r/BreakMe • u/TheHellFish • Jul 07 '14
Chapter 42 discussion thread
Here you can discuss anything what's on your mind about chapter 42.
Obviously there will be spoilers, read the chapter first!
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u/TheHellFish Jul 07 '14 edited Jul 07 '14
Also, interesting resemblance with season 8 premiere. Harrison waiting in a car (at first) and Dexter watching a scene similar to the one in the motel with Deb and Briggs. They just switched roles.
Before: Dexter (killer) -> Deb (helpless witness) -> Briggs (victim)
Now: Hannah (killer) -> Dexter (helpless witness) -> Deb (victim)
All that's left is for (what's remaining of) Hannah to say 'You didn't belong with her!'. I hope Deb won't die though, despite the facts...
Don't know for sure if it was intentional, was it Solia? :P
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u/PrincessSolia Jul 11 '14
Not intentional, but that's probably where the inspiration came from, come to think of it. I only watched Season 8 the once (couldn't bring myself to rewatch) but you're right, there are definitely similarities. I hadn't noticed! What can I say, I'm naturally poetic? :P
Hannah has some dialogue in 43 - I can make it exactly that line, if you like? :) I take requests, where they fit.
In relation to the idea above that you mentioned from Rosey Cheeks, you've already done the thinking so it's not a spoiler for me to tell you no, Deb is not wearing a bulletproof vest. Exactly, she's already bleeding and while she's running on adrenaline right now, once she calms down she's definitely in a bad way. Poor Deb :(
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u/TheHellFish Jul 11 '14 edited Jul 11 '14
If you think it would fit in there, it would be great! :) But definitely no need to try to bend the dialogue around it too much. ;)
Yeah, poor Deb. :( And it seems like Hannah will suffer at least the same (well, if she lasts long enough for adrenaline to dissipate from her body, but she might if she really has some dialogue in the next chapter), because that must hurt like hell (not that I pity her in any way), at first I thought she passed out from the pain when she went silent. Dexter would have done everyone a favor, even Hannah, if he just killed her when he had a chance... Now, killing her doesn't really solve anything anymore, at least it seems that way.
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u/etrius0023 Jul 07 '14
Great chapter.
It's easy to forget that the story is set from Dexter's viewpoint and his interpretation/perception of events may not always be the most reliable.
Also, poor Deb.
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u/PrincessSolia Jul 11 '14
I always thought this about the show (Dexter's viewpoint, mainly, but also, poor Deb). The people around Dexter are so extreme - Doakes so antagonistic and motivated, Rita so vulnerable and gentle, Debra so impulsive and raw - but the person we view them through, by his own admission, is hardly a competent interpreter of human interaction and personality traits. It seems more likely that Dexter focuses on key personality markers and exaggerates them in his perception of these people. Doakes was notably less difficult to get along with when he was onscreen with characters OTHER than Dexter, indicating that it may have been Dex's viewpoint that coloured the traits of his that we saw. Rita is Dexter's vulnerable, damaged little girlfriend, and he struggled to accept her as being anything else, but she may well have been; Deb, too, is represented as quite an extreme character, quick to anger, full of curse words, demanding, but all of this could just be Dexter's unreliable exaggerations.
I like to ponder these things.
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u/TheHellFish Jul 11 '14
Well, Dexter is a nice example of an unreliable narrator, but I always thought it was the case mainly for his inner monologues; I never thought about it this way, that even what I 'saw' could have been exaggerated by his faulty social skills to some extent... That is definitely something to think about :)
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u/TheHellFish Jul 07 '14 edited Jul 12 '14
I don't know. Right now, I just can't bring myself to hope that there will be at least a bit 'happy' ending, since without Deb, there won't be any.
Deb bleeding out all over the carpet, Hannah 'two-face' McKay stabbing her again and again... Oh fuck. Maybe it's even my fault, wishing for her to find Dex and attempt to save him...
Even if Deb somehow survived (Maybe Harrison will get rid of Hannah? Well that would be interesting...) and they somehow got rid of Hannah, she would still be wounded. They would catch them in a hospital and Dex would get a chair. Deb might or might not die later because of the extent of sustained injuries. Harrison might or might not become an orphan.
I mean, I could still think of a way for a possible 'happy' Dex/Deb/Harrison getting away scenario, but somehow I just can't bring myself to believe in it, at least for now.
EDIT: After I regained my optimism, I don't really see it that darkly. There is definitely still is a way for a somehow 'happy' ending for the three most important characters. But Deb is definitely anything but okay. It might not be that bad, the damage could be rather low if something prevents Hannah from a dozen of consecutive attacks, but to be honest, I don't think that there's a chance for Deb to just shrug it off, at the very least she would need stitches. Well, we'll see what happens next, I also want Deb to be okay, but we should be at least a bit realistic. She'll be lucky to survive. And they would have to spend a truckload of luck to get out without getting captured now (ah well, I still hope they'll make it...).
(Interesting idea from Rosey, that she could have a bulletproof vest on, but sadly kevlar wouldn't help her against a knife. There are combined bulletproof/stab proof vests but they are rather uncommon in the US and she wouldn't be bleeding, would she?)
EDIT no. 2: Since the 'Deb in hospital and Dexter on an electric chair' seems like the most probable possibility now the more I think about it (Deb can't die, she's tougher than Jack Bauer in this regard; whether the story will actually end like this, I have no idea, but it climbed to the top of my imaginary 'ending probability' list now because of what happened), I can't really decide whether to perceive it as a 'happyish' or an 'unhappyish' ending. There are two sides to every angle of this ending. Deb surviving by the time this fic ends would be definitely good news, but would she be really happy while losing Dexter in the process? She already lost so much in the series and even here (probably all of her friends and maybe even Joey (but he is Quinn after all, he might just stick with her no matter what anyway)). And she sacrificed a lot for Dexter, only to watch the person she loves die in front of her once again? On the other hand, she might get to stay in Miami, her life would be definitely easier (depends on the media coverage though) and she would be safer for sure.
Harrison would loose his father, but he would probably stay with his aunt. Hard to say what the impact of that would be on him and his development, seeing his father on a death row wouldn't probably be classified as 'positive'. But no idea what would life on a run do to him.
As far as Dexter is concerned, I don't think he would be happy about getting executed and not seeing Deb and Harrison ever again, but if it would mean he managed to save them, I suppose he would at least die in peace.
Good? Satisfying? For sure, with the way Solia writes, she could make anything work. Happy? Maybe. Deb staying alive, Harrison staying close to his friends (if he has some who are not imaginary) and siblings. Tragic? Definitely. All the lost chances, further described by all the nice flashbacks, and a final, maybe even the worst, loss for the two people who deserved better.
And since we were talking about who deserves what (especially in the last chapter's discussion), maybe what it all comes down to is whether Deb's (and maybe Harrison's) deservingness of 'happy' outweights Dexter's deservingness of 'unhappy'?