Josh gives a recap of the second episode of the final season of Dexter, where the Brain Sugeon strikes again! Meanwhile, Violet offers her commentary in pink font.
This episode of Dexter begins with what looks like a “home video” that has Vogel speaking to Harry, when Dexter is 10 years old. Harry is talking about Dexter begging to go to the crime scene that Harry was working. We learn that Harry had given into Dexter, allowing him to see the entire scene. We also learn that Dexter’s first “trophy” was from this crime scene, stealing a piece of a glass with blood on it, eerily similar to the blood slides he used to collect. We learn that Vogel had helped Harry to “develop” Harry’s code for Dexter, after they learned that hunting animals would not satiate his appetite.
Ah, so that’s where Dexter got the idea to place a drop of his victim’s blood onto a blood slide as a souvenir!
We also learn that Vogel has treated many “psychopaths” in her time. We also learn Vogel’s “true” intentions—She tells Dexter that she has a serial killer potentially hunting her. How does she know this? The so-called serial killer left the piece of brain from the victim from last episode on her doorstep. As a side note, I am not sure I am buying this. Vogel by her own admission is fascinated with psychopaths, and seems to revere them. She informs Dexter that most successful people such as politicians and CEOs exhibit psychopathic traits.
Yeah, seems a little fishy to me.
Vogel finally makes her request, asking Dexter to hunt down the person that is hunting her. Dexter does not seem to eager to jump onto this case, and asks why she cannot use the police or FBI for help. We learn that Vogel has used less than noble methods when treating other psychopaths, and is afraid her career would be ruined and at worst, she would end up in jail. With regards to her relationship with Dexter, while never meeting him in person, she describes herself as being a motherly figure to him, which oddly creeps him out a little. Vogel also gives Dexter another DVD, which has Harry describing Dexter’s first kill—a drug dealer who killed two people. In the video, Vogel seems satisfied with their results with Dexter, describing the program as “working”. Dexter does grudgingly agree to look for this person hunting Vogel, almost out of a sense of duty. I am curious to know—is it because he wants a good hunt or actually wants to help Vogel?
Well, he needs victims anyway, so this is an easy way to get one without having to look someone up.
Meanwhile, Deb is talking to her boss, Elway (the president on The Dead Zone for those familiar!). They are going back and forth regarding her performance on her job regarding Briggs and the stolen jewelry. Throughout the conversation, Elway seems skeptical of her work, as these types of jobs do not generally take two weeks, and through the conversation, he learns that Deb had slept with Briggs. Deb tries to play this off as a way to get “in” with Briggs, and locate the stolen goods so that Elway can get its 20% of the “bounty”. Elway continues doubting Deb’s performance, and questions her regarding Briggs’ death, but Deb is able to make him eat his words a little, producing a key to a storage facility, where Deb believes that the stolen jewelry may be held.
I’m surprised that showing him the key wasn’t the first thing she did! Then maybe she could have avoided so much questioning from Elway. But then, Deb hasn’t exactly been on top of her game lately.
We get another murder from what is now being dubbed “The Brain Surgeon” by Quinn, which we get a preview to before the body is discovered. We see the victim bound to a reclined chair, with the killer dressed in surgeon-like clothing. He begins to suffocate the victim with the bag, but we get an interesting revelation: The killer says something to the effect, “I don’t want to do this!”. This can be taken one of two ways: Either his compulsion to kill is so strong he can’t stop himself, or someone his forcing him to kill.
The body is discovered at a skate park, in a similar manner to the previous body. The back of the head has been cut off, and a portion of the brain has been scooped out. The police and Dexter begin canvassing the area, and Dexter discovers the murder bag. Vogel has shown up at the scene as well, and Dexter says that he may be able to remove a fingerprint from the bag.
Apparently, just like the last Brain Surgeon crime scene, the murder weapon has been left nearby. Looks like this is going to become a pattern.
Deb and Elway have begun their hunt for the storage shed, and they end up at Briggs’ house. They search through his paperwork, and discover a bill for the storage facility that Deb believes the jewelry to be held at. Prior to that though, Elway and Deb look at a photo of Briggs and Deb gets a little emotional. She reveals she thought Briggs was “okay to be around”, making me wonder if she would have ever turned him in. Deb decides she wants to head to the storage facility, but Elway has to make a meeting. Deb decides to head there on her own. Unfortunately for her though, “El Sapo” has been following them.
