Catching Up to You

S04E12

So much! Okay. So Trinity basically tells Dexter to back off or else his family gets it, and Dexter has ever more renewed purpose to kill Trinity BUT FOR REAL THIS TIME. He gets as far as syringing him and stashing him in his own van, but he ends up flipping out on the guy whose car he sideswiped to get there and gets thrown in jail. By the time he gets out, Arthur's gone and has enough of a head start to clean out the homestead for cash and prizes and get the hell out of town.

Meanwhile, Miami Metro wises up and realizes Beaudry is a total patsy. Angel stumbles onto the pattern of 10-year-old boy abductions, and the resulting interview of Scott Smith (that awesome kid Trinity almost killed a couple weeks ago) leads them to the Habitat for Inhumanity build, which ultimately leads them to Arthur's house. Dexter's already there, looking for Arthur, but he's able to cover well enough. But Arthur's gone, in his refurbished Mustang.

All the while, Debra has been following up about Harry's informant hoochies. Tragic Valerie leads her to Laura Moser's house, which Deb remembers from when Brian held her captive there. She connects all the dots she needs to connect and learns Dex and Brian were both Laura's sons. After the bust at Arthur's house, Deb "breaks" this news to Dexter. He laments bringing Brian into her life, but she tells him he's helped make her the person she is today.

Encouraged by this, and finally thinking he can have a positive impact on Rita and the kids, rather than a purely negative one, he happily tracks down Arthur and offs him. ...Just not soon enough, as he returns home to find Harrison crying on a bloody bathroom floor...and Rita dead in the bathtub. That's the season!

Previously, Dexter spent the whole season a) dithering endlessly with his voice-over and his subconscious manifesting as his dead father about whether having a family is too much of a burden, and b) not killing Arthur Mitchell, a.k.a. the Trinity killer. He did stake him out for a while, though, and when his alias was punctured, Arthur was able to follow him right into the middle of his workplace.

We open exactly where we left off last week, with Arthur smugly staring down a pants-crapping Dexter. I mentioned this a lot last week, but I totally love how there is no effort made to conceal the fact that John Lithgow has a good half a foot (at least) on Michael C. Hall, and in fact, they're accentuating it. Dexter is just dwarfed here, in every respect (including, sad to say, in intellect; and that's not exactly calling Trinity brilliant). DVO freaks out as Dexter sees Angel walking by, so he tells this terribly imposing stranger that he must be on the wrong floor. Arthur knows he's got the advantage, though, and proceeds to nose around. The one advantage Dexter has maintained is that Arthur is misapprehending his endgame. He still thinks Dexter wants to extort money from him. Dexter asks what he wants, and Arthur replies he simply wants Dexter to get out of his life. "And you'll stay out of mine?" Dexter asks (nearly pleads, but he holds it together). "I couldn't care less about your life," Arthur sniffs. "Or death. Unless you get in my way." Arthur smiles at him, advises he give up vigilantism, and shakes his hand, making sure to again call him "Dexter Morgan." He knows him now.

Arthur's barely in the elevator before DVO is self-flagellating for letting things come to this point, before vowing once again to kill Trinity NO SERIOUSLY HE MEANS IT TONIGHT TODAY RIGHT NOW LOOK HE'S GOING! He pulls a syringe out of the back of a file drawer of his office (love that!) and takes the parking lot at a run. Unfortunately he runs across one Joey Quinn, who's still in a snit about his girlfriend turning out to be a lying murderer who killed herself. Tell it to your shrink, pussy. Anyway, Quinn bitches about Dexter once again leaving work for no reason and tells him he needs to sign off on Christine's spatter report. Dexter says she's not going anywhere, but Quinn is anxious to put the whole mess behind him, and why should he have to wait just so Dex can go chase some midday tail. Dexter is seriously in no mood to have his devotion to his family questioned and says so. He tries to push past, but Quinn grabs him, and Dexter throws him to the ground. NOT TODAY! PEOPLE TO KILL! FOR REALSIES!

