So, it's been just over a month since Dexter killed his biological brother, Brian, who was also known as the Ice Truck Killer. Dexter is feeling tense, as he hasn't had an opportunity to do any killing since then. There are a few reasons for this: 1) Doakes has been shadowing him ever since, because he's a persistent motherfucker, and 2) killing the only person who truly accepted him for who and what he actually is has left him feeling a bit impotent, as is evidenced with an impromptu make-out session with Rita that ends up being a fruitless endeavor.
In order to throw Doakes off of his scent, Dexter feigns interest in his bowling league, and presents the image of a guy on the straight and narrow. Once he figures out how to get him off his back, however, Dexter finds a voodoo shopkeeper who's been disposing of his foes with Ricin powder to prepare for a long oceanic nap. At the last minute, Dexter is unable to do the deed, leaving himself and his audience feeling disappointed, to say the least. At least the guy is blind and wouldn't be able to finger Dex in a lineup.
Adding to Dexter's stressed-out state is the fact that his PTSD'd sister, Deb, has been crashing at his place since her fiancé, Brian, abducted her and revealed that he was the Ice Truck Killer. Totally not dealing with what happened to her, she works out at all hours of the night and early morning and ends up breaking some dude's nose just for touching her shoulder while she's out for a beer with Rita. I would expect this situation to be a problem, if it weren't totally overshadowed by the fact that divers who are looking for buried treasure in the ocean accidentally discover Dexter's watery graveyard, turning him into Miami's big serial killer, as if the good people of the city hadn't had enough with the ITK.
Eager to get on with the killin', Dexter has found a hit-man from a local gang called The 29th Street Kings who has a habit of making sure that witnesses against him take a forever-nap. An unsteady Dexter gets "Little Chino" (a raging misnomer) prepped and wrapped, but is so rusty he doesn't realize that this "beef bus," as Deb calls him, isn't bound tightly enough, and after an altercation, the guy escapes, and Dex feels failure-tastic. Unfortunately, Little Chino is most certainly not blind, and this is yet another problem Dexter is definitely going to have to deal with, as if he doesn't have enough problems...
...You know, like the whole FIP situation. FIP keeps trying to convince Rita to help him get out of jail. Finally, she folds and admits that she found the shoe that proves that he was set up, and he's ecstatic until she reveals that she has no intention of divulging this fact to anyone because she has no interest in getting Dex in trouble. FIP predictably loses his shit, gets in a prison fight, and gets himself in a whole buttload of dead. At the end of the episode, a dejected Dexter, who is longing only for Rita's soft touch, finds her sneaking a cigarette and crying. Dex tries to comfort Rita by reminding her that Paul being in prison was his own fault, and she says, "Was it?" Oh, snap! I think she's on to him. If only that were Dexter's biggest problem...
Previously: Um, last season happened. What do you want from me? I already recapped this stuff, folks. Why should your laziness trump mine? Get reading! Or watching, if that's your thing. No, seriously, though: you probably wouldn't be reading this if you hadn't already watched the first season already. Don't like it? Don't email me.
We open facing up, out of Dexter's bag o' tricks, looking up at a ceiling fan. A hand puts some sort of cutting tool in the bag as Dexter VOs, "Tonight's the night." Really? Again? He continues loading various instruments, presumably "of death," into the bag. Then, in the car, totally mirroring the pilot episode: "...And it's going to happen again and again." Hmph. You seem pretty certain of...what exactly? That's a pretty weird thing to say and not follow up on. "Has to happen. It's not what I want, but what I want doesn't matter." This whole sequence has the exact same look as the pilot episode, obviously something they're going for as the opening VO is almost identical. Dex comes to a stop in the car and rolls forward. The camera stays still to reveal that Doakes is following him, looking pissed as usual. "This is the only way I know how to survive. I'm coiled and ready to strike." At this, we see Dexter's eyes, and hear the loud crash of a bowling ball hitting pins. The camera pans out and we see Dex, wearing a league bowling shirt, rolling his ball. He leaves one pin standing, and says, "A spare will do." He turns around, and Angel is telling him that was a "decent warm-up roll," and to remember to keep his arm loose. Masuka chimes in that he has to keep his "mind limber." "I'm doing mental jumping jacks," says Dex, trying to stay positive, or to at least appear that way.
"I'm on edge," Dex VOs as he waits for his ball to return. "Thirty-eight days, sixteen hours and twelve minutes have passed since I killed my brother, and that entire time I haven't had a single night to myself. Sergeant Doakes makes sure of that." He ain't lying, because there Doakes is at the bar, having a brewsky and watching Dexter like a hawk. "He follows me everywhere now, a human bloodhound incited by the scent of darkness." Dexter smiles at him while finishing, "My best hope of losing him is to act relentlessly normal. Dull. So I bowl." Dexter finishes off the last pin with deadly accuracy. "What's really disturbing is that I'm good at it." Heh, yeah you are. Angel and Masuka are psyched and there are high-fives all around. Dexter sits down and grabs a tool from his bag to clean out the finger-holes of his ball (ew!) (and, oh! That's what those tools were for). Angel sits down and starts telling Dex that he needs to focus because they're playing "The Alley Cats." Dexter looks at Doakes and tells Angel he's a little tense, but he'll try not to let the team down. Angel tells him to "think positive," and starts rambling about "energy and interconnectedness." "Angel lost someone, too," VOs Dexter. "When his wife left him. Now he's going toward the light, searching for answers. He found one on an Oprah rerun. I wish it were that easy for me." Angel's been talking this whole time, and finishes, "...Now we just gotta direct it to manifest what we want." He looks very serious. "Alright," says Dex.
