Circle Us (7 Nov. 2010)

Having decided to help Lumen find the other men who attacked her, Dexter is at a loss when he is called to the scene of a road accident. There he finds a pick-up truck that has disgorged ... See full summary »

Director:

John Dahl

Writers:

James Manos Jr. (developer), Jeff Lindsay (novel),

Stars:

Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, Desmond Harrington

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Michael C. Hall	...	Dexter Morgan
Jennifer Carpenter	...	Det. Debra Morgan
Desmond Harrington	...	Det. Joseph 'Joey' Quinn
C.S. Lee	...	Vince Masuka
Lauren Vélez	...	Lt. Maria LaGuerta (as Lauren Velez)
David Zayas	...	Sgt. Angel Batista
James Remar	...	Harry Morgan (credit only)
Julia Stiles	...	Lumen Ann Pierce
Jonny Lee Miller	...	Jordan Chase
Peter Weller	...	Stan Liddy
Maria Doyle Kennedy	...	Sonya
April L. Hernandez	...	Off. Cira Manzon (as April Hernandez Castillo)
Chris Vance	...	Cole Harmon
Geoff Pierson	...	Deputy Chief Tom Matthews
Joseph Julian Soria	...	Carlos Fuentes

Storyline

Having decided to help Lumen find the other men who attacked her, Dexter is at a loss when he is called to the scene of a road accident. There he finds a pick-up truck that has disgorged its contents - several formaldehyde-laden barrels containing the bodies of dead women. Of course the women are Boyd Fowler's victims Dexter had discovered in the swamp some time before. The truck is registered to a celebrity, motivational speaker Jordan Chase, who claims that his truck was stolen. Dexter is more interested in Chase's head of security, Cole Harmon, who fits Lumen's description of one of her attackers. Debra meanwhile is still on the Santa Muerte case and Lt. Laguerta agrees to a sting operation using their new informant, Yasmine Aragon. It doesn't all go as planned resulting in several deaths.

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Plot Keywords:

informant | handshake | drunk driver | night club | body in oil drum | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 November 2010 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Long Beach, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

John Goldwyn Productions, Colleton Company, The, 801

Technical Specs

Runtime:

48 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Dexter's cellphone is a Nokia N8 (you can see in detail when he show it to Lumen the photo of Cole).

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Goofs

When Dexter comes to his home where Lumen is staying, he shows her the pictures of Cole Harmon on his phone, the Phone's model is listed as C0 but actually the phone that Dexter is using is Nokia N8. (at around 1 min)

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Quotes

[overlooking Harrison sleeping in his crib]
Dexter Morgan: Hey, good night, buddy.
Sonya: "St. Brigid, circle us with your light, so that no darkness shall overcome our world." Sleep well, little one.
Dexter Morgan: [seeing the porcelain figure, thinking] That's either a Saint or the most boring action figure I've ever seen.
Dexter Morgan: [aloud] Is that yours?
Sonya: St. Brigid.
Sonya: [to Harrison, softly] To watch over you when you sleep.
[Dexter smiles, and when Sonya turns away, takes down the figure... ]
Sonya: Good night.
Dexter Morgan: Good night.
[...]

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Soundtracks

"Fuego"
(uncredited)
Written by Bomba Estéreo
Performed by Bomba Estéreo

User Reviews

Entertaining Bonnie and Clyde, exciting converging arcs, one dimensional Deb, questionable morality, interesting partnership subject, intriguing new characters

Round and round, like a barrel. The Beauty and the Beast are not dancing yet but I like the way their relationship is growing. If I believed in reincarnation I would consider Rita's soul is now in Lumen's body. But the doll is not entirely broken yet. Unable to strike back all by herself she needed a partner, and that's when Dexter entered the stage in all his bloodiness. Circle Us focused on them and their team reminded me of Bonnie and Clyde. From the inevitable romance to their investigation it should keep us busy until the sixth season. In the same vein as the past installment they kept playing with the troubling resemblance between Lumen and Rita. After the bathtub sequence and considering she now lives at their former home it's even more controversial.

It leads us to Quinn because with a private detective in his pocket it seems he has the advantage over Dex. That arc developed further and I really appreciate its slow pace because it'll make its unavoidable collision with the others even more thrilling. I'm not really into his crush on Deb because it seems she'll never learn from her mistakes and I wish her character had more layers than meets the eyes. For the moment I think Jennifer Carpenter's tremendous talent is unexploited. Let's hope they'll let it sparkle in the upcoming episodes like it did during the past seasons ! In fact it's not the only element I question because I think the morality is a little light. It's like if the characters lived in a bubble of light, protected by their badges and guns. What about the citizens ? Serve and protect ? Old news ! It also applies to Lumen because even if Dex tries to guide her, like her father did, it seems he's the last person on Earth who can prevent her inner demons to take over. He can't even control his emotions, how could he save her ? Moreover I can't help thinking about real victims. Imagine what the world would be if most of them didn't turn to the police and decided to respond to violence by violence ! Easy to write, harder to think through. So with no doubt the dialogs and usual monologue were enlightening but let's hope they will deepen these elements to make the story more realistic.

Otherwise I'm starting to miss Harry's ethereal appearances and was hoping to see more Rita flashbacks. Thankfully Masuka's freaking barrel of monkeys was featured for a few split seconds but let's hope he'll be able to top his past performance because the strange sex analysis was a red carpet grinner. Last but not least all arcs are exciting, even the one involving "BatisGuerta", so the best is yet to come. When will Dex learn that Quinn is on him ? What about his sister ? Is the babysitter a former Penthouse Pet ? Seriously even partnership was applied to her so it was a brilliant way to cover the subject. In some way it reminded me of Easy as Pie, when Dex learned about mercy. Let's also not to forget that new characters were introduced and for a first I think the performers did a convincing job. Now let's see how good they're against Michael C. Hall monstrous talent !