Dexter — Do You See What I See? (S7E11)

(My review of the last episode of Dexter, The Dark… Whatever)

The future always seemed distant, blurry, and unpleasant for Dexter, but that all changed when he got close to Hannah. He saw him and Hannah growing old together, raising Harrison into an attractive and athletic teenager. But when Debra gets into a car accident, that all changes. She passes out behind the wheel due to taking too many anti-anxiety pills. Dexter tries to convince himself that Hannah didn’t help her get to that state, he needs to believe that Hannah cares too much about him to hurt his sister. He could help clear her name for the murder of her halfway house counselor if he needed to, murdering Deb wasn’t the only solution. After a secret investigation, Dexter discovers that Deb’s water bottle was laced with a high percentage of the anti-anxiety medication. Since poison is Hannah’s weapon, Dexter is sure that this was attempted murder. Dexter gives up the pen that Hannah poisoned Sal Price with, which leads directly to Hannah’s arrest. Her last words to Dexter were, “You should have killed me.” Just like Dexter, she thought that she would never love again, and he proved that she really shouldn’t have.

I honestly don’t think that Hannah tried to kill Deb. If she wanted Deb dead, she would be dead, there’s no doubt about that. She wouldn’t have done something so stupid and risky as killing the lieutenant in charge of homicide who is also her boyfriend’s sister. She knows that he would figure it out. I think that Deb orchestrated the entire operation to form a rift between her brother and Hannah. And she was given the extra present of locking Hannah away. When she conversed with Hannah, Deb growled “It’s because I love Dexter that I’m willing to do whatever it takes to protect him from you.” And this would definitely protect Dexter from her–if he needed protection is still up for debate.

Tom Matthews invites Dexter onto his boat as a friendly heads up that LaGuerta is looking into him in relation to the Bay Harbor Butcher murders. Dexter realizes that he needs to settle the matter once and for all, so he alerts Matthews of Doakes’ secret boat, the one that he used to dump bodies. Since he was terrified of Doakes, he never spoke up about it before. LaGuerta and Matthews are led to an empty boat shed with plenty of plastic wrap along with Doakes’ fingerprint. As any cop should believe after confronted with such evidence, Matthews wants to drop the case, but LaGuerta immediately jumps to the conclusion that Dexter could have set this all up, he is a lab tech after all. Matthews is blinded by his love for the Morgans, while LaGuerta is biased by her love for Doakes.

Since LaGuerta isn’t convinced, she pushed for Hector Estrada’s early release on parole. Estrada is the last remaining man that was involved in Dexter’s mother’s murder. Dexter believes that once he kills Estrada, he will finally be able to move on with his life, so he sets up a meeting with Estrada under the alias Steve Gaskill, a drug dealer. When Dexter ties Estrada up in a cargo container and mentions his mother, Estrada realizes immediately that he is dealing with Dicky (Well, close enough) Moser. Estrada foolishly mentions that some b**** from Miami Metro Homicide helped him get out on parole, which gives Dexter enough time to escape from the container, leaving behind a calling card, a revving chainsaw. Estrada escapes into the water and Dexter makes a run for it.

Without so much as a goodbye, Nadia skipped town and moved to Las Vegas. She needed a fresh start and couldn’t risk staying near the Koshkas. Quinn didn’t just lose his girlfriend, but also his partner, Angel is planning on on tendering his resignation on New Year’s Day.

It looks like LaGuerta is honing in on Dexter once and for all. Dexter will surely make it through the finale, but will she?

Dexter — The Dark… Whatever (S7E10)

(My review of the last episode of Dexter, Helter Skelter)

Clint McKay, Hannah’s absentee father pays her a visit. Though she’s wary of him at first due to his terrible treatment of her as a child, she quickly warms up to him. Clint announces his desire to start a crawfish farm, but leaves out that he is a little shy on funds until the next day. When Hannah refuses to give him the $20,000, he storms off. Hannah quickly regrets her decision, but Dexter insists that she made the right decision; no man who would leave his daughter to drown would change that much after a stint in prison. Clint “accidentally” drives into Hannah’s greenhouse, calls her a monster, and blames her for her mother’s death (She died of a broken heart). Dexter is quick to protect his girlfriend, he chokes and threatens Clint.

Clint isn’t so easily scared, though. He arrives at Dexter’s house, makes an indirect threat towards Harrison and a pass at Jaime before trying to blackmail Dexter. He has an eyewitness account of Hannah murdering a counselor at her halfway house, her roommate Arlene Shram. The only reason this wasn’t announced to the police is because Clint was holding out for big bucks from Sal Price, who he had been feeding information all these years. Hannah wants to pay him off, but Dexter knows better: if they pay him once, he will never leave them alone. Without Hannah’s consent, Dexter kills Clint and dumps his body. He should have left him to drown, it would have been poetic justice for Hannah. Dexter says he had “a talk” with Clint to ease Hannah’s pain, but she understands why he won’t bother them again. But before Dexter took him out, Clint made a call to Deb about Arlene.

The Phantom Arsonist takes out his fifth and sixth victims–a woman and her child. The eyewitnesses say he looked like an alien or a monster in his silver suit, because they don’t want to think that a human is capable of such cruelty. He torches someone on a bus and leaves behind a fingerprint that led to no matches. Deb and Dexter both find the arson specialist Bosso to be suspicious, but Dexter vetted and cleared him. He is then led to believe that the newest clue, a sign that reads ‘It’s Bobby’ implies that the perpetrator was signaling someone or something from his youth. After sneaking into the juvenile records department, Dexter uncovers that the fingerprint matches Joseph Jensen, who burned down the school gym when he was 12. He got out of the psych ward right before the murders began.