A minute later, one of The Alley Cats bowls a perfect strike, and Masuka turns to Dex, saying, "Dude, just bowl a strike so we can go have some fun at the strip clubs." Way to broadcast your intentions, there, Vince. "I wish I could have fun," Dex VOs. "With Doakes tailing me, my life's been all Jekyll and no Hyde. No moonlit play-dates, no late-night social calls. Not one. My brother would be so disappointed." As Dexter prepares to roll one last time, Angel says, "Don't forget to tell the universe what you really need." "I need...to kill somebody," Dex VOs, and rolls the ball right into the gutter. He actually looks really disappointed in himself. Everyone else is disappointed to. Doakes leaves, and Dexter smiles.
"For weeks, I've known who was , who belonged to me. I just needed Doakes to take a night off." Dex enters a small, musty voodoo shop. The shopkeeper, blind with cataracts, asks, "What do you need?" "I need to curse someone," says Dex, locking the door behind him. "What kind of curse?" laughs the shopkeeper, who I'm assuming is Haitian from his accent. "Death curse." "We don't do that kind of thing, here. You can go down to Little Haiti, find all the Hoodoo Voodoo you need there." "You are Jimmy Sensio, high priest, right?" asks Dexter as he stuffs a wad of bills into the man's hand. "The man with God in his mouth? I'm not a tourist. I need a Petro curse, and I heard you were the best." After smelling the money, Jimmy thanks Dexter for his offering and brings him to the back of the shop where he keeps all of his heavy duty curses, I guess. As soon as they get back there, Dexter slams some M99 into Jimmy's neck and the dude passes right out.
A bit later, as Jimmy is laid out on the table, wrapped in plastic, Dexter VOs: "A blind man. Not very sporting, I know. But, I'm not one to discriminate based on race, gender, or disability. Jimmy wakes up and asks what is happening. Dexter responds, "The only pertinent question is 'What happened to your victims?'" Jimmy plays stupid. Dexter explains that the fun of this is kind of ruined, seeing as Jimmy's blind and Dexter would normally be showing him pictures of the innocents he killed. "I brought them along, anyway, as part of my death ritual." He decides to verbally remind him: "Emmanuel Alzua, Jean Phillipe Peguero, Nono Baptiste." Jimmy claims that he didn't kill them, he only cursed them. "And in a remarkable coincidence they each died of respiratory failure. I guess murder is one way to make your curses come true." Heh, true. Why didn't I think of that? What? No, I didn't say anything. Oh, crap, I typed that? Anyway, Dexter cuts Jimmy's face for his blood-slide, asking him how he administered the Ricin poison to his victims. Jimmy starts "channeling" some spirit, and says in a gravelly voice , "I am the one with the power in his hands." "That's not entirely accurate," says Dex, waving his scalpel in Jimmy's blind eyes. "Those who believe in me shall be free! Alabanza! Alaban --" Dexter slaps his forehead and tells him to knock it off, and asks again how he poisoned those three people. Jimmy tells him that Madoli, his Petro spirit (whatever the hell that is: it's really hard to do a Google search for "Petro" without getting something oil-related), told him to do it, and so he did. Dexter thanks him, and covers his mouth with duct tape when he starts "channelling" again. "My ritual is almost complete," says Dex. He turns around and grabs a long, machete-looking knife. He holds it over Jimmy's head for a while, and it seems like he's having some sort of internal struggle. Finally, he drops the knife down, and it sticks in the table right to Jimmy's face. "What the fuh?" mouths Dexter, confused at his burst of conscience. After a moment, Dex cuts him loose, saying, "Let that be a lesson to you."
Out on the Slice of Life, Dexter finishes off a beer and tosses the bottle into the water. "I've always enjoyed my work. It brings order to the chaos, fills me with civic pride. But, what was that back there? Not Voodoo. When I picked up the knife, it's like I didn't know who I was. I come here to dump bodies, not beer bottles. Now I'm just a litterbug."
Back at his apartment building, Dexter arrives home to find the door is latched shut. "Deb!" he yells. No answer. He walks over to the bedroom window and sees Deb on the treadmill. He knocks on the window and startles her. "What are you doing working out in the middle of the night?" As she lets him in, Deb says she couldn't sleep, and Dex reminds her that tomorrow is her "big day," which I'm guessing means she's returning to work. She asks him where he's been because she's been worried, and he says, "Bowling." "Kind of late for bowling." "Yeah, well, it's kind of late for your face!" That would be awesome. Instead, he tells her he doesn't really need her opinion, and then bitches at her for not cleaning the place. She says she did, but then got it messy again. None of this is really relevant, except to highlight the fact that they've been living together since the ITK incident, and are clearly having roommate beef. Tensions are high. Dexter suggests she look at some apartments. "If you want me out of here so bad..." "I don't, I just had a bad...bowling night." He tells her that whenever she's ready, he'll help, and she thanks him. "Thanks for putting up with me." Yeah, dude, you're a saint. "You're all I got," she says, a little misty-eyed. "That's not such a great bargain for you, huh?" asks Dex. "I'm not complaining," she replies, and goes to bed. Dex VOs that Deb can't really sleep anymore. "I guess that's what happens when your fiancé tries to chop you up into small, bloodless pieces." Guess so. He cleans off Jimmy Sensio's blood slide, and says, "Pathetic."
