Showtime’s Dexter “A Beautiful Day #801 “Lost”

by Catherine Giordano

He’s baaack!  Showtime’s Dexter began its eighth and final season on Sunday, June 30^th.  The episode is titled “A Beautiful Day.”  I’ve titled this review “Lost” because Dexter and Deb are lost in emotional tailspins, and even little Harrison gets actually lost for a short time.

I liked the way the pre-show vignettes. Before the show began, there were a few moments where some of the actors from previous seasons, whose characters were killed off, stand before the camera and talk about the show. It’s a little foreshadowing, reminding us that the end is near.

 

It’s six months after the murder of LaGuerta by Deb. Deb has left the police force—she went out to lunch one day and never came back. She is now working for a private investigation company. She chooses her cases and she chooses the worst ones. She’s doing bounty hunting, and has become the “moll” for Andrew Briggs, a criminal who robbed the wrong jewelry store, one owned by a mob boss. Deb is hanging with this guy because she wants the reward from the insurance company for recovering the stolen jewelry. She’s put herself in great danger to do this undercover work. However, she’s too lost in sex and drugs and self-hatred, born of remorse, to care.

Dexter still cares, however. Deb has shut him out, but Dexter tracks her down.  He finds her at a convenience store. Debra tells him that she hates him ,and that she shot the wrong person six months ago. She should have shot him and not LaGuerta. Briggs was in another part of the store during this conversation. He returns to Debra and sees Dexter and jealously asks, “Who is this?”  “Just some loser,” Deb says.

Later, Dexter finds Deb at the motel where she is living with Briggs. He has gone there to warn her that the mob boss has sent a hit man. He arrives when Briggs is in the bathroom and Deb goes outside to talk to Dexter. They each accuse the other of being lost.

Briggs returns from the bathroom and discovers Dexter with Deb. He thinks Dexter is his rival for the affections of Deb. A fight ensues and Dexter ends up killing Briggs. Deb mourns the death of Briggs for a minute, but quickly returns to her objective of finding the jewels. She finds a takes a key from the body. Dexter leaves when Deb calls the police. He returns to his car where he left Harrison asleep in the back seat. He panics, but he soon finds Harrison wandering about unhurt.

When the police arrive, Deb says she went out for a sandwich, and returned to find Briggs dead. Later, when Debra leaves, the hit man arrives, and from his car he observes Debra leaving.

Dexter has lost his cool. He was once in tight control, but now he is subject to rages. First, he explodes in rage when Harrison knocks a vase to the floor breaking it. He regains control when he sees the terror on Harrison’s face. Later,he nearly kills a guy who cuts him off while driving. He comes to his senses when he sees the man’s son in the back seat. He still has enough humanity and control not to kill a man in front of his child. (Remember, Dexter was only a toddler when he watched his mother get killed, and his son Harrison was even younger when he watched his mother get killed.

A new serial killer is on the loose. This one likes to slice into the brain of his victim and remove part of the victim’s brain with a melon-baller. The part of the brain that is removed is the part responsible for empathy, trust, and love. Very symbolic, because Dexter’s history suggests that his brain is deficient in that area. Although, not completely deficient. He loves his sister, Debra, and his son, Harrison.  He may also loved his wife Rita (who was killed by a serial killer Dexter was stalking), and the occasional girl friend after his wife’s death.

A new character has been introduced, Dr. Evelyn Vogel, played by Charlotte Rampling. She’s a middle-aged woman who has made a study of serial killers. She’s playing little cat-and-mouse games with Dexter, asking questions about The Bay Harbor Butcher. She says that the brain scooping-guy may be a former patient of hers and she wants Dexter’s help to track him down. She clinches the deal by giving Dexter an envelope. 

And now we have “the-big-reveal” moment of the week. It’s a shocker. Dr. Vogel knows Dexter’s secret. It appears that she may have been his psychiatrist when he was first adopted into the Morgan family.  The envelope contains drawings that appear to have been done by Dexter at this time.

Dexter is on the verge of losing everything. There’s Dr. Vogel, there’s this new serial killer that Dexter will certainly not be able to resist, and do not forget, his ex-girl-friend, Hannah, herself a serial killer. He done her wrong last season (he got her arrested, but she escaped from jail), and she is sure to be back for revenge.

 

Charlotte Rampling as Dr. Evelyn Vogel

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