…Wow. What a whirlwind of insanity that season finale was. Retrospectively, I think season 4 of Dexter was a success. It was a bit of a chore getting to the end at some points, though.

We last saw Dexter getting married with Rita pregs. The first episode takes place six months after the finale, and Dexter’s juggling a newborn baby (Harrison), Astor, Cody, Rita, a job, and his “Dark Passenger”, a name I’ve always disdained. It makes me feel like Dexter is Twilight for men or something, I dunno. Just stop saying it, Michael C. Hall. Anyway, he runs into some problems early on due to his lack of sleep.

Meanwhile, Lundy is back in town! Now that he’s retired, he’s focusing on the biggest loose-end of his career: a serial killer whose “career” spans over three decades. He kills in threes, so they call him the Trinity Killer, and he’s played brilliantly by the legendary John Lithgow. Obviously the return of Lundy, Deb’s lost love (the one after the one who tried to murder her), is going to stir up some emotions for Deb, thus potentially jeopardizing her relationship with Anton. Funny just how much like her father she’s become – she’s a cop AND she’s hooking up with C.I. But I digress. This is where most of my beef with the season lies: relationships.

Deb and Anton, Deb and Lundy, Dexter and Rita, Angel and LaGuerta, Quinn and Christine (a new and surprisingly important character). The amount of drama between these people far exceeds the plot development for a lot of the season. It really was overwhelming at some points, and significantly waned my interest. They just didn’t strike an even balance between Trinity action and relationship development for a couple (read: a lot) of episodes. I thought I was going to cry when I had to watch Deb cry for the millionth time this season in the finale, and not because I was sad.

For a while I thought the Trinity storyline was getting a bit boring and stale, but once you get closer to the end you realize it’s all a front for the real Arthur Mitchell, who is more twisted and interesting than I imagined. Once again, Dexter’s enemy becomes a mentor of sorts for him, and he learns a lot from him about how to keep his two lives separate and safe, or so he thinks.

Toward the end of the season, the last three or four episodes, things really start to get heated. The closer Dexter gets to Arthur Mitchell, the closer he gets to revealing who he is and what his intentions are, and eventually they get pretty close. It all culminates in an intense, very fast paced finale episode that left me wondering what they could possibly do next. A game changer, for sure. It leaves the next season open for a huge variety of possibilities, including a dip back toward the content of the novels, like in the first season. Whatever happens, I thought season 4 turned out fantastically, despite a slow mid-season and the overly emotional aspects of it, with a very strong ending. In fact, this is the only season finale besides maybe the first where I didn’t feel like it ended super conveniently and forced; it’s like they actually thought out how to adequately resolve the problems this time around.