Flashback time! Teen Dex is at a shooting range with Harry. "Did you see that?" says Dexter. "That's nice shooting, Dex." Hee! "We need to talk," says Harry. Dexter won't shut up about the gun, and Harry tells him to slow down. "I've got bad news. They need me to take a shift at work." "Right now? What about the boar hunt?" "We'll plan another trip." "I've waited two weeks for this trip!" "You can wait another one." "No, I can't!" says Dex, clearly upset. "If you read the books, you'd know that psychopaths like me have a low tolerance for frustration." "Dexter, enough with the psychopath bullshit. You're in control of your urges, not the other way around." Dexter says that he needs this trip, and that it's not just a sport to him. Harry says he's sorry, and grabs the gun, which fires, throwing Harry to the ground. Whoa, dude. Hope he's okay. Obviously he is, because he didn't die until much later in Dexter's life.
Over at Rita's, Dexter is presenting a lackluster array of pastries to Astor and some kid we're supposed to believe is Cody. It seems the actor has been replaced, but this kid seems fine; not overly precocious, thankfully. Astor comments that one of the donuts has cheese on it, and Dexter informs that it's a danish. She seems kind of grossed out by it. Cody can't believe some of the donuts don't even have anything on them at all. "Some people like donuts plain, no frosting." Cody takes an unenthused bite of the plain donut, and Dexter VOs, "I can't even get donuts right. What's going on, here?" "Sorry guys, I just ordered a dozen," he apologizes. "Pastry buffs like you two deserve better than this." Astor thanks Dexter anyway, and gives the danish a shot. Cody mentions that they're going to visit FIP today, and wonders if Dex wants to join. "'Fraid I gotta work, buddy." Rita comes out, looking frisky, and thanks Dexter for getting there so quickly. "What's the emergency?" he asks her. She just grabs his hand and leads him to the bedroom. Once they're alone, she says, "We're good for fifteen minutes," and disrobes in a hurry. She says she knows they're supposed to have dinner tonight, but she had an urge. "I'm all for satisfying urges," Dex replies as Rita tackles him. "I just wish I knew why I couldn't satisfy mine last night," he VOs as they make out heavily. After a little while, it's apparent that there's no boneration in Dex's downtown bonanza, and he thinks, "Any minute now..." It's clear there's going to be no sex at the Bennett house this morning, and Dexter sits up and apologizes. "No, it's my fault. I shouldn't be springing this on you," Rita says. Well, he's certainly not springing anything on you, know what I mean? Eh? Eh? Fine, sorry. He tells her he's feeling "pressure at work," and rubs his eyes. Rita seems understanding, and hugs him warmly, and we get a nice shot of some side-boob as we head over to...
The lab, where Dexter's looking at some pictures of Jimmy Sensio and VOing, "I'll be okay: I followed the code, the stock was good. I'm just a little rusty since killing my brother. Or maybe I took pity on my victim. Sure, he's a heinous killer, but he also bumps into walls." Doakes pulls a Surprise, Motherfucker! and Dex instantly switches the screen to a porn website called Flirt4Free. "Hey, Sergeant! Thanks for supporting the bowling team," says Dex. "Fuck you. Where's my report on the Maynard victim?" Dex hands him a folder, and as Doakes looks over whatever results it holds for him, he asks, "So what is that, a titty site?" "Oops, caught me." "Bullshit. What the hell were you really doing in here?" "The tits are right there," explains Dexter, pointing at the screen. "Yeah," says Doakes, "but in ten years, you've never rented a single porn title." Dexter asks how he would know: "Call me an office crazy, but your humbling interest in my personal life could be misinterpreted as harassment in some circles." Doakes dares Dex to report him, and Dex VOs that he could think of an easier solution. Doakes leaves, and heads out to the main office.