So Dexter speeds off after Trinity, Harry in the back seat being annoying and questioning whether Dex even has a plan. He gets a call from Rita, which he answers over Harry's objections -- gotta agree with Harry there. Because, of course, Rita's call isn't important. She wants the honeymoon they never had. This weekend, while Astor and Cody are at Disney with their grandparents. Apparently, Rita is oblivious to the tire screeches and car horns wailing all around Dexter as he speeds down the highway, weaving all over the road. It's hard to imagine how fearsome Julie Benz used to be on Angel. She's really selling this angelic/shrewish wife thing. Dexter "yeah, yeah, yeahs" her to get off the phone, but not soon enough, as he sideswipes a parked car, knocking its mirror off and seriously pissing off the driver. He hangs up, tries to ignore Harry, and follows Arthur's van into a parking garage at a bank. He stalks around, watching Arthur park his car and leave. Dex decides this is the place he'll have to make his move. He waits, while we see the car he sideswiped pull into the garage.

Miami Metro. Debra obsesses over the whiteboard filled with Trinity bathtub killings. She's trying to match Christine's postcards to the various cycles, as she tells Angel when he walks in. She's visibly shaken at the idea that there could have been Trinity cycles Lundy never uncovered. Angel tells her she needs to go home -- she's burned herself out on this case, and what with Christine just blowing her brains out in front of her, Deb might benefit from, say, a nap. "That's an order," says Angel, as he pledges to follow up with these stray homicide departments himself. Deb very reluctantly walks away, passing LaGuerta, who takes a moment to look at Angel cross-eyed and be all "OMG we're married!" Maria is at a loss as to what they do now? Live together? Her place? Angel just smiles and goes along with whatever. Blissed-out Angel has been a reassuring presence all season, but if we find out year that he got lobotomized at the end of Season 3, I'm not gonna be so shocked.

Meanwhile, you didn't think Deb was gonna nap through the season finale, did you? No, hellbent on collapsing before the hour's out, she gets Tragic Val on the phone and wants to follow up on that C.I. Harry was boffing. The one Val kinda stalked for a while there. Deb asks if Val's up for a road trip. Sweet Jesus and deliver me from that particular journey into the abyss.

Arthur strides back to the parking garage with a deposit bag full of cash he just took out. Planning for disaster, Art? He should be -- Dexter rounds the back of a van and plunges a syringe into his neck. Sleepy time for the not-so-gentle giant. Dex hauls him into the back of the van and checks out the envelope. Seems Arthur closed out his checking and savings accounts. Dexter's face lights up as he realizes that Arthur's already done the work of making it look like he skipped town, so when the cops come looking for him as the real Trinity killer, it'll look like he left town rather than ended up in Dexter's six trash bags. "Luck is finally working with me."

Let's chalk it up to Dexter's pathology and social awkwardness that he doesn't recognize tempting fate when he blatantly does it, because no sooner are those words out of his mouth than he spots Sideswipey O'Tattleface to his car, talking to the cops. "Seriously? Fuck!" hisses Dexter. Still savvy (...for the moment), Dexter grabs Arthur's wallet, puts it in the envelope with the cash, and hides it above a light fixture. Arthur himself doesn't stash so easily elsewhere, so he's going to have to bite the bullet and defuse the situation with Sideswipey before he can proceed. Unfortunately, Sideswipey isn't interested in being placated, and he's really not interested in Dexter flashing his laminate around and trying to play the brotherhood-in-blue thing. Unfortunately for Dexter, these sheriff's department officers are also not impressed. Dexter tries to more overtly ask for a pass, at which point Sideswipey pulls out his camera phone to record the corruption. At which point Dexter loses his shit. He grabs the phone and smashes it on the ground, at which point the officers throw him down and arrest him. So Arthur's gonna have to cool his heels in the van for a while longer.

