Josh provides a recap of Season 8 Episode 8 of Dexter entitled “Are We There Yet?” where Dexter investigates Cassie’s murder, but things are not as they seem! Following the recap, Josh and Violet both offer their thoughts on the episode.
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Recap of Dexter, Season 8 Episode 8: Are We There Yet?
This week’s episode of Dexter begins where the last one left off–Dexter and Miami homicide investing the death of Cassie, Dexter’s neighbor. As Dexter is examining the scene, he becomes convinced that Zach is the murderer. He finds blood underneath Cassie’s fingernails, that he foresees to be Zach’s. It looks like Dexter has made up his mind as to how to handle his young disciple.
Deb pays Dexter a visit at the crime scene. She goes into “cop mode” for a second with Batista and company, but soon realizes that is not her place considering she is not a cop. She approaches Dexter and begins asking about the case, but then turns to discussing Hannah. Fortunately for Dexter, Deb is unable to speak freely considering the amount of people around, but warns Dexter that they will talk later about it.
Back at the station, Dexter has ran the blood through the database, and discovers that Zach’s blood is under Cassie’s fingernails. Meanwhile, Masuka has brought in his daughter Niki to work, as promised last episode. Dexter’s narrative has determined that he will have to cover up the evidence of Zach’s blood considering how close it could put the police to Dexter. He tells Masuka that the blood was her own. Meanwhile, Niki has decided that the lab and police station has some “bad mojo” that may need to be “cleansed”. On Dexter’s way out of the office, Quinn stops him, asking him to look at the photos of Cassie’s death, and compares them to Norma’s, asking if there are any similarities. Dexter plays it off as all bludgeonings looking similar to each other. Quinn asks Dexter to notify him if there is any DNA evidence found, and begins to ask Dexter what he thinks about the case. Dexter tries to deter him from pursuing the lead, telling Quinn he could be jeopardizing his career. Quinn doesn’t seem to care though.
Further investigation into Zach leads Dexter to find credit card transactions in the Florida Keys. Dexter decides it is time for a trip to the Keys, to take care of this problem.
Back at home, Debra has come to visit Dexter to continue where their conversation left off. Deb asks just how far Hannah is out of their lives, to which Dexter says that, “she is not a threat”. Debra is not happy with this answer, especially when Dexter tells Deb that he is getting her a passport to leave the country. Deb tells Dexter that he is lying to himself if he thinks this is the end of Hannah, to which Dexter disagrees. Meanwhile, Jamie has been taking Cassie’s death hard, and asks Dexter if she can take Harrison to stay with her at Quinn’s house now that they have moved in together. Dexter says that is fine. Debra and Dexter are not fine, however.
Dexter pays Hannah a visit at her (dead) husband’s yacht. He says that he can get her another passport from a “guy”, and seems to want to convince both himself and Hannah that her best move is to leave Miami as soon as possible. But Dexter wants to keep Hannah “safe” until then, and asks her to come with him to the Florida Keys. Hannah deduces quickly why Dexter is going to the Keys, and why he wants her to come along. She eventually agrees.
Debra in the meantime has been wrestling with what to do. She has told Dexter multiple times that turning Hannah in will be fine, considering that no one would believe anything that Hannah McKay has to say. Resolved in the fact that it looks like Dexter is seduced by Hannah, Debra turns to Elway for help. In his office, she makes an offer he can’t refuse. Debra tells Elway that there are several hundred thousand dollars in rewards available for the person who brings in Hannah McKay.
Elway seems skeptical at first, trying to figure out Debra’s motives. But he is happy to take the money, and takes the case. Debra takes Elway down to the marina Hannah’s boat was at, but the boat is gone. Elway questions Debra further, trying to figure out why Debra was so convinced that Hannah was in town, but Debra basically just says that she just knows.
After Debra and Elway part ways, Debra gives Dexter a call to figure out where Hannah has gone. Dexter plays off that he is just heading out to dinner. All the while, Debra is tracking Dexter’s car, seeing that he is on the way to the Keys. She tries to get him to confess to harboring Hannah, but he is unwilling to give her up. Debra then talks with Elway, letting him know that she thinks that Hannah is in the Keys. Elway tells her to not be reckless, and bring her in so they can get their cash reward. He also asks Debra about the husband potentially going to the Keys with Hannah, as he has found out the boat left without either the husband or Hannah on it. Elway also learned that the husband was supposed to be going to New York, but there were no air travel records indicating he made it.