LaGuerta asks Doakes if he has any "Misdemeanor A" forms, and he snaps at her to look in the file cabinet. Deb walks in as LaGuerta yells if anyone could tell her where the "goddamn Misdemeanor A forms are," and says she has some. Everyone claps for her, and she tells everyone to can it: "It's just another fuckin' day at work." LaGuerta stands up, and they share a moment. "Welcome back, Morgan," Maria says earnestly. Deb thanks her, and gives her a hug, which is certainly out of character for her. LaGuerta looks shocked. "Maria," a female voice says, and LaGuerta wheels around to see Lt. Pascal motioning for her to come into her office, which she does. Once Maria's in there, Pascal tells her that there was a body discovered "down at the breakwater," and that she wants her to take Doakes and Deb, who needs to get back out in the field. "She's not ready," says Maria, shutting the door behind her. "She shouldn't even be here. What's it been, five weeks? Six?" Pascal says that her psych evaluation showed that she's ready to get back out. Maria pushes the issue, but Pascal isn't really hearing it. "She could melt down, freak out. She hugged me." "Alright, well, then, you partner with her today so that you can keep an eye on her." "That's --" "...Not a request," Pascal says coldly. Maria realizes there's no point fighting it, and starts to head out, when Pascal says, "Maria, I know that it's difficult for you to take orders when you feel that you should be giving them. I really appreciate your professionalism." Yikes, that was kind of unnecessarily bitchy of her. I thought that they were cool with each other. Maria sheepishly thanks her, and then notices a bunch of red roses in Pascal's trash bin. "You don't like roses?" she asks. "Allergies," Pascal replies stonily, and then dismisses LaGuerta: "Let me know what you find out about that body."
Down at the breakwater, there's a bloody body laying on the rocks. Doakes and Angel keep watch over it as Masuka and Dexter cross the police tape. "Heard your sister's back on the job, already," says Masuka. "Is she in any kind of shape?" "You know Deb, nothing gets her down." Oh, Dexter. You should always assume that whatever Masuka says should be construed in the perviest way possible. "No, I mean, did she pack on any pounds while she was gone, because, you know, last time I saw her, she was tight." Jesus, Vince. A little tact? Oh, what am I saying? Dexter just shakes his head. As they approach the body, Angel informs them that it has "multiple chop wounds, pretty much head-to-toe." Vince wants to flip a coin for who has to inspect the body, and Dex calls heads, even though he's already down at the body. Masuka ditches the coin toss, and joins him. "We've got sharp force trauma, here," he notices. "Heavy impact parallel wounds, maybe an axe." Dexter debunks that idea by explaining that the defensive wounds on the forearms are "long and linear," and were most likely caused by a machete. Hearing this, Doakes says that the machete is "the weapon of choice for the 29th Street Kings," a gang that the victim has a tattoo of on the back of his neck. Angel asserts his belief that the body was carried from another location as Dexter struggles with his camera. Angel tells him to take off the lens cap. Man, Dex is seriously distracted. Doakes says they should check the dock slips to make sure none of the boat owners in the area could have had something to do with the body, but Dexter debunks this, as well, by saying, "Maybe it was just an easy access spot to dump a corpse at night. There are no light-poles, and the freeway exit ramp is just a block away." Angel nods his head in agreement, but Doakes gives Dex his par-for-the-course ice-grille. "Yo, Dex," says Masuka, pointing at Dexter's foot, which is placed right in a pool of the corpse's blood. "You're supposed to preserve the crime scene, asshole," surls Doakes as he storms off. Angel asks what the matter with Dex is, and he responds that his game is just off. "I'll get it back."
Deb is interviewing the "Banana Boat" driver who spotted the body in the morning, and he seems like a pretty chipper individual for someone who just discovered a mutilated corpse. Deb is curious about what his whole Banana Tour is all about, and he explains it as a "calypso journey through Miami's inner harbor, and you should try it!" He hands her a pamphlet, and she politely says she'll consider it. Two guys standing over by the police tape start pointing at Deb. One dude says, "Hey, isn't that the Ice Truck Killer's babe? She was in the paper. She's fuckin' hot!" He snaps a couple flicks with his digital camera, which catches Debs attention as she asks the Banana Boat guy if he saw anyone there early in the morning. She turns her back on the guys, but they call out, "Hey, Mrs. Ice Truck Killer! Just turn around. Look scared for the camera." LaGuerta sees this and heads over, clearly feeling a bit protective over Deb for some strange reason. Deb thanks Mr. Banana Boat for his help, and walks back to the cruiser as the two guys continue to harass her. Deb keeps her back to them, and looks like she's going to break down, and the music swells in the soundtrack, leading us to believe something dramatic is going to happen, but she just turns around and gives them the picture they want right as LaGuerta yells, "Morgan!" "What? Did you need help with something?" Deb says as if nothing's bothering her. In the background, some woman has broken through the police tape and is yelling in Spanish. LaGuerta spins around and yells at Doakes, and they both chase after her. "Rafael!" she yells after seeing the body on the rocks, and everyone seems caught off-guard. "Goddammit, Morgan, grab her!" yells Doakes, and Dexter snags the woman before she has a chance to corrupt the crime scene. She yells a bunch of stuff in Spanish that I'm going to interpret as "Holy shit! That's totally my son, Rafael! He's dead! I'm really upset about it, and I want whoever did this to pay!" Finally, LaGuerta gets down there and grabs the woman, telling her in Spanish that she's sorry for her loss, but that she needs to get the fuck out of the crime scene. Doakes is all, "Can we please secure this muthafuckin' crime scene?" As LaGuerta leads the woman away, Dex asks Angel what she said, and Angel paraphrases, "That's her son. She says she knows who killed him: some guy named Little Chino." "It felt like she was asking me something," says Dex. "She was. She wants you to find Little Chino and kill him like a dog." A little girl appears and asks Rafael's mom if she found him, and they embrace as the little girl meets Dexter's eyes. "That look," Dex VOs as he flashes back on his toddler self being carried away by Harry. "I know that look. Like her mother, she wants someone to do something." The little girl looks sad.