Elsewhere, Deb and Valerie hit up a semi-distant neighborhood, with Val regaling an uninterested Deb with tales of how great Harry was. They arrive at the house Val says belonged to Harry's C.I. on the side. And that's when Deb's jaw hits the ground. "It fucking can't be," she gasps. Val just keeps right on yakking about the porch or some such awfulness, but Deb looks like she might pass out. "I've been here before," she says, before we flash back to the Ice Truck Killer, a.k.a. Brian Moser, a.k.a. Dexter's brother's kidnapping her and keeping her here, in this house, preparing to kill her. When Deb says Brian's name, Val sparks recognition. "That was her name," she exclaims, "Laura Moser! She had two little boys." Deb gets even more gobsmacked and wonders aloud what the shit her dad was involved in.

So Dexter's in lockup, pacing angrily and arguing with Harry and His Warming Glow. Harry gives Dexter shit for losing it on a cop, while Dexter rages about how he couldn't well get caught with an unconscious body ("fuck you, it's your number-one rule!" h

e yells, which amused me). Harry says that's not why he flipped out. Dexter's face gets all evil-grinnish as he seethes that he couldn't just let the cops find Arthur -- HE has to do it himself, for his family. Now, while Harry smugly uses that statement to further advance his theory that Dexter's family is ruining him, I need to address that "I have to be the one to kill him," shit from Dexter. I appreciate that the show is attempting to answer these questions about why Dexter wouldn't just let the cops have Trinity, but this sudden zeal to dispose of Trinity to protect his family doesn't really explain his reticence to killing Arthur these last few weeks. I mean, on the one hand, whatever, season's almost over. On the other hand ... whatever, season's almost over. Anyway, Dexter says it's our old friend Darkus Q. Passengerious who's to blame. "It's ruining my life," he intensifies. "It is your life," Harry returns. "I don't want it to be," Dexter whispers. O RLY? Well. If Dr. Roma Maffia were around right now, she might consider this a breakthrough. Before committing Dexter to an institution for arguing with thin air for fifteen minutes now.

Miami Metro. LaGuerta's gathered the team (minus both Morgans) for a de-brief. They're having a hard time making this Beaudry thing make sense. He's got alibis for at least two Trinity cycles, and his M.O. on the prostitute murder is inconsistent with the other killings. LaGuerta bitches about Matthews going to the press with Beaudry as the suspect. Masuka deadpans that he knew Beaudry wasn't Trinity, though he can't quite explain how Trinity's DNA ended up all over Beaudry's shack. Then there's Angel, who followed up Deb's postcard lead to Bloomington, where they indeed had a bathtub killing, a jumper, and a bludgeoning that year. But wait! There's more! The cop Angel talked to said that same month, a 10-year-old child went missing. LaGuerta immediately recalls Miami's own recent missing 10-year-old boy, Scott Smith (from two episodes ago). Angel says he called all the other Trinity cities and found boys missing in each one, five days before the cycles began. So Miami Metro is now as caught up as Dexter was two weeks ago. LaGuerta says to bring Scott Smith in.

Deb's at her apartment, researching Laura Moser. The money quote? "Laura Moser is survived by her two sons, Brian and Dexter."

Back at lockup, Dexter ends up the beneficiary of Our Overcrowded Penal System ™ (tee hee, "penal") and gets let out early. Dexter checks the clock and VOs that there's a chance Arthur may still be out cold. But before he can jet outta there, the guard informs him they did him the "courtesy" of informing his wife. Hello, Rita! And Rita's Patented Face of Disappointment! On the ride home, DVO laments how disappointing Rita makes him feel like a shit. ("Disappointing Rita," while a shitty Michael Caine movie, could really have been the subtitle of Dexter Season 4.) Rita's actually less naggy than usual, bringing up the smashed security light, punching out Elliott (which she admits she liked) and now this. She just wants to understand what's up with him. So Dexter falls back on what worked for him earlier this season: Lying by way of the truth. He opens up: "Sometimes I'm just going along and everything seems okay, and then this darkness creeps in and takes over." Rita evenly says it makes him sound crazy, but she doesn't think he is. She puts a reassuring hand on his. She drops him off at the parking garage, and he promises to be right behind her.

Once Rita is out of sight, Dexter breaks into a run. Time's running out on that sedative. He opens the van door, and...nobody. Empty. At least his envelope full of Arthur's cash is still in its hiding place. Still, a distressing development.

