What happened on this week's 'Dexter' season 4 episode 12, 'The Getaway' -- in 100 words or less.

'Dexter' ends with a bang ... and a whimper. After an awkward meeting at the station, Dexter pursues Arthur, but a fender bender sidelines him, allowing Arthur to flee.

Debra and crew storm Arthur's house, only to find a bewildered family. Debra learns that Laura Moser was Dexter's biological mother, and Brian -- the Ice Truck Killer -- his brother.

If you've been following the fourth season of Dexter and his hunt for the Trinity Killer the way I have, then your butt is practically growing legs and willing to sprint towards this Sunday's season finale.

And now Jennifer Carpenter, who plays Debra Morgan on the show, is urging fans and new viewers alike to "have a good time talking to your therapists about it (the season finale) because it's beyond whatever you may think," according to a recent interview with E! Online.

Of course, this could all be just hype designed to draw in as many eyeballs as possible for a show that's already loaded to the gills with them, but I wouldn't put anything pass a show like Dexter. Despite the unevenness of all the plots this season, the Trinity Killer angle has more than made up for it. Could it be that we don't get to see Dex turn Arthur Mitchell into a human jigsaw puzzle on his kill table?

(S04E11) "Blood tech, husband, father, serial killer and now, Kyle Butler extortionist? Which one are you?"
"All of them." - Harry to Dexter

It is always fun to watch Dexter struggle over his various roles and purposes in his life. He's become a juggler learning how to add just one more ball to his act even as he's trying to keep them all up in the air.

This season, he's had more than ever before in a single season. He's a heavily armed Rich Little and adding extortionist to his list was a real smart move until, of course, Arthur gets the better of him.

What happened on this week's 'Dexter' season 4 episode 11, 'Hello, Dexter Morgan' -- in 100 words or less.

The jig is up! Arthur learned Dexter's true identity and came face to face with him at the police department. But not before Dexter successfully pinned the "Trinity Killer" label on trucker Stan Beaudry; then chopped him up and planted Arthur's DNA.

Christine confessed to Debra, then offed herself. Her daddy issues couldn't be fixed with a phone call. "I'm sorry you were ever born," said Arthur.

(S04E10) "No one's ever going to hurt you again ... especially me." - Dexter to his infant son, Harrison

Every season, Dexter manages to learn something from every one of his various victims and kills: the origins of his "Dark Passenger," the need for humanity to have a silent hero, why you shouldn't share your serial killing secrets with your best friend.

This season's big lesson seems to be the deepest and most important of all: his family. Dexter kept Arthur Mitchell, the Trinity Killer (although after tonight, he should be redubbed the Trinity Plus One Killer since we learned that Lundy missed a crucial piece of his serial killings), on a long leash hoping to learn how to juggle his family mask and his private hobby, something Arthur has managed to do for more than 30 years. Unfortunately, the lesson he learned was a harsh one: your family is either a family or a mask and can be both. That and don't follow Arthur Mitchell's advice, ever.

(S04E09) "Everything is exactly the way it should be. Perfect." - Rita Morgan

The season is almost over and that means things are bound to ramp up as Dexter moves in closer to kill the Trinity Killer. But this week, we get treated to a special Thanksgiving episode. Think of it as a sordid cross between the "Thanksgiving Day" episode from Father Knows Best mixed with the director's cut of any episode of Twin Peaks.

After explaining his identity, background and own "Dark Passenger," this week's episode dove head first into his family who aren't as Norman Rockwell as Arthur Mitchell might want Dexter and the rest of the world to believe. It turns out they are probably the most interesting aspect of Mitchell's twisted life and could turn out to be a huge asset to bringing the man down, now that he no longer has them in his upper hand.

One of our ever alert readers pointed out a theory in last Sunday's episode of Dexter that sounds so crazy, it might just actually work. You've got to love TV logic. The craziest theories gain the most traction.

TV Squad reader Frank Militello aka mello one proposed that Christina Hill, the plucky reporter and Quinn's nosy girlfriend, may have been the trigger man, er, woman who wounded Debra and killed Frank Lundy.

The theory came on the heels of Debra's realization that the Trinity Killer could not have shot her since her wounds were too far down her abdomen. Christina also revealed to Quinn that her editor is one bloodless story away from firing her and she need more ink that "bleeds" and "leads."

Could Christina be Lundy's killer and if so, how would you feel about that?