Ooh, prison time! FIP is playing "Matchy the Matchbook's Magical Journey" with a few matchbooks and a Chutes and Ladders board, trying his best to keep Astor and Cody entertained. He looks pretty tired, and has a split lip. When FIP looks up, a guard makes a Time's Up signal, and FIP hastily finishes up the bullshit game he's clearly been making up as he went along. "Matchy goes straight to Candy Castle where he becomes King Candy, who can turn everyone into sweets with a wave of his royal gumball staff." Weak story, dude. "Cool story, Dad," says Astor, totally contradicting me. "But, time, can we play the actual game?" FIP tells her that he's going to try to get the pieces from the warden, which is a bold-faced lie, I'm sure. Rita tells the kids to say goodbye to FIP, and they hug him. "What's wrong with your lip?" asks Cody. "I was biting it, because I was excited to see you," he lies. As Rita and the kids start to leave, FIP asks Rita for a minute alone. She reluctantly agrees. He tells her that his lawyer is going to file for an appeal tomorrow, but that he doesn't "stand a chance without that shoe." "There's no shoe. How many times do I have to tell you that?" "Okay...any evidence at all to support the fact that I was set up?" "You mean that Dexter set you up." He implores her to help him, because he's not doing so well: "It's a federal prison. Hardcore. I don't belong here. Will you help me?" Rita just tells him she needs to go, and takes off. He looks pretty upset, and I can't really blame the guy. He was set up, after all.
LaGuerta is leading Rafael's mother, Eva, and her daughter, Marissa, into the station. She tells Angel to take Eva's statement and hook Marissa up with some crayons. Angel tells them both that he's sorry for their loss, and leads them into the room, passing Dexter. "That girl's going to need more than crayons to make her world right," Dex VOs. "Killing Little Chino could restore my world, too." Do it! "But only if he satisfies Harry's code." Oh. Do it anyway! Dex heads over to Debra, who's doing desk work. "I see you've been benched," he comments. "LaGuerta's just jealous the Ice Truck Killer fucked me instead of her." Wow. "Wow," says Dex. Heh. "You're chipper." Deb says she's just happy to be back at work, and asks what Dexter wants. Dexter tells her he's working up his blood report from the victim at the breakwater, and he's curious what she's found on this Little Chino guy. "Cocksucker's guilty as they come," she says, shoving over a file folder. As Dexter peruses the pictures inside, she continues, "He's an enforcer for the 29th Street Kings, an East-side gang, intensely violent. He's been linked to nine murders in the last five years." "So far, so good," he VOs. "I just hope he's not blind." Deb mentions that he's been tried twice, but the witnesses in each case were murdered, "we think by Chino himself. Now people are just too afraid to come forward." Off camera, we hear Doakes say, "Come on, Chino, right this way." Deb and Dex look up to see Doakes leading in an absolute mountain of a man. He's got a handlebar mustache and a tattoo of a heart with a crown of thorns on it and blood drops dripping down. "Fucking beef bus!" exclaims Deb, actually making me laugh aloud. "Beef bus"? That? Is awesome. Seriously, though, I can't even accurately describe how mastodonic this guy is. "Beef bus" is really the best description. He is a bus made out of beef. Dexter follows the guy with that lusty, murderous look he gets as a gunshot rings out in the soundtrack.
It's the gunshot from the flashback, and Dexter is yelling "Dad!" Harry struggles to get up to his feet, and says, "I'm okay, Dex. I've told you never put your finger on the trigger unless you're shooting!" Dexter asks if he's okay. "Jesus, that was close," says Harry. "My heart's beating out of my chest." Dex looks fascinated, and says, "Let me feel!" "Feel what?" "Your heart!" Dexter puts his hand on Harry's chest, and gets this wild look in his eyes. "That's amazing," he says in total awe. Harry looks like he just smelled a ham 'n' eggs fart, because sometimes his son scares the shit out of him.
Back at the station, Dexter has the same look on his face, and he VOs, "A challenge. A mountain to climb. I need this one."
A little while later, Deb, Dex, LaGuerta and Pascal are all watching Angel and Eva on the monitor. Eva's telling Angel what happened the night before. It seems her son, Rafael was planning to move to Georgia to his uncle's house, obviously effecting the end of his involvement with the 29th St. Kings. Little Chino found out somehow and picked Rafael up last night. Rafael didn't want to go, but was scared not to. Angel asks Eva if she'd be willing to testify to this in court. After a brief hesitation, she agrees to. "I want him to pay," she says. Dexter looks disappointed, because this means the legal system will take care of the guy. "That's discouraging," he VOs, looking at Marissa, the little girl. "With a grieving mother as a witness, Little Chino will never reach my cutting courtroom." Masuka walks up to Deb and says, "Hey, Morgan, you wanna see something swell? Come a little closer." "And the token has spoken. Good to see you, too, Vince." Masuka asks about "Bigfoot," and Dexter flips the monitor to Doakes's interrogation room, where sits the bus of beef.
