Spoiler alert: Do not read on if you haven't seen Season 7, Episode 2 of "Dexter," titled "Sunshine and Frosty Swirl."
Deb - Dex Drama:
Deb devoted herself to trying to "cure" Dexter in this episode, but if Marcus Bachmann has taught us anything, it's that sort of flimsy reparative therapy is doomed to fail spectacularly. We are who we are, and Deb's struggle to come to terms with that, which had her vacillating between being revolted by her step-brother and drawn toward protecting him, made this another hour of really intense, highly watchable and totally re-energized "Dexter."
Sticking to the great pacing that the show's utilizing thus far in this new season, the action picked up right after Dexter admitted his serial-killer secret to Deb. She immediately ran out outside and puked upon hearing the news, putting together that Dexter was actually the Bay Harbor Butcher, and that he must have set up Doakes to take the fall. Trying to counter-act her disgust, Dexter revealed that their dad Harry taught him the code and knew his secret too, cementing the fact that pretty much every male figure in her life has done her wrong in one way or another.
Give props to Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter for great acting in these gut-wrenching scenes. They've played them with the emotional depth and intensity of two people who have been married, dealt with Hall's cancer and been divorced in real life.
The show is doing a good job at keeping the dynamic between the two on edge and constantly-evolving. For a brief moment when Dexter was making his case that he really only kills awful people, you could see Deb momentarily consider the perverse morality of Dexter and Harry's code.
The writers are taking full advantage of the tension to give Deb a number of awesome and typically profanity-laced Deb-isms, such as, "I'm the worst fucking detective in the world," and, "All of this is very very fucking wrong." And in the least verbal Deb-ism to date, she clocked Dexter in the face and stormed out of his apartment.
Later, she told him, "I was this close to arresting you this morning," but they both know she can't do that. After she helped him burn Travis Marshall's body, she's now an accomplice to the crime, and turning him in isn't an option if she wants to keep her job as a Homicide Lieutenant.
Eventually she found some sympathy for her brother by thinking about his compulsions as an addiction and offering him 24/7 brother-sitting as "rehab." So Dex moved in with Deb, as we all thanked the writers for dropping that weird "Deb is in love with Dexter" storyline they balloon-tested last season. If they hadn't kicked that to curb, things would be on the verge of getting a little too interesting.
But with little plan other than "don't let Dex kill people," Deb was forced to resort to sleeping on a couch between Dexter and the door and demanding complete honesty that she has no chance of getting in return. She dispensed pearls of wisdom like, "Call me and say, 'I really feel like wrapping someone up in plastic and stabbing them,' and I'll say, 'No, don't."'
And oddly enough, Dexter actually followed her advice, albeit after he'd injected both Deb's steak and Louis Greene with tranquilizer. He called Deb to confess his relapse before killing Greene, deciding to just leave him unconscious in a parking lot. Louis hasn't yet qualified as kill-able under the code anyway (even planting kiddie porn on your ex-business partner's computer is not a capital offense), so the episodic progress Dexter showed here was probably a mirage.
Kill Of The Week:
A Ukranian mob boss came to town and quickly paid the strip club bouncer who spilled Victor Baskov's name to Quinn and Batista a visit, stabbing him with a screwdriver through the eye. Hey, if Dexter wasn't going to kill anyone this episode, somebody had to, right?
Dispatches From Miami-Metro:
LaGuerta opted to go through a private investigator to keep the blood slide evidence quiet. Realizing she stumbled onto something big, she called in the FBI to advise. Could we be seeing Special Agent Lundy make a return to Miami Metro soon?
Update: Commenters have reminded me that Lundy was killed by Jon Lithgow's Trinity Killer's daughter in Season 4. So unless Deb gets her own personal version of Harry's Code in flashback form -- Lundy's Code? -- that's probably not going to happen.
Quinn interviewed a stripper who gave him a lead in the Mike Anderson case, leading him to the bouncer who told them about Victor Baskov before he paid the price for talking. In the process, Quinn connected the case to the Ukranian mob and got himself a new lady friend.
Dexter was having a deep conversation with an incarcerated serial killer who claimed he'd grown a conscience before the guy threw himself in front of a truck in the episode's disturbing final scene. This should open the door for his murder-spree partner in crime, who was a minor at the time, to enter the story in the form of Yvonne Strahovski's character Hannah McKay.
Theory Of The Week:
Let's use this space to discuss Louise Green this week. What do we think this disturbed dude is up to? Here's what we know: He's obsessed with Dexter, made a video game with a serial-killer protagonist, canceled his credit cards, recorded a rant in which he said he wanted to see Dexter "lying in his own piss and blood," sent him a severed hand from the Ice Truck Killer case, and has easy access to Dexter and Harrison through his babysitter Jamie Batista, who he's dating.
After Dexter confirmed the depths of Green's creepy stalking, he put him up against the wall in a scene in which Michael C. Hall looked downright maniacal, contorting his face to ask him "Why?!" he was messing with him. But to Dexter's credit, he applied some restraint, and chose not to put Green on his table ... for now.
The answer to that "Why?" question will probably largely loom over how this season plays out. Has Green used his knowledge of mathematical algorithms to pinpoint Dexter as the real Bay Harbor Butcher? Does Green have a connection to Rudy, Dexter's brother and The Ice Truck Killer? Could Green be a relative of someone Dexter killed in the past? It's hard to know at this point, but it's a storyline that certainly bears watching. Chime in with your theories in the comments.
