Dark, dark stuff this week, and I mean that in a good way. A hot bath leads to Deb being haunted by creepy, bloody, Rita-reminiscent dreams involving Dexter, and this is probably two episodes later than I would have thought it would happen, but Deb finally questions Dexter about Rita's death, pointing out that she didn't fit the pattern of Trinity's other kills. Dexter confesses to killing Trinity, but doesn't exactly admit how much responsibility he bears for Rita's death, not that Deb's not onto that, as she wonders whether Dexter even loved Rita; what's more, she's not even sure Dexter loves her. Later, she urgently tells Dexter that he's a magnet for trouble, and if he really cares about Harrison, he should send him away to live with his siblings before he really gets hurt. Dexter flatly refuses to acknowledge that Deb might have a point; ensuing developments, however, back her up rather obviously.
On the Speltzer front, the good news is that thanks to a tip, MM manages to bring him in; the bad news is that, having failed to find any of his DNA at the crime scene and with Deb being unable to testify to a positive ID thanks to his mask, eliciting a confession is their only hope. Deb does an excellent job in provoking a culpatory outburst from him; unfortunately, police tape reveals an irregularity with the Miranda rights in Speltzer's arrest, so he's free. Surely feeling vindicated at yet another failure of the legal system, Dexter resolves to take care of Speltzer on his own, but Speltzer catches him in his RV, and Dexter's martial-arts training isn't enough to overcome Speltzer's Goliath-ness. Dexter comes to in a grander version of last week's death maze, and soon Speltzer is coming at him with that helmet on his head and an axe in his hand. Dexter manages to escape, but he knows now that it's him or Speltzer, so he sends Jamie to take Harrison to his grandparents', where he'll stay for a few weeks – or maybe, despite DVO's assertions to the contrary, forever.
Isaak Pullo does a little research on Dexter and wonders whether he killed Viktor as payback for Anderson, and resolves to talk to him rather than (or at least before he commits to) getting rid of him, so Dexter's safe from the Ukrainians for now. Also, it turns out Viktor was in Miami to keep "the Colombians" from taking over their traffic, and now, with him gone and the police still raiding them every day, they're brimming with merchandise and have no way to get rid of it. Oh, and Viktor was either Isaak Pullo's son or his more nubile paramour; either way, Isaak Pullo is taking his death very personally. In an effort to get the police off their collective back, Isaak Pullo and Jason Gedrick "convince" a random employee to kill himself and leave a suicide note behind confessing to Soroka's murder; in exchange, Isaak Pullo promises to take care of the guy's family for life. When the police hit his place, Dexter of course knows full well that Viktor was the one that killed Anderson and as such is aware the entire thing is a setup, but Batista, surprisingly, also smells a rat, and resolves to investigate further at the strip club; we put a pin in that for now, but surely Nadia will come into play there.
Apparently MM succeeded in finding one of the new Randall victims, and Hannah shows up to the station, having been advised by her lawyer that she might want to lend a hand in the search for the other two – but also wanting to talk to Dexter about Randall, since she heard that he was the last person to speak with him. This leads to her and Dexter exchanging some wistful words about life, but Yvonne Strahovski got a pretty easy check for this ep.
Finally, Speltzer shows up to his victim's funeral to taunt Deb as payback for the way she got the confession out of him; in a rage, she flies at him. Dexter later shows up to see her, and she's all kinds of ambivalent toward him. Motivated by protectiveness toward Deb as well as… well, all his usual desires, Dexter outwits Speltzer and knocks him out. When Speltzer comes to, Dexter stakes him right in the heart in a way that would make Buffy proud, and then, whether for Harrison, for Deb, or for his own self-preservation, lays his precious blood slides on Speltzer's corpse and sends the whole package into the graveyard crematorium's oven. In the end, Dexter summons Deb to the building so she can see Speltzer's remains float away out of the chimney, and when Dexter asks how she feels, she confesses: "Glad." This is only four episodes in. Where has this show been?
With Dexter part of an MM forensics team going over the mausoleum, DVO talks briefly about how Deb doesn't trust him before we cut to Deb getting into a bath, and I've probably seen dozens upon dozens of screen characters drink wine in the bathtub at one point or another, but beer is a much less common sighting, so I'm impressed to see Deb stick to her drink of choice even here. Back at the mausoleum, Dexter and Masuka are in fact calling my bluff of last episode as they examine the place under an ultraviolet light, but they come up empty for any DNA other than Speltzer's, and Masuka sighs that Speltzer knew what he was doing. Dexter points to the shrine and lets Masuka in on the notion that something was there, and it was probably important. "Killers hate to leave their trophies behind." Masuka notes that that must mean Speltzer came back there after the most recent murder, and then he steps outside so DVO can muse some more about his relationship with Deb, like, there's a lot to come in the ep, so you'll forgive me for opting to get on with it.
