Episode 3 opens with Dexter putting Harrison to bed yet again. Harrison asks for his plastic horse, causing Dexter to marvel at how children find meaning in even something as meaningless as a small plastic horse toy. This question of the meaning of life frames the episode, drawing on the fairy tale motif introduced last week. The nice thing about fairy tales is that they all end with “Happily Ever After”. That’s what makes Dexter’s character so tragic: he’s a serial killer. He’s a bad guy. As he said last week, he’s a wolf, a monster. And in fairy tales, monsters don’t get happy endings.
Even though Dexter gave voice to that knowledge last week, he had to face the reality of unhappy endings when he encountered his own personal fairly tale. Unlike other kids, when Dexter was growing up, he was obsessed with the Tooth Fairy, a serial killer in the Pacific Northwest who eluded capture for over 20 years, even once brazenly depositing a kill on an officer’s lawn. The Tooth Fairy took – wait for it – teeth from his victims as trophies. The Tooth Fairy was Dexter’s hero. So he’s surprised when a new killing in Miami mimics the Tooth Fairy’s MO.
Soon enough, Dexter tracks down Walter Kenny, a sad, angry old man living alone in a run down retirement community. At first, Dexter can’t believe this could be the same legend he worshipped as a kid, but he soon confirms that the Tooth Fairy has indeed captured his own piece of the American Dream. Apparently, serial killers retire to Florida just like everyone else.
His encounter with the Tooth Fairy rocks Dexter to his core. He sees the truth behind his own mythology. The big, bad Tooth Fairy is neither as clever or as good as Dexter imagines himself to be. Dexter realizes that serial killers too eventually get old and die. And in the Tooth Fairy’s case, old age and impending mortality have revealed the fundamental meaninglessness of that life. He’s been abandoned by his son, and is too weak to kill anymore. When Dexter discovers Walter’s secret stash – a storage unite where Walter goes to be with his trophies, Dexter comes face to face with his future:
We all grew up believing in myths like Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy was Dexter's myth growing up. He represented everything Dexter wanted to be. Myths are important – they help us to make sense of the world.
In the face of death, life loses its purpose, its significance. Mortality removes meaning. Religion shows us meaning. Belief in God gives us a way to follow, a framework to understand everything that happens to us. We need our myths.
Dexter’s encounter with the Tooth Fairy rocks him to his core. Unlike most of us, Dexter actually got to meet his childhood myth. And he learned that unlike in the movies (which are nothing if not modern day fairy tales), the Bandit can't get away forever. Smokey's justice always catches up, even if it's the justice of Death. Dexter is forced to ask, as the episode draws to a close:
The episode ends with Dexter placing the Tooth Fairy's blood slide into his carefully numbered box. He slips, and the slide box tumbles to the floor, spilling the slides everywhere. Dexter's killings are what has given his life meaning, purpose. And now, as Dexter laments,
Right now, Dexter considers religion to be one more fairy tale, only for grownups. He doesn't seem to mind God talk, especially if it can provide Harrison with some direction. But he doesn't see any sort of redemption for himself. He considers himself a Big Bad Wolf, and has constructed a narrative for himself in which he lives Happily Ever After. But now that story has come crashing down around his ears. At the same time, he's faced with three men who find deep meaning in their religious narratives: Brother Sam, the Good Shepherd, and Gellar and Travis, the Avenging Angels.
Happily Never After
Even though Dexter gave voice to that knowledge last week, he had to face the reality of unhappy endings when he encountered his own personal fairly tale. Unlike other kids, when Dexter was growing up, he was obsessed with the Tooth Fairy, a serial killer in the Pacific Northwest who eluded capture for over 20 years, even once brazenly depositing a kill on an officer’s lawn. The Tooth Fairy took – wait for it – teeth from his victims as trophies. The Tooth Fairy was Dexter’s hero. So he’s surprised when a new killing in Miami mimics the Tooth Fairy’s MO.Soon enough, Dexter tracks down Walter Kenny, a sad, angry old man living alone in a run down retirement community. At first, Dexter can’t believe this could be the same legend he worshipped as a kid, but he soon confirms that the Tooth Fairy has indeed captured his own piece of the American Dream. Apparently, serial killers retire to Florida just like everyone else.
