Dexter star Julie Benz has been tapped to star opposite Michael Chiklis in ABC’s new pilot No Ordinary Family.

The drama revolves around Jim (Michael Chiklis), a once aspiring artist-turned-police artist, and his typical American family who suddenly finds themselves with new “abilities.” Julie will play Jim’s wife, a gifted scientist who develops a power for superspeed.

Currently, Benz is starring on Desperate Housewives as a lap dancer who has just taken up residence on Wisteria Lane. In the season four finale of Dexter, Julie’s character, Rita, was surprisingly killed.

Benz will also stars in the Hallmark movie, Uncorked. In the made-for-TV flick, She plays Johnetta “Johnny” Prentice, a workaholic CFO for a major corporation whose life is turned upside-down when she’s sent to a conference in California wine country to seal a deal, but winds up falling in love along the way.

“Johnny is a woman who relies on work to get things in her life done,” Benz explains about the character. “I understand that sort of mindset really well, though I think Johnny’s a lot more cut off emotionally than I am. I like to think I’ve got a lot of different sides to me that I can bring out in my performing.”

Uncorked debuts on Hallmark Saturday night at 9 p.m.

PaleyFest 2010, the Paley Center for Media’s annual television celebration, begins Friday in Beverly Hills, CA. During the fest, the casts and creators of the best shows currently on TV participate in panel discussions, Q & A sessions and meet and greets.

Here’s are all of the shows that will be featured in PaleyFest 2010: “Modern Family” (2/26), “Lost” (2/27), “NCIS” (3/1), “Community” (3/3), “Dexter” (3/4), “Cougar Town” (3/5), “The Vampire Diaries” (3/6), An evening with Seth Macfarlane and friends (3/9), “Breaking Bad” (3/10), “Flashforward” (3/11), “Men of a Certain Age” (3/12), “Glee” (3/13), “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (3/14).

Courteney Cox (“Cougar Town”), Larry David (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Ray Romano (“Men Of A Certain Age”), Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”), Chevy Chase (“Community”),and Ed O’Neill (“Modern Family”) will all be in attendance this year.

The festival will take place at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. There are still tickets available to most of the events except for the “Lost” and “Glee”. Individual tickets  from $24 to $75 or you can purchasee the PaleyFest2010 Premium Package which include 2 guaranteed tickets to 4 star-studded PaleyFest2010 panels, premium seating within the Saban Theater for each package event, early admission to the Saban Theater for each package event, exclusive invitation for 2 people to attend 1 private after-party with surprise guests in attendance and a limited edition PaleyFest2010 Premium Package Souvenir lanyard for $750.

You can also follow the Paley Center on Twitter for news and info about the event too!

Last night, as Dexter’s Michael C. Hall walked on stage to accept the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama, some in the media, and in the live audience, made some unfortunate comments about the cap he was wearing.

Hall had revealed last week that he was on the road to recovery after secretly battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But, obviously, not everyone got the memo. On the live blog for MacLeans, Brian D. Johnson wrote, “Michael C. Hall wins best actor in a TV drama series for Dexter. He looks like a bit of a psycho cause he’s wearing a black toque. What’s up with that?” And the NY Times The Moment blog tweeted, “Is Michael C Hall playing Bob Marley in an upcoming movie? Don’t get the hat or what is hiding under it?” (In their defense they did remove the tweet after catching some backlash for the comment.)

But even if some didn’t get his new accessory, Hall was still having fun with it. After his win, he joked, “It is nice to have a justifiable excuse for accessorizing.” He also told reporters that his Japanese hat was “pretty simple but maybe a little fancier than your normal thing.”

But, some are suggesting that one of Michael’s fellow nominees, Big Love’s Bill Paxton, had worse even things to say about the actor. While the camera cut to Paxton after Hall was announced as the category’s winner, it appeared Paxton had less than complimentary things to say about Hall. The NY Post’s Jarett Wieselman pointed out Paxton’s gaffe today, saying, “I’m no lip reader, but it looks suspiciously like the Big Love loser says something about “the cancer card” when the camera cuts to him during Michael’s walk to the podium.” While others speculate he said, “I can’t believe I lost to an as*hole.” Either way, its not good. Take a look at the clip below and judge for yourself.

Actor Michael C. Hall who portrays a likeable “serial killer-next-door” on Showtime’s drama Dexter, has been battling cancer in secret for the past few months.  The 38-year-old actor had been diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma and had been undergoing treatment for the disease. Treatment for the disease has been successful and the cancer is now in complete remission.

Hall released an official statement, letting fans know that he had been fighting cancer behind the scenes and that he was on the road to a clean bill of health: “I feel fortunate to have been diagnosed with an imminently treatable and curable condition, and I thank my doctors and nurses for their expertise and care.”

Michael C. Hall will be in attendance at the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony which airs Sunday January 17, 2010 at 8PM Eastern on NBC, along with his wife, Jennifer Carpenter (who portrays his sister on Dexter).  Hall is nominated for a Golden Globe for  Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series’ in the Drama category for his role as the titular police blood spatter analyst/family man who is also a serial killer in Dexter.  The show itself is also nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Television Drama.