From the camera closeup of Deb with her eyes closed and the slightly creepy music, not to mention the fact that there's no other reason to be in this scene, you know Something Bad is about to happen, and sure enough, when she opens her eyes, she sees blood coming out of the faucet. She realizes that she's soaking in the stuff, and then she sees Dexter in the doorway dressed in wedding attire. He holds out his hands and asks if she'll be his, and at first I thought this was about her STILL INCREDIBLY INAPPROPRIATE feelings for him, but now that I think of it, with him wearing his groom outfit, I think it's more likely that she's just imagining herself as Rita. The time the camera cuts to him, he's holding a bloody machete, and the red stuff positively starts gushing out of the tub and onto the floor. Deb desperately tries to turn the taps off, to no avail...
...and then she wakes up to find the tub ready to overflow, with some jets even springing out of the sides. Well, Deb, it may not be as horrific as what you just dreamed, but plumbing problems are no joke! She looks in the doorway, but Dexter is not there, which is nice, because as I think I might have mentioned, that would be GROSS.
The day, Deb comes into Dexter's office and summarily is like, "Coffee," and I have to admit I wondered at first if she'd made him her errand boy as part of his debt to her, but no - it looks like "coffee" is her code word for "let's go back to that alley and chat about your little side gig." Outside, Deb FINALLY brings up Rita - as I mentioned in the recaplet, I thought that that would have been one of her first points of discussion with Dexter once she got her head on straight; in fact, I got an email from a reader who was incredulous that she didn't go there immediately. But she's there now, asking Dexter if Trinity killed her, and when he says yes, she lets the ensuing silence hang in the air for a bit until he's forced to reiterate the answer heatedly. Deb explains her suspicions by pointing out that Rita didn't fit Trinity's pattern, but Dexter confesses that that's because he was going after him. Deb's understandably taken aback that Dexter didn't help MM catch him, but Dexter tells her Trinity knew who he was, and he was trying to protect him. And wow, that story would be far from the whole truth even leaving aside the whole "Kyle" business.
Dexter goes on to admit that he killed Trinity, although he oddly declines to say when; now that he admitted that he was hunting the guy beforehand, I'm not sure why it's a big deal that he got rid of him before he actually found about Rita having been killed. Deb asks if he loved Rita, and Dexter, offended, wonders how she can even ask him that, but Deb won't be so easily cowed: "Because I suddenly have no idea what's the truth and what's a fucking lie with you anymore." She goes on to wonder how he could have engaged in the particularly perilous game of going after Trinity if he cared about his family so much, and asks if he's even capable of love. Dexter replies that he loves Deb, but she can't wrap her head around that despite his attempted explanation that this is how he's lived his whole life. "Before the moment you walked into that church, did you ever question the way I felt about you?" Deb kind of can't believe that's his argument, and I think I have to agree - before she walked into that church, she also thought of you as a lab geek, a harmless guy, and also, apparently, appropriate dating material. It was kind of a watershed moment. Deb does not get to berate him further, however, as she gets a call from Batista informing her that Speltzer has been found...
...and as we cut to Speltzer, who's in the interrogation room, on the monitor, Batista informs the team that a security guard at "the scrap yard" spotted Speltzer and called the police. It took four officers to bring him down, and they surely would have shot him if he'd had a weapon. LaGuerta goes on that he hasn't asked for a lawyer yet, so they've got a shot at a confession, which is really their only play, given that there was no DNA at the crime scene and the fact that Speltzer was masked prevents Deb from making a positive ID. LaGuerta asks Deb and Batista if they're ready, and Deb's "Fuck yes" answers for both of them, as probably won't surprise you.
At the strip club, Isaak Pullo is checking out a photo of Dexter and says that he "looks familiar," so I guess he didn't really have any idea who Greene might have been talking about last time. That's a little disappointing, really. Isaak Pullo makes up for it, though, by exasperatedly correcting Jason Gedrick when he says that Dexter is a "blood splatter" analyst, and the fact that Isaak Pullo is so impatient with that particular error suggests that he and Dexter would have a real shot at being friends with some admittedly large circumstances changed. Jason Gedrick says that their research shows that Dexter's a pretty normal guy - the only irregularity worth noting is the murder of his wife. Isaak Pullo then asks about Greene, and when he's told that he worked for MM as well, wonders if Viktor's death was payback for killing Anderson. Well, in part and in a way, but it's so different a scenario from what you're envisioning that it's quicker just to say "no." Jason Gedrick then mouths off about how Viktor screwed them real good with this Anderson stunt, and if he notices that Isaak Pullo fixes him with a look that should by rights be causing all the vodka in the place to go up in flames, he doesn't acknowledge it; instead, he goes on that everything was going great for them until Viktor showed up in Miami.