"Am I speaking clearly?" says Doakes. Beef Bus pauses, leans in, and calmly says, "Yeah." "Then answer my fucking question, Chino. What time did you pick up Rafael last night?" BB answers that he didn't see Rafael last night, and Doakes wonders aloud why Eva would make up that story. BB says she's a heroin addict, that's why. "She was probably high."
Back in the office, where Deb, Dex, and Masuka are all watching this, Deb says that "if that's true, Pascal and LaGuerta are going to have a piss party." Dexter looks up Eva Arenas in the system, and lo and behold, she has two priors for drug possession, which means no jury would consider her a credible witness. "No way the DA is going to put a drug-user on the stand. That cholo is going to walk again," says Deb. "But not very far," Dex VOs as he looks at the little girl. She looks back and smiles. She's a little cutie-pie. "We'll both be vindicated soon."
Out at sea, we're on a boat called The Fortune. A couple of scuba divers jump off the stern as a voice radios to them, "Okay, boys. Today's our day. Just find that galleon and bring back gold!" Apparently they're looking for an old ship called the Santa Rosa that went down a century or so ago. The divers work their way down to ocean floor, which takes them a while. One of them has a metal detector, and it starts going nuts. After brushing around sand for a second, the other guy grabs a meat cleaver. Oh, shit. I think I know what's going on here. Remember last season, when Dex thought he was boned for sure, and he tossed all of his killing instruments into the ocean? Yeah, I think he's about to be mega-boned, because metal detector guy has just pointed at a black mass a few yards away. When they get to it, they realize it's a garbage bag, but there might still be treasure in there! Actually, no. Once they get it open, an arm and a foot float out, followed by a head. Totally freaked, the divers swim back, and the camera goes with them, panning out to reveal an absolute shitload of bags, about fifty if I had to eyeball it. Damn, dude. Dexter's gotten busy!
Dexter's packing up his murder bag, and is on the phone asking Rita for help. "I know how much you were looking forward to going out tonight, but I think Deb could use you more." Rita wonders aloud if this has anything to do with "what happened this morning?" "No, no! This is for Deb. She had her first day back at work today, and LaGuerta was kind of rough on her." Just then Deb knocks on the bedroom door, telling Dex to unlock it really pushily. He tells Rita to hold on and closes his foot locker. Deb continues to bitch at him, and he picks up the phone and says, "You see? She's yelling at me, now. I'm no expert, but I think Deb could use some girl-time tonight." Rita tells him she's a little disappointed, "but I know your heart's in the right place." "Absolutely," he says, packing up a bone saw. "Okay, whatever you need, Dexter," says Rita. Dexter promises to make this up to her, and that Deb will pick her up in a half hour. He hangs up and runs to the door, which Deb has been knocking for a full minute now. When he opens it, Deb just makes a B line to the treadmill as Dexter explains that he double-booked Rita and the bowling team tonight. "Why do you look so happy about it?" asks Deb, already running. "I like bowling, what can I say? Look, will you take Rita out for me? She hired a babysitter and everything." "Nope," she says, uncaring. What a little shit. As if he asks her for anything, ever. As if he wouldn't do the same for her, no matter how unenthusiastic he may (and would) be. "I need to work out." Yeah, you need to work out. You're a beanpole! "Actually, you need to stop working out," says Dex. "It's getting...unhealthy. Why don't you go out for some nice hard liquor, instead?" "Mmm-mmm," she demurs brattily. "Sorry, bro." "Deb, please!" She doesn't even look at him. "When do I ever ask you for anything?" Yes! Fucking finally! God, I was wondering when someone would call her out on her shit! It took her an entire season to stand up for Dexter with Doakes, and it was only because he had just saved her life. She jumps off the treadmill and says, "You bunghole, why'd you have to put it that way?" I don't know, maybe because it's the only way you'll recognize what a self-involved cocklord you can be? Not wanting to waste time rubbing that in, Dex just says, "She's expecting you in a half-hour. You're a life-saver!" He books it out of there before Deb has time to rethink her offer.
As he pulls up to the bowling alley, Dex VOs, "Tonight's the night. Really." Yeah, we'll see about that. "Harry would prefer I take more time, but my life is falling apart. Whatever stopped my knife before won't stop it again." Dexter's gotten out of his car, and he walks towards Doakes's cruiser nonchalantly. "Hey, there!" he says, overly cheery. "Gonna work on my release tonight. Practice, practice, practice! Lane's open 'til midnight...you wanna join me?" Doakes just looks at him, and Dexter walks on. "Fuck it," Doakes says after a moment, and leaves, satisfied that Dexter might actually just be into bowling. Dexter, who's waiting right inside the lobby of the bowling alley, out of sight, waits for Doakes's car to leave. Once Doakes is gone, so is Dex.