Dexter, riding with Hannah to the Keys, tells Hannah of Zach, and the pupil he could have been. Hannah then asks about herself, and if Dexter ever planned to get rid of that problem. Dexter confesses no. Hannah and Dexter also discuss Vogel, and Dexter reveals that she feels like family to him. They arrive at the hotel that Dexter had traced to Zach’s credit card, and find his room covered in plastic–mimicking Dexter’s method. Dexter says it is sloppy work, but a good first attempt. Hannah learns at this point that Zach had been on Dexter’s table, and also let go. We see that Zach has a set of knives similar to Dexter’s, and we almost remorse in Dexter that he isn’t able to take his pupil on after all.
Zach then comes back to his room and sees Dexter, who immediately pins him to the wall. Dexter accuses Zach of Cassie’s murder, but Zach seems confused by the accusation. He then tells Dexter that he was pursuing his own victim, a former school mate from high school. Zach tells Dexter that this man killed his girlfriend by strangulation, and has video time stamps of the stalkings. He shows Dexter his camera, and he realizes that Zach is telling the truth.
This does bring up another problem though–Zach has this victim in the trunk of his car. Zach informs Dexter that his plan didn’t go exactly as it should have. Dexter tells Zach he will help him get rid of the body, blood and car, and drive him back home. Dexter asks Hannah to clean up the plastic while they are gone. As they get into the car, Zach warns Dexter about the car handle–that it is sharp, and cut him the last time he got into it. Dexter then asks Zach if the door had cut him before, to which Zach says no. Dexter then considers that perhaps Zach was framed, and the blood from Zach’s wound was used to put onto Cassie for the setup. In the car trip to clean everything up, Dexter talks with his father, and seems to be re-convinced to help Zach.
Hannah begins her clean up, but has an unexpected visitor to Zach’s room–Debra has come down to the Keys. She tells Hannah to put the handcuffs on that she tosses towards her. She refuses. Hannah then tries to justify her reasons for killing to Debra, but she is not buying it. Hannah then tries to play Dexter’s emotions into the argument. She goes as far as saying that Dexter is what is driving her, and that she didn’t kill Deb for Dexter.
Dexter and Zach return to the room, and Debra gives up on trying to arrest Hannah, telling Dexter that she is his problem. She heads back home, as do Dexter, Hannah and Zach. On the drive home, they seem like a family–mother, father and son. It seems like we will have a serial killer family on our hands.
Meanwhile, back in Miami, Quinn has met with Cassie’s boyfriend, Oliver, showing a picture of Zach to him, asking if he looked familiar to him. Oliver asks if he is the killer, to which Quinn responds, “just a person of interest”. Oliver tells Quinn that he looks familiar but doesn’t really know why.
As for Debra, she has tried to convince Elway to get off the case, and that Hannah is long gone, potentially out of the country. Elway sees that Debra really has a vendetta with Hannah, and is shocked that she has given up so easy on the pursuit. Elway and Debra have another argument, to which Debra admits she doesn’t really care for their line of work, wanting to do something that gives meaning to her life rather than zeroes on her paycheck. Elway is a little offended, and asks if she will be rejoining the police force. Debra answers with a ” maybe”.
Dexter drives Zach to Vogel’ s house, who invites them in for dinner. Vogel insists that Dexter and Hannah stay, to which Dexter is reluctant at first, but eventually caves. They sit down for a nice “family” meal, and almost seem like a normal family–until they discuss the death of Cassie. They take a look at the photos, but do not conclude much. Dexter asks Vogel to take Zach home, while he drops Hannah off at her room before she leaves in the morning for good.
At Hannah’s room, Hannah reveals that she doesn’t want to say goodbye again to Dexter. Dexter tries to explain to Hannah what her moves should be as she flees the country, and while they both realize that they shouldn’t stay together, they get fleshy with each other. After they wrap up, Dexter heads back to his apartment, to see Zach sitting in his office chair, with his head missing a certain section, and we then get a scene of Vogel examining a specific jar, with what is probably a section of Zach’s brain inside.
The episode finishes up with Dexter running to the airplane that was supposed to take Hannah away. She is about to board, but Dexter asks her to stay.
Josh’s Thoughts on Episode 8, Are We There Yet?