Isaak Pullo grits that Viktor was a good man - he was loyal, committed, "and he was here to do what you couldn't: keep the Colombians from taking over our traffic!" Well, I'm not particularly trying to defend Jason Gedrick, especially given how dumb his hair is, but it's hard to see how even killing Soroka was instrumental to Viktor's work with "the Colombians." You kind of have to concede that killing a cop on top of that wasn't the greatest business decision. The show seems to tell me we're friends again when it proves my point by having MM conduct yet another raid at this very moment, and Quinn makes a big show of yelling the by-now-usual marching orders for everyone within. Quinn and Nadia then engage in some flirtation, and even though it's pretty light this is Quinn and a stripper we're talking about, so it's not a shock when this African-American female cop (she was on the scene in the premiere when Anderson's body was taken away; she's listed on IMDb as "Detective Angie Miller") is like, "Do not tell me you are fucking her." I like her already. She steps away from Quinn, and I don't blame her, but that leaves Jason Gedrick free to sidle up to Quinn and essentially offer him some cash and blow to make all this go away, an offer the type of which it's implied Quinn regularly accepted back in his Narcotics days. Not this time, though...
...which forces Jason Gedrick back into the office, wherein he complains that Viktor's dead, so why don't the cops get off their collective back? Isaak Pullo, his equanimity back, muses that maybe Dexter and Greene were working alone, so I guess he didn't buy Greene's story about hating Dexter, as obviously true as it seemed. Jason Gedrick offers to take Dexter out, but Isaak Pullo wants to talk to him, presumably in an effort to find out his game. Jason Gedrick wonders exactly what they're supposed to do in the meantime, given that they have two boats out there waiting to drop off their supply, "even though we can't move what we already have." Oh, just so you know, in the earlier scene with Quinn and now here we've gotten shots of a random forty-ish bartender, who gets the focus of Isaak Pullo's attention as he asks if "Alex" is "one of [theirs]." When Jason Gedrick confirms that, Isaak Pullo suggests they give the cops what they want, and I doubt the episode title was pointed in this Alex's direction, but it wouldn't be bad advice for him to follow.
Harrisburg Metro. Speltzer, looking slightly the worse for wear, sits as Batista gives him his good-cop spiel about how four on one wasn't a fair fight (disagree) before telling him that his lieutenant is going to come in and ID him for being at the death maze, and he's sure she got it wrong, being a woman, and Batista is trying so hard with the misogynism that I'm surprised he's not like growling, but, as Deb looks on with satisfaction, Speltzer seems to be amused by Batista going on about Deb squawking in his ear like a bird and how he envies Speltzer, as he's been wanting to pop Deb "in that beak of hers" for years. I never thought of Deb as particularly birdlike, although if there's some sort of mynah out there that's only ever learned profanities, there might be a resemblance. Having warmed Speltzer up, in a manner of speaking, Batista leaves the room...
...and outside, wishes an approving Deb luck. So, too, does Dexter, despite his desire to kill Speltzer himself, because, as DVO explains, "Deb needs this more than I do, and she needs to do it her way." Inside, Deb asks if Speltzer remembers her and compliments him on his maze-building abilities; meanwhile, behind her, Batista is surreptitiously making "blah blah blah" hand motions that are funnier than they have any right to be. Deb sits down and asks if Speltzer really doesn't remember her; when he doesn't respond, she wonders if maybe she's not pretty enough...and then takes out a photo of an attractive fortyish blonde and offers, "Your mom sure was pretty." You guys, shit just got real. Any amusement Speltzer was feeling and then some drains away immediately as Deb goes on to note that his mother died a few years ago. "Cast a long shadow, I bet." She asks what Speltzer thinks of the girls that go home with him - that they're stupid, easy? "That they're whores?" Speltzer looks at her with a glare that betrays just how on the mark Deb is, and she goes on to speculate that those girls would have to be to let him have his way with them. "Girls like that are vulgar. But girls like that sure do look like your mom."