It's late-night at the station, and LaGuerta is catching up on some paperwork. She decides it's time for some more coffee, so she heads over to the break room for another cup. The elevator opens on the other side of the room, where Pascal is yelling at some dude and calling him a liar. He begs her to be reasonable, and tries to convince her that "there is nobody else!" You know, I really hope that the writers aren't trying to get us to care about Pascal's life. In the first season, they did the same thing with Angel, but it was different because he's actually a pretty dynamic character and we care about him. I just hope that whatever this situation is about eventually has something do with Dexter killing somebody, because otherwise, I'm going to get frustrated with this kind of filler. Pascal is pissed because this guy sent her "three dozen fucking roses," which I guess she thinks is his way of making something up to her. Poor LaGuerta has shoved herself into the farthest reaches of the break room trying not to be seen as the argument ends with Pascal telling the guy that she has nothing to say to him until he decides to "man up." The guy takes off, and Pascal spots Maria and calls her out. "Fuck," LaGuerta whispers to herself. I would do the same thing, because...awkward. LaGuerta walks out as Pascal apologizes for her having to hear the tiff. "That was my fiancé. We're having some problems." Not wanting to get involved, LaGuerta says, "That happens," and heads back to her desk quietly. Pascal wants to get some things off of her chest, so she follows Maria to her desk and sits down. "I called his house three nights in a row, and he says that he's working so he can't return my phone calls." Maria makes a Fuck Me, I Thought My Body Language Made It Quite Clear That I Don't Want Your Life Story face, but it's lost on Pascal: "Then he comes home and he says he's tired. Well, he's tired because he's out there fucking some bitch." Maria squirms. "I can smell it on him." Well, great. I really hope he's actually out there murdering people and Dexter finds out so we can dead this shit straight away. Seriously, I don't care.
At Rita's house, the babysitter has just arrived and Rita's explaining her duties when the phone rings. Unsurprisingly, it's FIP, and he really needs to talk. Rita takes the call in the bedroom, and asks what the fuck he wants. "I'm not gonna make it in here," he says. "I don't have time for your bullshit right now, Paul," she snaps. "It's not bullshit. I'm not like these guys. I don't belong here, Rita. Can you help me?" Rita, irritated, asks what she can do. "Can you just...look for the shoe one more time?" "I found the fucking shoe, okay?" Her voice, normally high-pitched and airy, is now husky. FIP is naturally excited to hear this news: "That's great! I'll call the lawyer in the morning!" Rita says, "What does it matter? It's just a shoe, it doesn't mean anything! You were probably high on smack when you lost it at my house." FIP says he'll let the courts decide that, and he's positively beaming. "No! No!" Rita yells. "If you send a lawyer to my house, the shoe won't be here. I am not going to let you drag Dexter into this." She goes on to say she's not going to sacrifice her healthy relationship to bail out her abusive ex-husband. FIP is visibly upset and Rita tells him she has to go. "Don't you hang up that fucking phone, Rita." "Stop blaming other people for your problems. You're in prison now, Paul. Deal with it." She hangs up. Damn, that shit is cold. FIP smashes the receiver against the wall, screaming "No!" over and over again. He's ragetastic.
Beef Bus is adding another teardrop to his heart tattoo as Dexter watches from his car outside the parlor. "Some gangs earn teardrops of blood by killing," he VOs. "I understand; we all need our keepsakes. One man's tattoos are another man's blood slides. All I had to do was call the gang task force, ask for the 29th St. Kings, get their tattoos and wait for my prey to show up." Dex pulls away.
A while later, Beef Bus gets into his car, where he encounters about a dozen chickens that start flapping around as he gets more confused and irate at their presence. "What the fuck? Get the fuck off me!" He jumps out of his car looking miffed, to say the least, when Dexter slinks up and double-stabs his neck with two syringes of M99.
Dex struggles to drag BB's formidable body into Jimmy Sensio's voodoo shop, "the scene of the failed crime. No better place to try again. I have it on good authority the owner fled town. Plus, it's a much quieter working environment now without the chickens." Some salsa music blares on the soundtrack as Dexter works to get Little Chino up on the table. Finally, he gets him in place after lots of heaving. Let's hope it goes well, this time.
Rita and Deb are at some dive bar, slugging a few cold ones. They're making small talk. Apparently, Rita and Dexter love the hot wings at this place. Snore. Rita apologizes for being such bad company: "Paul called right before we left" "Yeah? What'd he want?" asks Deb. "Who knows?" lies Rita. "Make me feel bad he's in prison, I suppose." Deb reminds her that she was the one who answered "that domestic dispute call, way back when, remember? That prick deserves to be in prison." Rita says she knows. "I can't believe I still let him get to me after everything he's put me through." Realizing that she's with the fiancé of the ITK, she apologizes. "Oh, God. I'm such an idiot. What you went through is so much worse than my problems." Deb jokes that at least he paid for her meals, and they share a chuckle. Rita says she wishes she could move on like Deb. "Paul was so horrible to me, but sometimes...and don't tell Dexter...I find myself missing the good parts of him." Deb says, "It's not him that you miss, 'cause what he had to offer wasn't real. The way he made you feel about yourself? That was real." Fair enough; that's probably true. Deb's a little choked up, and Rita asks if she's okay. "Need a refill?" asks Deb, changing the subject. Before Rita answers, Deb's already at the bar, where yet another local has recognized her. "Excuse me, don't I know you from somewhere?" Deb just smiles politely at the guy and turns back to the bar. He walks up to her and puts a hand on her shoulder just to get her attention, and she wheels around and slams the poor guy right in the nose with her elbow, breaking it instantly. Deb's totally freaked, and Rita looks pretty shocked as she asks what happened. Losing it, Deb's all, "He grabbed me! You saw it, right?" The guy just holds his nose, which is bleeding profusely. It's pretty clear to everyone involved that Deb is not fully dealing with some shit.
