Dexter Season 4 Episode 8 Road Kill

In 'Dexter' Season 4 Episode 8 'Road Kill" Dexter Morgan, the ethical serial killer, learns a little about remorse from Trinity, the older serial killer he has been studying for ways to remain uncaught. Remorse was something Dexter thought he could not know.

Spoilers surely follow.

Having dispatched a photographer who, while not innocent, was innocent of murder, Dexter resolves to kill Trinity, a man he knows to be guilty. This project takes on a certain urgency for two reasons.

First, Trinity is going on another road trip, this time to Tampa, he says to build another home for the poor. Dexter fears that Trinity wants to follow his pattern of murder again; a girl slashed in the bathtub, a women forced to jump from a high place, and a middle-aged man bludgeoned to death.

Second, it looks like Dexter's sister, Debra, has convinced Lt. Laguerta that there is indeed a Trinity killer worth pursuing. The last thing Dexter wants is the police interfering in his own particular brand of justice.

The journey turns out to be more illuminating for all concerned than anyone expected. It seems that Trinity is starting to feel remorse for the things he has been doing over the years. Trinity confesses to Dexter how the pattern started. It seems that Trinity's big sister had an accident in the bath at age sixteen out of shock of seeing ten year old Trinity ogling her sweet, naked, sixteen year old body. Trinity's mom jumped off a building in despair. As for Trinity's dad, he was actually Trinity's first kill.

Trinity has remorse what he has done. Remorse is not something a serial killer, with the stunted capacity for emotion and empathy, usually experiences. Indeed Trinity has not come to Tampa to kill. He has come to Tampa to die. Dexter, who has prepared a cellophane wrapped kill room in the motel bathroom, catches Trinity trying to leap off a building. Dexter almost releases Trinity into darkness, when some interfering construction workers arrive and help him pull Trinity back up. The killing of Trinity must wait for another day.

On the way back to Miami, Dexter reflects on the meaning of remorse. Remorse is not something that a monster serial killer is capable of. Yet Dexter does feel remorse for dispatching the innocent of murder photographer. Does that mean he is not, after all, a monster, but indeed human? And if human, does Dexter not have the excuse after all that he kills because it is in his nature? A human is capable of making moral choices.

Meanwhile, left without Dexter, Rita is beginning to be the object of attention from the handsome, next door neighbor. Rita is responding, to a certain extent, and this is not good indeed. No doubt the matter will proceed in upcoming episodes.

Source: Dexter, Road Kill, TV.Com