It's been a long time that this show's been on, so maybe I'm not giving her enough credit, but I don't know that I've ever seen Deb dig into the mind of a serial killer like this; it's interesting timing given everything she's learned this season. Speltzer is getting twitchy under this line of questioning, and Deb presses her advantage, wondering if a woman as pretty as his mother had a lot of admirers, men who came home with her, watched her take her clothes off, and then nailed her. Speltzer breathes for her to shut up - the first words he's uttered since Deb entered the room, you'll note - and Deb, her voice practically a whisper/singsong now, asks him if he heard her as a child. "You could hear how much she loved getting fucked by all those men." I wonder if Batista has made his hand gestures more obscene to match the turn of this conversation. Deb brings it on home, asking if he was actually turned on by those proceedings, and Speltzer gets to his feet and seethes that he should have killed Deb like "[he] killed that other bitch!" Apparently this is a sufficient confession, although it seems fairly non-specific to me; regardless, Deb stands triumphantly and tells Speltzer to go to hell. After she and Batista emerge, she favors Dexter with a smile...
...but that evening, in the parking lot, when Dexter catches her and asks if she'd like to grab a drink, she looks like he just sprouted horns. I know a Colin Hanks painting she might be into. Dexter uncertainly goes on that he thought she might be in the mood to celebrate, but Deb is still feeling bad about that waitress dying. Come on, Deb, it's probably been almost twenty-four hours at this point! Live in the now! Dexter tries to get her to accentuate the positive of Speltzer being incarcerated, but Deb has something else on her mind - she's been thinking a lot about Rita. Well, that'd put me in quite a mood too, I have to confess. Deb tells Dexter that Rita died because of him, because he was selfish. Dexter deflates a bit as Deb goes on that he has a son who's only three and needs protection, and when Dexter sharply says he provides that, Deb gets more specific: "Someone needs to protect him from you." Dexter looks a little hurt, but when Deb goes on that Harrison could go live with his grandparents and siblings, Dexter bites out that he's a good father and is the only person who can and should raise his boy, "who like me lost his mother."
Deb, however, is not about to give in to that argument, and urgently tells Dexter that it isn't fair of him to expose a child to his life, and he has to decide between his desires and his family. Dexter denies that, but Deb goes on that he obviously doesn't want to stop, and as such he's a magnet for trouble. "Bad shit is gonna find you!" Dexter merely replies that if that happens, he'll handle it, and on some level, he either isn't hearing her or doesn't want to hear her. But, and I hate to bring up anything to do with last season, but does Dexter not remember the finale, in which Colin Hanks was about to (and really should have) sliced Harrison open with a wooden sword? Which in the show's chronology probably happened no more than a couple weeks earlier?
Deb considers her words carefully before asking what would have happened if he'd been just a few minutes later to Speltzer's maze, and adds that he was too late to rescue Rita. Dexter, determined not to acknowledge how clearly right Deb is, breathes that he should have killed Trinity when the opportunity first presented itself, and while that doesn't negate what Deb's saying, I'll certainly agree with him there. Deb is incredulous that that's the lesson he learned, but he reiterates it and says he'll never EVER make that mistake again, so I guess he's discounting the fact that he ALREADY MADE THE SAME MISTAKE WITH COLIN HANKS, and man, I can't get away from Season Six any better than Dexter can get away from killing. The difference being, obviously, that I'd like to. Deb tells him it's not in his control, but Dexter, sounding a bit, well, manic, replies that everything is in his control. He seems to realize how out there a statement that is, and takes a moment to close his eyes and pull himself together, but he declares in no uncertain terms that he's not giving up Harrison before getting in his car and bouncing. Of course, if he can just find some rando killer who thinking giving up his kid was the best decision he ever made, I'm sure Dexter will reconsider posthaste.
Oh, dear, the Ukrainians are coming. Specifically, they've turned up at Alex's house, and they're at least polite enough to knock. Alex is surprised to see them but deferentially lets them in, and look, I'm not saying he should be completely live to what's going on, but nighttime visits from your mobster bosses generally can't be terrific for your health, right? Isaak Pullo compliments Alex's family, as there are photos of them everywhere, and Alex explains he came to America to make money to provide for them - they're still back in Ukraine. Dude's got a pretty decent-sized place for someone who's sending every bit of money he can back home, but a film crew can't really fit in a shitty studio. (At least, not a union crew.) Isaak Pullo gushes about Alex's twins and how isn't five just the best age, and I'd point out that Alex isn't so much experiencing firsthand the wonderful joys that come with having five-year-olds, but he's about to have bigger, more hole-shaped problems, so I won't bother.