When Dexter straps Jensen to his table, he blames his ex-best friend Bobby of burning down the gym. Dexter informs him that he’s no longer a kid, he has to start taking responsibility for his own actions. He realizes that he isn’t just talking about Jensen, but he’s talking about himself as well. He sends in an anonymous tip and allows the cops to imprison him rather than taking him out himself. Harry had told him that the Dark Passenger wasn’t real, he just let him believe in him when he was a child to make it easier for Dexter to cope with being a killer, “It’s much scarier to think that the Dark Passenger is no more real than I am.” Hannah had been right about him, killing isn’t a need, it’s just a feeling. He didn’t need to kill Jensen or Clint, but he really wanted to. To belittle the idea of the Dark Passenger, Dexter calls it the “Dark Rider” when he admits that Hannah understands him and he has the choice of whether or not to kill. Hannah tells Dexter that she loves him, to which he responds, “I think I love you too,” which is the only time he could honestly say this to a woman.

LaGuerta’s only lead to a Bay Harbor Butcher that wasn’t Doakes is Dexter, but Tom quickly throws this idea out. When they discover that the cabin was owned by Jimenez, one of the men responsible for the murder of Dexter’s mom, Tom becomes a little uneasy. Dexter’s mom was cut up just as BHB’s victims were. LaGuerta knew nothing about Dexter’s history or his association with Brian Moser, which is surprising as she was a cop in the same precinct during the Ice Truck Killer’s reign. She remembers that Doakes never liked Dexter, and is eager to investigate further. Tom wants to tread lightly because he is sure that Dexter is innocent, he will broach the subject with him because he has known him since Dexter was a little kid.

When George threatens to send Nadia to a sex club in Dubai, Quinn marches down to the club. When he sees George smacking Nadia around, Quinn kills him. He makes it appear to be self-defense by having Nadia shoot him in the arm. Angel knows that this story is nowhere near the truth, but agrees to telling Quinn’s tale of self-defense, and even agrees to letting Nadia disappear.

(My review of the next episode of Dexter, Do You See What I See?)

Dexter — Helter Skelter (S7E09)

(My review of the last episode of Dexter, Argentina)

Hannah is ready to take her relationship with Dexter to the next level, but Dexter is unsure how he feels, or if he even does feel. He’s forced to confront his feelings when Isaak kidnaps her. The Koshka Brotherhood sends two hit men for Isaak, and he knows that Dexter can take them out. When he refuses, Isaak was forced to add some incentive. Dexter takes out Oleg Mickic easily and offers himself up as bait for Benjamin Caffrey. Caffrey follows Dexter onto Isaak’s boat, The Fearless, where Isaak lies in wait and shoots a couple rounds into the hit man. Isaak leaves Dexter unharmed, he is “a man of [his] word” after all. As soon as the two dump their weapons, George arrives to take care of business himself. He leaves Isaak with a bullet in his stomach, a somewhat-slow, painful death. Rather than being taken to the hospital, Isaak requests to be laid to rest where his lover was. Before his death, Isaak tries to understand why Dexter is so brave in reality but so scared of emotion. Dexter’s response is that “Death has always calmed me. It’s soothing, predictable, inevitable.” And now that he’s not the one in control anymore, and it’s not so easy anymore. Viktor gives Dexter a small smile and tells him that there might still be hope for him before he shuts his eyes.

When on a video call with Hannah, Dexter manages to uncover the location that Jurg is holding Hannah, in one of the dead Columbian’s house. Deb finds the house, but when she gets there she finds Hannah and Jurg lying on the ground in pools of blood, Hannah still had a pulse. When Hannah’s poison didn’t take effect fast enough, she and Jurg fought and he managed to stick her with his knife. Rather than letting Hannah die–which she clearly wants–Deb calls in an ambulance. She didn’t save Hannah because she wanted to or because Dexter wanted her to, but because she couldn’t have her death weighing on her conscience. Debra Morgan has finally begun to do things for herself.

While Deb tries to avoid the issue, Dexter brings up her admission of love at the first chance he gets. He thinks it’s understandable: they’ve been through so much together and they’ve endured through all of it. That just makes her think that she’s in love with him. She remembers all of the good times she had with Dex, when they were kids and as adults, but now that she knows his secret all it is now is pulling strings, committing murder, and eating burritos. She will still help him, because of their relationship and her love, but she isn’t pleased, especially since she has to help him save Hannah, her nemesis, and someone she thinks Dexter can have no future with. She thinks that no one can ever be safe with a killer, but Dexter reminds her that “you’re safe with me.” That shuts her up, but she knows that he isn’t safe and it can’t end well. He’s always seen the world as “facts without emotion,” but not anymore, not when it comes to Hannah.

When Hannah tells Dexter that she misses him over the phone, he can only muster the word “likewise,” which infuriates Isaak. He has a woman waiting for him on the brink of death and he can’t even tell her that he misses her. Dexter knows that his love (or at least pretend love) never ends well and he doesn’t want to commit and risk harm to Hannah. He blames himself for Rita’s death, he could have taken Trinity out when he first met him, but instead he lost his wife and family. Even if he gets Hannah out of this alive, he’s worried that he will just push her away. When he arrives at the hospital to check on her, he is shaking, and admits that the two times he was scared beyond belief were when he watched his mother die and when he thought he would never see her again. Hannah is thrilled that Dexter finally opened up to her, but when he says that maybe their relationship should be out of hos control for a change, her smile vanishes. Dexter says something that is very troubling for the viewers, “All I know is that when I’m with you, I feel… safe.” Looks like Dex is starting to go soft.

LaGuerta realizes that the Bay Harbor Butcher case is out of her hands, so she approaches Captain Tom Matthews, her old boss. When she clears him of the crime, she enlists his help. He calls her nuts, but realizes that if LaGuerta is desperate enough to do actual police work, she might be on to something. She agrees to help restore his reputation, his job, and his pension for his assistance. She might hate him, but to get BHB, she’ll do anything.