Hall will begin filming Season 5 of Dexter later this year.

Michael C Hall and John Lithgow sat down recently to discuss the shocking season four finale of Dexter. Throughout the season Lithgow played a serial killer, “The Trinity Killer”, who killed Dexter’s wife Rita before Dexter had a chance to kill him in the last episode.

About the death of Rita, Michael C Hall said, “I did think it was a really bold stroke in terms of resetting the stage in terms of what’s to come, whatever that may be. I think more than anything I was horrified and I felt for the audience, it’s the sort of thing that ties people in knots.”

Lithgow commented that it was the contradiction of his character that made him interesting. “My most appalling scene was the very first, shortly thereafter you see me walking a dog on the sidewalk at night and its like NO! creepy. Trinity is a completely two faced man, he appears to be so nice and so kind and yet by the same extreme he is completely despicable I think tension is what is so scary about him.”

You can see the complete interview below:

Dexter and Jersey Shore experienced high ratings and provided a strong boost for their respective networks.

Showtime’s original series hit, Dexter, set a ratings record for the network and earned 2.58 million viewers that tuned into the 9pm ET show. An additional 508,000 watched the repeat later on that night. This was the first time any original Showtime show drew more than 3 million viewers on a single night. The episode of Dexter also landed the largest audience of any Showtime telecast since the 1999 Mike Tyson/Orlin Norris fight in Las Vegas, which lasted for only a few seconds.

The total audience for Dexter on Sunday represented a 71-percent increase over last season’s finale. This season’s finale also helped increase viewer-ship for Showtime’s other original series, Californication, which followed directly after Dexter. It drew 1.1 million.

Over at MTV, their new controversial reality series, Jersey Shore, jumped in the ratings thanks in part to bad press and protests from Italian-American organizations that have denounced the show and demanded its immediate cancellation.

The show drew 2.1 million viewers, up more than 50-percent from its debut a week earlier. An MTV spokesperson said, “We understand that this show is not intended for every audience and depicts just one aspect of youth culture. Our intention was never to stereotype, discriminate, or offend.”

Last week, MTV also had to edit an episode of the show, but it had nothing to do with its controversial look at a group of Italian-Americans. The channel had removed a scene from the next episode of the series showing one of the main cast members on Jersey Shore, Nicole “Nooki” Polizzi being punched in the face. The scene immediately showed up on YouTube and become a viral hit. A statement issued by MTV explained why it had removed the scene, stating that “what happened to Snooki was a crime and obviously extremely disturbing.”

The scene has also been removed from YouTube.

Season 4 of Dexter can be summed up in a single word: Wow.

What started out as the best season of a tremendous series ended as the best season ever with a concise ending to the Trinity story arc, as well as leaving things up in the air for Season 5. I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor.

The episode opens up with Dexter having been formally addressed by Arthur with all the warmth that Seinfeld had reserved for Newman.  In that moment, realizing that now that Arthur knows his real name, Dexter all but craps his pants worrying about what will happen to his family and the dual life he’s carved for himself (no pun intended). Arthur tells Dexter that he wants him to disappear from his life and cease with the extortion bit before striding from the precinct triumphantly.

Dexter takes off to follow him, vowing to cap Trinity then and there.  On his way out, Quinn attempts to get all Doakes on Dexter and tells him that he needs to sign off on Christine Hill’s suicide splatter immediately and that chasing tail can wait.  Dexter shoves him hard and takes affront to Quinn’s insinuation.

As Dexter’s in hot pursuit of Trinity, Rita calls him on the cell with something “important,” saying that she wants to have her honeymoon this weekend.  Since the kids will be going to Disney with Paul’s parents, they can take little Harrison with them. Dexter hastily agrees and gets off the phone, having just sideswiped some dude’s mirror. Meanwhile, Harry-Wan Kenobi looks at Dexter disapprovingly, telling him that he’s getting careless and the messes are piling up. 

Things are about to get even messier as Dexter tracks Arthur to the bank, getting out of his Four Walls, One Heart van and all-but skipping into the bank. He waits for Arthur in his van and then doses him, leaving him passed out in the back as he takes a look at all of the money Arthur drained from his accounts for his getaway.  Dexter is appalled that Arthur would leave his family and leave them destitute.  Already angry, Dexter sees the guy whose mirror he sideswiped talking to the cops and pointing out Dex’s vehicle.  Dexter jumps out of the van undetected and tries to defuse the situation, but the police and the angry, mirror-less dude get in his face with a cell phone cam and Dexter snaps.  The police cuff and stuff him and Rita has to go pick Dex up.

As if he didn’t feel bad enough for his five-minute stint in the clink thanks to Harry-Wan Kenobi’s lecture on getting sloppy, Dex feels like scum knowing that Rita’s seen him this way.  On the ride to pick up his car, Dexter comes as close as ever to telling Rita about his Dark Passenger, alluding that sometimes the darkness creeps in and takes over. Rita acknowledges her husband’s dark side, bringing up the time he smashed the hell out of the stadium-style light Elliot installed, smashing the hell out of Elliot for kissing her, and then his recent rage-fest. He tells her they’ll talk more as he heads to his car, then makes a beeline for the bank parking lot.  Arthur’s van is still there, although Arthur is not.  Yet Arthur’s cash and wallet is still where Dexter hid it.  Uh-oh.

