Tonight's episode of Dexter offered a couple of interesting twists and developments. It's hard to really feel the momentum of the season building just yet, but the potential is definitely there as certain pieces slide into place. This includes the Ukranian criminals, and also Dexter's messy relationship with Deb, which may have turned a corner tonight.
Everything I do is in my control.
It was obvious last week that the Speltzer situation was Dexter's attempt to get Deb to see the benefits of his dark passenger. Not only was Speltzer not charged with past crimes involving battered and murdered women, but even after last week's episode, which nearly saw Deb killed at Speltzer's hands, the man slipped through the legal cracks, thanks to a combination of factors (lack of DNA, his mask and some overzealous arresting officers.)
Dexter continued his solo pursuit, and they faced off a number of times, including a rumble in Speltzer's camper, which led to Dexter being set up in one of Speltzer's mazes. Dexter escaped by the skin of his teeth and next time around, got the jump on Speltzer, hitting him with a shovel at the cemetery at night and then setting him up in a mortuary kill-room, where he promptly staked him and incinerated him - after he did a bit of monologuing about how he was doing all this for his sister, who really wanted to catch him.
Dexter used Speltzer's murder to make a major change in his life. He burned his slides! The gesture came after conversations with Deb about whether or not he's fit to raise Harrison.. Deb had a nightmare in a bathtub and woke up with the connection between Dexter, Trinity and Rita's death formed in her mind. She confronted Dexter about Rita and Trinity and he admitted the truth - that he had the opportunity to kill Trinity but didn't and it cost Rita her life. He told her that he did eventually kill Trinity, but obviously he didn't go into the details there. That was a big admission though, and I'm glad it was addressed. With everything that's been going on, it's not a huge surprise that Deb didn't make the Trinity connection sooner, but given what a huge deal that was, it needed to be addressed. Now it's one less discovery she has to make about her brother.
Once again, the episode ended with Deb and Dexter in a strange place. Dexter showed Deb the smoke from Speltzer's body in the incinerator and got her to admit that she's glad he's dead. It didn't hurt that Speltzer went out of his way to antagonize Deb, showing up at his last victim's funeral to grin at Deb from the curb. That made the whole thing a bit more personal. Maybe too personal from a viewer's perspective, as this whole situation felt especially staged to get Deb on board with Dexter's lifestyle. But I suppose it's all sort of necessary. The alternative would be either to have Deb turn Dexter in, or have Deb spend the whole season protesting Dexter's dark side but not doing anything about it, which would just be silly, considering she's a cop and all. The writers need to keep this thing with Deb and Dexter moving until it's ready to settle one way or the other. Ukranians
Isaak seemed adamant about figuring out who killed Viktor and why. I noted his enthusiasm at the beginning of the episode, when George pointed out that Viktor was kind of a loose cannon and a problem. They seemed to disagree over just how big a deal Viktor's death was. Isaak was determined to defend and avenge him, though it wasn't entirely clear why. That all came together later on when we saw Isaak in Viktor's place. Isaak found a photo of himself and Viktor hidden behind another framed photo, and tearfully stared at it, speaking aloud about avenging his death. Either I'm reading that scene all wrong, or Viktor and Isaak were secret lovers. That makes this situation much more serious. Before, it seemed more like a power issue, with Isaak looking to find out who dared to mess with him, but when love is involved, things get really messy. Dexter may be in big trouble here.
Isaak knows Dexter is involved, but what's unclear to him is whether he did it with and/or on behalf of Miami Metro, or if he was on his own. They know Louis works for Miami Metro, and so does Dexter, so it's understandable that they might think this was some vigilante action taken by the police. That seems to be the only thing stalling them from taking action at this point. Plus they have the cops breathing down their necks over Mike Anderson's death, but Isaak and George found a way around that... maybe.
Isaak and George took advantage of their bartender Alex's soft-spot for his family by bribing/threatening him to shoot himself and claim vague admission to killing Mike Anderson in his suicide note. He used the same gun that was used to kill Anderson, and the connections between him and the dead girl were there. His death and note handed the cops packaged closure to the investigation and would probably allow the strip club to get through a shift or two without being raided.
Here's the weird thing though - Here's Isaak telling Alex he'll set his family up for life and all Alex has to do is shoot himself in the brain. Of course, he tacks on a threat that if he doesn't go along with the plan, they'll kill him anyway, so the guy doesn't have much choice. But you would've thought he'd at least try to get them to send the money first. He seemed so quick to take the gun and pull the trigger. A dark moment to be sure, but the set-up seemed a tad rushed.
Quinn is all set to close the book on the Anderson case now that they think the killer has confessed and administered his own justice, but I think that has more to do with his eagerness to continue his relationship with the stripper without the prying eyes and vocal judgment of his fellow detectives. Batista smells something off about Alex's suicide and vague apology-suicide note and wants to continue the investigation. So they have plans to return to the strip club for more questioning.
Hannah
Hannah showed up for a quick scene. Her lawyer has advised her to cooperate with the police in helping them find the body's of her old boyfriend/captor's murder spree. She used the visit to the percent as an opportunity to say hi to Dexter, which is more evidence that these two sparked when he swabbed her cheek. She seems to have a bit of a nostalgic flair for her old crime days. There doesn't seem to be a lot of emotion in her when the subject of Wayne comes up, but her eyes did twinkle when she talked about the wild times they had. Maybe she sees something in Dexter that's telling her there are fun times that could be had with him too. Of course, Dexter's not so much about the fun when it comes to the business of murdering people. But we do know he's easily influenced, so who knows what kind of trouble she could bring into his life?
