Note: Do not read on if you have not yet seen Season 8, Episode 7 of Showtime's "Dexter," titled "Dress Code."
Well, Hannah McKay -- ahem, Maggie Casner -- is back, and Dexter has an unhinged protege. Before this episode was through, both of Dexter's buddies had killed someone, and more consequences were visible on the horizon. With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Hannah's drugging turned out to be more innocent than it appeared at the end of the last episode. She left Dexter passed out next to a river, and left Deb home safe in her apartment, unharmed, just to sort of announce her return to Miami, as lovelorn, serial killer ex-girlfriends do. As it turned out, she really only wanted Dexter's help in making her new, millionaire casino magnate husband Miles Casner disappear.
Hannah got what she wanted, slicing her abusive husband's throat with what looked like an eyelash curler after he roughed her up and threatened to take her on a never-ending cruise. And after getting beat up himself by Casner's henchmen, Dexter arrived just in time to help her dispose of the body. Unfortunately for both of them, Deb had been tracking Dexter with a GPS monitor and watched as they returned from their romantic rendezvous on the bay.
There's another showdown looming between Hannah and Deb, and it's going to get really ugly. Deb seems more jealous that Dexter is still in love with Hannah than she is that that Hannah has now drugged her twice. She was also aghast that Dexter would reveal even more of his secret, incriminating rituals to Hannah, who could conceivably still rat them out.
It looks like Deb is dangerously close to taking matters into her own hands, which could get risky for her, since Hannah is the more accomplished murderer. She said several times throughout the episode that Hannah needs to be out of their lives, and although she pinpointed the moment she asked Dexter to kill Hannah as the beginning of her downward spiral, at this point, Deb seems more inclined to finish the job than learn from her mistake.
Zach Hamilton, on the other hand, couldn't claim self-defense in his murder. He killed Dexter's neighbor Cassie in cold blood, bludgeoning her to death like the women he killed before. And he did it despite Dexter's efforts to teach him the Code and mold him into a vigilante serial killer for the next generation. Kids these days, right?
Dexter should have never taken him on as a protege in the first place. His instincts told him not to, but Dr. Vogel manipulated him into taking Hamilton off his table. And as a result, he got called to a murder scene in his apartment complex.
Both storylines seemed to drive home the message that Dexter is ultimately destined to live and die alone. His attempts to form relationships with other people in the murderin' community have all ended badly. He's already turned his sister into an accomplice, gotten Rita killed and caused his father's suicide. And now, his sister wants to kill his ex and he's going to have to kill his protege.
- Jamie is moving out of Angel's apartment, and she wants Quinn to move in with her. He promised to "totally think about," so that sounds predictably not at all promising.
- In the most Masuka-ish irony ever, it turns out that his daughter is a stripper. And it kind of crushes him. "I've stared at a million boobs, but until now, I've never considered them daughter boobs," he sighed. He tried to get her a job at Miami Metro, but she didn't seem interested.
- Elway and Deb are going to hook up sooner or later, right? And when that happens, he seems destined to uncover her off-books investigating and figure out what she and Dexter are up to.
- After Zach Hamilton marched into Miami Metro and demanded that Quinn stop his unauthorized stake out, Dexter tried to teach him restraint, but he ended up just sounding maniacal. "Then you'll be able to do what I do, and get away with it," Dexter told him. Was that a glimpse of the pride that will come before Dexter's fall? We'll have to watch the series' final five episodes to find out.
What did you think of this episode of "Dexter"? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments.
"Dexter" airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.