The detectives’ are focused on two separate murders which involve the burning of the victims. There’s a note on the wall of the second murder that reads ‘Bobby,’ who just might be the murderer. The Phantom, as they call him, wore a protective suit and watched his victims burn.

When Quinn refused to assist George with his drug dealing, George forces himself onto Nadia. When Quinn learns of the rape, he throws George through a window and beats on him. But I don’t think that’s the last we’ll be seeing of him.

(My review of the next episode of Dexter, The Dark… Whatever)

Dexter — Argentina (S7E08)

(My review of the last episode of Dexter, Chemistry)

Dexter and Hannah trade some killing jokes while they prepare breakfast together (with the largest knives they can find). Hannah recalls her dream of going to Argentina with Wayne, it was a fantasy that she will always cling to. When Dexter mentions that his sister is the lieutenant, Hannah gets a little nervous about their relationship; is it possible for them to keep their romance a secret? Dexter doesn’t hesitate to elaborate on the hit that the Koshka Brotherhood’s boss has on him, signifying the first honest relationship he’s ever had. When she drops by the beach to visit Dexter, she sees Harrison, Astor, and Cody (who came to see Dexter for the week), but this doesn’t scare her away. She’s always wanted her own family, but being that serial killer’s girlfriend made it hard, and her relationship with Jake fell apart in the worst possible way. If Hannah can accept Dexter’s murderous side and his children, it really seems like it was meant to be. Dexter clearly doesn’t understand relationships, because he says that “[he’s] not gonna stop seeing Hannah just because she’s a murderer and my sister wants to kill her.” If those aren’t good reasons to back out, I’m not sure what would be.

Dexter refuses to kill Hannah, but insists that it’s for Debra’s own good. She can barely accept who he is and to some extent regrets helping him cover up Travis’ murder, she couldn’t live with herself knowing that she sentenced a woman to her death. Deb won’t drop it, though, she decides to harass Hannah at her place of work, but Hannah won’t crack. Deb will, though. When she sees Hannah’s keys on Dexter’s keyring, she realizes why he wouldn’t kill her. It wasn’t for her own good, it was for his own selfish, disgusting desires. This is the absolute worst thing he could do to her, killing people is something he can’t control, but he can control who he is dating, and this woman killed her sort-of boyfriend Sal Price. She blurts out that she was going to the church the night of Travis’ death to confess that she was in love with Dexter. Dexter is dumbfounded and has no way to respond, he had thought about Deb finding out, but he never planned for this conversation. Before Deb kicks him out she mutters that “You’re a serial killer and I’m more fucked up than you are.” And it’s kind of true.

Harrison, Astor, and Cody return to Miami to stay with Dexter for the week while their grandpa is having surgery. Because Isaak is out to kill Dexter, Deb agrees to take them in for the week. Though she was hesitant at first, she loved having her family over. Dexter, Deb, and Jamie take the kids to Angel’s brand new family restaurant, but lunch is ruined by Astor and Cody’s constant bickering. Cody announces that she smokes pot weekly and clearly wins their battle. Though Astor insists that she only uses it when she’s stressed, Dexter explains to her that these vices can cause more harm than good. Of course this isn’t going to mean anything to a teenage girl. Astor’s grandparents are afraid that she’s going to turn into her dad, but Dexter reminds her that she can grow into whoever she wants to be. He follows his dad’s path for him, and wishes that he had explored life for himself. He promises to keep her little marijuana problem to himself, but she needs to try to wean off the herb. Deb makes it worse by snaking Astor’s joint for herself after discovering Dexter and Hannah’s secret romance.

Isaak lost his police tail for long enough to shoot at Dexter while he was in the local donut shop. When this fails, George contacts the leaders of the Koshka Brotherhood in Kiev about a “realignment” of their management. Dexter’s plan to kill Isaak was foiled when he found a Koshka-hired assassin who was also sent to take out Isaak. When Dexter follows him to a gay bar, he discovers that Isaak took Viktor’s death so hard because the two were lovers. Isaak was afraid that the Koshka’s would remove him if they discovered that he was gay, and in a way they sort of did. When Isaak secures revenge for Viktor’s death, he wants to disappear off the radar to somewhere like Micronesia (his Argentina). If he and Dexter met under different circumstances, they could have been great friends and an even better team.

Now that George is in power, he wants to ensure that it stays that way by having an ally in the police department. He shows Quinn a video of him admitting to stealing the DNA evidence that incriminated Isaak. Quinn is stuck under the Koshka’s thumb for good, but if they toss him to the cops, he can nail them to the wall; mutually assured destruction.

Dexter’s problems get bigger as LaGuerta figures out that he might be the Bay Harbor Butcher. She connects him to the marina near the location that BHB’s victims were found. And when she discovers that he moved his boat immediately after the bodies were found, she gets even more suspicious. As she examines Dexter’s boat, A Slice of Life, she might be nearing the correct conclusion.

(My review of the next episode of Dexter, Helter Skelter)

Dexter — Chemistry (S7E07)

(My review of the last episode of Dexter, Do the Wrong Thing)

Dexter tells himself that he wanted to think Hannah was a killer just so he wouldn’t feel the chemistry between them. This can never happen between them again, neither the sex nor attempted murder. But Dexter is intrigued by her, he can’t let her slip away. She didn’t judge him because he kills, because she understands the need to do it. All of the women he’s been with before only loved part of him, Lila loved him because he was a killer, Rita was ignorant of it, and Lumen needed him to save her. But Hannah knows him entirely and she accepts him. Though their relationship might blow up, is it really worth the risk of losing happiness by walking away? Dexter has never felt love and finally has the opportunity to.

