Dexter - S8E4 - Scar Tissue
Previously on Dexter, ‘What’s Eating Dexter Morgan’
This week on Dexter was a little blah, blah, blah, and then HOLY SHIT!
Debra seems to be having a shit ton of guilty flashbacks these days. First, the El Sappo killing, and now putting a bullet in La Guerta. Except this flashback is full on under the care of Dr. Vogel. They’re back in the fateful shipping container for a therapy session where Deb even briefly imagines she had put that bullet in her brother…and another bullet…and another. Jesus! She only shot LaGuerta once! Vogel continues to try and peel away at Deb’s psyche like it’s an onion, but every layer seems to grow back. No worries, Vogel’s mind fuck pimp hand is strong.
QUINN…Ugh.
There is a dead body but I’m not sure if we are supposed to even care about it because YAY! Quinn passed the Sergeants Exam. Quinn has never been this happy to get a positive test and I almost fell asleep before new cop broke the silence.
Dexter meets with Vogel over coffee hoping to see his sister. Vogel is keeping her at bay until she hits Vogel’s definition of rock bottom, which is somewhere past years of serial killing it would seem. Vogel tries to paint a picture of a Debra-free life, but Dexter will not let her go.
Next on the list of Dexter’s cross-referencing is A.J. Yates: a former patient of Vogel and a seemingly regular Joe minus the massive brain surgery scar on his dome. No mention of the scar in Vogel’s notes, however. Turns out Vogel had suspected that a lesion on Yates’ brain may have been responsible for his violent behavior, clams she never knew if he had the surgery.
In the meantime, Vogel seems to be focusing on convincing Deb that she did everything right to save Dexter; and telling Dexter because she saved him, he can no longer use her as a mirror to reflect his idea of a normal life. That mirror is cracked. Vogel has used small talk never in her ever. Deep shit.
A.J. YATES
While poking around Yates’ abode, Dexter uncovers a closet filled with women’s individual shoes. Considering his last break-in he was faced with a freezer full of human organs, big whoop. Except we find out Yates has the whole place wired with cameras and is watching Dexter from a hidden room. He sneaks up on Dexter and is just about to tazer his face when Dexter places a call into Vogel on speaker; her voice fills the room, stopping Yates in his tracks, and he slithers back into his hiding space where a woman is tied up and gagged. Yates has shaken off his fear enough to mutter, “Vogel…she found herself a hero.”
QUINN
While out celebrating his passing of the Sergeants Exam with Jamie and big brother Batista, Quinn overhears Officer Buzzkill from last episode joking around about finding Debra drunk as fuck in her car. Quinn tries to get him to lower his voice, but we all know this isn’t going to end without a round of Bar Fight. Angel breaks them up and Quinn and Jamie leave to have make-up sex because everyone is still rooting for those two crazy kids.
LOCKED UP
Do they ever actually ship anything in these goddamn shipping containers? More therapy between Vogel and Deb, and Vogel locks Deb into the room and the reality that in her heart, she will always choose her brother. She is a good person, and she was forced to do a terrible thing…but it was the right thing. Suck on that, Debra.
ANGIE MILLER
Ahhhh, Angie Miller! Now we know the purpose of the new Detective is that she might get Sergeant over Quinn. They are really trying to beef up Quinn’s storyline before they kill him. Or whatever. Deputy Chief Matthews is team Miller, and Batista rides Quinn about his bar fight. Quinn needs to step it up if he wants to be promoted and solving the current case just might put him over the edge. Or not, who cares?
SUBJECT 0
Dexter discovers a cleared out house and Yates’ underground lair, complete with bone saw, specimen jars, brain maps and the tied up woman crammed in a tool chest bleeding out from a stab wound. Seriously, nobody tidies up before Dexter breaks in. He drops her off at the hospital and high tails it back to Yates’ place, meeting Dr. Vogel so they can check out Yates’ computer. Dexter almost immediately discovers Yates has all of Vogel’s patient files including one on Dexter. She never used his name, only referring to him as Subject 0. Dexter’s rage begins to build as he reads out loud Vogel’s notes on him and vows that the moment he kills Yates, that Vogel is out of his life for good.