Back at the lab, Dexter has been able to lift a fingerprint, and he discovers it belongs to a man named Sussman. Vogel is in the lab with him, and seems perplexed by the name that comes up for the fingerprint, as she does not recognize it as one of her past clients. Dexter decides it is time to pay this guy a visit though. Masuka pops in on the two, and discovers tells Dexter that he found a partial print as well, and that, “the race is on!”. Dexter will have to try to stay ahead of Miami Metro.
So, it’s normal for Dexter and Masuka to race against each other to find the source of a fingerprint? They wouldn’t work together at all? Lucky for Dexter, so he can work on his own agenda. Also, while in the lab, Dexter tries to figure out why he doesn’t remember Vogel from his childhood, and it turns out it’s because they never actually met. He admits that he would have liked to have someone to talk to after Harry died, and Vogel is surprised at that it’s uncharacteristic of a psychopath to be emotional like that.
Dexter heads to the suspect’s house, and begins searching the house. There is a funny moment with him staring at the air conditioner for a moment, but mentally says, “Nah”. He finds the house oddly clean, but realizes it is just like his own. After some searching, he finds a photo of the suspect at a hunting lodge, and figures that would be a perfect spot for a kill. He finds the lake’s name, but not the exact address of it yet. We learn that Miami Metro has figured out the fingerprint though, and show up while Dexter is inside. This seems to be rather anticlimactic though, as nothing ever comes from this, presumably because the police do not have a warrant to enter his house (we never see the results of this, but I assume Dexter just sat tight until the cops left).
Yeah, it was weird that we never saw what actually happened here.
Deb has made it to the facility, and opened the storage container. It has a lot of typical stored stuff, like beds, and dressers. She begins investigating the stored stuff, and finds a sack of jewels in the bottom of a dresser. As she is about to get up, she is taken by surprise by El Sapo. He grabs her gun, and hits her, and steals the gems. Deb becomes enraged and lunges at El Sapo, but ultimately takes a beating herself. El Sapo lets her live though, saying,”You’re lucky I only kill if I am paid to”. He walks away, as Deb lays there fairly hurt. He gets in his SUV, and puts Deb’s gun in the glove compartment.
I thought that was a weak reason he gave for not killing her. I thought she was dead for sure. Even if he’s not getting paid to kill her, wouldn’t he be worried about her identifying him? He’s already seen her talking to the police, so he knows she’s not afraid to go to them.
Dexter decides to pay Deb a visit, thinking that El Sapo might be on to her. She is sleeping on the couch, and is very groggy, probably both from pain and booze. Dexter tells her that he is concerned for her well-being, but Deb doesn’t care, and tells him to leave. He tries to insist on staying, but grudgingly leaves.
We also get a reminder in this scene of how Deb was in love with Dexter, as she tells him she didn’t want to hate him, that she wanted “the opposite.” Is she still in love with him even though she claims to hate him?
Dexter wants to visit the hunting cabin that he discovered at the house, but he gets a call to go to a scene of the crime. In this scene is a familiar SUV that we saw El Sapo get in, and who is inside? El Sapo—shot multiple times, and dead. Dexter is able to recover a piece of glass from the car which has blood on it from the outside—which Dexter brings back at the lab, discovering it as Deb’s, thusly marking her as the murderer.
Oh Deb, if you were going to kill him, why did you have to be so careless?? She also forgot he had her gun, too, which she failed to retrieve from the glove compartment.
Now we will bring Quinn into Deb’s story. Earlier in the episode, Batista tells Quinn to take the sergeants’ exam. Why? Because he is a good detective, and knows that Quinn and Jamie are going out, and for him to be “okay” with it, Quinn has to make something of himself.
Flash forward a few scenes in the episode, and Jamie is about to go on a date with Quinn. Jamie gets in the car, and Quinn talks about Deb. This angers Jamie, as she is tired of Quinn bringing up his past fiancé. Quinn then freaks out, asking if her and Batista’s problem is a “Cuban thing”. He tells Jamie that Batista knows, and their argument escalates quickly, until Jamie decides she doesn’t want to go on the date after all. This scene seems to make it look like he may still be hung up on Deb until he calls her into the station.
