Last week’s episode of Dexter ended with an interesting twist, which carried over to tonight’s episode and allowed Dexter to explore an even darker side of himself. Dexter took a road trip tonight and in the process, entertained the idea of deviating from the code.
Nebraska is for lovers... and killers.
If Harry’s the voice of reason for Dexter, Brian is the voice of mayhem. With Brother Sam’s death still fresh in Dexter’s mind and Dexter’s inner Harry replaced by Brian, Dexter was primed to take a vacation from the more controlled version of himself to explore the possibility of a life without the code. When Deb tipped Dexter off that Trinity may have killed his wife and daughter, Dexter took off to hit the open road and head to Nebraska to confront Jonah, Trinity’s son. Because Dexter is the only one who knows that Trinity is dead, no one else would suspect that Jonah might have killed his sister and mother, in an effort to take over his father’s business.
The trip seemed to derail the Dexter we’ve come to know over the last few seasons and a lot of that seemed to be Brian’s influence. This included Dexter having sex with some random girl in a convenient store, in order to distract her, steal her gun and then shoot at stuff on the highway. Not only did this sequence of events seem out of place for Dexter, but it also had no purpose other than to demonstrate that he’s decided to go wild while on vacay.
Dexter’s trip to Nebraska wasn’t a total waste of time. He did reconnect with Jonah, who, as it turned out, only killed his mother. His sister killed herself because their mother blamed them for everything that happened. Jonah killed his mother after finding his sister, and now he’s riddled with guilt. Dexter left him alive after a big confrontation and also offered some departing words: Forgive yourself. Brother Sam would approve. Brian did not. His attempts to get Dexter to abandon the code failed and in the end, he disappeared. Dexter picked Harry up on his way back to Miami. Is it safe to assume things will return to normal in Dexter’s mind?
Saints blood.
Gellar spent part of tonight’s episode gutting an alligator, while Travis dealt with his Doomsday issues. He’s having second thoughts about everything that’s going on and seems to want to return to his sister and forget all about force-feeding blood to a “whore” and whatever else they had planned. Gellar “released” him, which presumably means that Travis is free to return to his sister and forget about Doomsday, but let’s face it, we know it’s not over.
Meanwhile, Masuka’s intern Louis (he has a name!) is proving to be useful, and not just to Jamie, who’s now dating him, but also to Miami Metro. Taking a break from designing his Miami Metro video game, Louis managed to narrow down the list of people who might be working with Professor Gellar. This included Travis’ name, so it’s probably only a matter of time before Deb or one of the detectives goes knocking on Travis’ door.
Kill of the Week
Dexter may not have killed his intended target, deciding that he didn’t, in fact, want to see the light go out of Jonah’s eyes, but he did kill a local Nebraskan man who tried to blackmail him after he found Dexter’s knives. The farmer wasn’t exactly a monster, unless you think people who grow marijuana are monsters, but he was nosy and he messed with Dexter at the wrong time. Brian gets part of the credit for the kill, as it was his influence that pushed the pitchfork through the man’s chest. Points to whoever thought up using the pitchfork and the painting in the background to briefly recreate American Gothic. Dexter dumped the farmer's body in a silo. Because that's how Nebraskan-Dexter does it.
Deb drama...
Deb’s under a lot of pressure as lieutenant. Once upon a time, her job was to help solve murders. Now she’s responsible for everyone else solving murders, which means being at the mercy of statistics and of LaGuerta pushing the math in her face. I so want Deb to show LaGuerta up. Something tells me that’s coming.
Deb and Quinn had a moment tonight, which included a kiss and some sad words, but it seems like they’re really over. At the very least, some of the tension was deflated as the two talked it out, this time sober and without anger. Who knows where things will go from here?
