Let's Give the Boy a Hand
Template:New unreviewed article
 | This article or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this article or section has not been edited in several days, please remove this template. If you are the editor who added this template and you are actively editing, please be sure to replace this template with {{in use}} during the active editing session. Click on the link for template parameters to use.
This article was last edited by MJG91 (talk | contribs) 14 years ago. (Update timer) |
| "Let's Give the Boy a Hand" |
|---|
"Let's Give The Boy A Hand" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American television drama series Dexter. It premiered on October 22nd 2006 on Showtime in the United States. The episode was written by Drew Z. Greenberg and directed by Robert Lieberman. The Ice Truck Killer starts leaving body parts of his latest victim at locations related to Dexter's childhood, making him confront his dark personal history. Meanwhile Rita confronts a cynical neighbour with a noisy dog that is keeping her children up at night. Lieutenant LaGuerta seeks to comfort the mother of the latest Ice Truck Killer victim and the pressure on Sergeant Doakes escalates when Guerrero's associates begin following him.
Plot
In the opening sequence a severed male hand is found at the beach. It is unknown whether this is the work of the Ice Truck Killer or not. Whilst investgating the hand, Doake's spots Guerrero's men watchin him. After discovering the hand belongs to Tony Tucci (LaGuerta's Ice Truck Killer suspect) the Lieutenant vists his mother in an attempt to make amends for branding him a killer on television. She promises to bring him home, dead or alive.
Dexter remembers that this is a beach he came to as a child. During a flaskback scene, Harry, his foster father, lectures him on the importance of faking emotions to make other people happy. Back at his apartment, Dexter looks through an old family photo album. It appears that the Ice Truck Killer boke into his apartment to get to know him, not just leave doll parts.
Debra is forced to watch through boxes of surveillance tapes by LaGuerta, who continues to make life miserable for her. Kara’s brother continues to taunt Doakes about how he’s going to get himself killed. Doakes lets him know that Ricky wouldn’t come out of cover to give Kara a divorce and that he’s the reason she was killed.
Another body part is found. This time a severed foot at an old football ground dexter played at. He tells Doakes that the killer is sending a message that is more important than the ritual, but cannot tell him what, or why. After analysis of the foot, Dexter determines that Tucci is still alive and is sytematically having his limbs removed by the Ice Truck Killer. LaGuerta phones Tonys mum to tell her that her son may still be alive and that they just have to find him.
Angel asks Dexter for his advice on an anniversary gift to give his wife. He continues to ask for advice from Dexter on various gifts before asking Debra who tells him "she'll love it.". It transpires, however that Angel and his wife have been separated for three months due to "something he did." He asks to see his little girl and gives her the gift, a "Key to my Heart" necklace, instead.
Doakes is kidnapped as soon as he gets home by Guerrero’s men. As Guerrero moves in to finish Doakes off, the police burst in and arrest them. As Doakes is about to be killed, the cops rush in to arrest them all. Using him as bait was the plan all along.
Dexter follows the clues to an abandoned hospital (another flashback from his past). Whilst searching the hospital Dexter find the victim, prepped and waiting for him to make the final kill. The man begs for death but Dexter cannot kill him as he is an innocent man. He makes an anonymous tip to debra and leaves.[1]
Production
Let’s Give the Boy a Hand was written by Drew Z. Greenberg and directed by Robert Lieberman. Drew Greenberg was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for the Best Dramatic Series for his work on Dexter in February 2008. [2][3] Filming took place on the beach of Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the north tip of South Beach Park. [4] and in various places across Mimai and Los Angeles.
The title, “Let’s Give the Boy a Hand,” is a line from Denice Williams "Let's Hear it for the Boy." It’s also a reference to the severed hand found on the beach at the start of the episode. [5]
Continuity
At the third crime scene the killer leaves the lower leg (knee to ankle) of Tucci. However, when Dexter finds Tucci in the hospital basement his lower leg is clearly attached and bandaged.[6]
In describing the anatomical location of the cut which severed Tucci's foot, Dexter says it was "severed between the tarsus and the metatarsus," when it was clearly through the distal end of tibia and fibula. [7]
When Dexter discovers the smiley face on the reverse of the photo of himself and Harry outside the Angel of Mercy Hospital, many Hewlett Packard (HP) logos are visible suggesting the photo was printed on a Digital Photo Printer. The flashback which preceded this clearly shows that the camera, which was used to take the photo, was a standard film camera and not a digital one with printing capabilities and there was no digital photo printing when Dexter was young.[8][9]
Reception
The show played out to an audience of XX million. Eric Goldman said: "This was a very strong episode overall, that contained a lot of clever, dark comedy." He also praised the main plot: "The personal touches the killer was doing just for Dexter were a very intriguing aspect of this episode, and gave a natural narrative "in" to the flashbacks we saw of Dexter's childhood this week, as he recalled what was occurring when each photo was taken."[10]
Sarah Dobbs of Den of Geek remarked that "there's some nice characterisation here". She also praises the sub-plot involving Angel, "It's nice because it's all so cleverly handled" [11]
References
- ^ http://dark-passenger.net/dexter-givetheboyahand/
- ^ http://wga.org/subpage_newsevents.aspx?id=2653#TheWireHBO
- ^ http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117977607.html#TheWireHBO
- ^ http://www.seeing-stars.com/Dexter/Hand.shtml
- ^ http://www.tv.com/dexter/lets-give-the-boy-a-hand/episode/849469/trivia.html?tag=episode_header;trivia
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0824887/
- ^ http://dexterwiki.sho.com/page/Episode+4%3A+Let%27s+Give+the+Boy+a+Hand
- ^ http://dexterwiki.sho.com/page/Episode+4%3A+Let%27s+Give+the+Boy+a+Hand
- ^ http://www.tv.com/dexter/lets-give-the-boy-a-hand/episode/849469/trivia.html?tag=episode_header;trivia
- ^ http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/741/741246p1.html/
- ^ http://www.denofgeek.com/television/3314/dexter_s14_review.html