Back at Sensio's Casa De La Muerte, Beef Bus is fully wrapped and ready for slaughter. "He wasn't easy to get here, but here he is, and here I am. Ready, willing...able?" Dexter slices Little Chino's face haphazardly, and blood starts pouring out quickly. "Shit, shit, shit!" Dexter says, and tries scooping up some blood onto the slide without using his dropper like he normally would. He's nervous. Chino's eyes open, and he immediately begins to wriggle around. The tape and plastic wrap begin to give, and Dexter notices there's "not enough tape. Perfect." He spins around and grabs a knife, and as he's about to plunge it into Chino's chest, Chino grabs his wrist. After they struggle for a bit, Dexter uses his free hand punch Chino in the face multiple times. The foley guys definitely had a blast with this, because the punches sound like someone slapping an elephant in the ribs with a slightly smaller elephant. Chino's other hand breads free, and he slams Dexter back into his instruments. Dex grabs his meat cleaver, spins around, and hacks an empty table. Beef Bus has escaped, and Dexter looks totally surprised. This is not good, dude. Unlike Sensio, Chino is not blind, and will totally find Dexter if he wants to. Good thing he didn't seem to pay any attention to Dex earlier when Doakes led him into the interrogation room, or he'd be ultra-screwed. Dex sits down, defeated, and VOs, "Thirty-nine days, twenty-two hours and eighteen minutes since I killed my brother. I am cursed."
One more flashback. Teen Dexter is on the roof of some warehouse building, standing on the edge, looking down about five stories. The wind is flapping his shirt around, and he feels his own chest, trying to recapture what he felt in Harry's in the flashback. He looks frightened and exhilarated at the same time. After a few moments, Harry grabs him, saying, "Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" Down at street level, Harry still has Dexter in his grip. "What were you doing up there?" "I don't know." "What were you thinking?" "I don't know!" "Whatever you're going through, killing yourself isn't the answer, Dex! You don't get points for dying!" "Dying? Dad, I don't want to die. I'm just trying to figure out some way to feel alive!" They embrace aggressively. Now, call me a nit-picker, but this scene annoys me for a very technical reason. I'm assuming that it probably took them at least two or three minutes to get back down to street level after Harry grabbed Dexter. What did they say in that period of time? Nothing? It seems to me that it would have been more realistic for them to have this dialogue up on the roof, considering the gravity of the situation. ["'Gravity' is right. Heh." -- Joe R] Am I wrong? Also, how did Harry know Dex was up there? He was just driving by?
Dexter's now pulling up to Rita's house in his car as he VOs, "I don't normally seek human contact in times of failure. But then, I don't normally experience failure. Right now, all I can think about is the smell of Rita's kitchen, the breathy cadence of her sleeping children, the warmth of her flesh." Man, poor guy. He's having a pretty rough go of it, huh? He gets out of the car and approaches the rear of the house, where Rita is lighting a cigarette and sobbing quietly. "Rita? What's wrong?" he asks after passing through the gate. "The prison called," she replies. "Paul's dead." "Oh?" he says optimistically, and then, realizing that it's not necessarily a great thing: "Oh." "He died in an inmate altercation. A fight. He got angry, and he got into a fight, and now I have to figure out how to tell my children that their father's dead." Dexter sits down as Rita mentions that she could have helped FIP. "How?" he asks. "Rita, how could you have helped him? He was in prison." "That's right, Dexter," she says, looking at him coldly, her husky voice returning. "It happened in prison. Paul was in prison." Hey, was Paul is prison? I'm not too clear on that. "That was his own fault," says Dexter quietly. "Was it?" says Rita after a long pause. Dexter just looks at her blankly, and she begins crying again. Dexter holds her and kisses her head.
Back at his apartment, Dexter knocks and Deb answers. "Are you all right?" he asks. "I heard you got in a bar brawl tonight." Deb doesn't answer, she just grabs Dex's arm and says, "You gotta see this." She drags him back to the bedroom where the news is on the TV. Deb grabs the remote and rewinds (God bless DVR!) to a segment about the treasure hunters finding Dexter's bodies. The news program is showing the bags, and Deb says, "There's bodies in those bags." The announcer says that thirty bags have been discovered, "but salvage efforts are still underway." Dexter sits on the bed, shocked. "Did you hear that?" says Deb. "Thirty bags! Do you know what that means? There might be a mass-murderer out there, way worse than the Ice Truck Killer. Maybe I can finally get some peace." Yeah, because it's all about you, Deb. Ugh. Dexter clutches his chest, and says, "It's amazing," as the sound of his heart beat drowns everything else out.
Not a bad episode, albeit a little short. We're definitely set up for an interesting season. I just hope that they don't spend too much time on Pascal's life, because I find that pretty unexciting. But how's Dexter going to avoid the electric chair? Maybe he'll frame someone? But, that's against the code. Hmm. And what about Little Chino? We definitely haven't seen the last of him. No way.