Talk:James Doakes/@comment-94.112.92.18-20120918181302/@comment-1405841-20120921220648

It's questionable. One on hand, he was captured and held imprisoned in a cage. On the second, maybe he was finally starting to relate with Dexter a bit. What better way to help someone turn themselves in than try to assist them? This would both clear his name and possibly help him win back the trust of his superiors if he helped walk Dexter in.

Though his previous interaction with Dexter all the way up to this point suggests once he was clear, he'd be the biggest one to testify against Dexter. He already can't subdue Dexter with his own physical ability so instead of trying to kick his ass the first chance he got, he'd have to play it cool and wait until Dexter was in custody. Then he'd present all the evidence he had against Dexter that would probably make it a slam dunk case.

Really, if Dexter had turned himself in and Doakes did get cleared...Homicide would go back to the way it was. Doakes may or may not still be a Sergeant...for all we know, he'd probably get promoted to Lieutenant while LaGuerta still took the Captain spot. Debra would be distraught with the loss of her brother, so it's uncertain if she would still kick in with the initiative she did in Season 3 to help catch the Skinner. Miguel would not have factored in it probably at all, since Dexter was the one to kill Oscar. Oscar may have ended up killing Freebo though and then he'd just have to get his brother off somehow. Eventually the Trinity Killer would come around again and MAYBE Frank Lundy would return, though Homicide wouldn't catch him and off again goes Trinity. Jordan Chase would keep up the rape gang and Lumen would have died...then eventually Travis Marshall would succeed in murdering quite a few people and probably not even get caught in the end.

Really Dexter is pretty much the driving force for a lot of the successes (and losses) in the series. He's also indirectly responsible for Debra's drive, if she didn't have that drive there would probably be crap progress on any number of the above cases.

Long talk over...I still wish Doakes hadn't died.