(SPOILERS BELOW)
The last season of Dexter hasn't followed the usual script of previous seasons so it has received some negative flak from the online community for various reasons. To some it's kind of been muddling it's way through without any real action or excitement, (not me) but with only four episodes left after tonight I'd say it's going to pick up.
(Catch up on previous episodes. Dexter Season 8 Episode 7: "Dress Code")
Last week ended with Dexter's neighbor Cassie being found murdered in her apartment next to his in the same manner as Norma Rivera. Dexter was called to the crime scene and after a quick glance at the scene lamented that Zach was probably responsible. Earlier that night, Zach had gone to Dexter's trying to hook up with him and Cassie heard him banging on his door and asked if he wanted to leave a message for him. Zach was fuming because he was left hanging and he said yea, "Yeah, f*ck him!" Whenever a serial killer is really pissed off it's a good idea not to be withing a five mile radius of said killer.
While Dexter is examining the crime scene with the rest of his team, his mind is fixated on one person and one person only, Hannah. Since she's come back to Miami he can't think of anything else. Doctor Vogel has maintained from the very outset that psychopaths can't feel real feelings and can't love like normal people do. Instead they view people much differently than the rest of us, more as pieces on a chess board to be moved and she postulated that Dexter only thinks he loves his sister.
In a way this has been at he heart of Dexter all along from season one. In the first season he acted exactly as Vogel says. He dated Rita so he could appear to be a normal guy to those he worked with and every gesture, action or word he said was calculated to hide his Dark Passenger from the rest of the world. But as we've seen as time has progressed in Dexter's world, he's acquired many new things (love, a son, family, loyalty) that Doctor Vogel would say are impossible for a psychopath to obtain. Does that make him redeemable?
Dexter meets Hannah at the yacht to discuss her leaving town and only these two can turn a drop of blood into sex talk. Earlier Dexter found blood under Cassie's fingernails at the crime scene and had it analyzed at his lab. It is indeed Zach's blood and when he tells Vogel that Zach has skipped town. She immediately tries to put the blame on him and Hannah for the murder.
Vogel: Were you with that Hannah person? is that why this woman is dead?
Dexter: She's dead because you talked me out of killing him in the first place.
She then asks him if this kill will be harder because of his mentor relationship with Zach and he flatly says, no.
" I forget the impact murder has on real people."Jamie is very shaken up by Cassie's death and asks him if she can take Harrison to Quinn's house for a few days because she's afraid of being alone and Dexter agrees immediately.
Dexter realizes how death and murder affect normal human beings, unlike himself that craves it. Let's add a new quality to the list of things Dr. Vogel's thinks Dexter can't do, sympathize with someone else's pain.
Debra confronts Dexter repeatedly trying to find out if Hannah is out Miami and out of there lives for good. Dex says he's taking care of it which means he hasn't taken care of it so she goes to her boss Elway and puts him on Hannah's tail since she's a wanted fugitive and a lot of people have upped the reward money for the capture of Hannah McKay. She gives him her alias of Maggie and her husband Miles. Dexter meets up Hannah again and tells her about Doctor Vogel and the Zach situation. She's genuinely fascinated and asks him what it was like to meet her. He tells it it was like meeting a family member, which is something he's not supposed to feel either.
He has tracked Zach to the Keys where he used a credit card to check in to a motel and he asks Hannah to take a ride with him just for the night. Hannah obliges and knows what it means when Dexter is looking for somebody. Debra checks the GPS that's tracking Dexter's car and she knows he's out of town so she tells Elway she has a hot lead on McKay and and takes off after Dexter.
Dexter and Hannah break into Zach's hotel room and find that he has covered it all in plastic and has mimicked Dexter's kill rooms perfectly, even having the exact knives (not Ginsu) Dexter uses to dispatch his victims with. Zach finally comes in and he freaks when he sees Dexter and Hannah in his room. Dexter grabs a favorite silver blade and presses it up against his neck asking why he killed Cassie, but Zach protests saying he didn't kill her. He came down to the Keys to kill an old school mate of his who murdered a girl two years ago and he took pictures while he stalked his prey in his camera which will have the time stamp on them. They check them out and it proves he's innocent of the murder. Zach then leads them out to his car trunk and when he opens it they find a body of the kid he killed all bloodied up.
