Hey, I was overseas last week, and missed Dexter 6.5.  But a Showtime screener was waiting when I got back home, with Dexter 6.5 and 6.6, so I'll review the both of them here.  Most of the review will focus on Dexter 6.6 - which was the better of the two episodes - and will therefore contain some choice spoilers (Dexter 6.6 will be live on Showtime tomorrow).

In fact, I thought 6.6 was one of the best episodes ever of Dexter.  It contains a decisive move - to the dark side - in the fight for Dexter's soul.

The champion of the light for Dexter is Sam, and Dexter gets the call that Sam has been shot just as Dex is about to close in and physically confront the Doomsday Killers.  It's a brilliant piece of turning point ironic writing.   Gellar and Travis get to live and religiously kill another day, because Dexter, a decent human being in almost all ways, wants to be with his new friend and partial inspiration.

But when Dexter gets Sam's parting plea on his deathbed in the hospital, Dexter is pitched into a new, harrowing internal battle between the light and dark inside him.  Don't kill my killer, Sam implores Dexter - forgive him,  let your hatred go.  Dexter might have been at least a little convinced.  He confronts Sam's killer - Nick - and might have let him live, but the taunts about getting away with Sam's killing goad Dexter into drowning the life out of him.

This is a decisive moment for Dexter.  So far this season, he's done little of the ritualistic killings that have been his stock in trade.   Dexter was almost about to do this to Travis, but let him loose in the hope that Travis would lead Dexter to Gellar,  which he almost did, had it not been for the call about Sam's shooting.   But Dex's not killing Travis, for whatever reason, continued his streak of non-killing, a continued upper hand for the light.

The streak is now broken, though Dex's killing of Sam's killer was not at all ritualistic.   At a time like this, we might expect some laconically appropriate words from Dex's father Harry.

But what we get, instead, is a reappearance of Brian/Rudy/the Ice Truck Killer - Dexter's brother, killed by Dexter in Season One.   And if Dex's brain is bringing him into view, there is some deep darkness indeed ahead for Dexter.

See also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals?

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ... Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ... Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ... 4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

See also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ... Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter

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The Plot to Save Socrates
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