Showtime's "Dexter" #802 "Every Silver Lining"

 “Turn, Turn, Turn”

by Catherine Giordano

On Showtime’s Dexter, the plot is taking some weird turns in episode 802 (season 8, episode 2), that aired on Sunday Juy 7, 2013. II titled this review “Turn, Turn ,Turn” because things are going “topsy-turvy.”

Dexter was the killer in the family. Now Debra has taken up the avocation as well. She used the keys she took from Brigg’s body, found the storage unit, and found the jewels he stole inside. Unfortunately, El Sapo, the hit man has followed her to the storage unit. He enters, beats her up, and takes the jewels. He puts his gun to her head, but then he decides not to kill her. Lucky for you, I only kill when I am paid to do it.”  Perhaps El Sapo has a code, too.

Later Dexter is called to a crime scene and he finds El Sapo dead of a gunshot wound in his car. The window glass is broken and Dexter finds a shard with blood on it. He pockets the shard so he can test it for his own personal use. He is shocked to discover that it is Debra’s blood. He goes to Debra’s house and a surly Debra is none-too-pleased to find him still meddling in her life. Only now things take a turn. It seems El Sapo took her gun from her before leaving the storage unit and put it in the glove box of his car. The gun is now in Miami Metro’s evidence room. She needs Dexter to swap it out for her which is what Dexter does. Debra, ever since she found out about Dexter’s alter ego, has been covering for him. Now Dexter has to cover for her.

Tough-as-nails Debra is a basket case. She is living in filth and doesn’t care about anything anymore. She refers to her life as a hell-hole. She doesn’t actually remember what happened after El Sapo beat her. Was she the one who killed him?  My guess—no twisty turns here. My guess, El Sapo closed the unit, but didn’t lock it thinking Debra was too beaten up to follow him. She found a gun in the unit, got to El Sapo before he left, and used the gun to kill him. But, does she have the jewels? If not, the plot may have taken another turn here.

In the meantime, the serial killer of the season has been dubbed “The Brain Surgeon.” He has struck again. He asphyxiated his victim with a plastic bag that was left at the scene. Dexter swipes this evidence--nothing new there--and funs the prints he finds on it. They belong to Lyle Sessions, a man who has never been a patient of Dr. Vogel.  Dexter goes to Session’s home; he is not there. Dexter learns that he is probably at his fishing cabin. When Dexter gets to the cabin, he find Sessions  has hanging from a rafter dead.

The killer has been gifting Dr. Vogel with the chunk of the brain he removes from his victims. It seems like Vogel’s suspicion that the killer is a former patient of hers is right. It also seems that she cannot go to the police because her treatment methods are unorthodox,  illegally unorthodox.

Dr. Vogel is a twisty character. She wants Dexter to help her find the killer. She has given Dexter some DVD’s of her sessions with his Dad, Harry. It turns out that she had never treated Dexter, but she had several sessions with his dad who wanted advice about how to deal with his son’s “issues.”  She helped Harry develop the code and train the young Dexter to channel his “urges.” One small question: Isn’t it unusual for a psychiatrist to have DVD’s of consultations that took place 25 to 30 years ago. I have heard of psychiatrists taking notes or audio-taping, but I never heard of video-taping.  Did the technology even exist 25 years ago?

Dr. Vogel turns standard thinking about psychopaths on its head. She tells Dexter, “I believe that psychopaths are not a mistake of nature, but a gift that helps the human race to become civilized.  Without psychopaths, mankind would not exist today." This is the “I’m-waiting- to-hear-the-explanation-for-that” moment of the week. Dr. Vogel is coming to see that Dexter is not a typical psychopath—he has some human emotion and connection. This seems to surprise her.

Vogel is feeling quite motherly towards Dexter. She thinks of him as her “creation.” I think Vogel may have some “issues” of her own.

Vogel arrives at her home, and calls Dexter from her car. She tells him that she thinks someone is in her house. Dexter tells her to stay in her car until he gets there.  When they enter the house no one is there, but a DVD has been left for her.  When they play it they find a video of the latest Brain Surgeon killing. It shows Lyle Sessions being forced to kill the victim. A neat turn of events. The Brain Surgeon has a Puppet Master.  

Turn after turn after turn. This is turning out to be a great final season. 

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