On their date Sal Price gives Deb all the information that she needs to put Hannah away. She may be immune to any charges in relation to Wayne Randall’s murders, but she has killed since then, and she believes that Sal can help her prove it. She approaches Hannah’s sister-in-law about exhuming her brother’s corpse, hoping that they can prove that he was poisoned with aconite. But the body wasn’t embalmed, there is no tissue left to test for the poison. They are back to square one with Hannah, but at least Deb got a date out of it. She approaches Dexter about his incorrect blood report, and he doesn’t manage to weasel his way out of it. She figures that he kept it a secret so he could save Hannah for his table. Well… Something like that.

When Dexter dropped Hannah off at her place after their “date,” Price caught them. He has a whole new angle to play for his book, “lab geek seduced by femme fatale.” If he keeps his relationship with Hannah out of the book, Dexter will give him Randall’s last words, Randall’s real opinions of Hannah. Sal agrees to this deal, but also pushes out something extra from Hannah, she needs to tell him everything about her involvement in the murders. Dexter unsuccessfully looks for a dark side to Price so he can lock him up and get his nose out of his business. But before he falsifies anything on Price, he lets Hannah know that Price is gunning for them. She doesn’t need him to protect her, she knows how to take care of herself and has no qualms with killing. She doesn’t do it for the fun of it, she does it because she’s giving into her natural needs. He doesn’t need to follow any stupid code to kill people, he can just do it.

While Hannah is confessing to her involvement in Randall’s murders, Dexter is framing Price for an unsolved murder that he covered in one of his books. He grabs a toothbrush to plant his DNA at the scene and while he’s there deletes all of his research on Hannah to protect her. Hannah is a great actress, she is bawling and looks genuinely sorry for killing the poor woman. She just did it to protect her lover.

After his visit with Hannah, Price wants the scoop that Dexter promised. Dexter tells Price his own little story, of Christy Larson’s killer being the author of her true crime novel; who better to write the story than her killer? Just as the conversation gets heated, Price keels over and suffers from a heart attack. Deb is distraught when she sees her new beau lying dead in Dexter’s apartment, so she immediately accuses Hannah and brings her in for questioning. Hannah placed a bit of completely undetectable poison on the tip of the pen that he always chews on, leaving no trace on the toxicology report. But she doesn’t look the least bit concerned and acts surprised when she discovers Price’s unfortunate death. But as soon as her husband and miscarried child are brought up, she shows genuine emotions and demands that she be let go.

Hannah and Dexter both looked out for each other. She killed Sal just as much to protect him as to protect her and he deleted Price’s book on her. It is incredibly uncommon for people like them to look out for each other, but it was mutual. Maybe it was meant to be. And just as Dexter realizes that he just may be in love with this woman, he gets a call from Debra. She knows that she will never manage to convict Hannah, but she can’t continue killing like this. There needs to be some sort of justice, and Dexter can administer that justice. If Deb needs to ask Dexter to kill someone for her, it’s clear that she has reached a breaking point. Maybe she’s not cut out for being a cop anymore.

When the cops realize that Sirko’s blood evidence has disappeared, they go on a frantic search to find it or the mole who made it disappear. Angel pulls Quinn aside to ask him if he was involved, he’s dating one of the Koshka girls, so he had to ask. When Quinn denies the allegations, Angel drops it. He didn’t think he would stoop so low, but he needed to hear it from Quinn himself. Nadia is just as upset when she finds out what he did to save her. The Koshkas own him now, though, they can always send in an anonymous tip that he stole the evidence. They won’t give Nadia the freedom they promised. To feel better about this blood money, Quinn gives it to Angel as a loan to start up his restaurant.

Though Deb thinks she convinced LaGuerta to stop the search for the Bay Harbor Butcher when they hit another dead end, she doesn’t quit. They might not be as objective because they were friends with Doakes, LaGuerta isn’t buying it. Instead she pulls out a list of cops, to look over by herself. Some of them, including Dexter, have check marks next to them. Are these check marks good or bad, though?

Isaak pays Dexter a visit to promise him that this isn’t over between them. He’s not leaving town until he gets revenge for Viktor’s death. When Isaak asks why he killed Viktor, Dexter is brutally honest, explaining how he killed him as well. The roadrunner is just agitating the coyote further. This can’t end well.

(My review of the next episode of Dexter, Argentina)

Dexter — Do The Wrong Thing (S7E06)

(My review of the last episode of Dexter, Swim Deep)

Isaak has no plans to stay in prison, and surely not to die within the walls. So when the Colombians approach him, he badly injured one and threatens their entire gang outside of the walls: The Koshkas are a much bigger organization. And the last thing the department (Or Dexter) needs is Isaak getting out, but it looks like he might walk. Though Quinn returned the money with the pronouncement that he wasn’t for sale, his mind was changed with a simple threat towards Nadia. All he has to do is “lose” the blood evidence implicating Isaak and he and Nadia will be home-free. Quinn does this and only feels a little guilty, surely he’s rationalizing that one innocent’s life is more important than the dozens of Isaak’s past and future victims.

LaGuerta hasn’t given up on the case of the Bay Harbor Butcher, and it doesn’t look like she will. When she poked her nose into open homicide cases, she came across Jordan Chase. It might be a stretch, but BHB might have killed Chase and maybe he left enough evidence for her to track him down. When Deb approaches Dexter about the case, he admits to killing him, but refuses to give up his accomplice’s name. Debra reasons that it was Lumen, and is disgusted by what he might have done with her in their family home after Rita passed.

