Dexter

As usual, the season finale is a desperate dash for the tape, as brilliant twists fight with inevitable resolutions and, on more than one occasion, honking contrivances. The main weakness in the plotting is that we never really get an explanation for how and why baddie Jordan Chase did what he did. So let’s give extra praise to Jonny Lee Miller who, without always very much support from the script, has made Jordan a scary monster. When he goes properly tonto tonight, you flinch.

Miller’s isn’t the stand-out performance, though. That would be… not Michael C Hall, not even Julia Stiles, but Jennifer Carpenter as Deb, a character who just keeps growing and is the key to a sublimely neat and clever final surprise.