Showtime's "Dexter" #803 "What's Eating Dexter Morgan"

by Catherine Giordano

“Eat Up”

Showtime’s Dexter, Season 8, episode 3, “What’s Eating Dexter Morgan” that aired on Sunday July 14, 2013, is feeding the audience’s appetite for the macabre.  Hence, I’m titling this review “Eat Up.”

Debra and Dexter Morgan

Dexter is in a tailspin. A police officer finds Debra passed out drunk in her car having crashed into a parking meter. He recognizes her but fells obligated to arrest her. At the station, Debra calls Quinn who comes down to the station to get the charges dropped.  Quinn has been dating Jamie, Angel’s sister and the nanny for Dexter’s son Harrison. Jamie is jealous of Debra since Quinn used to date her. She is none too pleased when she finds out that the middle-of-the-night-call, which Quinn told her was for work, actually came from Debra.   

The next morning Debra, eaten up with guilt, goes into the station crying that she wants to confess that she killed LaGuerta. Quinn grabs her and takes her into an interrogation room to try to calm her down. He is convinced that she only feels guilty that she couldn’t save LaGuerta; he could never believe that she actually killed LaGuerta. He tells her to write her confession down while he leaves to call Dexter.

Dexter arrives with Dr. Vogel. Dr. Vogel explains that Debra is suffering from survivor’s guilt. Debra is still hysterically insisting that she killed LaGuerta so Dexter injects her with a sedative. Quinn doesn’t see this, but Vogel does. Vogel is impressed with how prepared Dexter is. They tell Quinn that Debra passed out, and Dexter flings Debra over his shoulder and all three leave.

They go to Debra’s house and Dexter drops Debra onto the couch. Vogel insists she can treat Debra. Dexter handcuffs Debra to the couch explaining that Debra is going to be pissed, and perhaps violent, when she comes to.

As Dexter investigates Vogel’s prior patients to find which one might be the Brain Surgeon, he looks into Ron Galluzzo. He goes to his house which is a mess except for the dining room and kitchen which are immaculate. The dining room table is elaborately set. Dexter removes the lid from a  crock pot that is simmering on the counter. He fills a ladle for a closer look, and sees a human finger. Dexter is revolted. He opens the refrigerator. It is also very neat and clean. It is also filled with containers labeled liver, kidney, intestines, etc. There is also a container with a human brain marinating. Dexter looks ready to vomit. This is the “even-a-serial-killer–has-his limits” moment of the week. Galluzzo is going to be on Dexter’s kill list, for sure.

Should Dexter be trusting Dr. Vogel?  She is entirely too unflappable. She is fascinated by serial killers and weird people in general.  She is especially fascinated by Dexter—her creation. It’s like she has him under a microscope as she keeps probing.  Why didn’t he kill Debra when she found him murdering Travis?  Why does he love Debra?

We have also learned that Dexter’s father thought that “Only kill the evil ones” should be Rule Number One of the code. Dr. Vogel insisted that “Don’t get caught” should be Rule Number One.

I don’t know if Dexter should be trusting his sister to the remedies of Dr. Vogel. She has a very bizarre collection of patients. Does Dr. Vogel have a case of vicarious thrills, is she a voyeur of criminal acts, or is it more sinister than that?

   

A sly bit during this episode is when Dexter is woken up in the middle of the night by Harrison’s cries of “Daddy”. He gets up and follows the sound, seeing what looks like a trail of blood. He finds Harrison sitting in the kitchen in what looks like a pool of blood. We are reminded of the time Dexter found Harrison sitting in a pool of blood in the bathroom with his mother’s dead body floating in the bathtub, the water red with her blood. However, this time it is not blood—Harrison has eaten an entire box of red popsicles and he has made a mess because some of the popsicles have melted. We and Dexter both are very relieved that Harrison was only crying because he had a tummy ache from overeating.

The Miami police have found Lyle Sussman’s body, only he is no longer hanging from a meat hook as he was when Dexter found him.  When the police find him, it looks like a suicide with a gun blast to the head obscuring the puncture wound to the head.  He blew his brains out—a fitting end for the “Brain Surgeon.”  Only he isn’t the “Brain Surgeon”—he was only a man forced to do the brain surgeon’s dirty work.      

In the meantime, Dexter and Vogel are both still receiving little gift packages of brain.   

The show runners are feeding us clues and we, the voyeurs of the audience, are eating it up.

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