Even more distressing for the Mitchell family, who are home pretending everything's fine, per usual, when Arthur barges in the front door. Sally leaps up like her ass just caught on fire, but Arthur has no time to notice the fear he inspires in his family. He demands any and all of her jewelry and cash, immediately. Her wedding ring, too. Sally hesitates to give that up, so Arthur starts to pry it off her finger. At this, Jonah leaps to his mother's defense, which puts Sally in peacemaker mode, so she voluntarily gives up the ring. He then demands the money Rebecca is keeping behind her headboard (don't think he doesn't know). Jonah finally speaks up and demands to know what Arthur did. Arthur shoves him against the wall and tells him to start packing. He stomps off into the rest of the house. Jonah wants Rebecca and his mom to leave Arthur, right now. "This is our chance," he begs his mom. "He's in trouble." Sally says they'd only live in fear. Jonah thinks they already do.

Debra meets with Captain Matthews, who greets her warmly. I'd forgotten that he's supposed to be this old friend of Harry's, looking out for Deb. But it's a good time to remember that, because that's why Deb's here. As soon as Deb starts recounting the specifics of the Moser case, Matthews knows which one she's talking about. And in all likelihood, he knows why Deb's asking. But he lets her lay it out. He confirms that Dexter's mom died in that shipping container, that Harry adopted Dexter thereafter, but that Brian was deemed too damaged. Deb assesses that statement and gives it a "No fucking shit," given the whole Ice Truck Killer thing. Quinn keeps blowing up Deb's phone, but she needs to hear this. Matthews defends Harry keeping this info from her and Dexter, to protect them. Deb's like, "Point taken, sir, but I know now, and it's kind of completely wrecking the fragile ice castle that is my life." She wants to know what to do with this, and Matthews tells her to keep it to herself. Pretty much what Dexter did, though he's felt guilty about it ever since. Deb, having gotten her answer, takes Quinn's call.

Arthur's on the computer, in his garage, looking up listings for "Dexter Morgan" online. He finds an address for "D. Morgan" on Palm Terrace in Miami. As a reward for this successful bit of research, he allows himself an evil chuckle.

That night, Dexter stares apprehensively out through the bedroom blinds as Rita walks in. He wants to go to the Keys tomorrow, for their honeymoon. Rita's less enthused about this idea after Dexter's little adventure in lock-up, but Dexter's feeling the urgency to go. What with Arthur on the prowl and all. Of course, he doesn't say that to Rita. She's still reticent, so he apologizes, fairly sincerely. In particular, he apologizes for becoming the kind of husband Paul was to her. Rita disabuses him of his notion, saying that when Paul would get picked up by the cops, she was relieved. But Dexter's the biggest part of her life, and the kids. She's just upset at the idea of losing him. "You have your demons," she tells him, sweetly, "I accept that. Because I know you don't have to be a slave to them." Dexter really hears this, even if he doesn't entirely believe it. She tells him again that she believes he can conquer whatever darkness he has inside him. "I want to be that man," he says, grabbing Rita close to him. He again asks her to fly to the Keys tomorrow morning; he wants to meet her there. Dex proceeds to follow up this request with some lovin'.

Miami Metro. Angel, LaGuerta, and Masuka exposit the State of the Investigation (long story short: still lookin'), including that Quinn is questioning young Scott Smith right now. Only Quinn's walking in right now. He says he got a kidnapping expert to talk to him instead. Yes, it's Deb, who we see telling Scott (with his dad to him) about her own experience. This triggers some memories from Scott, particularly about the van Trinity used. And if I forgot to say it two weeks ago, kudos for little Jake Short for doing such a great job as Scott. Compelling and totally believable. Anyway, Deb has Scott draw the logo he saw on the van, and now Miami Metro has a new lead.