Speaking of which, Isaak Pullo bemoans the sacrifice Alex has to make before asking how awesome it would be if his family could have a lot of money - the kind that would send his kids to college. It's kind of amazingly hilarious that he's using this "No wait - there's more!" enthusiastic voice, given the strings that are attached here. Alex says he'd give anything for that, and if Isaak Pullo is talking about paying full American college expenses in thirteen years when these kids are ready for school, maybe Alex's declaration that he'd do "anything" for that is understandable. Isaak Pullo is like, that's just what I wanted to hear! Now all you have to do is sign this confession saying you killed Soroka, blow your brains out, and your kids are set for life! I'm not joking - he has Alex write a letter to Soroka saying he can't live with what he did, adding that he's going to take care of Alex's twins.
Jason Gedrick, who's likely been bored out of his skull throughout this scene but has been waiting patiently, dumps the gun Viktor used to kill Anderson on the table, and when Alex asks what he's supposed to do with it, puts two fingers to his head and pantomimes pulling a trigger. Well, the man knows how to make himself understood, I'll give him that. Isaak Pullo leans forward and suggests Alex look at his children's faces, as they would want him to do this for him. Alex, perhaps not quite convinced of the veracity of that, asks what happens if he doesn't, and Jason Gedrick's there with the answer: "We'll kill you anyway. And throw your wife and fucking kids in the river." I'm getting mixed signals on how romantically this decision should be treated. Isaak Pullo mildly chides Jason Gedrick for the vulgar threat, but essentially follows it up with "but the man makes a good point," and to drive it home, the silent henchman (while using a cloth; he really is compulsive about the prints) picks up a shot glass and pours Alex the last bit of vodka he'll ever taste, even patting him on the back sympathetically afterward.
Alex, not needing long to figure out there's only one path available to him, slugs back the booze, and Isaak Pullo assures him that it'll be quick, "like turning off a light." "Quick" isn't the same as "painless," you'll notice, but hey, I guess there's only so far even Isaak Pullo is willing to upsell this. Alex puts the gun in his mouth, but Isaak Pullo repositions it so he'll be shooting it into his temple, and while I think one would probably be as effective as the other, I appreciate his attention to detail. Alex, crying a little, says, "For my family," and Isaak Pullo nods with an appropriate amount of gravitas before Alex pulls the trigger. Isaak Pullo barely even blinks, much less flinches, which makes me wonder how many former employees' kids' educations he's currently paying for.
At the station, Dexter is working in his office when he spies Hannah entering. Their eyes meet, and after DVO gives us some unnecessary expository crap, she comes over, and after a bit of chitchat, lets us know that the Sheriff's Department found the body of one of Randall's victims. Dexter confirms that, saying they went back one last time and expanded their perimeter, and Hannah tells him that her lawyer "said it was for the best" that she cooperate in helping them find the rest of the victims. Not sure that makes tons of sense, but I suppose now that they know Randall was telling the truth, they're going to be redoubling their efforts to find the other two corpses. Anyway, that's probably irrelevant, as Hannah is also there for another reason - she heard that Dexter was the last person to talk to Randall before his death. Answering her unspoken question, he informs her that Randall's last words were about her. Hannah's reaction to that is decidedly mixed, and she tells Dexter that it was too painful to stay in contact with Randall after they were both sentenced to their respective punishments.
Dexter wonders where the two of them intended to go, and Hannah confesses they didn't have much of a plan at first - they were just trying to get out of Alabama. Eventually, they decided they were going to head for Argentina and settle down on a farm. She laughs as she goes on that they were living on farms in Alabama, so she's not sure why they thought it would be so different in South America. Rather than launch into a detailed analysis of farming subsidies and export statistics, Dexter asks Hannah if she misses Randall, and Hannah tells him that she misses the way she felt back then, the feeling that life was just beginning and that anything was possible. Hannah asks if he knows that feeling, and Dexter, very thankfully unimpeded by a DVO, has a nice long moment of ambiguous consideration before he shrugs that no, he doesn't. Hannah, looking like maybe she doesn't buy that, realizes her lawyer is looking for her. She heads off, but not without turning back and favoring Dexter with a smile. Staying with that shot, we see LaGuerta walk into frame, and we follow her into Deb's office, wherein she holds up a police DVD and intones, "We have a big problem." Well obviously you do, LaGuerta, if you're not even using thumb drives to carry your media around!
Oh, it's even worse than that. You see, in the course of subduing Speltzer, the cops were forced to use their clubs; then, when they asked if he understood his Miranda rights, they got no verbal confirmation, although it did appear that Speltzer might have nodded. Speltzer's public defender ran with this, arguing that since at one point, Speltzer was knocked unconscious, it's entirely reasonable to conclude that he did not in fact understand his rights. I mean, liberal here and all, but that seems like a harder sell in the case of someone who's been arrested on numerous prior occasions, no? Deb is devastated, and gets more so when she learns that Speltzer is already free - the judge threw out his confession, and he was subsequently released about two hours earlier, during which time he made it clear that he'll be suing the Department for use of excessive force. On THAT one, I think the police recording isn't going to be his friend. Deb wonders what they can do, but LaGuerta tells her nothing. DVO, on the other hand, thinks there's something he can do, but any planning will have to wait, as Quinn gets a text about Alex having offed himself. Like the strip club hasn't been a sad enough place to work as it is.
