn't have recognized him.

re point 1: It would be a dereliction of duty for the cops not to search it, now that they know this is a crime.

re point 2: For sure it's to misdirect the audience.

Edited by Starchild
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On 11/21/2021 at 12:38 PM, paigow said:

Dex heard the shot while creating the blood trail... so the "Kill Motel" could be near the highway

Exactly. And his reaction was implied people hunt all the time so it wouldn't draw much surprise 

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12 hours ago, Sakura12 said:

Dexter is lucky Hannah took care of his son as long as she did. She had no reason to, Harrison wasn't her kid. 

So Harrison seems to want to help the little guy and doesn't like bullies. I wonder if he knows about Dexter going after bad people. Dexter isnt asking his son any questions. We don't know how much Hannah told him or taught him. 

They keep mentioning Iris, was she Audrey's mother?

Didn't they establish that there's cameras, wouldn't they see a person running around in the woods with a jacket? 

So the "runaway" killer seems more interested in embalming the bodies instead of just killing them. 

I think he is going to mount the whole bodies like trophies in a sick human display. 

12 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:
Edited by chediavolo
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12 hours ago, Tatum said:

The Deb thing is getting old. I get it, Dexter has a lot of guilt and Deb screeching at him constantly is his self inflicted punishment, but enough already.

I can't tell if Harrison is sloppy writing, or if there is some twist coming up. I did not think Harrison's quick Spanish to the teacher was anything a 7th grade kid couldn't master after a week of Spanish class and certainly did not come off as a very native speaker to me. It may be a petty nitpick but the writers chose to throw it in there. Agree also that Hannah would have planned better for Harrison or at least let Dexter know what was going on, since clearly she had a way to get in touch with him all along. I hope he is lying because if this is the best the writers could come up with it's pretty lazy.

Deb being in this show at all is punishment for all of us. Never liked the character or it could be the way the actress plays her, even in the original. 

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1 hour ago, chediavolo said:

Deb being in this show at all is punishment for all of us. Never liked the character or it could be the way the actress plays her, even in the original. 

I hated Deb in the first season of Dexter and was actually hoping she'd be killed off by Brian. She was still a harpy in S2 but sort of toned it down by S3. I would never say I liked Deb but she became more tolerable throughout the show, until they had her fall in love with Dexter and kill her boss. Then she majorly regressed.

 

I understand this depiction of Deb isn't supposed to actually be Deb but rather Dexter's self loathing in human form, but it is still SO obnoxious and shrill. Jennifer Carpenter is very, very shrill.

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The whole Deb thing would be  even better if they used Doaks instead ( he would be amazing as Dex's dark passenger)  or heck even use the folks from Miami Metro, Basista could  be one and go into how did he miss how f'd up Dexter always was.......   that would make it fun.  Deb is ok but my god, stop shouting already.   I am happy they finally gave us Dexter's inner monolog again, because that was what was missing from the very first episode.

i think the  masked gunman is the rich guy they were protesting not Douchbag's Daddy, but i do think DouchDaddy has something to hide

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I suppose it's fairly in character for a teenager, but I find Audrey's ill mannered treatment of the billionaire oil guy eye rolling. I get it, she thinks he's greedy and destroying the environment and maybe she's not wrong, but really, dumping out cocoa he handed her and snottily refusing his offer to help her when she's stranded isn't helping the environment, either, Audrey; it's just being rude for the sake of being rude. Again, that kind of self righteous indignation is pretty much in line for a teenager, but it's still irritating.

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15 hours ago, paigow said:

The whole retesting trope was also in The Tuskeegee Airmen movie. They were accused of cheating on an exam because most of them scored 90+ per cent. They were forced to rewrite the same test and the scores improved. Duh

And don't forget Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver. Latino kids in a bad neighborhood scored too high. They retested and scored higher.

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3 hours ago, Sakura12 said:

With Audrey being into True Crime, do you think Harrrison will tell her his step mom was a wanted serial killer. Lol

 

Maybe she will figure it out. Or that podcaster will.

Didn't anyone wonder what happened to Harrison after Deb died and Dexter "died???" Or did they tie that up in some way too?

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