Ever since his introduction on ‘Dexter’ last season, Masuka’s intern, Louis Greene, has been an interesting character to try to figure out. It turns out all that pondering was a big ol’ waste of time. What a shame.

You might recall that last season I published some thoughts on who the thorn in Dexter’s side — and intern for Vince Masuka — Louis Greene might be. He appeared out of nowhere and seemed to have Dexter in his crosshairs, first having asked him for help with his serial killer video game, then messing around with Ice Truck Killer evidence. It wasn’t clear if Louis was out to get Dexter or just attract his attention, but there sure seemed to be something more to his actions than simply being a weirdo.

Last season, a commenter noted that Louis might be Dexter’s nephew — Brian Moser’s son — and I felt that was a pretty decent theory. It would’ve made for some interesting stuff for the series, going forward. Now, after this latest episode, we find that Louis’s purpose on the show was … well, pretty much nothing.

I won’t deny that I thought the thugs mistaking Louis for Dexter was pretty funny, but it ended with a bullet to the intern’s head — one he’s not going to recover from. But as I watched that scene unfold, I let out an audible “AW!” at Louis’s death, because it meant everything he’d been doing was really for nothing at all. Louis was just a creepy game programmer with a grudge, who was systematically pwned by Dexter’s retaliation. That’s it. Nothing more to see here.

Louis was just a creepy game programmer with a grudge, who was systematically pwned by Dexter’s retaliation. That’s it. Nothing more to see here.

What a disappointment. I would really love to know if there was initially more to Louis in the Dexter writer’s room at one point, and they decided to trash it all when they realized they couldn’t work it in with all the heavy stuff going on this season, and that they’d only have two seasons in which to use him. The whole thing really feels like an opportunity that was left on the cutting room floor, and Louis was instead killed off so we wouldn’t be distracted by him any more.

The only thing at this point that would be more disappointing than Louis being a nobody would be if Quinn never got closer to finding out the truth about Dexter. Though Quinn and Dexter have some sort of relationship now where perhaps Quinn sort-of owes one to Dexter, I’m not at all convinced he wouldn’t take him down the minute he found something more out about Dexter’s activities. And when he finds out that Deb knows about her brother? Hoo boy. There’s a very good chance Quinn will hear the name “Dexter Morgan” from his new Russian girlfriend; when that happens, watch out.

So, Dexter writers, please let this be the last time we see a good opportunity get wasted; it’ll make our theory making feel a lot less in vain.

Photo Credit: Showtime