Back at Casa de Mitchell, Arthur busts into his happy home as Sally, Rebecca, and Jonah are happily eating.  Arthur proceeds to shake down his family for all of their cash and jewelry.  Jonah attempts to step to Arthur and gets choked out by Daddy for his efforts.  Looks like Arthur wants to make a quick break and get out of Dodge.

Back at the precinct, Deb is still working on the Trinity case with three postcards that don’t link up with murders.  Batista urges her to take a personal day since Christine blew her head off in front of her, but Deb is the Energizer Bunny of Detectives and keeps plugging away.  Speaking of plugging, Angel and LaGuerta get about five minutes in this episode, contemplating moving in together now that they’re married.

Taking up her superiors on her day off, Deb meets again with the C.I. who Harry was banging years ago. While Deb downs Daddy as a manwhore, the C.I. says that Harry was still a good man who always made her feel safe. She takes her to the house she remembers of the woman who she was dumped for: Laura Moser. The house and the name ring a bell, being the same spot where the Ice Truck Killer took Deb in Season 1.  After doing some digging, Deb comes across info on Laura Moser, that she had two sons: Brian and Dexter Moser.  Hey-yo!!

Deb meets with Harry’s old friend, Deputy Lieutenant Matthews and asks him about her father’s dealings with Laura Moser.  He admits that he knew of Harry’s fling with Laura and that he knew Harry took in Dexter but didn’t take in Brian because the boy was far too damaged after watching his mother chainsawed to death. Deb is understandably gobsmacked, but it triggers the idea to quiz little Scott from last episode about the man who kidnapped him. 

Speaking of, Arthur has just been playing around on the computer and has pulled up Dexter’s Palm Terrace address online – where Debra is now living!

Little Scotty comes through with info on Trinity and details of the kidnapping, remembering the logo for “Four Walls, One Heart.” Deb, Masuka, and the rest of the department head to the latest home-building site and find something buried under the patio. Masuka unearths the body of a 10-year-old boy in the bag, badly decomposed. They now know that Stan Beaudry wasn’t Trinity and have a bead on Arthur Mitchell.

Back at Casa de Morgan, Dexter and Rita have a heart to heart chat about Dexter’s demons.  In spite of it all, she tells Dexter that she has faith in him and knows he can conquer anything.  Dexter finally shows emotion to Rita and honestly tells her how he really wants to be the man and husband she believes he is.  Rita acknowledges Dexter’s demons and tells him she has faith in him. Dexter tells her how he really wants to be the man she wants him to be. He tells her that he wants their honeymoon and to fly to the Keys tomorrow morning. Internally, Dexter rationalizes that he kids will be safe in Florida on their Disney World vay-cay with their grandparents and he, Rita, and Harrison will be out of Arthur’s reach in case he goes off.  

Before leaving, Dexter/Kyle goes to visit the Mitchell family to find out where Arthur is.  Jonah tells him that he made off and describes what happened at dinner just before the SWAT team busts in and the family hits the deck.  Dexter/Kyle hides in Arthur’s homemade casket and puts on his Forensics laminate at the last minute. 

The rest of the precinct is at the Mitchell family home and Dexter makes a cover story that he got there first.  As the action unfolds, Dexter has an inner-monologue with Harry-Wan Kenobi, contemplating leaving his family and worrying if he’s anything like Trinity.  GhostHarry tells him that long after Dexter is executed, his family will be stuck with his stigma.  This is made all the more poignant as Arthur’s family is taken out of their home and filled in on his dual-life. 

Deb takes this opportunity to tell Dexter about Laura Moser and her sons.  She said she wasn’t going to tell him, but after learning about Trinity’s family, she felt she had to tell him.  Dexter plays dumb to knowing any of this and internally believes his jig is up.  He truthfully admits it’s a lot to take in.  In yet another rare moment of real revelations, he tells Deb that if he hadn’t been in her life, she wouldn’t have been in the Ice Truck Killer’s path, feeling that she was targeted because he was his brother. Deb tells him that it’s not true and that he’s been the one remaining constant in his life that has been good.

Dexter has a sudden epiphany that maybe Harry’s wrong. Meanwhile, Arthur is happily speeding down the freeway laughing to himself.  Arthur had the Mustang’s windshield fixed and the white car repainted black.  Dexter is onto where Arthur will be taking the car from, having spotted the broken windshield removed in the Mitchell’s driveway and the receipt from the bodyshop in Arthur’s wallet.

As Arthur has a blowout on a dirt road somewhere, realizing his gas cap is missing, Dexter capitalizes and doses Arthur, having trailed him. For the last time ever, we’re treated to butt naked John Lithgow as he’s strapped to Dexter’s kill table with images of his victims splayed out. He tells Dexter he was just following his path and that God had led him to Dexter as he takes a sample of Trinity and puts it on his slide.  Arthur notes that unlike Dexter, he never took pride in what he did.  Dexter retorts that Arthur had it all and then destroyed his own family instead of treasuring them.  He breaks the news that Christine killed himself because of him.  In classic douchebag fashion, Arthur/Trinity says that his dearly departed daughter was weak.  Dexter counters that he doesn’t think he’s better than him, but wants to be a better man.  Trinity cautions him that he couldn’t control the demons inside of him although he prayed to be changed.  Dexter tells him that it wasn’t an active attempt to transform, but rather he waited to be stopped. As one last request, Dexter plays “Venus” for Arthur and runs the Trinity Express around the track before killing him with his own framing hammer. Arthur smiles before he dies.

