Michael C. Hall makes his directorial debut with "Every Silver Lining." It's a serviceable episode that adds some new plot twists which helps to propel this season's story arcs to their hopefully climactic conclusions.

Dexter:

Dr. Vogel shows Dexter some recorded sessions she had with his father when he was ten years old. This is a rare chance for him to see how the genesis of Harry's Code began and with Vogel's help, how he was ultimately created to survive in our world.

Dexter has been on an extended emotional jag and that's something he's never dealt with before. Since Deb killed Maria, she's kicked him out of her life and it's making him unpredictable and unstable. Dexter has survived by being uncompassionate, cool and methodical. But now he's been reduced to begging her for just a few scraps of her attention and that's left him wallowing in self-pity. That's never, ever a good thing. Just trust me on that one. He does get a few moments of relief when another body turns up, the second victim of the Brain Surgeon Killer. He's able to pull a print off a plastic bag left at the crime scene that was the murder weapon and finds out that Lyle Sussman is the killer. Man, he really needed a fresh corpse to get him through a few hours. Dexter then tracks Sussman down to a hunting cabin where he finds him hanging, dead. Say, what?

Debra:

Deb finally checks in with her boss who isn't happy that she disappeared for two weeks without a word and got nothing to show for it. She takes him back to Andrew Briggs' place because she has his keys and she knows he's hiding the jewels in a lock-up of some kind. They find the whereabouts of his storage space via a snail-mailed bill (What, no online bill pay?) so they split up (why didn't the boss go with her?) and Deb finds the stolen jewels at the space. Unfortunately, El Sapo, the hit-man, was tailing her and bursts in; he beats the crap out of her, taking the jewels and her gun. She ends up back at her place, stoned out with black and blue bruises covering her body half asleep in bed. Dexter finds her there and she tells him what happened and then kicks him out of her place. Damn, Dex, give her some space!

Dr. Vogel:

Vogel reveals herself to Dexter because she believes he owes her for giving him his coping skills for all these years. She wants his help in dealing with the BSK because he might be one of her former patients. She treated many other juvenile psychopaths and used various illegal methods to help them. If he's caught by the police, her career will most likely be destroyed. Also, she's been receiving little packages at her doorway containing the brain matter that the killer scooped out of his victims and now she's afraid for her life.

Vogel is quite fascinated that Dexter needed someone to talk to after Harry died. That's strange because psychos "don't usually seek an emotional connection" with people. She also believes psychopaths are a gift that saved humanity. Sure, they are. Dexter, on the other hand, now finds he's a curse because in his mind he ruined Deb's life completely.

El Sapo, Deb & Dexter:

El Sapo the hit-man is found dead, shot in his car and Dexter gets called to the scene as a tech. Surprised, he finds some blood on a shard of glass and pockets it away from the others because he's trying to protect his sister. After running it through his databases, Dex finds that it's Deb's damn blood and she in fact killed El Sapo.

Back at the station, Quinn starts questioning Debra about the El Sapo and Briggs murders because he gave her info on them that she requested. She immediately starts shaking because she's having a flashback of the El Sapo murder. Dexter swoops in and whisks her away from Quinn and out of the building and into their favorite alley from last season and then confronts her about the new murder.

Deb: I don't know what happened all right? I'm a little fu*&ing fuzzy on it.

She asks him to steal her gun out of the evidence room since they retrieved it from Sapo's car and Dexter agrees. After he badgers her about her life, she leaves enraged, yelling that he's not the first person I shot and he may not be the last in her hell hole of a life.

Dexter realizes that he did indeed change her and the old Deb is gone forever.

Dr. Vogel calls Dexter over because she believes there's someone in her house. He rushes over and cases the place, not finding anyone, but she finds a new DVD on her laptop. It's video of Sussman strangling the latest victim of the Brain Surgeon killer, but we also see another person in the frame.

That's the real BSK.

Lyle was only a patsy.

*Angel tells Quinn that he knows about his relationship with his sister Jamie and demands he makes something of his life. Take the damn sergeants exam.

*Jamie gets jealous at Quinn because he's always talking about his ex, Deb and that sets off a huge fight between them.

Question:
Is Dr. Vogel the mastermind behind the Brain Surgeon Killings? Are these some macabre case study for her new book? And if so, is she manipulating Dexter into some sort of weird experiment?