First of all, I had a feeling the Brain Surgeon was still alive. Yates clearly was not him. I am surprised that Dexter couldn’t figure this out himself, considering their MOs were completely different from each other. Unfortunately, Dexter has to see Zach die in order to figure out that he is still around. I was actually beginning to like Zach’s character too. What is Vogel’s role in the Brain Surgeon though? It almost seems like they are working together again, considering how thoughtful she is looking at the jar.
Another interesting thought about Vogel–at dinner, Hannah asks Vogel why she chose her line of work. She brushes the question off quickly, saying that it was due to some event that she didn’t want to bore people with. What even could this be? It would seem to be before Dexter’s run in with Vogel. Was she a killer herself? She seems a little old now to carry out the Brain Surgeon’s murders.
As for who the Brain Surgeon is–right now, all clues seem to point to Cassie’s boyfriend. My theory is that this man purposefully got himself into Cassie’s life in order to be closer to Dexter. He would have been invited easily into Cassie’s house, and Dexter determined that it was likely someone that Cassie knew considering how far into the house her body was. The conversation the boyfriend had with Quinn also felt a little strange, as if the boyfriend was a little “off”.
And finally regarding Hannah–I have to say I still really could care less about their story. I was hoping that she would fly away and that would be the end of them. Elway seems like he plans on pushing forward with pursuing her though, which could put Dexter is some sticky situations. Overall this episode was pretty good though, despite my “Hannah-hate”. I was sad to see Zach go, though. He and Dexter had an interesting dynamic going. I would have liked to see where they ended up.
Violet’s Thoughts on Episode 8: Are We There Yet?
If you had been reading our recaps, you would know that we’ve been saying all along that it didn’t add up for Yates to be the Brain Surgeon. But what a great ending to this episode! After last episode, I was not very happy with the direction the show was taking, but now after this episode, I am back in it, and wondering how could I have doubted this show for an instant. It definitely had me assuming that Zach was the one who killed Cassie, and finding Zach’s blood underneath Cassie’s fingernails was just the icing on the cake that Dexter needed to prove it. But as soon as Dexter met up with Zach in the Keys, following the Code, and we found out there was no way it could have been Zach who did it, I immediately knew it was the Brain Surgeon trying to frame Zach. Sure, the show tries to make you think that maybe Quinn did it, because he’s so bent on catching Zach, but I knew that was something even Quinn would not stoop to.
And yes, all signs point to Cassie’s boyfriend, Oliver. First of all, they talk about how it must have been someone she knew because the killer was pretty far back into the apartment, so she must have willingly let him in. Then when Quinn showed Oliver a picture of Zach Hamilton and asked if he had seen him before, before answering, he asked if that was the killer. When he finally decides to answer, he just says that he looks familiar. I was confused at that, because I thought for sure he would have been able to identify him, because he and Cassie saw Dexter and Zach talking outside of Dexter’s apartment when Oliver and Cassie were leaving her apartment to go for a swim. But, I kind chalked it up to it being dark, and him not really paying attention to some random stranger, and after all, Oliver did say that Zach looked familiar. However, Oliver also told Quinn that he and Cassie talked about having a life together. Um, no, we know from Deb’s conversation with Cassie that Cassie wasn’t that into Oliver because she was hung up on Dexter, so I highly doubt they were planning on having a life together. It was fairly obvious to me and Josh as soon as the episode ended that Oliver is the Brain Surgeon. He was only acting like he was so into Cassie so that he could keep an eye on Dexter.
I’m still not sure what Vogel’s role is in all this. I don’t think she’s in on it. It looks like the Brain Surgeon sent her a piece of Zach’s brain. Vogel wanted Zach to live so that Dexter could teach him the code, so it wouldn’t make sense that she would be in on the Brain Surgeon killing Zach. And what is her back story that she’s trying to cover up?
I admit, the past couple episodes I haven’t liked Zach at all, but during this episode, I was finally starting to warm up to him, and actually started liking him. So I was taken by surprise and a bit saddened that he ended up dead at the hands of the Brain Surgeon.
Just when I thought we were finally going to get rid of Hannah, it looks like she’ll be around awhile longer. Sigh.
Interestingly, it looks like Deb is returning to Miami Metro. Didn’t see that one coming.
Take a look at the scenes from next week’s episode of Dexter, “Make Your Own Kind of Music” below:
