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The battle is joined!

How do you creep out a serial killer? Apparently, have him come to Thanksgiving dinner at your house. Dexter (Michael C. Hall) gets a look inside Arthur Mitchell’s family during this episode. And he doesn’t like what he sees.

Far from the idealized family life that Dexter has been imagining it to be this season; The Trinity Killer’s family is instead hostages to an abusive man. Dexter first sees the cracks in Arthur’s armor when he sees an argument between him and his son Jonah (Brando Eaton). He follows Jonah, and finds him beating out the windshield of the car he appeared so proud of last episode. Dex shows himself, talks to the boy and learns what kind of a guy Trinity really is. The boy tells Dex he can’t go back unless Dex comes to Thanksgiving with him.

Dexter agrees to come, even though he has the entire Morgan clan gathering for their own dinner. Dexter makes the prerequisite excuses to slip away to the Mitchell’s house. Once there he finds Arthur pretending to make a show of following the Thanksgiving traditions to a T. But underneath that show, Dexter notices all is not what it seems. Dexter sees Arthur Mitchell (John Lithgow) for who he really is for the first time. Far from being a dark mentor for Dexter, Mitchell is a monster that horrifies even Dexter himself.

Lithgow, this season, has gave a performance as the Trinity Killer that has been a delicately laced mixture of seeming normalness interspersed with moments of profound creepiness. But this episode, the creepiness comes roaring to the forefront when this powder keg of a family dinner bursts into an explosive confrontation that ends with Dexter’s own mask slipping in a big, big way.

At the end of this episode, the battle lines are drawn, the combatants aware of their opponents, and the war begun.  Not to mention other mysteries introduced like who really killed Agent Lundy, and a hell of another twist about the members of Mitchell’s family.  If the rest of this season builds on the explosive revelations of this episode, it’s going to be a harrowing, yet exciting, race to the finishing line.

This is a strong, powerful episode that is my favorite one so far this season. Dexter is shifting into high gear with this episode, and I hope it keeps up the momentum this episode brings it. For an episode in which Dexter doesn’t even kill anyone, it ends up being one of the most unsettling and disturbing ones yet.

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