The logo, of course, is the Four Walls, One Heart symbol for what I've been calling Habitat for Inhumanity. Apparently, the image recogniti

on software at Miami Metro is top-notch, because by that night they're excavating the entire build site. Deb tells Angel and LaGuerta that the "cadaver-sniffing dogs" (what a cheerful bunch those dogs must be) led them to dig up the patio. They find a bag, which Masuka opens to find the remains of a boy. How old? Well, if Masuka's gonna guess, oh, say...ten? "Looks to be wearing pajamas," says Masuka, and Angel quickly connects that to Scott being found in PJs too. Good enough for a warrant. Says LaGuerta. Angel and Deb powwow about checking Four Walls rosters across the various Trinity locales and cross-referencing to get their guy.

Meanwhile, their guy just picked a lock and broke into Dexter's bachelor pad. Also known as Deb's current bachelor pad. It takes Arthur finding a bra on the floor and mail addressed to Debra to make the connection, though. "Fucking Debra!" Trinity says, throwing the mail to the ground like a child.

The morning, Dexter and Rita send the kids off to Disney World with the grandparents. Dexter then loads Rita and Harrison into a cab bound for the airport. They'll go ahead to the Keys and he'll meet them there tonight. As they pull away, DVO yammers about how very much he wants to kill Arthur. Dex rifles through Arthur's wallet, but finds no receipt or bus/train/plane ticket to give him a clue where he might be. So he decides to check the source: the Mitchell house. Jonah answers the door and Dexter just barges in, asking a million questions about Arthur's whereabouts, what he took, et cetera. Sally comes downstairs and greets "Kyle" with a mixture of anger (she knows he's somehow a part of this) and hopefulness (maybe he knows how to fix it). Dexter promises them all it's going to be okay. I like the way the show has handled this, actually. All through the season, Dexter's been manifesting self-doubts (via Harry, via DVO) about his ability to be a family man, but in practice, he's not only been protecting his own family, but ever since he found Jonah smashing up his dad's Mustang, Dexter's been protecting this family too. Anyway, no sooner has Dexter promised everything's going to be okay than we hear police choppers overhead. Time for the S.W.A.T. team!

So Dexter sees the fuzz in time to skedaddle, but the rest of the Mitchells get bum-rushed, put on the floor, and generally made to be terrorized. So perhaps not quite "everything's gonna be okay." But hey, Dexter made it to the garage undetected. And he managed to hide in Arthur's homemade coffin! How ingenious/thematically striking! He crawls out just in time to flash a laminate, then meet Deb and Angel, who are there in their flak jackets. Dex is totally out of breath and skittish, and Deb keeps giving him the hairy eyeball as she asks where his jacket is, how he got there, et cetera. We're supposed to think she's onto him, but clearly she's just feeling Moser guilt, since she thinks she knows something he doesn't. Meanwhile, Dexter's being hyper-helpful, all "LOOK A COFFIN AND ALSO A FRAMING HAMMER HEY REMEMBER HOW THE MURDER WEAPON WAS A HAMMER?" Deb explains how they found Arthur, then lays down some thematic resonance, all "Can you believe this monster had a family? And he abandoned them?" She confirms what Dex suspected -- that the cops saw the cleaned-out bank accounts and now assume he skipped town.

Deb, still being weird, tells Dexter to put on his fucking flak jacket before heading off to do something else. He runs into Quinn, and even starts to apologize for their run-in earlier, but Quinn simply tells him if he tries that again, he'll be the one on the ground. So that bit of tension is nicely set up for season. The Mitchells are led out of the house, Sally and Rebecca in tears. (Incidentally, this is the last we'll hear of Jonah Mitchell this season, and I bid him a fond farewell and hereby forgive him for all those shirts with sleeves on them.) Dexter flashes to an image of Rita and their three kids being led out on the same walk. And while we're hallucinating, why not have Harry be the cop leading them out. He turns back to Dexter and reminds him this is the inevitable fate of his precious family. Dexter looks shaken. He says abandoning his family would do what Arthur's done, but Harry argues that if Dexter left now, the damage would be minimal. Certainly less than what would happen if he's ever caught. The stigma that would give them, long after he's executed. Dexter's finding his resolve weakening.

