An odd episode this week as What’s Eating Dexter Morgan? foregrounds some great high’s but also
lows, when further narrative questions are posed and leading ladies Debra Morgan and Evelyn Vogel continue to steal the show.
From an emotional car crash to a physical one, after a nice
opening segue involving Harrison, this week's Dexter begins with Deb caught in the act
of a DUI. Her path of excessive drinking and pill popping continues, much to
the inconvenience of Quinn who has to abandon is gratuitously naked girlfriend, Jamie, at four
in the morning to bail her out of a sentence. Dexter is also attempting his hand at heroism by reaching out to Debra and taking her to dinner. When bringing up her past
successes with Miami Metro, he appeals to her conscience exclaiming she has saved
many lives, she is a good person. Deb responds with an expletive (of course) but not
directed at Dexter per se, so hey perhaps their relationship is on the mend.
Right? Wrong.
Still employed by the increasingly sleazy Elway, both are
given a new investigative mission to find out whether some woman’s husband is
having an affair. After some covert photography, Elway and Deb catch the
husband with another woman and then proceed to show the photos to their client. Upon
seeing them she believes they've followed
the wrong man, exiting the office with an ‘ignorance is bliss’ mentality. The
relevance of all this? Elway exclaims, some people prefer denial and not knowing the truth. Deb then takes the exact opposite approach, by getting
blindingly inebriated and going to Miami Metro. Whilst there she makes the shocking confession to Quinn that she
murdered Maria LaGuerta. It’s definitely a moment in which the words “Oh
shit..!” will be thought from fans of the show.
Deb is taken to the interrogation room where Quinn attempts to
calm her down. He posits this confession as a manifestation of guilt, resulting from her inability to prevent the murder. A murder the department have determined was
committed by Estrada, written up and reported by who? You guessed it, Dexter. Quinn manages to briefly notify Dexter of a still-hysterical Deb and her confession, who then hotfoots
it to the station, Vogel at hand. Deb is hardly enamored to see either of them
and continues to aggressively threaten truthful revelations. To that, Dexter
knocks her out with an injection and swiftly carries her off the premises, whilst Vogel performs well to convince Quinn that this breakdown is symptomatic of Post
Traumatic Stress Syndrome. She exclaims she will do whatever she can to help
Deb get better. Hmmm... hands up who thinks Quinn will be Deb’s true savior eventually? After all, his care for her is abundantly clear and he’s
running for sergeant... the factors are forming quite the equation. Nevertheless, it’s an intriguing
sub-plot and a nice choice in Quinn’s characterisation.
Furthermore, in light of Deb’s breakdown at the station,
Dexter finally has an epiphany that perhaps he can’t be the one that saves her
after all. Vogel was right, if he caused her pain, how can he be the solution? It’s
here the show lets itself down a little, three episodes in and only now has
Dexter realised that no – he can’t help his sister on the path of recovery. It’s
this lacking temporal quality in addition to the accompanying internal monologues,
once deemed the brilliance of the show, that are now becoming a little tiresome.
It’s a good job then really, that amidst this overdrawn format, characters
such as Deb blaze in with a strong performance and threatening
unpredictability, ultimately stealing the show. With his epiphany, Dexter leaves Deb in
the caring hands of Vogel, who promises to help her get better. This way, he
can regain focus on The Brain Surgeon case, although the inevitable resurface
of Vogel’s ‘unorthodox’ counselling methods will of course have repercussions with
Dexter in the future.
Speaking of The Brain Surgeon, Miami Metro believes they
have found the culprit dead, in a crime scene resembling a gruesome suicide.
Consequently they close the case and move on to the next one; however Dexter
knows the killer is still out there and orchestrated the suicide. Thus the Brain Surgeon continues to threaten Vogel and
Dexter carries on with his vetting and stalking. Using Vogel’s book written about past clients, he tracks down this week’s suspect, Ron
Galuzzo. An unsettling character and rightly so as it turned out he was a
cannibal – not The Brain Surgeon but nevertheless, a nice excuse for Dexter to get his 'kill
room' on the go again. Although it feels finding out who The Brain Surgeon actually
is doesn't matter right now, even if in my head some wild guesses have already
been made. What takes precedence throughout this narrative trope is the role of
Vogel.
She is increasingly under threat and with a nice new brain-package
arriving at her doorstep more frequently, the danger is prescient. But... I don’t
buy it, nor do I believe the needy, ‘help me’ routine she has almost perfected.
Vogel so easily transgresses from this to the manipulative and over-analytical
neuropsychiatrist, quite clearly toying with Dexter's conscience, it's all undeniably suspect. She interrogates his emotions, detailing them as selfishly driven, much to his disapproval. She also poses the difficult question, when Deb
found out about his dark passenger, why didn't he kill her? After all, the
first rule of Harry’s code (which she came up with) was not to get caught. So
there we have it, Vogel toying with Dexter’s mind and the now-granted privilege
to toy with Deb’s – the chances that both will be pitted against one another
after vast manipulation is almost certain.
Overall this week’s installment of Dexter was not without its
weaknesses – hopefully Dexter will regain the loveable anti-hero status that
has granted him adoration for all previous seven seasons. Until then however, his slow,
existential mumblings are becoming quite tiresome and so far, incredibly
overshadowed by two leading ladies. Both of whom, are conversely providing
season eight with its greatest strengths.
What were your thoughts on this week's episode of Dexter? Post a comment!
Next week...
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