"It didn't go exactly as I planned."It's not that easy to carry out the perfect murder. I have to say Zach really grew on me in this episode. He made so many mistakes trying to imitate Dexter that's it's almost charming. And after Hannah agrees to clean up the hotel room while they get rid of the body he looks at Dexter and says: "Dude," Dexter replies, 'Don't dude me.' As they are getting in the car, Zach tells Dexter to watch out for the door handle because he cut his hand on it a few days ago. Dexter now realizes how somebody set him up, but who?
Oil & Water
Hannah throws the last plastic sheet into the garbage and when she reenters the hotel room Debra is there with her gun and handcuffs drawn, demanding that she come with here. Hannah refuses and they start to argue, but Debra loathes her because she knows Dexter loves her and was jealous about it. Plus, she did try to kill her after Debra marked her for murdering a book author and so she finally asks:
What drives you?
Dexter.
I don't enjoy killing.
Why do you do it?
Because sometimes it's the only way I know how to solve a problem, somebody comes at me, threatens my life.
Like me?
I could have killed you yesterday and made my life a lot easier but I didn't.
Why?
Because I love your brother and I learned how much he cares about you and I didn't want to hurt him.
Debra is stunned. She didn't expect Hannah to actually care about her brother.
He loves me too, do you really want to hurt him?
Fu*k, my brother always screws up everything.
At that moment Dexter walks into the room and sees the two of them together and he's shocked too, but then he asks her how she found and she tell.s him about the GPS. At that moment Zach walks in and Debra looks at him flabbergasted ans says: 'Who the fuck are you?' Zach looks at her and says, 'who the fuck are you?' Debra finally breaks and gives up after listening to Hannah and seeing this teenager with them.
Debra: Fuck it, I don't want to know anything ever again. She's your problem now.
And she leaves the room.
Home Cooking
Debra goes back to her office and tells Elway that she hit a dead end and to drop the whole thing since she's probably been gone a while now. Deb had gotten him all riled up with the amount of money that was being offered for her capture that he's hard pressed to let it go. And then she tells him that she's thinking about becoming a cop again.
With Debra dropping the Hannah thing, Dexter goes to Doctor Vogel's house with Zach in tow to tell her that he's innocent of the murder. Vogel sees Hannah in the car and demands that they all come in for dinner. She's fascinated with these two psychopathic lovers and remarks that they actually share a real affection towards each other. (Dexter doesn't believe she's a psychopath and has told Vogel this already.) As we've seen, going over to Doctor Vogel's for a meal is usually an omen for something bad to happen. Zach stays with Vogel and Dexter takes Hannah back to her hotel room where she will stay until she catches a plane out in the morning with her new passport and credit card.
The whole episode was leading up to major love scene between the two and they don't disappoint. Their two naked bodies draped around each other during passionate love making was inevitable and was more explicit than what they usually show us.
Unexpected Changes:
Dexter's world is awesome. Debra isn't pissed at Hannah anymore and he didn't have to kill Zach. When he gets to his home we can hear Mama Cass's song Make Your own Kind of Music coming out of it. He opens the door, hears the music and then sees Zach slumped over in his chair by his desk, dead. The back of his head is cut open and missing a part of his brain with regards from the Brain Surgeon Killer. It appears that A.J. Yates wasn't the BSKiller after all, but another dupe used to throw Dexter off the scent.
Dexter calls Doctor Vogel to tell her what happened and she's holding another gift courtesy of BSK in her hands. Dexter is astonished by this, but knows he has to clean up so he takes Zach's body to his boat, but doesn't cut him into pieces when he dumps him overboard. We then get a voice over montage with Dexter reflecting over what has just transpired.
Every contact leaves a trace. Everything and everyone we touch is changed in some way. But the changes are never what we anticipate.
He runs down to the plane and catches Hannah before she boards.
Dexter: Hannah, don't go. Stay with me.
Tidbits
*Masuka gets Niki the job at his lab and she lights some sage up to clean out all the murderer vibes.
*Jamie left Quinn's place and took Harrison to Angel's
*Quinn believes Zach murdered Cassie and interviews her boyfriend Oliver to see if he can get any leads. I wonder if Oliver is the Brain Surgeon killer? He had access to Cassie, Dexter and Zach.
*Elway makes a phone call to somebody and tells them that Hannah McKay was seen in Miami the last few days under the alias of Maggie Castner. He's still wants the cash.
*Debra takes out her old police uniform from the closet. it looks like she's made her decision.
Bonus music dedicated to Dexter:
