The crazy pace isn't slowing down. Little things first: Quinn drops Nadia off at the club, and when Isaak Pullo and Jason Gedrick see him, Isaak Pullo has Jason Gedrick leave a bag of cash in Quinn's car just like old times; also just like old times, Quinn keeps it. Hannah turns up to the station to talk everyone through her road trip with Randall and to locate the rest of the bodies. She tells Batista that she was really scared and fearful for her life before Randall was caught, but Dexter sees through her and realizes she's nostalgic for those days. Hannah does lead them to the bodies of two victims who were a couple, and Dexter's analysis reveals that the woman was not killed by Randall but by Hannah -- a detail he chooses to withhold. Later, he tells her what he knows, and she admits it without admitting it. So she's probably not the greatest person, but honestly Dexter at this point could use an ally who's no stranger to violence, as the rest of the episode will show.
Dexter, while cleaning his boat, finds some of Greene's blood. He's stunned when a test reveals the blood's owner, and when he gets home, he realizes that someone has been in his apartment, and might still be -- and is, as it happens -- Isaak Pullo is sitting inside with some scary torture tools and a gun. Dexter leaves a fake message to lure Isaak Pullo out, and when he sees him, he recalls that they've met before and realizes that the Brotherhood must be coming to exact vengeance for Viktor. Dexter and Isaak Pullo then have a little phone chat in which they lay bare all their respective information, and when Isaak Pullo tells Dexter he's not going to stop with him and threatens Deb as well, it is on. Fearing for her safety, Dexter is forced to come clean to Deb about everything that's gone on with the Brotherhood, and when she hears it all -- Dexter withheld crime-scene evidence, the bartender suicide was a setup job, she's now involved in covering up Murder Number Three -- she feels like she has to do something and resolves to arrest Isaak Pullo. Dexter, however, prevails upon her to let him handle the situation while the two of them go into semi-hiding, and that night, while they share a cheap motel room, they fondly recall their childhood bond.
Dexter tries to get someone else to do his dirty work for him when he lures Isaak Pullo into a bar controlled by those Colombian rival heroin dealers -- but when MM turns up on the scene, they find only dead Colombians and no Isaak Pullo; not only that, Dexter is forced to tell the story of how Isaak Pullo single-handedly fought his way through multiple attackers. Fortunately, though, Dexter does discover Isaak Pullo's blood at the crime scene, so MM hauls him in. Dexter goes to see him (sorry, show, but I don't know how he would explain THAT), and Isaak Pullo makes it clear that he will wait years and travel parsecs to exact revenge upon Dexter, whose reply is essentially, "Bring it."
Masuka is on some jag about how he thinks he's getting fired, but it turns out he's jumping to this conclusion because he heard from a colleague that LaGuerta has been processing evidence at a private lab. When Deb hears the details, she goes to find out what LaGuerta is doing, and LaGuerta, seemingly softened by her mistaken perception that Deb is showing an interest in the Bay Harbor Butcher stuff because of her relationship with Keith Carradine, confides in her that she thinks the Butcher is still alive, especially since the fact that the Department never released the blood-slide detail to the public makes the possibility of a copycat almost nil. She also tells Deb that she never believed Doakes was the Butcher and that Keith Carradine had his doubts too, and Deb, feeling some real conflict, admits that she knew Doakes to be a good man. Deb offers to help, so LaGuerta hands over her file, telling her it's got to stay strictly between them.
After an awesome freakout in the elevator, Deb goes to Dexter and tells him what's up, and it turns out LaGuerta has actually really been working on this, as she's catalogued a bunch of disappearance cases since Doakes died that she wants to check into. Dexter is forced to admit that three of the people on her list were victims of his, but only one of them, a wedding photographer Dexter abducted at a job, has family in Miami, so Deb resolves to make sure she's the one that talks to them. Dexter is not thrilled that Deb is getting her hands quite this dirty, but it's a good thing she does, as LaGuerta ends up tagging along, and soon, the victim's son has given them a bunch of photos from the wedding, and Deb's worst nightmare comes true as she sees Dexter in one of them. Thinking quickly, she suggests they take the photos back to the station so they can give them a proper going over; in the end, she turns up to Dexter with the photograph and news that she accepts what he does -- she just doesn't want to know about it anymore. We'll see how long that lasts, but it does feel like the closing of a mini-chapter.
So stupid Harry is hanging with Dexter as he cleans his boat, and this is easily the worst part of another jam-packed episode, so suffice it to say that despite the fact that Harrison is apparently coming home soon and Deb has been off Dexter's back, Harry feels the need to torture a metaphor about the ocean and the waves and the salt water and SHUT UP. However, we get somewhere when Dexter discovers some blood left behind from the timely exit of one Louis Greene from this show, and aspersions toward Jason Gedrick's cleaner abilities aside, has it not rained in Miami in the weeks since Greene became the victim of his own video-game concept? Now that something is actually happening, Harry is nowhere to be found, but Dexter gets out his forensics kit and quickly realizes a murder about which, for once, he knows nothing happened on his boat. He takes a sample.
Oh, look, here's Masuka whining to Quinn, of all people, that he should tell him if he knows anything about him getting fired, like, since when do these two even talk and why would Quinn know anything about anything? If he were still dating Deb, I could see it, but I barely remember that even happened at this point. Quinn apparently can't stand Masuka to the same degree I can't, which is definitely causing me some cognitive dissonance, and after Masuka blathers about how he took a paralinguistics course and he can tell Quinn is lying, Quinn positively barks at him to go away, and at least Masuka understands people's vocal cues enough to know he's not kidding around.
However, Masuka runs straight into Deb and asks her if he's getting canned, and she does seem like the logical person to whom to direct this question, so I still don't know what all this nonsense with Quinn was in aid of, but Masuka does actually have a reason for running around like a headless chicken in a state of arrested development, as he learned from a friend about LaGuerta farming out the Colin Hanks blood slide to a private lab. When Deb hears Masuka babble those certain keywords, she obviously silently freaks, but she holds it together enough to assure Masuka that LaGuerta is probably just alleviating his workload and that she'll look into it...
...which she does, immediately. LaGuerta dissembles at first, but when Deb's sharp eyes spot Keith Carradine's FBI notebook sitting prominently atop LaGuerta's desk and Deb asks if LaGuerta might be checking into the Bay Harbor Butcher case, LaGuerta gives her an appraising look and then has her shut the door and have a seat. She asks Deb for confidence before telling her about the slide with Colin Hanks' blood on it and her theory about the BHB still being alive. Deb weakly points out that Colin Hanks' death didn't exactly fit the MO of the other BHB kills, but LaGuerta's counter is that the fact that the BHB kept blood slides was a detail that was never made public, so the chances that someone else would have copied the MO are almost nil. Of course, if the BHB were in law enforcement, there's no reason to think a copycat couldn't be as well, and a law-enforcement officer could have been privy to the info; still, LaGuerta's theory has merit even if you don't know what Deb does, which is borne out by Deb admitting that she can't come up with any other theory that fits the facts.
LaGuerta goes on to say what we already assumed, that being that she never believed Doakes was a killer, adding that Keith Carradine's notes suggest he had doubts about that as well. Deb, partly to get in better with LaGuerta but partly because it's true, agrees that as his partner, she knew Doakes to be a good man, and asks if there's anything she can do to help. LaGuerta takes a moment, and it's the first bit of believable emotion Lauren Velez has been asked to come up with in years on this show, and again, I'm impressed that they found a way to meaningfully include her in this season. LaGuerta tells Deb it's great to have someone else in on the secret, and then hands Deb a folder she says is for her eyes only, and Deb agrees...
...but when she's alone in the elevator, she has an amazing blue panic attack ("motherfucking suckbag," "cockmunching fucking fucknugget"), before calming down with some controlled breathing. Which makes me think that if Deb ever gives birth, her obstetrician should claim hazard pay.
Dexter's computer informs him it has a blood match for him, and he allows himself a funny, understated theatrical reveal -- but pays some real attention when he finds out it was Greene's blood on the boat. Dexter's mind reels, but he doesn't have time to work out too many possibilities before he realizes that Deb is standing in the doorway. She closes the door and informs him that they are "in a storm of fuck," which given Sandy is probably a fairly popular expression at the moment.
She tells him what LaGuerta found, and he winces at his carelessness and admits that that is not a positive development. They bicker a bit about the circumstances that led to the wayward bit of evidence before Deb tells him she talked LaGuerta into letting her help with the investigation so she can keep tabs on it. Dexter, not thrilled that Deb is being pulled deeper in, tells her to stay out of it, but she's not fucking around, especially since, as it turns out, LaGuerta hasn't been either. You see, she's pulled the profiles of fifteen people who have gone missing since Doakes died and fit the MO of the BHB, and as such intends to talk to their families, and Dexter is forced to admit that he's responsible for three of them. Gotta give LaGuerta credit -- she's Captain now and is still working on those unsolved-crime numbers!
Deb notes that only one of Dexter's three has any family in Miami -- a "Philip Barnes" -- so she'll try to take that one from LaGuerta. Dexter tries to protest again, but Deb firmly informs him that her ass is on the line now too, so he can stuff his concern. She asks what he can tell her about Barnes, and Dexter reluctantly tells her Barnes was a wedding photographer, and he'd find a young female from out of town and bring her back to his hotel room. "She'd never come home. He took pictures of what he did." Deb doesn't look particularly enamored of that MO, but flips out when she hears that Dexter "nabbed" him after a wedding reception: "What if Barnes got a picture of you? What if someone remembers you?" Dexter thinks no one was paying attention, but Deb, almost relishing the idea that Dexter's been sloppier than he thinks, wonders what happens if he's wrong. Well, given that we're only twelve minutes in, I have the feeling we might find out.
But first, Dexter arrives at his door and realizes that his curtains are open, which is not how he left them. Frankly, this is a bothersome detail -- why would Isaak Pullo leave this clue, and why on earth would he want the curtains open? If Dexter had left them open and they were now closed, I'd be willing to accept it -- there's a reason why he'd want concealment. Oh, yes, that's right -- Isaak Pullo is sitting patiently in Dexter's apartment, with an array of items you'd find in any hardware store that somehow look rather more sinister than normal when laid out on a little tarp in front of him. He also has a large gun with silencer, so I guess he's keeping his options open. The phone rings, and Dexter's answering machine takes it (I would like to know in what year this will officially be abandoned as a TV device), and we hear Dexter's voice in a sunny, dim accent "confirming" a meeting at 1 PM at "Schooner or Later" (in a seaside community, I would lay odds that restaurant actually exists). Isaak Pullo checks his watch, holsters his gun, and begins packing up his tools...
...and from his vantage point inside his car, Dexter sees Isaak Pullo emerge from his complex and realizes they met at the strip club. He quickly wonders if the Brotherhood could have figured out he killed Viktor, and even not having every bit of information at this point, it does seem like a pretty solid bet.
Isaak Pullo has no sooner taken a seat at the restaurant when a waiter drops by and hands him a phone, saying there's a call for him. I only wish we'd gotten to hear Dexter's description of him -- hopefully he didn't mention the gun bulge. Isaak Pullo doesn't let the surprise stop him from ordering a small coffee -- nice -- and is similarly unfazed when Dexter, without preamble, asks why he was in his apartment. Isaak Pullo literally calls Dexter "Mr. Smartypants," and he's fast becoming the most enjoyable villain they've had on this show in ages, before saying that he merely wanted to have a little chat about a friend of his who's gone missing -- Viktor.
Dexter denies knowledge of him, but Isaak Pullo only gets a little heated at that, informing Dexter that Greene gave him his name, an incident that occurred on the boat Dexter used to dump Viktor's body. Dexter asks what else Greene said, and Isaak Pullo replies, "I believe he may have referred to you as a 'douchebag.'" This guy, seriously. I think he and Dexter might get along great, were many obvious circumstances different. Dexter tries to faze Isaak Pullo by dropping the name of the Brotherhood, but Isaak Pullo, sipping his tiny coffee, tells him this is a personal issue for him -- and by the way, he's not stopping with Dexter, but will also come after any police officer friends who had a hand in Viktor's death -- "including your lieutenant sister. I've done my homework too." Dexter, having lost control of this conversation, urgently tells Isaak Pullo Deb had nothing to do with it, whereupon Isaak Pullo locates Dexter visually: "Hello, handsome." Well, Dex, you could offer to take over certain of Viktor's duties. You could do a lot worse. Dexter, having calmed down again, tells Isaak Pullo that he works alone, and it was only he who killed Viktor. "I'll see you around." Isaak Pullo: "That's the plan." Chills!
Bismarck Metro. In the parking garage, Dexter comes clean to Deb about how she might be in danger because of how he killed Viktor. Deb, essentially: "Great." She's stunned to hear that the bartender suicide was a setup job, but is even more so when she learns that Dexter withheld the evidence of Viktor's fingerprint at the scene. She wonders what happened to his credo of only "taking care of" people who slip through the cracks of the justice system, and asks how she's supposed to do her job -- "which at this point is the be-all end-all of hypocrisy" now that she's helping cover up a third murder here -- with him getting in the way. She stomps off with the idea that she'll arrest Isaak Pullo, but Dexter pleads with her, saying he can't afford to risk Isaak Pullo talking, so he'll handle the situation, but until then, the two of them need to crash in a hotel, not use their own cars, make sure they don't follow set patterns in entering work -- you know, normal stuff. Deb makes Dexter promise that he'll never take a case from the Police Department again, and Dexter agrees. Deb: "Are you lying to me?" Dexter: "I don't think so." HA! This show has found its humor again, too. Deb sardonically says she has no way of knowing anyway before leaving, and it's kind of funny that this meeting about evading danger is happening in a parking garage, which on TV tends to be a less safe place than... well, a drug-den bar, not that I have any reason for that to be in my head.
With his trademark needle and latex glove within reach, Dexter is staking out the strip club. When he sees a town car pull up for Isaak Pullo and observes how Isaak Pullo behaves, he has no trouble figuring out that Isaak Pullo isn't some hitman -- he's a boss. He doesn't have time for much else, though, as Batista calls with the news that Hannah is coming in -- she's going to talk them through her road trip with Randall and help them find the rest of the bodies, so Dexter agrees to return...
...and then he and Batista are sitting with the woman in question, who's matching evidence (presumably the stuff that Beth Grant turned over) to locations of crimes she and Randall committed. When they get to the Miami crimes, Hannah lets them know that Randall killed people who were staying in cheap motels so they could take their rooms -- one of which, represented by the necklace, was near the Frosty Swirl. The other two, represented by the toy giraffe and the lighter, were, according to Hannah, a couple, and are buried close to one of the ports and near a motel she'd probably still recognize. Hannah then tells them that Randall changed in Miami, and she was so scared of him, to the point where every time she dug a grave she thought it might be her own.
Dexter, however, no stranger to ersatz displays of emotion, watches her with a jaundiced eye, and when Batista goes to take care of some paperwork, Dexter observes Hannah pick up the giraffe with a fond, longing look and realizes that she's nostalgic for those days. Dexter breaks her reverie with "No touching," which makes me hope MCH gets a guest appearance on the new upcoming eps of Arrested Development. Hannah tries to say it was Randall's giraffe, but Dexter thinks it was hers, and after a little back-and-forth about that, Dexter tells Hannah that Batista will let her know where to be for the day. Hannah asks if Dexter will be there, and rather than discuss Isaak Pullo, LaGuerta, or any of the other million problems he's currently got, he merely replies, "I hope so." I appreciate the brevity, pal.
In, coincidentally, a cheap motel, Deb is apparently in the shower while Dexter is looking over a police database titled "Known Associates of the Koshka Bratva," like, I doubt a government database has a UI this friendly but I'm impressed with the mock-up, at least. Of interest is a piece about the Koshkas clashing with the Colombians over the heroin trade, and I appreciate the show putting up an actual story about it even if the use of apostrophes within leaves something to be desired. Also, DVO, not knowing that Isaak Pullo has gone a bit rogue in pursuing Dexter, thinks that he might bring all the Koshkas down on him if he kills Isaak Pullo, which explains the rather more elaborate plan we'll soon see. Deb complains about the water temperature in the shower before asking, rather neutrally, if Dexter's plan to take care of their problem involves killing anyone, but Dexter tells her no. She might have been better advised to ask if his plan involves death, but since it's going to go off the rails there's no point in bothering.
Deb wants to know the plan, but Dexter won't share, so she gets into bed and grumpily says this isn't how she ever imagining spending that night, and given that Dexter is in the process of removing his shirt, I have to say I'm SO GLAD TO HEAR IT. But what follows is an adorable character-building scene in which the two of them reminisce about trips they took to Myrtle Beach to visit their maternal aunt. With just the bedside lamp on, Deb recalls that Dexter kept watch over her all day, and Dexter takes a moment before replying that he didn't want Deb to drown. Deb turns to regard him and admits that Dexter was her hero, and in that simple little scene we can understand how Deb might be realizing that Dexter still is, at least partially, the same person she's always known, even as she comes to terms with the other things he is.