OVER THE EDGE
An unsettled Debra practices more self abuse by diving into Vogel’s DVDs, and watching Harry Morgan struggle with catching Dexter in his first big boy, plastic-lined kill room. If Harry couldn’t live with it, how is she supposed to? This was Harry’s last session with Dr. Vogel. Reminded that Harry supposedly overdosed on heart medication, Vogel’s role in the Morgan family suddenly becomes even more sinister. Vogel commenting, “I see a lot of your father in you.” starts to feel more and more like a threat. Dexter is, after all, her perfect “thing”.
She heads over to Miami Metro the next day and has what feels like a heart-to-heart goodbye chat with Quinn. Dexter is thrilled to see her, Yates will have to wait for now so he and Deb can go on a drive and talk. Debra seems numb discussing what she saw on those DVDs. She asks Dexter if Harry had committed suicide, and Dexter admits that Deputy Chief Matthews filled him in a few years back. Harry thought he had created a monster. Then comes the final line before everyone watching completely lost his or her fucking mind, “I think I know how he felt. Why he killed himself… but he only got it half right.” Debra grabs the wheel from Dexter and drives them both off road into a lake.
A fisherman watching on the shore dives in to save a sinking Debra, foiling her plan. Pulled to land, Deb sees Dexter still strapped in, unconscious and sinking underwater. Vogel was right, she will always choose Dexter. Debra dives under water to save her brother and the camera starts to pan away. The water clears, and Deb breaches the lake with Dexter in her arms.
Mother.Fuck.Shit!
I have this not-quite-developed theory that Vogel is also a serial killer. She’s not physically capable, but she has all these other guys doing the killing, so she can still get her rocks off.
As I mentioned…. it’s not quite developed yet.
Yet.
I have a feeling that it’s going to come out that Hannah did not try to kill Deb last season.
Also, he and Deb need to just go ahead and bone and get that over with.
I thought about that too…after I realized Harry’s last session with Vogel was right before he supposedly committed suicide. Last week when a passed out Deb was on the couch Vogel picked up a prescription bottle of Debs that was lying around…could of just been to see what she was on, or something else.
They are never gonna bone, are they? And who is that new broad Jamie is pushing his way? Shut up Jamie.
Its definitely a crazy chain of events. Its almost as if in order to truly diagnose and study psychopaths she has to create them. Also…do we know that Hannah was never her patient? Vogel slips into Mind Fuck mode so easily. And since Dexter has been talking to her more he hasn’t been re-inventing Harry as much.
I was really waiting for Harry to start appearing to Deb’s crazy ass, telling her what she wanted to hear.
And good point about Vogel. I can see her killing Harry to stop him from trying to reverse all the work they’d done with Dexter.
And, was she deliberately keeping Deb and Dex apart to study the effects on Dexter? I love her mind-fucks so much!
Meghan: Yeah, noticed that Harry’s “ghost” has disappeared, instead we see a video-ghost, so to speak; his recorded sessions with Vogel. Definitely feel Vogel is a manipulator. I’m worried about Harrison. Wouldn’t she love to get her claws into the kid?
Also, do you think Deb has been literally programmed since she was a girl to “choose Dexter”? Like Dexter was taught “the code” and programmed by Vogel via Harry, was Deb prepared for her role in the same way? Whatever the case, Vogel is creepy. (Nothing like the “evil psychiatrist” meme in mystery and horror stories.)
Quinn and Jamie are both pains in the derriere, so they deserve one another.
I’m not sure if Deb has been programmed. I think her focus has always been Dexter. Dexter seems pretty sick of Vogel’s shit though. And Debra’s.
Ugh, Quinn…he is going to bust his ass to solve this case to get Sergeant and stumbled into information that I don’t want him to have. He just screams a big boring but soon to be problem.