As Dexter deposits Arthur’s remains in the water, he looks up at the moon and hopes to be rid of his Dark Passenger. He notes a feeling of calm, believing that Rita is looking at the same moon and this is his opportunity to get away from the old Dexter. He heads home, excited to go on his honeymoon, albeit a bit late and notices he has a voicemail on his phone from Rita.  She came back home with Harrison to pick up her I.D. for the plane and can’t wait to see him. 

Dexter is somewhat alarmed since the house is dark and doesn’t seem that Rita had been there.  Plus there’s no follow up message asking where he’ll be meeting her.  Panicked, Dexter dials Rita’s number and her cell goes off right there in the house.  Dexter races in slow-motion throughout the house and enters the bathroom.  Baby Harrison is sitting in a pool of blood seeping from the tub – much the same way Dexter was “born in blood” when his own mother was chainsawed.  He sees Rita sitting in the blood-filled tub, dead.  In shock and disbelief, Dexter closes Rita’s eyes and picks up baby Harrison.

I can’t even begin to explain how shocked I was by this ending!  This is the second time I’ve found myself liking a character after a long spell of dis-like and WHAMMO, they die horrifically after a poignant scene.  (The first surprise death being Smallville’s Henry James “Jimmy” Olsen character at the hands of Doomsday last season.)  It was refreshing to see Dexter and Rita be real with each other and demonstrate caring for one another, rather than the harried-husband and desperate housewife bit. 

The ramifications of Rita’s death to the series will be tremendous. Beyond the jaw-dropping shock factor, it sets the stage for a whole new Dexter.  Will he be a single parent to Harrison as well as Astor and Cody? What will the kids’ reactions be? Furthermore, how will he deal with the guilt of having been able to prevent this, if he had killed Trinity sooner or if he hadn’t prevented Arthur’s attempted suicide?

I will predict that in Season 5, Deb moves in with Dexter to help him take care of the kids.  Being the only other person besides his children that he cares about, Dexter will bond closer with Deb who also lost the love of her life this season.  I also have the sneaking suspicion that the loose plot-end with Rita’s first ex-husband will come into play in Season 5. 

All in all, I rank this right up there with Season 1 of Dexter as the show’s best yet.  I was shocked and sad to see Rita go (for as much as she could be an uber-shrew, at times), but am excited to see the direction the show takes next year.

With two more episodes to go and even more reveals and plot twists a-comin’, Dexter kicks off Season 4’s penultimate episode at the precinct. Christine, the little prick, is stonewalling Detective Batista when he asks her how she’s related to the Trinity Killer.  She claims she doesn’t know how she’s related to Trinity, even though hos DNA matches hers.  Batista also provides a case file that Christine’ mother, Lorraine Hill, has been dead for five years and her father is unknown.  Juggs then claims she never met her father after her mother got pregnant.  Christine believes that she can only held for 48 hours before learning that she’s a material witness and can be held indefinitely. Oh, schnap!

Trinity, meanwhile, is watching the tube and sees that little Scott from the last episode has been returned to his family by an anonymous good Samaritan — one who didn’t report Arthur to the police.  Although Arthur knows it was Dexter/Kyle Butler, he ponders what type of person saves a kid and then doesn’t report the real creep who abducted him in the first place.  Just then, Arthur receives a call from Dexter/Kyle requesting $50,000 in 24 hours or he’ll tell the world that Arthur Mitchell is a pedophile.  Arthur gets really hot n’ bothered by being called a chi-mo’ and angrily refutes Kyle/Dexter’s claim.  Attempting to buy himself some time, he insists he isn’t even in Miami and can’t possibly meet Dex/Kyle. Arthur, like his daughter, is a big fat liar as he thumbs through the Miamai White Pages, searching out Kyle Butler.

Arthur then attempts to break into a real Kyle Butler’s house and RealKyle (wearing a jaunty fedora, purple t-shirt and scarf) threatens to call the cops on him.  Arthur fixes him with a steely, creepy gaze and RealKyle winds up dead, having his head smashed against his lovely hardwood floor.  Dexter finds out that the dude’s name is Kyle Butler and blames himself for the death of yet another innocent man, vowing to track down Trinity and bring him to olive green-shirted justice.

At Christine’s apartment, upon obtaining a search warrant, Batista and Deb raid Christine’s collection of shoes under her bed and come across a bunch of post cards addressed to Christine from Daddy, each of which correlates to where a Trinity murder spree went down.  Back at the precinct, she asks to speak with her lawyer.  Quinn and Deb play a game of who’s too close to the case as Quinn doubts Christine’s guilt and Deb harps on the Lundy Love of her Life getting ganked by Quinn’s squeeze.  Upon further examination, Quinn realizes that Juggs and her chipmunk cheeks were lying to him the whole time, cozying up to him so that she could keep tabs on Lundy as he tracked her father.  Quinn and Deb then bond in a strange way over having been in close proximity to murderers, Deb citing her engagement to the Ice Truck Killer as her own personal Moment of Shame.