It doesn’t seem like there’s any lingering romantic feelings between Quinn and Deb, but I can certainly get where Jamie’s coming from, considering she is his ex, and he’s been talking about her a lot lately.
Dexter finally gets his chance to visit the cabin he has been dying to get to. He looks around it, and it looks perfect for such crimes, but there is a wrinkle in his theory–the murderer is found impaled on a meat hook, dead. He tells Vogel of this development, and Vogel insists that he must have been innocent. Dexter is not so easily convinced though, and thinks he must of at least had a hand in the crimes.
Back with Deb, she walks into the station, and Dexter sees her come in through the window shades of his lab. Masuka greets her, as does Matthews and Batista. Everyone seems glad to see her. She then meets with Quinn. And oddly enough he takes her to an interrogation room. He plays it off as all other areas were occupied, and it was the only available room. He then begins asking her about Briggs’ death, and while not outright acting accusatory, begins to ask her in a way that eludes to suspicions he may have. He describes the conversation’s necessity as a way to work together to figure out what has happened, but it doesn’t feel that way. Meanwhile, Dexter has made his way to the one-way mirror and is watching the conversation go down, and sees Deb getting hung up on the questions. He barges into the room saying there is a “family emergency”, and takes her out into the alley of the police station (ironically they talked there last season when Deb was trying to wrap her head around Dexter’s “problem”), and he reveals that he knows that Deb killed El Sapo. Deb doesn’t deny it, either. Dexter tells Deb that he could have helped, but Deb is still not receptive. She describes herself as living in a hell, eventually walks away, leaving Dexter.
We see more of just how far Deb has spiraled out of control. She’s made this mess with El Sapo and doesn’t seem to care about the repercussions, instead depending on Dexter to clean it up. Because of her carelessness, Dexter has to take her gun out of evidence and swap it with another. I wonder how many more times this season he will have to clean up his sister’s messes?
Batista had earlier told Deb about a get together at his restaurant. Deb drives by it, but opts to not stop in. Quinn sees her take off, and looks concerned.
Meanwhile, Vogel has called Dexter, telling him that she thinks someone is in his house, saying her front door is open. Dexter asks her to stay in her car until he gets there. He investigates the house, and finds that no one is there, but Vogel points out a DVD on her desk that wasn’t there when she left. They watch the DVD and discover that the DVD is of the “Brain Surgeon’s” second victim. What we find out, is that the “killer” is being held at gun point as he is forced to kill the second victim. Dexter is agitated for two reason–the first being that he believes Vogel is right, and he did not properly handle his “investigation”, and the second being that he has ruined Deb. Vogel, however, tries to console him though, as Dexter says he has ruined her life, but Vogel describes him as “perfect” and gives him a creepy “motherly” hug.
I’m a little suspicious that Vogel may have left the DVD herself, and then just called Dexter up pretending someone else broke into her house and left it there. I could be completely off though.
Overall I really enjoyed this episode. I think that there is more to Vogel than what is being shown, and I have a feeling Hannah may be this mystery killer (although I am not sure how she would be able to get this guy onto a meat hook). Deb is clearly in deep with her problems, as well, and I am curious how much Quinn plans to pursue Deb.
Hannah? I don’t know about that. We know she is coming back at some point this season, but I don’t think it’s in that capacity. Something interesting that I noticed in the first episode that came up again in this episode, are indications that Dexter may not be a psychopath after all. Last episode, Vogel was asking Dexter about the Bay Harbor Butcher, who Dexter said had a short temper and was quick to anger, to which Vogel found that uncharacteristic of a psychopath, since a psychopath would be dissociated from his feelings, and not quick to anger. However, we kept seeing angry outbursts from Dexter last episode. Then in this episode, Dexter talks about how he wanted to talk to someone after Harry died, and Vogel is surprised, because a psychopath would not have had such an emotional response. What does this mean for the show though? I’m not sure. But I am enjoying Dexter so far this season, and curious what Vogel is really up to!
The interesting dichotomy between Vogel and Deb over Dexter will be interesting to see play out. One calls him a monster, the other calls him a superior being. It will be interesting to see how this plays out for the season. I am sad to know that we only have 10 episodes left! However, Comic-Con is right around the corner, and we will be seeing the farewell of Dexter, at their panel in Hall H!