Outside Alex's street, Isaak Pullo and his goon watch from their car surreptitiously as Isaak Pullo snits that it's disrespectful that the police on the scene aren't wearing uniforms. The goon, well trained as he is, does not point out the irony of Isaak Pullo complaining on Alex's behalf when he's the one that forced him to blow his own brains out; instead, he gets Isaak Pullo's attention - because Dexter has come into view. Satisfied with this development, the Ukrainians drive off...
...while inside, Alex is lying in a pool of his own blood, very dead. Dexter gives his analysis, Masuka declares his intention to check the gun and make sure it's the one that was used to kill Anderson, and everything's great! Except, as DVO reminds us, Dexter knows that it was Viktor who killed Anderson, so whatever happened here can't be as it appears; he jumps to the correct conclusion that someone at the club wants the investigation to end. Dexter, however, is not the only one who smells a rat - Batista thinks it's odd that Alex still had photos up of his wife and kids; if he had been carrying on an affair with Soroka, as the suicide note suggests, why would he subject himself to the constant guilt the photos would induce? Quinn still thinks that Alex is the guy, but Batista isn't buying, while Dexter just looks at the two of them like he wishes they'd go get a room already. Me too, as long as I don't have to see it.
Dexter arrives home to find Jamie having assembled a pile of toys that Harrison is apparently too old for now. Aw, another character beat that's actually believable! Dexter apologizes for not being there, since they had discussed it, but Jamie, after explaining that she figured it was best to do this with Harrison asleep, tells him it's fine - he can just help her out now. Dexter picks up "Lamby" from the trash pile (it looks like a sock with a lamb's head on it) and wonders what it's doing there; Jamie is like, "Your son hasn't touched that thing in over a year, probably because it's covered in piss." Probably best not to wonder about the stuffed animals I used to favor. Dexter remembers that there was a time Harrison wouldn't go to sleep without it, and Jamie tells him that that's common - once kids start socializing and being part of groups, they tend to get rid of those attachments. She adds that Harrison is a genius, and Dexter fondly smiles, but tells her that Lamby was a gift from Rita's mother when Harrison was born, so maybe they should hang onto it for now. Jamie smiles her assent and heads to the other room, whereupon Dexter gives the air-conditioner a side-eye. Is he thinking about how hard it is for him to abandon his own attachments? Well, we have to figure it out for ourselves, because there's no explanatory DV...oh, wait, there it is. I guess the show has a hard time with that too.
The day, at the cemetery, Dexter is approaching Speltzer's RV when he sees the man himself emerge from it; he quickly takes cover and keeps an eye out as Speltzer heads for a bulldozer, apparently about to dig a grave. DVO: "He should dig his own." That's a first-draft line, writers. A pensive "That could come in handy" would be more like Dexter's dark wit. Not, of course, that Dexter's going to use it, and not for the normal reasons either. Dexter sneaks into the RV and finds, inside the refrigerator, some steroids, and DVO's like "At least he doesn't mind needles." That's more like it, show. Dexter thinks he can hide around there and eventually use the RV as his kill room; while DVO is telling us this, Dexter looks in the glove compartment and finds the trophy earring Speltzer removed from the mausoleum. Unfortunately, with his attention diverted, Dexter is surprised by Speltzer returning, and Speltzer quickly lunges at him. Dexter tries to overcome him with his martial-arts training, but it's a bit like trying to put a tank into a submission hold; there's only so far that technique can take you. Still, it's a pretty good fight, and Dexter does get Speltzer to the ground at some point, but Speltzer is the one who succeeds in knocking his opponent out, which would be bad news for Dexter even without the 'roid rage.
Dexter comes to in some industrial building with metal fencing and other ominous stuff around him, and DVO continues its upward mobility: "I'm still alive, but I don't think I'm going to like the reason why."Heh. Looking around at the setup, Dexter notes that he couldn't have gotten this place together in the time he was unconscious, but he doesn't have time to ponder that, as he opens an envelope that's been left in a prominent place for him. The note inside, much like the one last week, says "Run," and although DVO tries to Walter White that he is the one that makes people run, the appearance of Speltzer in that helmet dragging an axe along the wall like he's looking to become the slasher franchise gives some nuance to his viewpoint: "I do run if there's a bull coming after me with an axe." DVO, you're off probation.