Elsewhere in the precinct, LaGuerta and Batista get called into Matthews’ office because of a surveillance tape handed to him with the two of them making out in the liquor store. Matthews points out that the two of them perjured and need to get some good reps to discuss their case.  LaGuerta questions Matthews as to why he’s got it in for her, and Matthews tells her that he despises her arrogance. 

Things get just a tad more arrogant as Batista and LaGuerta tie the knot in the office with Dexter as a witness, right behind Matthews back.  When he returns to gloat about bringing the two to justice, Batista and LaGuerta (Whom, I guess are now Batista n’ Batista-LaGuerta?) explain that they’re married. They tell Matthews that he’s in for a fight considering the very Catholic, very Latino climate of Miami and that his attack on them as a married couple is an assault on the institute of marriage. Pwned, Matthews! Pwned!

Speaking of marriages, Rita spills the beans and tells Dexter that she kissed Elliot… or that Elliot kissed her.  She was planning on telling him in their therapy session. Which is a good thing, since the guilt of knowing this was eating up poor Masuka who also blurted it out to Dexter after Dex finds out. Upon Dex’s return home later that night, Rita stayed up so that they could finish their talk. Dexter acts very nonplussed about the entire kissing Elliot thing and Rita seems bummed out that he didn’t react more.  She’s seemingly satisfied when Dexter pops Elliot in the jaw, seeing him outside with a beer.  Rita then hands Dexter a pack of ice and tells him she’s glad he cared so much. Women! They’re so hard to read sometimes!

Back to easier things, Dexter is getting antsy with all of the Christine revelations and that it could mean that Trinity/Arthur ends up being brought to justice in a more conventional way than on his kill table.  Not wanting to let this awesome trophy slip through his hands, Dex does some recon for a guy to pin Trinity’s crimes on and comes up with one Stan “The Man” Beadry, a trucker who killed a prostitute several years ago.  Dexter squeaks out a quick n’ dirty kill, icing Beaudry and planting hair from his brush, Lundy’s Trinity books, and a picture of Christine in Stan’s truck to set his plan in motion.

Things keep moving when Arthur calls Kyle/Dexter from Johnny’s Jet Skis, the fake address that Kyle gave to Four Walls. Dexter/Kyle still plays up the extortion angle and overhears music in the background, recognizing that Arthur is now at a kiddie arcade. Arthur sets up the drop off for two hours later, however, Dexter is only 15 minutes away and plans to get the jump on him.

Back at the precinct, Deb, in a last-ditch effort, decides to talk to Christine one-on-one before her lawyer arrives and they discuss their daddy issues. Christine doesn’t take the bait, telling her that she won’t open up, just because Deb “shared.” Christine’s lawyer then insists that they let her go. Quinn, Deb, and Batista decide to let her go, believing that she will go to her pops to warn him and lead them directly to Trinity.  Meanwhile, they set up surveillance in Christine’s apartment, waiting to catch her doing something stupid… Other than walking around with her boobs hanging out. Christine doesn’t disappoint (No.  She actually keeps her shirt on through the entire episode!),  phoning Daddy Arthur who angrily tells her not to call again. Later on, Christine calls again, this time from a neighbor’s phone to tell him she loves him and did this to help him. Arthur is harsh in his assessment, telling her this is her own problem and that he was sorry she was ever born.  Wow. What a douche.

Spurred by her father’s rejection, Christine calls Deb over to her house and confesses to that she shot her and killed Lundy.  She tells Deb she is sorry and asks for her forgiveness.  Deb isn’t having this and says she can’t forgive her, but rather is here to do a job and take her into custody.  Just then, Christine whips out a gun from under the couch cushion, puts it under her chin and blows her head off. Whoa! SHOCKER!!

Traumatized, Deb calls Dexter to tell him what happened and that she needs a brother to talk to now. So close to nabbing Arthur, Dexter speeds away from the arcade to offer a shoulder to his sister to cry on, opting to be Dexter Morgan: Brother of the Year, as opposed to Kyle Butler: Extortionist and Dexter Morgan: Serial Killer Extraordinaire. At the precinct, Deb tells Dex that the Christine offing herself thing hasn’t really gotten her down as much as her feeling that she doesn’t have the closure she wishes she had, even though Christine is gone.  That by her erasing Lundy’s name from the Dry Erase Board o’ Unsolved Cases, he will cease to exist.  Dexter gives her a pep talk and she hesitantly erases “F. Lundy” from the board.

Although Arthur has no idea his little girl just capped herself, Arthur sees Dexter leaving the arcade and trails him to the precinct, asking for a Kyle Butler at the front desk. When he finds out there isn’t a Kyle Butler there, he lifts a visitor tag from someone in the lobby and proceeds to walk around. He comes across the homicide department room and smiles at all of the familiar photos of the bathtub murders, bludgeonings, and forced jumpers littering other Dry Erase Boards o’ Unsolved Cases.  He sees the evidence pinned on Stan “The Man” Beaudry and happily realizes that he’s in the clear. 

