Showtime’s Dexter “Argentina” #708 “Feelings”

by Catherie Giordano

Episode 8 of season 7 of Showtime’s “Dexter” begins with Dexter waking up in bed with Hannah and wondering if Debra’s demand that he kill Hannah was just a bad dream.   

Dexter soon learns that it definitely was not a dream when Debra confronts him in person and demands again that he kill Hannah because it is the only way to bring justice to Hannah for the murders she has committed. Dexter refuses to do so and tells his sister he is refusing for her sake. He tells her that she thinks she wants this, but she would suffer enormous guilt if Dexter were to kill on her orders. Debra reluctantly agrees that Dexter is right, and she lets go of her desire for revenge. I say “revenge” and not “justice” because I think Debra is more than a little influenced by her feelings for Sal Price, a true-crime writer that she was beginning to fall for. He was working on a book that would have exposed Hannah as a murderer; consequently, Hannah dispatched him by poisoning him. 

Dexter reflects that everything he said to Debra about why he should not kill Hannah was true, he still feels like a liar. Protecting Debra is not his real reason for refusing to kill Hannah. He won’t kill Hannah because he has feelings for her. Hannah has feelings for him too. Hannah may be a cool murderer, but she is subject to all the same insecurities as any other woman when it comes to love. She keeps throwing out these little hints trying to get Dexter to confirm that she is more than a “booty call.”  Dexter evades her questions. This is the “Oh-yeah-girl-I’ve-been-there-too” moment of the week. 

This conversation takes place as Dexter and Hannah are preparing breakfast. Large sharp knives are involved for dicing vegetables.  Whenever I see Dexter with a knife in his hand, I start to feel a little uneasy. I wonder if Hannah feels the same way. If so, she is much too cool to show it.  

The name of this episode is “Argentina.” Dexter notices an old calendar on Hannah’s kitchen wall dating back to 2007, the year when she was 15 years old and on a killing spree with Randall, the man who was her lover. She tells Dexter that the calendar is not a memento of her time with Randall; she keeps it because it has a picture of Argentina on it. She and Randall had talked about running away to Argentina. Ever since, Argentina has come to represent a magical place of escape from the real world and all its problems.   

Dexter totally understands this. He has a lot of problems he’d like to escape from right now. Sirko is one of those problems. Sirko won’t give up his desire to avenge Viktor’s death by killing Dexter. The manager of the sex club tries to persuade him that his desire for revenge is dangerous for the whole operation in the United States. He wants him to go back to the Ukraine. George realizes that Sirko will not leave, so he gets permission from “the top,” and hires a hit man to kill Sirko. 

At the same time, Dexter knows that he must kill Sirko before Sirko kills him. Sirko had made another attempt to kill Dexter, attempting a drive-by shooting as Dexter stood in a donut shop. Dexter just missed being shot because he had bent down to pick up his keys. The baker was in the back getting some donuts for Dexter and missed the whole thing. The baker thought it was just neighborhood hoodlums. 

Dexter knows that Sirko is staying at Viktor’s apartment ,and he decides to kill there. He picks the lock intending to wait in the apartment until Sirko comes home, and then take him by surprise. He arrives to find a hit man there. The hit man thinks that Dexter is a second hit man. The hit-man demands that Dexter leave—he doesn’t want to go “halvsies” on the fee. They fight. Dexter slashes his throat. Dexter leaves.   

When Sirko returns home and finds the dead man on his floor, he calls the police.  Dexter is called to the scene. Sirko has guessed exactly what happened so he has some fun with pointed remarks that Dexter understands, but everyone else takes no notice of. 

Later, Dexter is following Sirko and follows him into a bar. Slowly Dexter realizes that he is in a gay bar. Slowly Sirko reveals the nature of his relationship with Viktor. They were lovers. Sirko talks about the feelings he had for Viktor and talks about the mysteries of love. Sirko and Viktor could not have been more different, yet he loved him. Sirko says that “Love is a powerful weapon.  It can work for us or against us. Love defies reason.” Dexter and Sirko talk together like intimate friends, yet they are deadly enemies. Sirko won’t give up on his desire to kill Dexter.  Afterwards, Sirko says he will probably “retire” to some corner of the world to live in luxury and anonymity. “Argentina,” Dexter says. Sirko is bemused by this, and replies that Micronesia is more his style. They are still each determined to kill the other.  

Dexter had sent his toddler son, Harrison, for a visit with his grandparents and step-brother and step-sister because he realized that they could be in danger because of Sirko. However, grandfather suddenly requires surgery, so all three children are sent to stay with Dexter. It is too dangerous for them to stay with him, so Dexter hands them off to Debra. It’s nice to see Dexter reestablishing his relationship with his step-kids. I hope nothing will happen to the children.  

Hannah gave Dexter her truck to drive so that Sirko would not be able to follow Dexter’s car to get to him. However, she discovers that she left the key to her garden shop in the car. She calls Dexter and asks him where he is so she can pick up the key. Dexter is at the beach with the children’s nanny, Jamie, and his kids. Hannah spots Jamie and immediately freezes. “I should have known,” she says more to herself than to Dexter. (This is the second “Oh-yeah-girl-I’ve-been-there-too” moment of the week.) Dexter explains that Jaime is not his wife and apologizes for not having told her about his children. Hannah softens. She’s dreaming about having a family with Dexter and Dexter is having similar thoughts. 

Towards the end of the episode, Debra finds out about Dexter and Hannah’s relationship. She is distraught with anger. Dexter betrayed her by not telling her about this. She feels humiliated because she believed Dexter when he told her that his refusal to kill Hannah was because he wanted to protect her. And maybe she feels a little jealous, too. She blurts out that she came to the church the night Dexter killed Travis because “I was going to tell you I was in love with you.” 

Dexter is stunned. Debra has romantic feelings for him? “I don’t know what to say”, he mumbles. Debra is desperate to take the words back, but there is no going back. 

I decided to name this review “Feelings” because of the feelings between Dexter and Hannah, the feelings between Sirko and Victor, the feelings that were emerging between Debra and Sal, the feelings between Quinn and Nadia as Quinn continues to try to get Nadia free of the mob, even the feelings between Sirko and Dexter as they move from enmity to mutual admiration and respect. Sirko says, “Under different circumstances we could have been great friends.”   

Dexter could definitely use a friend.  Right now, the only one he can talk to is his dead father. 

While Deexter and friends are trying to deal with their feelings,LaGuerta continues to have a feeling that the Bay Harbor Butcher is still alive.  Her investigation is leading her closer and closer to Dexter. 

At the end of the episode, Dexter is musing again about “Argentina.” He wishes that there was a place to go “where the slate is wiped clean,” but “Argentina is just Argentina.”   “No matter where we go we take ourselves and our damage with us. Is home the place we run to or the place we run from?”  

Dexter runs straight to Hannah.

 

 

This picture is from http://seriesandtv.com

 

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