Dexter's true to his voiceover, and zips through the obstacles in his path as carefully as he can, with Speltzer hot on his tail. He enters a stairwell and balks for a moment at the open elevator shaft, the car down below, but when Speltzer catches up to him, Dexter has no choice but to jump and wrap himself around the elevator cable. He quickly slides down it, and after looking up and seeing Speltzer peering down at him, rushes out onto the lower level...into a room full of mannequins bathed only in stroboscopic light, and okay, this probably isn't entirely original but it's pretty fucking creepy. Dexter keeps himself moving, and across the room, he sees something that looks like Speltzer's bull mask, but as he moves to "sneak up" on it, you can see Speltzer move behind him and it's pretty goddamn tense, no lie. When Dexter gets close enough, he can see that it actually is Speltzer's mask - he's just not currently in it. Instead of panicking, though, he pauses - and when Speltzer swings the axe at him, he leans in the other direction, evading the blow. Even Speltzer can't swing a heavy axe without losing his balance in the follow-through, and Dexter gets on top of him with an explanation of how he dodged that bullet: "You should really try taking a shower once in a while." Well, I reckon he was pretty busy while you were asleep. Speltzer flips Dexter off him, and when Dexter gets back on his feet, his adversary is nowhere to be seen. Rather than try to rely on the same trick twice, he takes a chance on one of the room's exits...
...and finds himself in another stairwell, with the "up" offering boarded up. DVO astutely notes that Speltzer seems to want him to go further down, so it might be the smart idea to head up instead; as such, he uses some metal pole he picked up in the mannequin room to bust open the barrier and moves. Speltzer ends up hot on his tail, but Dexter makes it to the roof, and is then able to navigate his way down and hitch a ride on the back of a passing car-carrying truck before Speltzer can catch him. DVO realizes that Speltzer knows his face now, and as such, if he wants a "rematch" he's going to have to be smarter. Well, among other things, I'd suggest the rematch not take place anywhere that Speltzer has been allowed to CONVERT INTO A DEATH MAZE. (Honestly, though, the one in the attic last week was ten times worse.) Dexter then gets another look of realization on his face, and DVO explains that in order to take Speltzer down, he's going to have to make sure he (Dexter) has nothing to lose...
...so he's sending Jamie to take Harrison to his grandparents in Orlando. Jamie thinks Dexter is packing too much stuff, as Harrison will only be gone a few weeks, and Dexter is like, no, totally! In no way might this be a permanent thing, brought on by my totally nagging yet, I'm increasingly suspecting, completely correct sister! Jamie says she might spend a few days up there herself, and Dexter gives her some cash and tells her to enjoy before she takes some stuff down to the car. When she's gone, Dexter tells Harrison that Astor and Cody are jazzed to see him, and he should be good for his grandparents. DVO says he's only doing this because of Speltzer and not because of Deb, and I'm sure in a minute Dexter's going to go hug piss-stained Lamby to drive home the point. Dexter tells Harrison that he loves him more than..."Pizza!" Harrison finishes, and I can't think of anything more touching than that, for serious. Dexter takes Harrison down to the car, and the rather plaintive music cue suggests that we should take a moment to say goodbye ourselves.
We're back at Victor's odd apartment building, and Isaak Pullo blithely slices open the police seal on Viktor's door and enters. He looks fairly emotional as soon as he's inside, but after a moment, he grabs a picture frame and sits down. He puts on his glasses and then opens up the back of the frame...to reveal a photo of him with his arm around Viktor. Immediately overcome, he says something in Ukrainian that I believe is simply "My Viktor," and adds that he'll avenge his death. And his reaction could be that of a father or a seeeecret loooooover (yep, the song's stuck in my head now), but on consideration it doesn't seem particularly logical that he'd want to hide Viktor being his son if that were the case, not to mention now we have an explanation for the bent building. Still, I think the writers missed an opportunity: A mere "Viktor, I swear," would have been so much more evocative.
Post-funeral, Deb and Batista are outside watching the waitress's coffin being loaded into the hearse, and when it drives away, Deb sees that Speltzer is standing nearby with a taunting look on his face. She hightails it over to him, awesomely taking off her dress shoes on the way without missing a step, but before she can do much more than curse a blue streak at him, Batista appears and drags her away while Speltzer laughs in her face. And sure, this is needed to push Deb down the slippery slope, but it's earned; he's paying her back for her interrogation tactics. And she reacted just as he hoped, leading to...