Even better, he comes across a plaque and photo in the precinct lobby with Dexter’s photo and name on it.  Ominously stalking the corridors and taking the elevator, Arthur greets Dexter at his own desk with a creepy “Hello, Dexter Morgan.” 

Things are going to get interesting!  Next week is the final episode of the season. Rumor has it that, unlike other seasons of Dexter that wrapped all the ends of a story arc up in a single episode, this will end on a cliffhanger to be resolved in Season 5.

Since last week’s incident where Cody crashed through the skylight in the shed, Dexter’s found a new place to stash his stuff: a shipping container that he’s rented, reminiscent of the birthplace of his Dark Passenger.  This is a much more suitable and secure place to keep the ol’ kill tools and trophies…. And Dexter’s hoping Arthur’s blood slide will help him christen his new digs!

Wearing his olive green kill clothes, he tracks Arthur to a parking lot.  Arthur has been trailing a family who’s incredibly stupid enough to put their names on the back of their SUV with a cling film decal.  When the boy, Scott, gets separated from his family at the arcade, Arthur swoops in to tell Scott that he’s a police officer and that his parents have been in a car accident. Using the family’s names to lend legitimacy to his cover, Arthur tells him that his sister is with his partner and the boy needs to come with him now.  He takes the kid out to his van and chloroforms him.  When the boy wakes up, Arthur keeps referring to Scott as “Arthur.” What follows is John Lithgow redefining “creepy” by playing with a choo-choo train on the floor.

Having caught Arthur red-handed and failing to catch him in the car, Kyle/Dexter shows up at the Mitchell residence and asks where Arthur is.  Jonah tells him that he’s at some teaching conference in Naples and Kyle/Dexter explains to Jonah that Arthur may be up to something much worse than concocting new ways to spring pop quizzes on his students. Dexter does some recon and finds a string of missing ten-year-old boys five days before the bathtub murder.  Lundy never made the connection because the boys weren’t recorded as homicides.  Instead of a trinity of victims, it’s actually a quartet with each victim representative of his family members – the young boys being a symbol of Arthur’s lost innocence.  Dexter makes the connection, having lost his own innocence the day Momma Dex was chainsaw-ed to death in a shipping container as he and Big Bro watched. 

Back at the precinct, Masuka tells Deb he saw something at Thanksgiving dinner that he wishes he never saw.  Before he can tell her that he saw Rita kissing Elliot Claus, Deb starts talking about her plans to corner Christine.  Deb asks Batista to watch the interview she’s granting Christine for any pertinent info on the Lundy case, believing she knows more than she’s letting on.

During the interview, Deb whips out a few photos of DeadLundy telling Christine that she looks at those every time she feels like giving up.  Christine has a hard time looking at the photos. (Which is fitting, since the audience has a hard time looking at her over-exposed juggs.)  Deb conversationally mentions to Christine that she knows she lives 60 minutes from the scene of the crime, yet she was the first on the scene, reporting 15 minutes after the call was put out. Batista himself noted that Christine was fully made-up and there was no way she just rolled out of bed all fresh n’ pretty.  Deb and Batista agree to tread carefully lest Quinn find out what they’re up to, unsure of whether his loyalty lies with the department or Juggs.

Back at Trinity’s bomb shelter lair, Arthur is talking to Scott, who he keeps referring to as “Arthur.” Although “little Arthur” (which sound strangely phallic, appropriately enough, given what a perv ten-year-old Arthur Mitchell actually was) keeps protesting that his name is Scott.  As for Scott, Dexter pays a visit to the boy’s home, offering his services to the family help find the boy and search for information. Meanwhile, Dexter has Jonah doing some more research on his pops and Jonah is getting all sorts of dirt on Daddy..

On the Morgan family front, Cody gets into a scuffle with another student because the kid said he saw Dexter leaving the Young Sailors campsite in the middle of the night because he was scared. When Dexter comes home, Rita tells him that Cody was defending his honor at school, oh, and that Paul (as in Psycho Ex who got shanked to death in prison Paul)’s parents want to take the kids to Disney Land.

Soon after Rita makes one of her inopportune phone calls to Dexter while he’s searching for Scott, Christine calls Daddy and tells him she wishes she could see him now instead of another four months for her birthday.  Arthur tells her that there’s a reason why he can’t see her and that he’s got a family that needs him.  Arthur hangs up as Christine cries about her daddy issues all by her lonesome, knowing that she’s definitely in deep doo-doo this time.  

Boy, is she ever right.  Deb tells Quinn her theory that Christine was the one who killed Lundy and shot her.  Not too happy with the news that his girlfriend may have been using him as her human shield (Apple. Tree. Not far.), Deb gets Quinn to give her the toothbrush that Christine keeps at his place to run DNA to see if her DNA matches that of Trinity.

Soon after, Christine is over at Quinn’s house, doing their morning ritual (which doesn’t involve Christine whipping out her boobs, although she would like to).  She angrily storms out of his place on the grounds that Quinn isn’g sexing her, bummed that her toothbrush is missing, and yelling at Quinn about how his partner gave her a crappy interview.  Christine then places yet another phone call to Pops, telling him she needs to see him to talk about “that woman in the bathtub” when she was little.