His encounter with the Tooth Fairy rocks Dexter to his core. He sees the truth behind his own mythology. The big, bad Tooth Fairy is neither as clever or as good as Dexter imagines himself to be. Dexter realizes that serial killers too eventually get old and die. And in the Tooth Fairy’s case, old age and impending mortality have revealed the fundamental meaninglessness of that life. He’s been abandoned by his son, and is too weak to kill anymore. When Dexter discovers Walter’s secret stash – a storage unite where Walter goes to be with his trophies, Dexter comes face to face with his future:
The man who terrorized the Pacific Northwest for 20 years: all he has left is a box of teeth. Is this what happens to serial killers at the end of their lives?With Walter on his kill table, Dexter taunts him, denying the future spread before him:
When I was in high school, it seemed you were all the country was talking about… Nobody could catch you. Like Burt Reynolds with his Trans Am.But Walter has the wisdom and cynicism of old age. He laughs at Dexter when he realizes that Dexter is just like him. He laughs at Dexter’s denial:
When you can’t do this anymore, what do you have then? …All I ever cared about was killing. And I can’t even do that right anymore. That’s what you’ve got to look forward to. This is your future and includes adult diapers.
Once Upon a Time…
We all grew up believing in myths like Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy was Dexter's myth growing up. He represented everything Dexter wanted to be. Myths are important – they help us to make sense of the world.Myths provide our world with meaning. And religion is one of our greatest sources of myth.
That's why most of us find religion so important. It's why religion is so powerful. Religion teaches us what matters in this world. Why we exist and where our lives are headed. In this sense, the Apocalypse is one of the most important myths we have. We need to know that the world is moving towards justice. That all of the suffering we endure now will be redeemed and restored. Myths keep our lives from being meaningless.In the face of death, life loses its purpose, its significance. Mortality removes meaning. Religion shows us meaning. Belief in God gives us a way to follow, a framework to understand everything that happens to us. We need our myths.
Dexter’s encounter with the Tooth Fairy rocks him to his core. Unlike most of us, Dexter actually got to meet his childhood myth. And he learned that unlike in the movies (which are nothing if not modern day fairy tales), the Bandit can't get away forever. Smokey's justice always catches up, even if it's the justice of Death. Dexter is forced to ask, as the episode draws to a close:
We all want life to have some kind of meaning. Seems like the older we get, the harder we look for it, and the harder it is to find... But if our lives don’t have meaning, what can we leave behind for those we care about? Walter Kenny wanted to pass on the ugliness his life had become. What will I pass on?
The episode ends with Dexter placing the Tooth Fairy's blood slide into his carefully numbered box. He slips, and the slide box tumbles to the floor, spilling the slides everywhere. Dexter's killings are what has given his life meaning, purpose. And now, as Dexter laments,
There’s no order anymore…
That which organized his life, which gave it meaning, has literally and figuratively come crashing down around him. Can Dexter find meaning somewhere else?
Interestingly enough, even as Dexter gives Harrison the small, plastic horse, we see Gellar and Travis' next victim: a penitent captive who's been cut up and distributed among four horses. He has become the Four Horsemen of Revelation 6. Clearly Gellar and Travis have found a deep meaning in their actions, in their killing. Will this be attractive to Dexter?Predictions and Resolutions
Once again, I failed to predict the next kill. Instead of a Land Beast, we got the four horsemen.Score so far: Writers 2, JR. 0. My predictions based on this episode:
- Dexter will be attracted to Brother Sam's story of redemption. As so many do, he'll turn to religion to find meaning as the story he tells himself to make sense of his life falls apart.
- I'm still waiting for a Land Beast kill. But we might also see some other images from the Revelation show up. Maybe the Demon Locusts or the monstrous Cavalry of chapter 9? Or the woman riding the sea beast from chapter 17?
- I wonder if Gellar and Travis see themselves as Revelation 11's Two Witnesses. This would bring an interesting slant to their perceived mission. I'll be anxious to see how their self-understanding unfolds.
- Hail Mary Prediction: Dexter has to make a new mythology for himself. It will include God, somehow. Will Dexter set out on the path towards redemption? I hope so, but I can't imagine how.
Grown Up Fairy Tales?
Right now, Dexter considers religion to be one more fairy tale, only for grownups. He doesn't seem to mind God talk, especially if it can provide Harrison with some direction. But he doesn't see any sort of redemption for himself. He considers himself a Big Bad Wolf, and has constructed a narrative for himself in which he lives Happily Ever After. But now that story has come crashing down around his ears. At the same time, he's faced with three men who find deep meaning in their religious narratives: Brother Sam, the Good Shepherd, and Gellar and Travis, the Avenging Angels.