...Dexter, having heard what happened, showing up at her house that night to check on her. Deb, half-crying, confesses that she lost her mind and tried to attack Speltzer. "I wanted to fucking kill him!" Dexter can't resist raising an eyebrow in a "Hey, fancy that!" message, but Deb isn't amused, asking if he only came there to prove a point about how everyone wants someone dead. Dexter evenly tells her that he came there to see how she is, but she doesn't want to hear it from him, and after a long, helpless silence on both sides, she asks if it's ever going to get easier. He tries to tell her, yet again, that things aren't all that different - the only thing that's changed is that now she knows more about him. Deb argues this point, but Dexter assures her he's still her brother, the person who will always be there for her. "Maybe the question is whether you'll be there for me." Deb takes another long moment to consider before saying she doesn't know if she can feel the same way about them as she used to. "I do. But I don't." With that, she opens the front door and withdraws from the room. Effective gesture, Deb, but given how things went with Speltzer I'd come back later to make sure the door is locked.
Back at the station, Batista engages Quinn some more about the Alex case, and I really doubt you care about the details: Batista still feels like there's something off about it, so Quinn agrees to hit the club one more time the day. Also, Quinn tells Batista about Nadia, and the requisite amount of shit is given, and Batista brings up the possibility of retirement again, and the fact that he adds that he's a cliché could be the show's way of letting us know he's going to be adding his carcass to this season's already-high body count.
At night, Speltzer's returning to the cemetery from somewhere when he sees Dexter walking nearby, apparently unaware of his presence. Of course, his earlier turn with Dexter should have clued him in that the man is not stupid, but then again, Speltzer maybe isn't the sharpest knife in the serial-killer drawer. DVO talks about the fight-or-flight response a bit, and then Speltzer is heading over to the mound of dirt by the bulldozer, on top of which is a note that reads "STAY." Speltzer just duhs at it until Dexter conks him on the back of the head with a shovel, after which Speltzer topples into the open grave. And the convenience of that development is tempting, but it turns out the shovel handle broke on Speltzer (you can hardly blame it), so Dexter, after regarding it, gets another idea...
...and when Speltzer comes to, he's restrained atop a metal belt in front of a small door. He asks what the fuck this is, so Dexter, off behind where he can't see him, intones, "The end of your run." Speltzer roidily yells the f-word a few times, prompting Dexter to imitate him; it's funny, but he then, quick as a cat, rushes over and yells it again at the top of his lungs into Speltzer's face, and the primal nature of it cows even the big dude. Dexter conversationally says that this would normally be the time to slice Speltzer's cheek open, but he realizes that's a habit that's become too risky to continue. "Everything's different now. The memory of killing will have to be enough." Speltzer breathes that he's going to kill Dexter, giving Dexter an opportunity to respond, "That would be a twist." This is the umpteenth variation I've seen from fictional characters of that sentiment; the point is, Speltzer, your time has come.
And in case you were wondering why Dexter doesn't seem too concerned with DNA, he pushes a button on one of the support beams in the room, and the small door lifts up - to reveal the cemetery's very live crematorium. Speltzer starts screaming for real here, and then Dexter grandly and menacingly tells him he was supposed to be the bridge to Deb's understanding and acceptance of Dexter, but he almost lost her, and she almost lost herself, because of Speltzer. "Who knows, maybe our relationship can rise from your ashes." Dexter picks up the shovel handle/stake, and Speltzer cries "No!" a couple times, but without further ceremony, Dexter plunges it into his heart. And honestly, I'd rather that than be burned alive, right? Seems pretty humanitarian of Dexter, at least if you take it in a very narrow context. Once Speltzer has stopped twitching, we see that Dexter's talk of blood slides wasn't idle - he brought his case along, and after opening it and giving it a last look, he places it atop Speltzer's corpse and sends the whole kit and caboodle into the furnace like the serial-killer version of a Norse funeral. Odin's going to be a little confused about this one. As everything reaches the flames, Dexter intones "Goodbye, friends," and that is CREEPY and HORRIBLE and I kind of love it. He pushes the button to close the door...
...and then later, he stands outside the building watching the smoke go up from the chimney. Deb pulls up, and he gets in her car and tells her he wasn't sure she'd come. She tells him he wasn't the only one before asking what she's doing there, and Dexter points to the cloud of smoke and is like, uh, remember Speltzer? Instead of flinching, as you'd probably expect, Deb merely regards the column of smoke for a long time, before, without turning her gaze, asking Dexter if he did this for her. Dexter, after a moment, admits that he didn't, and then asks her how she feels, and she gets the word out in a whisper: "Glad." She breathes hard and wonders what that makes her, and he simply replies, "Human." And speaking of rising from the ashes, as I asked in the recaplet: Where has this show been?