The father/child reunion is only a motion away as Christine tells Arthur that she has been protecting him, having remembered following him the night he iced the chick in a bathtub. Having saved all of the post cards Daddy ever sent her, she traced them to coincide with the murders like a good investigative journalist would  Christine drops the bombshell that she knew Lundy was hot on his trail and killed him to keep Daddy safe. Initially, Arthur is all “WTF!?!”, however he relents, smiling and telling her to head home and they’ll talk about it later.  This can’t be good.  If he knew he had an older half-sister, Jonah could probably tell Christine a thing or two about what happens when their Pops starts smiling after his kids have done something wrong.  Usually, it ends with a broken thumb or a good choke-out.  This theory is corroborated when Arthur climbs back into his van and lets loose, referring to his daughter as a “stupid, stupid” effing c-word. 

After meeting with FailDaughter, Arthur heads back to his bomb shelter, bearing delicious grub from Sonic and offers some to Scott, on the condition that he puts his pajamas on.  Arthur cranks up some soft ‘50s music as he chows down happily on his burger. Not even taking a sip from a delicious Cherry Limeade, he then chokes up upon hearing “Venus,” blathering about Vera and how he feels responsible for her death.  Scott shows some sympathy for the old creep and tells him he can be his bodyguard and even call him “Arthur” …if he really wants to. Arthur smiles all sorts of touched and happy (uh-oh) an asks  Scott to stay as kind and innocent as he is. After telling him he will set him free, he drugs the kid’s ice cream.

Meanwhile, back at the precinct, one of Harry’s old “friends with benefits” Valerie, shows up, telling Deb that she doesn’t remember the other C.I. that Harry dumped her for and searches for the name of the chick who made her a bitter dumpee.  Just as she’s scrambling for a name, Masuka finally has a chance to interrupt someone, coming through with the DNA test results. As Deb had suspected, Christine is related to Trinity.  Deb, Batista, Quinn and a few other officers show up at Christine’s apartment and haul her away in handcuffs. Quinn glares icily at Deb as his slam piece will now be in the slammer. Hey, it’s still a better fate than what would be in store for the “stupid, stupid” effing c-word than if Daddy got his mitts on her!

Speaking of Daddy, Dexter finds the bomb shelter where Arthur had been hanging out with Scotty.  After a little talk-time with Harry-Wan Kenobi, Dexter deduces that Arthur is using his “Four Walls One Heart” building sites as a convenient place to drop the bodies of the ten-year-old boys… Burying them alive in concrete.  Racing to the site of Arthur’s newest erection (pardon the pun), he sees Arthur with a pool of freshly poured foundation concrete and a child-sized body bag zipped shut, ready to be submerged.  Cracking Arthur in the head a few times with a shovel, Dexter manages to free Scotty and save the boy who is returned to his family.  Meanwhile, Arthur ends up escaping.

Next week, it looks like Arthur finds out that Dexter really isn’t “Kyle Butler.”  Uh-oh.

It’s Thanksgiving, Dexter Morgan! Dexter offers up a Thanksgiving episode that (barring a few pointless, sidebar-story moments with the continuing Batista/LaGuerta romance) serves up a generous helping of tension and revelations.

Things start off with Dexter ruminating on how he can make Trinity disappear faster than a Thanksgiving Day turkey and hits upon a plan to invite himself to the Mitchell’s holiday dinner.  At the Mitchell residence, Dexter watches as Arthur and his teenage son argue.  Dexter/Kyle trails him and watches as Jonah takes a baseball bat to his sweet classic convertible, smashing the windows.  Jonah confesses to Kyle that he wishes his father had died.  Arthur hits Kyle and is a nightmare to his mother and sister, as well, and he’s running out of excuses to give to his coaches. Dexter/Kyle offers to go with Jonah to explain the car and act as a buffer at Thanksgiving dinner.

In order to pop up at Arthur’ Thanksgiving table, Dexter needs to concoct a story that he’s going to do some blood work that’s required of him and will score some triple overtime.  Rita is a little bummed that he won’t be present for all of the family’s Thanksgiving, but that’s okay because Elliot will be there to help out.  (Oh, I bet he will!)

Dexter attempts to get Deb to come to Thanksgiving at his house, but she’s a woman possessed on the Trinity case… And she’s getting it all wrong. She also tells Dexter that she’s lead detective on this case and that now Batista is on the Lundy case since she and Masuka discovered that it wasn’t Trinity who shot her. Deb finally relents and agrees to go to the Morgan Family Thanksgiving, only after Dex and Rita send her a video invite with the kids looking sad that Aunt Deb may miss Thanksgiving. 

Before stopping off at Casa de Morgan, Deb puts in a few hours to work on the case.  Quinn and Masuka are at the office, as well.  Masuka is doing actual work and Quinn shows up to get away from Christine, who’s been hanging around his place constantly and familiarizing the audience with her boobs even more than Lila ever did back in Season 2. Bringing some Thanksgiving goodies to Quinn, Christine also offers her condolences to Deb and tells her how sorry she was that she had to watch the life drain from the eyes of someone she loved. Creepy thing to say to someone you barely know.