Sal Price, the author who depicts Wayne Randall’s murders, stops by the precinct to uncover information for his sequel on Hannah McKay. But he stops by Deb’s office to ask her out on a date, first. She is defensive and closed off, she rejects Price because she isn’t in dating mode. But when she has a chance to talk to Angel, that quickly changes. Angel plans on retiring from the police force to buy a restaurant, he’s burnt out from being a cop and he misses having a life. Though what pushed him over the edge is surely Deb’s refusal to follow up on Mike’s case, Deb buys the story. And realizes that she needs to get a life, as well. She calls Sal up and invites him out on the date he had wanted. But on the date, she brings up his writing and coerces his new information out of him. She isn’t pleased to find out that dear, sweet Hannah McKay probably assisted Randall in the killing and is still murdering to this day.

When Dexter breaks into Price’s house to investigate Sal’s information on his next victim, he isn’t surprised that Price’s blood guy figured out that Randall didn’t murder all of his victims. The new information he finds is that Beverly Gray, Hannah’s mentor, was killed by aconite poisoning. Harry insists that it might have been an accident, he shouldn’t jump to conclusions about Hannah, she could have stopped killing when Randall was locked up. His subconscious really wants to believe that Hannah could have changed, but Dexter knows that people can’t change and doesn’t need to find proof otherwise.

Dexter heads to the flower shop to try to get Hannah to slip up about information about either killing her husband or Beverly. He brings a peace offering: a copy of the new police report where he left out everything about a woman killing the newly uncovered body. When he apologizes for the mistake that he clearly made, she is amazed that he is such a gentleman. After gently brushing some dirt off her face, Dexter remembers that this isn’t a social call. To show that he isn’t the stalker that she jokes he is, he picks out a plant for his apartment. He tries to broach the subject of her dead husband, but due to the “doom and gloom” of the subject matter, she edges away from the topic. Once he picks a ridiculous pink flower, she gives it to him as a gift. But arrives at his house that evening with a more suitable plant. After he jokes, “Now who’s the stalker?” she steps into his bedroom to place the flower. Before Dexter can realize that she’s coming on to him, he has to meet with Deb.

Dexter searches Hannah’s property for aconite, which is “beautiful and dangerous, just like Hannah,” and finds that it has been recently harvested. Maybe she has a new target, and maybe it’s him. When she arrives earlier than expected, he has to think quick of his feet when she asks what he wants. “I want to take you out.” “On a date?” “That’ll work.” Though she says that she doesn’t date because Randall messed her up a little too much, she can’t say no to Dexter. He convinces her that for a change she needs to “do the wrong thing,” she can’t keep protecting herself from men, he isn’t Randall.

And on what would be the perfect date, Dexter takes Hannah to see the winter wonderland that she’d been hoping to see since she was a girl. When the snow begins to pour down and wonder fills her eyes, Dexter kills the moment by stabbing her with a syringe. As she’s strapped down on his table, he clarifies, “When I said I wanted to take you out, this is what I meant.” When Hannah accepts her impending death, it throws Dexter off a little. Or a lot. Rather than stabbing her, he tears the tape that held her down and sleeps with her instead. Maybe having some very morbid, deranged sex will work just as well as killing. But is Hannah really trustworthy enough to keep from stabbing him. And if she is, how will Debra react to the news of his new girlfriend?

(My review of the next episode of Dexter, Chemistry)

Dexter — Swim Deep (S7E05)

(My review of the last episode of Dexter, Run)

LaGuerta hasn’t given up on clearing Doakes’ name. She has been combing through Lundy’s notebook and she realized that she wasn’t the only one who thought him incapable of being a serial killer. When she confides in Debra, she sides with LaGuerta, hoping that she can lead LaGuerta off Dexter’s trail. After failing from keeping Deb away from the case, Dexter identifies three men that he killed from a list of possible Bay Harbor Butcher victims. Barnes is the only possible way Dexter can be implicated. He is a wedding photographer who would kill out-of-town wedding guests, and he captured a couple of shots of Dexter at one of the weddings. Deb got a hold of these photos before LaGuerta saw them and took care of the pictures of Dexter. LaGuerta might have noticed Deb’s uneasiness around the pictures, though.

While on the Slice of Life, Dexter noticed a small pool of blood that he knows he didn’t leave. Dexter is surprised and pleased by the discovery that this is Louis blood. His problem took care of itself. Dexter also wasn’t expecting Isaak to be waiting for him at home, so he sets up a fake meeting at a restaurant. While he watched Isaak from across the way, he plead innocent over the phone. But as soon as Isaak mentions his sister, Dexter admits to killing Viktor, but insists that he did so alone. Backed into a corner, Dexter is forced to tell Debra that the Koshka Brotherhood is after him, and therefore her. To protect her, he sets them up in a motel room and has her use alternate methods of arriving to work.

Deb is furious when Dexter tells her the whole truth: he lifted a fingerprint at Mike and Kaja’s murder scene that matched Viktor’s. She forces him to agree never to steal another case from the department, but neither of them are sure if his promise is honest. Dexter refuses to let Deb into his plan on getting rid of Isaak, but he promises that he won’t kill anyone. Dexter leads Isaak into a Colombian bar in the hopes that they will take out their rival for him. But Isaak managed to kill all three of the Colombians and only took one shot to the arm. They match the blood at the scene to Isaak and toss him in prison, no way he can get out of this triple homicide. Dexter visits Isaak in prison to try to understand why he was so set on killing him, revenge doesn’t seem to cut it as a motive, because Dexter doesn’t realize the connection between him and Viktor. Isaak promises Dexter that this isn’t over; he will get revenge for his son.

Angel is dead set on discovering Mike’s actual murderer. He doesn’t believe that Alex did it, there is no evidence but a hasty suicide note that isn’t very believable. Dexter corroborates the original story and Quinn doesn’t really care, so he turns to Deb. Protecting Dexter is her first priority, so she has to deny Angel. She tells him that she appreciates what he is trying to do and she would have agreed with him a few months ago. But now that she’s lieutenant she has learned that they need to back down, they can’t reopen the case. Mike’s killer is dead and that is justice enough. Though Angel tells her that he understands, he is fuming. He lost all respect that he had for Deb and probably for the department. I wouldn’t be surprised if he quit after this.