Debra snaps Dexter out of his reverie. She's got something to tell him. Man, people are just breaking all sorts of speed records going against Matthews's orders. She explains everything about Tragic Val, Laura Moser, Brian, the whole deal. Externally, Dexter plays all the right nonplussed notes, while inside DVO is freaking, thinking she not only knows about the Brian connection but followed that truth down the road through Dexter's pathology and right up to his dark passenger. When he realizes that all Deb is doing is "breaking" this terrible truth to him, he expresses a truth: that Brian went after Debra as a means to get to Dexter. That it's his fault she was almost killed. "If I'd never been in your life..." he begins, but Deb cuts him off with a quick "Fuck you." She starts to cry. "If you hadn't been in my life, I wouldn't be who I am. You've given me confidence, and support. You've been the one constant...the one constantly good thing in my life."

Two things. 1) In this, the Year of Jennifer Carpenter, that scene might've been her most powerful yet. Can't give enough praise to her performance. 2) I have to mention how, despite the fact that Jennifer and Michael C. Hall are married in real life, their chemistry never once reads anything but brother/sister on screen. Not once during these episodes am I taken out of the show by anything that reminds me they're a couple. Kudos to them for that as well.

It all seems to dawn on Dexter at once: Deb says he's been good for her, a positive force in her life; Rita said the same. Maybe Harry's wrong; maybe he's not destined to be exactly like Arthur Mitchell. Anyway, Quinn calls Deb inside. Before she heads in, she tearfully tells Dexter she loves him. He looks up at her and speaks with utter sincerity: "I'm so thankful."

After Deb walks off, Dex stands up and spots something in the Mitchell garage. It's the smashed windshield of the Mustang. Arthur must've had it replaced. And recently. He rifles through Arthur's wallet and finds the receipt. So now Dexter has the car he's driving, and the license plate. We cut to Arthur driving the car out of the detail shop before the paint's even dry. Salsa music on the soundtrack reminds us he's still in Miami, for the moment. But the last we see of him, he's taking the open road outta town.

Later, at Miami Metro, Matthews brings in Special Agent Davis and the FBI to meet with Our Heroes. LaGuerta gives the credit to Debra for breaking the case, and Debra starts to get a head of steam about how There Was A Man Called Special Agent Lundy and how he was the one who they should be thanking but now he's dead thanks to Bureau indifference. Davis seems mostly chastened. LaGuerta and the rest of the team bristle at the idea of the Feds taking over the case now that the dirty work is done, but that's life in the big leagues. So Debra's left to watch the room full of Lundy's carefully cultivated evidence get gathered up by the Bureau that never believed him and taken out of her life forever.

Meanwhile...oh wait, I must've sat on my remote control or something...seem to have flipped over to an episode of Supernatural. Wait, no? This is just a long shot down a deserted stretch of road, with mist lying low on the ground like it was carpeted in it, and a classic car bearing down straight toward the camera? ...Okay. So it's Arthur, then, making his grand getaway through the set of The Wolfman when suddenly, his engine starts sputtering. We're all on the same page here, right? That page being several pages ahead? Thankfully, the show doesn't stretch this out: Arthur pulls over and goes to check the engine and discovers he's missing an oil cap. And that's when Dexter, framed in a really gorgeous long shot, comes out from the back seat, slams the hood down on Arthur's head, and, rather than plunging a sedative into his neck, chokes him into unconsciousness. Sometimes, it's the personal touch.

Not sure where Dexter has set up this particular death tableau, but he's managed to fit in photographs of all Arthur's victims, plus that damn toy train. When Arthur comes to, he seems less surprised than you'd think that Dexter is doing this to him. After Dex slices his cheek to get his blood sample, Arthur sneers at him, saying he never took this much pride in the crimes he committed. That's awfully uppity for a guy who bashed poor Sandwich Guy's brains in with a hammer. But Dexter's more concerned with punishing Arthur for his crimes against his family. Arthur thinks he gave his family everything, but Dexter would beg to differ. As would Christine who, Dex informs Arthur, killed herself. Arthur reacts to this with both sorrow and anger ("She was weak!"). Dex says he can't believe there was a time he thought he could learn something from Arthur. I know right? I can't believe there was such a lengthy period of time between that time and this moment here, where Dex finally gets to killin'. "You think you're better than I am?" Arthur spits. "No," says Dexter. "But I want to be." Arthur is dubious that Dexter can control the demon inside of him, any more then he could. Dex asks if he ever tried, and Arthur says he did; prayed to be changed. "That's not trying," Dexter observes, "that's just waiting to be stopped." Arthur thinks it worked, given current circumstances.