Deb leaves Quinn to Christine’s clutches and feeling guilty for the little guy, invites Masuka with her to Dexter’s house for Thanksgiving.  Speaking of Dexter’s house, Elliot seems mighty comfortable, setting up shop with the family and helping Rita to smash the turkey into the pot.  He offers to let Rita use his dual-ovens at his house next door to speed up the cooking time of all of the food.  While Rita is over there, Elliot makes his move and attempts to kiss Rita.  She backs away, appalled at what happened.  (This actually made my opinion of Rita go up several notches.) However, Masuka’s opinion of her plummets as he catches a glimpse of Elliot putting the moves on his buddy’s wife through the window.  He almost leaves, but Deb (not knowing the real reason why Masuka was suddenly so upset) talks him into staying, saying they’re the only two single people there and need to stick together.  Masuka hesitantly agrees, but stays on to be Deb’s wingman so long as there’s lots of booze.

Meanwhile, while doing some case work at Casa de Dexter, Deb has an epiphany that Christine’s strange comment connects her to Lundy’s murder and Deb being shot.  Even better, she hits upon the idea that Trinity’s kill schedule coincides with the school year and school breaks, leading her to the conclusion that Trinity works in the school system. 

Over at the Mitchell family house, Dexter/Kyle finds himself in an increasingly uncomfortable situation. He gets a call from home that Cody accidentally fell through the broken skylight in Dexter’s shed and that Elliot had to remove the door to get Cody out.  While Dex is freaked out that his kill chamber is without a door, he’s somewhat relieved that good ol’ neighbor Elliot didn’t remove the air conditioner to pull the scared Code-ster out of the space. There’s something to be thankful for this year, Dex!

Dexter considers hightailing it home, but the action at the Mitchell house escalates rapidly and he can hardly pull himself away. Arthur sees his sweet, classic convertible’s windshield smashed as Jonah pulls up driving it and is seconds away from losing it.  Even Dexter’s sphincter clenches as Arthur goes into the garage to retrieve a tire iron.  Thinking Jonah is going to get clubbed with it, Arthur surprises everyone and just bangs out a dent near the wheel and cheerily says that it will get fixed in the morning.  Arthur later gets his revenge on Jonah while watching a football game on the tube.  He high-fives his son and then dislocates Jonah’s fingers in a cringe-worthy instance that ranks right up there with the hobbling scene in Misery.

While Jonah is the well-adjusted whipping boy, it seems his sister Rebecca hasn’t fared so well in the sanity department.  Arthur locks her in her room for several hours ever since she attempted to run away a few years back.  Even creepier, he refers to her as “Vera,” the name of his beloved dead sister (that he liked to peep on) whose ashes are in the urn in the living room.  Rebecca also gives Dexter/Kyle a similar story that she wishes her father had killed himself and would do anything to run away with him… Even seduce him.  Dexter is thoroughly creeped out and protests the 15-year-old’s attempts at macking onhim. Luckily for Dexter, Mrs. Mitchell pries herself out of the kitchen and shoos away Lolita-wannabe Rebecca faster than you can say “Megan’s Law Superstar.”  Excusing her daughter’s actions, Mrs. Mitchell tells Kyle/Dexter that she doesn’t care what he may have been doing with Rebecca, just please don’t say anything about the incident to Arthur. 

As if it were humanly possible, things get even more uncomfortable at the Mitchell family Thanksgiving table.  Each of the Mitchells give their thanks.  In a truly eerie moment, Arthur says that he’s thankful for his car.  Mrs. Mitchell is thankful for Jonah, and then reluctantly adds Rebecca to the queue o’ thanks. Arthur freaks out that no one is thankful for him, dropping “the c-word” again, this time aimed at his wife who takes it and smiles nervously. Things head further south in a hurry as Jonah freaks out on Arthur, calling him a killer and firing the biggest shot of all by chucking Vera’s urn against the wall.  This prompts Arthur to completely go off the rails on the crazy train and attempt to choke out Jonah.  In turn, Dexter/Kyle takes off his belt and use it to strangle/yank Arthur off of the kid and drag him into the kitchen where he ponders stabbing him.  Mrs. Mitchell and Rebecca hurl themselves onto Arthur as human shields, halting Dexter/Kyle from offing him right then and there.

In the car, Dexter has a conversation with Harry-Wan Kenobi that even though he’s a killer, his family is nothing like Arthur’s family.  Arthur has warped his wife and children and uses them as accessories and human shields.  Harry points out that Dexter also uses his family as a cover, too.  Dexter further contemplates his situation at the Thanksgiving dinner table with his family where he (fittingly) carves the turkey.

And in the closing moments of the episode, Arthur pays a visit to newspaper writer Christine at her home.  For a second, everyone things it’s curtains for Juggs McGhee as Arthur angrily eyed her by-line on a story about “The Bludgeoner” still on the loose. Instead, when Christine opens the door, she greets Arthur with a warm and happy, “Daddy!” In a shocker no one could have seen coming, Christine is Trinity’s daughter.