While Angel is trying to be the best guy he can be, Quinn is stooping back to his old lows. After visiting Nadia at the strip club, he returns to a car with a hefty bag of cash. The Koshka’s know that they used to be able to buy his silence, and hope that this will still do the trick. And sadly, Quinn is the same selfish d-bag that he was in the past, so he takes the money.

After dealing with Angel, Debra feels incredibly guilty. She can’t be a part of Dexter’s life as a murderer. She knows it’s there and she has accepted that, but she can’t know what goes on. Maybe her knowledge of him has changed, but she doesn’t have to change with him. They reminisce about the last time they stayed in a motel together, they were visiting Myrtle Beach. He always watched her play near the water with a careful eye to make sure she was okay, and he was her hero for that. Was her hero, now that she knows the real him, she can’t picture him the same way. She always chased Dexter along the beach, she always wanted to catch him, but never did. And maybe it’s better that way. She needs to avoid his dark side and maybe she will be able to stay the same person.

While Hannah McKay is identifying all of the souvenirs that Randall kept, she plays with a toy giraffe out of nostalgia, not fear. Hannah previously insisted that she didn’t want to relive the past, but when she has a chance to chat with Dexter, she is very open about the first time she witnessed Randall killing. And when Dexter is examining the bodies that Hannah helped them uncover, he realizes that the woman was straddled by someone much smaller than Randall. He takes a good long look at Hannah before he is brought back to reality. He stays silent about this revelation, and lets the cops believe that Randall killed the couple himself.

After he investigates, Hannah can’t stop herself from talking to Dexter. He explains to her how he knows that she was the killer, which just causes her to smile. She won’t directly admit to being involved in the killings, but her smile and evasion make it clear that she doesn’t mind Dexter knowing what she did. She has immunity for all of the murders committed with Wayne, and she’s damn proud of getting this deal. Dexter can find out whatever he wants, and she’ll still be in the clear. With the law, that is.

(My review of the next episode of Dexter, Do the Wrong Thing)

Dexter — Run (S7E04)

(My review of the last episode of Dexter, Buck the System)

Deb’s disgust for Dexter rises with each new thought. Her unconscious mind got the best of her, she dreamed of being in Rita’s position. She lied a bathtub full of her own blood with Dexter dressed up fancily and uttered the question, “Will you be mine?” When she sees him the next day, she freaks out, thinking that maybe her serial killer of a brother murdered his own wife. His excuse for not telling Deb about Trinity’s true identity was because he knew his family. This may have been a tiny factor, but the real reason was to sate his own curiosity. This man had been killing for thirty years and had not been caught, Dexter had to uncover his secrets.

Deb, still shaky about Dexter’s new identity, partially believes him on this front, but refuses to believe that he ever truly loved Rita. If he did, he never would have put her and her children in this awful situation. She doesn’t understand how a monster like him could love anyone, not his wife, his sister, or his own son. He has to choose between his family or his murderous desires. An infant cannot be raised by a killer, there is no way that Harrison could come out of this situation as a normal boy. But Dexter has everything under control. He can take care of his son and continue his murder spree. The only mistake he made involving Trinity was not killing him instantly. And that will never happen again.

The detectives have no shred of evidence that Ray Spetlzer murdered the women and attacked Deb, so they have to coerce a confession. Angel steps in first, trying to butter him up by insulting Deb and trying to become his friend. When that didn’t work, Deb goes in as the “bad cop” and figures out all of the right buttons to push. By being excessively pushy and bringing his mother’s sex life into the equation, she got him to scream that he should have killed her when he had the chance. Though they got the confession they needed, it wasn’t admissible due to a bad arrest. Dexter is thrilled at the news, he would prefer to take Spetlzer out by himself than let him rot in prison where he would be a top dog.

While Dexter is investigating Speltzer’s RV, he gets caught and knocked unconscious. When he awakes, he finds himself in one of Speltzer’s intricate mazes with a note “Run.” After a mad chase, Dexter manages to get free of the building. But now his cover is blown with Speltzer, so his normal method of murder would no longer fly. When Speltzer shows up at Melanie’s funeral (the girl he murdered), Deb completely loses her cool and tries to attack him. Dexter realizes that this is the perfect opportunity to show Deb that what he does isn’t terrible. Dexter decides to imitate his victim and leaves him a note that just reads “Stay,” which gives him the opportunity to crack a shovel over his head. Dex shoves him and his slides (after one last, long look) into the cremation kiln. When Dexter shows her the smoke from Speltzer’s dead body rising, Deb admits that she’s relieved. Though she thinks that makes her a monster, Dexter assures her that this just makes her human.

Isaak doesn’t quit investigating the murder of Viktor for a very personal reason that none of his crew know: they are father and son. And Isaak will not quit until he avenges the death of his son. He investigates Dexter and determines that he and Louis must have worked together to get payback for the loss of Mike Anderson’s life. While he uncovers the truth about his son’s death, Isaak wants his name to be cleared. He forces one of his employees, Alex the bartender, to kill himself and leave a suicide note taking the blame for Mike’s death. Quinn loves this, it’s such an easy case! But Angel is smarter and more experienced, he doesn’t buy this confession and is going to explore it further. Quinn might just be trying to clear up the case so he doesn’t have to visit the strip club again. When he was there, he was reminded of “old times” where he accepted bribes.

