Dexter Season 6, Episode 1: "Those Kinds of Things" Recap & Review

Showtime's killer hit "Dexter" has returned with an all new season. The first episode has aired and manages to get things going in top notch fashion. The first episode of any given season always has a tricky job. It must reestablish the basic premise of a series, address how things may have changed since the previous season and set up what is to come. "Those Kinds of Things" manages to do all of that and be quite fun as well.

The episode begins with Dexter in a warehouse district appearing to have been stabbed and dialing 911 from his cell phone. An ambulance and EMTs arrive on the scene only to be stabbed with syringes and injected with a sedative by Dexter. It had all been a trap for the paramedics, laid by Dexter. As it turns out this pair of EMTs had been killing some of their patients and harvesting organs for money. Dexter kills them both with a defibrillator and disposes of the bodies from his boat. The voice over makes it clear that Dexter has resumed his old ways and is back in his groove.

Upon returning to his apartment building it is shown that Dexter's co-worker Angel Batista has taken up residence in a neighboring apartment and that his younger sister frequently babysits young Harrison when Dexter goes out. Later in the episode it is revealed that Batista and LaGuerta got divorced semi-amicably between the previous season and this one. This comes as a bit of a relief as their relationship came out of nowhere and never added anything interesting to the show. LaGuerta, through blackmail of her boss, has been moved up to precinct Captain and she has placed Batista as acting lieutenant for the time being.

Speaking of Harrison, the young boy is coming to the age where Dexter is considering preschools. Batista suggests a noted local Catholic preschool. Dexter goes to check it out with his sister Debra in tow. Dexter is rather befuddled by the religious nature of the preschool and he causes confusion for both the head nun and his sister when he says that he personally has no faith at all that he knows of. Dexter muses to himself that he has focused so much on what he doesn't want Harrison to grow up with (i.e. Dexter's "dark passenger") that he had thought very little about instilling positive things like faith. Upon reflection Dexter goes back to the school and apologizes to the nun and says that he doesn't want his lack of faith to be reflected in his son. The nun, moved by Dexter's commitment to his son, says she will see about finding a place for Harrison.

Dexter then goes about planning his next kill, which involves his high school reunion. He suspects that one of his former classmates may have killed his wife and made it look like a suicide. The wife had been one of the few people who didn't treat Dexter like a complete freak in high school so this kill is somewhat personal. First Dexter has to collect a blood sample to test against existing evidence and be sure. He expects this to be fairly simple but to his own shock he is infinitely more popular at the reunion than he ever was in high school. The combination of his cool job, being in better shape than most of his classmates and the semi-recent loss of his wife has made him the center of attention.

At first Dexter doesn't know how to cope with this, but a little pow-wow with his late adoptive father and mentor, Harry, helps him get into things. It's worth noting that the relationship between Dexter and the visions he has of Harry continues to evolve, and it seems to be based on Dexter's own feelings about himself at any given time. Harry is much more encouraging and playful than he has been in the past, and this reflects Dexter's apparent state of comfort with who he is and what he does.

Meanwhile the audience is introduced to two new characters who will serve as season villains for the show. An unnamed pair of killers played be Edward James Olmos and Collin Hanks are shown first capturing a water snake and then preparing to kill the owner of a fruit stand. It appears to be a sort of mentor/apprentice relationship with Olmos guiding Hanks to commit the acts of violence he engages in. They also quote what sounds like scripture at various points. They also lack any sense of being tormented by their actions; instead they seem to be quietly joyous.

Naturally Miami Metro Homicide is called in to investigate the fruit stand. What is found there is lots of blood and several pounds of intestines in the fruit scale, but no body. Dexter's fellow lab geek Masuka brings with him a small entourage in the form of forensic college students, all of whom are potential interns. At the crime scene Debra's partner Quinn seems flustered and out of sorts but denies there being any issue when questioned. It is established at this point that he and Debra are still seeing each other, and in fact are living together.

The body of the fruit stand vendor later washes up on the beach. The team finds that his stomach has been cut open and then sewn back up. At this point Masuka has selected his intern, a heavy set male and not the attractive female everybody was expecting him to choose. The stitching on the body forms the symbols Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters in the classical Greek alphabet. When they cut the stitching seven baby water snakes emerge from the wound. The intern faints and Masuka muses that he'll have to go with his backup choice, implied to be the attractive woman he passed over initially.

Later Debra and Quinn are shown out to dinner and Quinn continues to show a severe case of nerves. The reason behind this is revealed when Quinn goes to the bathroom to practice proposing to Debra. However his plans are cut short when an armed man enters the restaurant and begins firing. Debra is able to take the man down and Quinn comes in at the last minute to assist in the arrest.

Back at his weekend long reunion Dexter has managed to verify that the jock from his past is in fact a murderer. Dexter is able to sedate him and place him in a familiar killing room. Dexter can't help but take note of the tattoo of Jesus on the man's chest and candidly asks how the man can reconcile his actions with his beliefs in a higher power. The man talks about forgiveness and repentance before launching into a full blown religious rant, cut short by a sharp blow to the head from Dexter.

There a few things evident from this first episode. The first is that many of the problems with the previous season appear to have been addressed. With Batista and LaGuerta no longer married it should cut down on the pointless relationship drama. It's also great to see Dexter function as part of the team again. In the last season Dexter was almost completely divorced from the murder investigations that Miami Metro Homicide were involved in and most of the supporting characters felt useless. This time he's right in the thick of it with the rest of the team and it's good to have that vibe back.

The season also has a bit of a lighter tone from the previous few seasons, "lighter" being a relative term for a show as dark as this. But Dexter himself is not as burdened by guilt or pain as he was the last few seasons and it's nice to see him more at ease with himself. It restores a bit of the fun that the earlier seasons had. Finally it's very clear that faith and religion are going to be major themes for the entire season. The killers clearly have some form of religious basis for their actions and Dexter is being set up to question what if anything he believes in. The point was hammered home a bit too hard with the almost out of left field "blood of the lamb" rant from Dexter's latest victim, but that moment thankfully passed quickly. Things are looking very promising.