After six seasons of watching Dexter kill people, it's hard to believe that he might be able to cure himself simply by abstaining while remaining under the watchful eye of his sister. But that's the plan Deb has in place for him now and as we saw at the start of tonight's episode, it's begun to take its toll on Dexter.
Things seem to be working in Dexter's favor right now. Sure, he has Deb babysitting him and it's caused his tension level to spike, but as we saw by the end of the episode, Deb is starting to see the situation for what it is, and she might not be able to deny the value of Dexter's code. When a scary horn-wearing meathead roams free because the proper procedures must be enforced, Dexter's quick-and-dirty approach to taking a murderer off the streets probably seems a bit less terrible.
Killing Time
At the start of the episode, Dexter was daydreaming about slashing throats and neck-stabbing Masuka! No Dexter! Bad Dexter! Just a fantasy. With Deb's watchful eye on him, Dexter's dark passenger was kept on a leash and it was wearing him down. The tension was so high, he ended up grabbing a guy by the throat during a cheek-swab. The guy was egging him on, but still - bad form, Dexter. Deb put a stop to the situation and after that, was willing to give Dexter a bit more space. Off his leash (somewhat), Dexter began the hunt, tracking down and stalking Speltzer, a parolee who did time for assault and was linked to a bunch of dead girls but never convicted of killing them.
Deb was on Dexter the whole time he was stalking Speltzer, and during that time, Dexter tried to convince her that this is what he does. He has a "lizard brain" and a heightened sense of danger, thanks to Harry's training. He can tell Speltzer's preparing to kill again by watching his behavior. Deb tries to take the proper channels to keeping an eye on Speltzer and that led her right to the scene of a murder in progress. On his end of things, Dexter had the evidence he needed to go after Speltzer too and managed to get there just in time to save Deb from being bludgeoned to death by the muscled murderer, who likes to blast metal music, chase his victim through a messy house and beat her to death.
Speltzer got away, the girl he was killing was dead, and now Deb sees. Well, she kind of sees. One incident isn't going to convince her that it's ok to be a serial killer. She made the connection between the blood slides and Speltzer's trophies and realized Dexter collects trophies because he liked to kill. Um… yeah Deb, he's a serial killer. While I think she should've made that connection much sooner, I do think it's relevant that Deb sees this (and that we see Deb see this).
Sometimes I hear people describe Dexter as a vigilante when they're talking about this series, but that seems wrong to me. Dexter doesn't kill bad guys because he wants to right wrongs or deliver justice. He kills them because he likes to kill people. He just happens to channel that through Harry's code. It's what works. It's how he can be what he is and live with himself. And it's also kept him from getting caught.
Deb needed to understand that, and now we know she does. So if she decides to turn a blind eye to what he's doing, it won't be because she's under the delusion that her brother is some kind of superhero. He's a murderer. But he murders murderers and he's her brother and the man she is or thought she was in love with. Maybe she'll be able to make peace with that somehow. At the very least, she might be starting to see the value in what Dexter does. Things ended tonight with her deciding she didn't want to live with Dexter anymore. But nothing is settled. Louie, Louie…
RIP Louis. He met his demise after Dexter got him fired and dumped. He had those last two things coming. Maybe he even had his death coming in a karma kind of way.
Dexter mailed the Ice Truck Killer hand back to the Miami Metro forensic lab with a complaint from a bidder, which resulted in Masuka firing Louis after telling him off for stealing the hand and selling it on eBay. I think Louis actually bought it on eBay from Ryan (Masuka's other intern), if I'm remembering correctly. Regardless, the hand is back where it belongs and Louis was fired. And poor Masuka is once again out another intern.
Fresh off losing his job, Louis got home to find Jamie watching the video of him with his hooker friend. She dumped him and stormed out even after Louis explained that it's not cheating if you pay for it. Right… The cherry on the cake was Louis going down to the dock to sink Dexter's boat, only to be interrupted by Isaac (the Koshka Brotherhood leader) who was there looking for whoever killed Viktor (his people traced Viktor to the docks and deduced that his body was tossed out to sea - so they know Viktor is dead now). Louis told them it was Dexter's boat and though he admitted to hating Dexter, that didn't score him any points with Isaac, who shot Louis in the head. At least he didn't use the drill.
Isaac told his people to take care of Louis, so who knows where he'll turn up? But if his body shows up near the docks, Deb might think it's Dexter. I'm actually glad it wasn't, though. Sure, Louis was a creep and a weirdo, but does he meet the code? I don't think he does - or it wasn't proven. We know he likes to collect things, including serial killer artifacts, and that he's not above using his computer skills to mess with people. But none of that meets the code. So if Louis had to go, better it be at the hands of a regular murderer, and not Dexter, who has rules to follow.
Everyone else...
Isaac and Dexter had a run-in when Batista had to stop at the strip club. The two men chatted, neither having any idea who they were actually talking to, but I like to think there was some kind of twisted magnetism between them, much in the way Dexter and Hannah hit it off later. Now that Isaac knows Dexter's name and that he works at Miami Metro, it might not be long before he pays him a visit.
Hannah, played by Yvonne Strahovski, is Wayne Randall's old flame. She was fifteen when she ran away with him while he went on a killing spree, but from what was said, she wasn't involved in the murders. Since Wayne's mother showed up with a bag of her son's old trophies, MMH is looking to track down the bodies and maybe close that case for good. That led to Dexter and Batista paying Hannah a visit to swab her cheek and ask her some questions. Dexter sure is swabbing a lot of cheeks these days, isn't he?
Hannah clearly doesn't want to get involved in this case anymore and claims she has nothing else to tell anyone, but I doubt that's the case. Sparks were flying as Dexter and Hannah had their brief encounter. We know he likes them blonde and beautiful, and we know she likes the murdering type, so it seems like they're a good match for one another.
Finally, we have Quinn, who's once again treading into messy waters with his romantic entanglements. Nadia the stripper has been asked to keep an eye on Quinn, which she agreed to do (Isaac doesn't seem like the kind of guy you say no to). But she actually came clean about that to Quinn. Because she seems to be a decent human being and because we're dealing with Quinn here, I'm convinced this relationship will end with her dead and Quinn more miserable than ever. Morbid, pessimistic predictions aside, right now the two appear to be in agreement that they'll work together. And Nadia seems very into Quinn. Wouldn't it be nice if this didn't end with his heart broken?
And that's about it for the week! It should be interesting to see how things move forward between Deb and Dexter. With Speltzer out on the loose, will Deb be willing to stand aside and let Dexter do his thing if it means saving the next girl from getting killed?