Though Hannah wasn’t a large player in this episode, it looks like she will start playing a big part soon. When she arrives at the police station to help uncover Wayne Randall’s victims, she doesn’t go speak with her lawyer or the detective in charge, instead she approaches Dexter. She reminisces on the days she had with Randall, how amazing it was to be on the road with him. This doesn’t sound like someone who doesn’t want to relive the past, which is what she said in the last episode. I’m sure we will soon see what Ms. McKay is up to.

(My review of the next episode of Dexter, Swim Deep)

Dexter — Buck the System (S7E03)

(My review of the last episode of Dexter, Sunshine and Frosty Swirl)

Dexter is struggling with having Debra on his back all the time. Since he can’t kill anyone, he can only imagine killing them, until that’s not enough. When a prisoner is being uncooperative with a DNA swab, Dexter ends up strangling him. When Deb confronts him, he tells that she can’t suppress his Dark Passenger, it’s not possible. And having her tailing him 24/7 is making it impossible for him to breathe. The only way that this can work is if he controls his murders, just the way that Harry taught him to do, or to at least have some room to think. After a lot of hesitation, Deb agrees to giving him space, but he has to continue being open with her. The moment Dexter gets some freedom, he looks for his next victim. And he finds him in Ray Speltzer, he killed multiple women after going out with them, but it couldn’t be proved.

Since Deb already knows that he’s a serial killer, Dexter wants her to understand how he picks his victims. He wants to prove to her that Harry taught him well and that his targets are well-deserving of their deaths. But even solid proof of Speltzer’s murders aren’t enough for Deb, it’s not his place to “take out the trash,” that is why there is the law. Dexter still insists on showing her proof that he’s a monster and is planning on tossing him into the ocean. Dexter heads to the cemetery where Speltzer works to investigate, but before he had the chance to learn anything, Deb calls him back to work. When he tells her that his lizard brain (the amygdala) is telling him that Speltzer has something hidden away in a mausoleum at the cemetery, she just gets more frustrated. And to push her further, he reminds her that his hunches that have locked up an astounding number of criminals come from the same place. He knows who the killers are because he is one himself.

Deb trusts Dexter’s intuition, so she goes to LaGuerta to try to push a search warrant for his place. Her explanation of her “lizard brain” just made her appear even stupider than she already seemed. LaGuerta responds to Deb as she did to Dexter: they are the cops, they can’t do that kind of thing. But she authorizes a patrol car to watch over his house. When the patrol cops say that Speltzer isn’t up to anything and take off, Deb decides she has to check on him herself. When she gets there, she hears a woman’s screams. She busts down the door and barges in to try to save the woman. By the time Dexter gets the voice mail from Deb letting him know she’s stopping by Speltzer’s place, he already found proof that he has killed before.

Dex rushes back to Speltzer’s house to try to save Deb. But before he gets there, Deb finds the woman and Speltzer finds her. His house is built into a maze with plastic wrap on the furniture. He dresses up in armor and a helmet (and looks a whole lot like the Dovahkiin) and chases down women in his house for sport before killing them. Right before Speltzer is going to take Deb out, Dexter arrives and knocks him out. They didn’t arrive in time to save the woman that Speltzer was toying with and Speltzer managed to make it out in time. He’s in the wind.

After this encounter, Deb finally understands what Dexter does. People like Ray Speltzer need to be taken out, and if the law can’t do it, someone else has to. She doesn’t accept what he does, she thinks it’s vile, but she doesn’t hate him for it. It’s a necessary evil. When she asks Dexter if he enjoys killing, he is brutally honest when he explains that he likes the way that killing makes him feel. She can’t stand to be around him or his trophies, so she asks him to move out. Dexter insists that nothing has to change between them, but Deb is definitely right when she says that everything has changed.

Though Deb and Dexter’s relationship has changed massively, Quinn doesn’t appear to be making any strides away from his old self. Just last season he was reamed for having a relationship with a witness, but he didn’t learn from his mistakes. He asks Nadia the stripper out, to which she gladly accepts. She doesn’t have much choice in the matter, though, Isaak tells her to keep tabs on Quinn and get any information out of him that she can. Luckily for Quinn, he picked someone genuine, so she lets him know of her boss’s plans. He doesn’t care. I don’t think he cares much about his job at this point either. He agrees to share information on Viktor if she shares information on Mike.

We aren’t graced with much of Hannah McKay’s (Yvonne Strahovski, Chuck) presence in this episode. Dexter goes to see her to get a DNA swab while Angel questions her about some souvenirs that Wayne Randall had. She tells them that she doesn’t know much about the murders, she was 15 and just fell in love with the wrong guy. She spent her six years in prison and doesn’t want to relive her terrible past. Dexter drops the DNA swab, which is quite odd since he is so precise when it comes to his work (and just about everything else, for that matter). Maybe it’s because she’s gorgeous or maybe he notices something off about her, or maybe both. They have a bit of a strange exchange regarding how they present themselves. And I’m sure this will be developed further in the coming episodes. Maybe there will even be a relationship brewing between the two.

Dexter thinks he can manage getting rid of his Louis problem without killing him, which ironically ends in Louis’s death. He has the ITK hand sent to Louis at work and asking for a refund, causing Masuka to fire him on the spot. And he anonymously sends the DVD of Louis and a hooker to Jamie, causing her to break up with him. He tries to blame it on Dexter, but this just proves Jamie’s point that he’s crazy. To get his revenge, Louis plans on sinking Dexter’s boat, A Slice of Life. But his timing couldn’t be worse. Isaak tracked Viktor’s GPS signal straight to the marina and to Dexter’s boat. Louis tells Isaak that the boat belongs to Dexter, but still gets a bullet to his head. Will Deb believe Dexter when he says that he didn’t kill Louis? And will the blood shed on his boat haunt him in the near future?