Dexter now seems like he wants to talk, get some advice going forward. He asks Arthur what the alternative is: leave, disappear, fake his own death? Arthur says those won't work -- he'll still be who he is. "I have a family too, Arthur," Dexter says. Arthur doesn't say a word but raises an eyebrow like you wouldn't believe. Granted, that's the only body part that isn't currently bound in thick plastic, but still. "I'm good for them," Dexter tells him. Arthur then starts yammering about heaven and God and fate, and Dexter has no patience for that. "It's already over," Arthur says, then repeats it. He turns his eyes to his train set and asks Dexter for one last kindness. Dex turns the train set on, and puts on one of Arthur's old records. And then Dexter dons his face shield, grabs a framing hammer, turns it claw-side-out, and ends the Trinity Killer forever.

Later, Dexter takes the Slide of Life out for a sail and dumps the bags o' Arthur into the sea. He checks out the full moon and wonders if Rita's currently looking at the same one. He likes that notion. In fact, DVO tells us he's interested in embracing a whole bunch of schmaltzy notions, Dark Passenger be damned. He envisions backyard birthday parties with Rita and the kids. "And maybe one day not so long from now," DVO muses, hopefully, "I'll be rid of the Dark Passenger. It all begins with a getaway."

So we all should have known right then.

Dexter returns home, night having definitively fallen. He's going to pack up and head off to meet Rita in the Keys. He takes a look around his home, filled with photos of his family, the floor littered with his kids' toys; aspirational mementos. He grabs his duffel bag and starts to head out when he gets the beep-beep of a voice mail. It's from Rita, who says she forgot her ID and had to head home to get it. They'll be on a later flight but still there waiting for him when he shows up. "Oh and," she continues, "I know you're not into this stuff, but the moon tonight is going to be amazing. So take a moment, you deserve it." The two halves of that last sentence are probably going to rattle around in Dexter's head for a long time.

Dexter hangs up and calls Rita back. And that's when we hear her phone ringing from her purse across the room. And then Harrison starts crying from down the hall. And Dexter races to find him, sitting on a bathroom floor, covered in blood. The connection between Harrison right now and Dexter in that shipping container so many years ago are obvious. Not least of which because, across the bathroom, Rita lies in a bathtub full of bloody water. She's gone. He reaches for her face, but she's gone. He closes her eyelids and stares at her in disbelief, but she's gone. He turns back to Harrison and picks the boy up. "Born in blood," DVO notes. "Both of us." And then Dexter utters the saddest line of all: "Harry was right." Dex thought he could keep his family safe, but he couldn't. "I'm what's wrong," he muses. "This is fate."

By Joe R

Deb's at her apartment, researching Laura Moser. The money quote? "Laura Moser is survived by her two sons, Brian and Dexter."

By Joe R

The logo, of course, is the Four Walls, One Heart symbol for what I've been calling Habitat for Inhumanity. Apparently, the image recognition software at Miami Metro is top-notch, because by that night they're excavating the entire build site. Deb tells Angel and LaGuerta that the "cadaver-sniffing dogs" (what a cheerful bunch those dogs must be) led them to dig up the patio. They find a bag, which Masuka opens to find the remains of a boy. How old? Well, if Masuka's gonna guess, oh, say...ten? "Looks to be wearing pajamas," says Masuka, and Angel quickly connects that to Scott being found in PJs too. Good enough for a warrant. Says LaGuerta. Angel and Deb powwow about checking Four Walls rosters across the various Trinity locales and cross-referencing to get their guy.

By Joe R

So we all should have known right then.

Joe R is sorry he was so hard on Rita this season and hopes Julie Benz's gig is a lil' more badass. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.