(S0408) "Born in blood, both of us." - Dexter on his and the Trinity Killer's creation of their "dark passengers"

Dexter and the Trinity Killer aren't the only ones on the show who have been paying back their anger for the pain the world has dealt them. The audience is in on the same game.

We've been sitting through weeks of boring and dry subplots about secret affairs and office romances that we couldn't care less about if we were actually one of their co-workers. But now we've been rewarded for our patience with some seedy and very interesting details about Dexter's main prey, the Trinity Killer, a man held in a very weak cage of despair and anger.

(S04E07) "We all have secrets, Debs. Some of them shouldn't be found out." - Dexter to Debra

While preparing this post, I had to double check the time stamp on this week's episode because "7" just seemed too early. It literally felt like we were more episodes into the season. I even looked out my window to make sure the Earth had not been sent into some kind of time paradox where time runs backwards, the sun comes out at night, and golf is America's most watched sport.

Then when I looked over my notes for the recent episode, I realized why. "Slack tide" indeed.

This week's episode did have some very great moments that showed glimmers of the show's glory days, but the rest got bogged down in the same sidetracks that have dragged the rest of the season down with it. The plots may be in different pieces, but they are all in the same garbage bag as they float through the Gulf Stream.

(S04E04) - "You're the one who wanted a challenge ... and now you've batted the beehive." - Harry to Dexter

That quote sums up this season in a blood spattered nutshell and really all of good television, for that matter. How do you reinvent a show that works without completely reinventing the wheel on which it got there?

In Dexter's case, it's giving America's most squeezably soft serial killer an opponent truly worthy of his skills and talent without boring the audience or completely overpowering or outing him. In other words, keep the shark in the cage so you don't even have the inkling of an opportunity to jump over it.

(S0403) - "This neighborhood's going to kill me." - Dexter

Dexter's move to the suburbs seemed like a perfect way to keep Dexter's mask, but it's starting to become the perfect way to ruin an otherwise decent episode.

Rita and the kids have always been part of his plan to keep his true feelings hidden from the universe, even if he has more than a few shimmers of love for his new family. Moving to the suburbs was just part of the plan and a good move for the script, especially if one of his future prey includes a homeowners' association president who chastises tenants for keeping their lawns higher than three-fourths of an inch.

But now that he's in the thick of deranged suburbia and trying to keep his sane face in front of a whole neighborhood who always have their eyes peering into every open window, it just feels like a distraction from the truly interesting relationship that Dexter may or may not have with the Trinity Killer.

(S0402) - "You've got a family to support and people to dismember. You're spinning too many plates, Dexter." - Harry Morgan

One of the most interesting reasons to watch shows like Dexter are the ways the characters manage to wiggle their way out of complete destruction after pushing more than their fair share of luck.

But unlike shows like The Shield or The Sopranos where most of the luck pushing is done by the main character, the people behind Dexter like to spread the carelessness around. Just about everyone in this twisted tale has some skeletons in their closets, both figurative and possibly literal.

(S0401) "Who knew life could get so ... unsimple?" - Dexter Morgan

Moving an unsuspecting serial killer to the burbs sounds like a pitch for a UPN sitcom. "What happens when a wacky serial killer moves into the wackiest suburban neighborhood in the wackiest town in America? You've got 'A Real Cutup.'"

Instead, this is where we find loveable ol' Dexter Morgan, played by Michael C. Hall, at the beginning of the fourth season of Showtime's most popular Sunday night drama that isn't all drama. It still plays heavy on the complex emotions and relationships that make Dexter's life so interesting, but it also features shimmers of laughter as Dexter tries to juggle the life of a father, wife, blood spatter expert, and avenging serial killer without relying too much on one device or character.

The promos for the new season probably made you think, as did I, that Dexter would go from kill room to kill room with a baby slung across his torso in a cute little mini rubber smock and welding mask.

The introduction of a baby into the plot is usually a sure fire sign that a television show has jumped the shark with a pair of Acme rocket powered water skis.

But things are different for a twisted little space of pay cable called Dexter. The mere thought of putting a cute, adorable and affable little tyke into the mix sounds like something that would inspire the furious typing of a thousand angry Parents Television Council members' Selectric typewriters.

The latest addition to the Morgan clan is just a small addition to the newest season of Showtime's seriously macabre drama. It doesn't overtake the show and turn its serious moral tone into something ridculously psychotic like Three Madmen and a Baby. It's just one of many obstacles the world's most huggable serial killer has to deal with to feed the John Pinette sized appetite of his mysterious "dark passenger," and it's not all dark and drenched in blood.