Deb and I were discussing the whole Quinn / Dexter thing after this episode, and we’re sorta divided on it. Deb thinks that, after hearing Liddy’s side of the phone call with Quinn, that Dexter knows Liddy was the only one really behind the monitoring and his kidnapping. Me, I’m not so sure about that. We, of course, saw both sides to that conversation between Liddy and Quinn; Dexter did not. The only indication I got that Dexter might give Quinn a pass on this is when Dexter thought to himself that he wanted Quinn to go away — from the van. Obviously Dexter would have been at a disadvantage, so it’s possible he just wanted him to go away so it didn’t turn ugly … for them both. Better to get to Quinn later when Dex has the upper hand.
There are a lot of issues Dexter has to deal with now that he took out Liddy. For one, if he goes missing, Quinn may wonder what the hell happened to him. Then again, Quinn may very well just be glad he’s gone. If, however, Dexter doesn’t get back to that van, and Liddy’s body is discovered, it wouldn’t take long for Quinn to suspect Dexter. From there I imagine standard police investigation procedure would have them search the water around the van and find that laptop. What are the chances the hard drive gets damaged in the amount of time it takes to find it? The discovery of the van and the laptop would make for one hell of a final scene to the season finale next week.
As for what happened to Lumen at the end of the episode, I’m going to make a prediction and say that it’s not Jordan who’s taken Lumen, it’s the other way around. It makes sense for why we weren’t shown the struggle between Lumen and Jordan, only last seeing Lumen reach for her knife before Dexter go to the house. Jordan’s clearly hurt, so why bother introducing the knife and showing us she apparently stabbed Jordan, only to reveal he’s got her tied up somewhere? What really makes this theory fall flat, though, is believing Lumen could carry an injured Jordan into the car, and what that means for what we’ll see for the rest of the season finale.
With Deb Morgan, the writers couldn’t telegraph to us more than they already have that they are setting things up for Deb finding out Dexter’s secret. She’s mentioned several times her thoughts on vigilantism, and that’s been a central theme for her and the entire season. It’s also come up before — and in this episode — about how Deb doesn’t know about what Dexter does, and what might she do if she found out. Along with the Liddy murder scene discovery, the other “holy shit” final scene for the season would be Deb finding out the truth about Dexter.
Think about that for the sixth season for a moment. Deb finds out Dexter’s secret at the end of this season. Next season deals with Deb coming to terms with the news, having to decide if she wants to turn her own brother in or not. At first she’s disgusted and perhaps offers Dexter a chance to get out of state before she can decide to turn him in. Then, eventually, she understands him and, slowly, accepts what he does. Eventually she becomes an accessory to what he does, and with Quinn so close by and already somewhat suspicious of her brother we would see some really interesting stuff. Maybe she intervenes and meddles with Quinn’s evidence to turn the trail off Dexter? Maybe she eventually feeds Dexter some information to help his Dark Passenger out?
This would be the perfect vigilante crime for Deb to find out about Dexter on, as she’d be the most accepting of it. The only more perfect situation would be someone she loves (Quinn?) being killed, and Dexter takes care of the killer. It could happen.
Oh, and for those looking for that cat hiccuping and farting video that was on Quinn’s laptop, look no further:
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Dec 05, 2010 @ 22:00 EST5EDT
I cannot remember the end of the episode…but I saw the previews. They have some impact on your theory so I’ll not talk about what I saw. Suffice it to say that THIS week I was on the edge of the couch; next week I might be standing while watching. It looks riveting!
Some interesting ideas in your review, especially about next season. Though the preview seems to disprove most of them. I hope Deb does find out. It would make for a great next season.
Without watching the preview, I can offer some rationalizations for what happened. Dexter did overhear Liddy being very vague and circumspect when trying to convince Quinn to meet him. He would have much more matter-of-fact rather than cryptic if Quinn already knew everything. Add to the fact that, if Quinn did know, he would certainly have arrested Dexter immediately, not wasted his time waiting for Dexter to stumble onto their surveillance operation. At the very least, he would have been at Liddy’s van to assist with the trap.
In Dexter physics, the laptop hard drive would have been irreparably damaged as soon as it hit the water. If the police sweep the water, they will be looking specifically for the missing murder weapon. The laptop could be discovered to be connected to Liddy, or it could just be lumped in with all the other junk in the water.
The slow reveal on the knife was intended to ratchet up the tension in Dexter more than in the audience. We know she had the hidden knife, but he had no idea what went down, not even if the second blood trail was Lumen’s or Jordan’s. The dropped knife establishes that she did stab Jordan, but that he was then able to chase, overpower, and abduct her. We were just following along with Dexter’s investigation.
Deb had better find out next episode. They’ve finessed this storyline too well to just drop it until next season, plus it will also tie up her investigation into her father’s CI that she dropped after Rita’s murder.
Thanks for finding the cat video for us!