(My review of the next episode of Dexter, Run)

Dexter — Sunshine and Frosty Swirl (S7E02)

(My review of the last episode Dexter, Are You…?)

When Deb receives the truth about her brother, she responds just as I expected. She screams and swears through tears. It’s not easy to understand that the brother that she has loved (and thought she knew) for so many years is actually a serial killer. She accuses him of being crazy and yells about his murders in public. But Dexter manages to coax her back inside the house to talk about who he is and what happened. She is pissed that Dexter has been doing this, especially for getting away with it. Even if he only kills bad people, it’s still murder. But they put all of the blame on Harry, he’s the one who trained Dexter. If Harry had tried to suppress his urges, maybe Dexter would have turned into a normal guy. Deb is not going to make that same mistake, she is going to help him get through his terrors.

Once she is back inside, she manages to have a very mature conversation with Dexter with no yelling and less cursing. She agrees not to turn him in, she couldn’t handle having Dexter in prison. But he can’t just go on killing people as he sees fit. He needs to try to control his urges and she will be there for him. He has to be completely honest with her and she is going to keep her eye on him indefinitely. To start off, he will need to stay at her place, they’ll go to work together, watch TV together, and do everything together. Dexter, trying to lighten the mood as he always does responds with, “I hope you have a big shower.” Rather than fume at his belittling of the situation, he actually gets a light chuckle out of Debra. After explaining how the need to kill feels, Deb looks incredibly pale, it’s surprising that she doesn’t pass out on the spot. But after regaining herself, she follows Dexter’s lead and makes a joke out of it, “There have to be families out there that are more fucked up than us. But I sure as hell wouldn’t want to meet them.” But the second he slips out of line, she blows a gasket, back to the Deb we’re used to.

Angel and Quinn are left to investigate Mike and Kaja’s murders, so they return to the strip club on a daily basis until they get some information. In an uncharacteristic moment, Quinn is incredibly gentle with Nadia, one of the strippers, to try to get any information out of her. She concedes that Kaja was dating Tony the bouncer, and he stopped showing up for work around the time of her death. After some pressure, Tony reveals that Kaja was with Viktor (the man that Dexter killed) that night. Isaak, the man from Kiev is also looking for Viktor, because he never made his flight out of the country. When the terrifying mob boss finds out that Tony squealed to the cops, he stabs him in the eye with a screwdriver. That was unnecessary brutal, but it will definitely give everyone else the message: Don’t mess with Isaak.

A serial killer wants to come clean about some of his previous murders and disclose the location of the bodies. After a lot of convincing, Deb lets Dexter onto Wayne Randall’s case. Dexter is incredibly intrigued by the sudden change of heart of a serial killer begins to prod Randall, trying to discover what made him tick. All he had to do was surrender to his conscience, give in to all of his hate. He wanted to make amends for who he used to be. Maybe if Randall could change his ways, he could too. Maybe Deb was right, and he could stop his Dark Passenger from taking over. His vision of Harry tells him otherwise, if there was a way to suppress his urges, he would have done that. But it’s impossible.

If Deb could figure out Dexter’s secret, maybe she wasn’t the only one. Maybe the Ice Truck Killer hand was sent to him by someone who figured out the truth. When he tries to locate it, Masuka tells him that it was taken and Louis was supposed to find it. Due to his prior hate of Louis, he doesn’t seem surprised at the idea that maybe he actually did find and deliver the hand. But there is no chance that Louis actually knows that he is a serial killer. With only one hour for lunch, Dexter heads to Louis’s penthouse to try to discover what he knows. Louis hasn’t figured out that Dexter is a serial killer, but if he got that kind of information, he wouldn’t hesitate to leak it to the public. He is furious with Dexter for “shitting all over” his game, and he will pay. While Dexter is still at his house, Louis shows up, forcing Dexter to threaten him. He needs to back off, quit his job and leave Jamie. Immediately.

Louis gets the hint, there is no doubt about that. Panic is crawling across his face and his voice is shaking. But he doesn’t take it. The next day, he is at Dexter’s apartment when he comes home from work, is on his side of the room, drinking his beer, pats his son’s head, and kisses Jamie. He is taunting Dexter. He can try to scare Louis off, but it’s not going to work. He thinks he is as much of a badass as Dexter and he should be viewed as a real threat. This can’t stand. And if Louis keeps digging, he might find out the truth about him. Dexter will just have to take him out.

Dex injects Deb’s steak with something that will knock her out so he can slip out and take care of Louis. When Louis arrives home, you can hear Dexter’s heart pounding, and see his distress when he sees the blood dripping from the site of the injection. Rather than give into the temptation to kill, Dexter steps outside and calls Deb. He meets Deb at a park with Louis’s body in his trunk, but doesn’t tell her about him. He says that he felt the need to kill, he saw the blood pouring before his eyes and did everything he could to resist. When he insists that he’s a monster that should be put away, Deb just sees this as a sign of strength. If he could stop himself when he felt such a strong desire, he must be more in control of himself than ever before. Dexter starts to think that maybe Debra is right, maybe he can stop himself. He decides to come up with another way to get rid of Louis that doesn’t involve murder. But until then, he leaves him asleep in the park.

Dexter is finally starting to be positive about his situation. He has Deb to take care of him and help him through the times when he has the urge to kill and Randall managed to overcome his murderous lifestyle and repent for his sins. But then everything goes to hell. When he is on scene with Randall, he tells Dexter that all he wishes he could do was make it up to Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck), his co-conspirator. That’s the last thing he says before he jumps in front of a truck. He wasn’t really at peace with himself, he hadn’t changed into a better man. He just wanted to have a last ice cream cone and spend his last few days in the sunshine. Dexter’s only hope for losing his Dark Passenger were just slaughtered by a truck. He will never be normal.

(My review of the next episode of Dexter, Buck the System)