On the beach the day, we see Hannah sitting in a nearby car fanning herself as Batista complains that it's sweltering even with the ocean breeze. Dexter thinks that since they located the motel Hannah and Randall stayed at, their odds of finding the bodies are good, and then Batista turns the conversation to his new favorite topic by asking Dexter if he thinks the bartender at the strip club killed himself. Dexter rattles off the forensic evidence, but before Batista can reply, he gets bitten by a bug and goes to get some spray out of his car, leaving Hannah open to come over to talk to Dexter. She wonders how Dexter can do his job, remembering that the first time Randall killed someone, she froze with horror upon seeing all the blood. Dexter reminisces about the first crime scene he ever worked -- a woman had stabbed her husband after fixing him a sandwich. Well, if he complained about her being out of Miracle Whip, I could understand. Hannah makes the subtext into text as she observes that the two of them are swapping gore stories like they're on a date sharing their first sexual experiences, but before the bloody talk gets them so hot they pass out, a barking police dog signals to Dexter that he's got some work to do.
And he's not the only one, as Deb is just getting to Barnes's family's house -- when LaGuerta pulls up to join her. Uh oh. LaGuerta explains that the errand she went on turned out to be a bust, and since this was on her way back to the station, she thought she'd sit in. Not having an elevator handy, Deb takes this in stride. When they ring the bell, a teenaged boy answers (well, the actor, Bubba Smith, is 23, but he looks younger; also, he apparently played Simon in the American remake of The Inbetweeners, which I will not be watching) and tells them his mom got called into work, but he'd be happy to try to answer any questions if that'd be of interest. Deb's "No thanks!" is trumped by LaGuerta's "Awesome!" so in they go.
Inside, LaGuerta asks when the last time the kid, "Tyler," saw his dad was, and Tyler names a date in May 2007 that he adds was the "best fucking day of my life." Sounds like he and Trinity's boy would have a thing or two to talk about. Deb asks for clarification, so Tyler tells her that his dad beat him and his mother every chance he got, and once he was gone, their lives got so much better. LaGuerta asks about the wedding Barnes was working when he disappeared, and Tyler tells her that his mother printed out some pictures from that night she thought the police might want. I... don't know how these still exist? Presumably, Barnes had his camera equipment on him when Dexter nabbed him, so how would these have made their way back to his wife? So far this season, the show's been pretty good about leaving some plausible explanation for developments like these, but I have to admit I'm stumped on this one.
Anyway, as Tyler goes to grab them, Deb asks LaGuerta what she's hoping to find, so LaGuerta tells her that Keith Carradine thought the BHB was in law enforcement (I assume this is already well known in the Department, but whatever), so it's possible they know him "or her," LaGuerta adds, and I'm glad she's live to that possibility, even if it's not correct in this case. As they start to sort through the pictures, Tyler asks what they're looking for, so LaGuerta takes a moment to explain their errand, which leaves Deb free to rifle through the photos -- and soon, she does in fact find one of Dexter. It's a group shot, but he's clearly recognizable, so, thinking quickly, Deb covers it up and notes that since there are a lot of photos, it might be wiser to take them back to the station and spend the day going over them. LaGuerta considers this for a moment, but agrees that that's the smart move, so Deb once again has stayed the hand of justice from grabbing her brother.
Back at the beach, the bodies have been uncovered, and after Masuka makes an attempt at gallows humor that's the equivalent of a hate crime, Dexter observes that the shower curtain used to wrap the corpses up preserved both the bodies and their clothes, which means he'll be able to give a forensic analysis. He starts telling the story of how Randall killed the male with a large knife, but when he turns his attention to the female, he realizes that the wounds aren't consistent with Randall having inflicted them, although when he realizes this, he stops talking and DVO fills us in instead. Noting Dexter's pause, Batista asks what it all means, but Dexter says he's not sure -- he'll have to run some tests back at the lab...
...but shortly thereafter, as Dexter puts his stuff into his car, Hannah accosts him and nervously wonders why he stopped his explanation. Dexter evenly tells her that the spatter told a story that contradicts her account of what happened, and when she asks how so, he takes her right hand and turns it up to reveal a scar across the palm. She tries to tell Dexter that Wayne slashed her there after she talked back to him, but Dexter knows his trade too well -- the person who killed the woman was smaller than Randall, used a different knife, was inexperienced, and "got carried away with the frenzy of the moment." He goes on that whoever killed the woman stabbed her so many times that the resultant blood caused the assailant's hand to slip and the knife to cut her palm deeply, which left a passive spatter stain on the victim's dress. Dexter, rather triumphantly, concludes that everything Hannah said about this kill was a lie, but she tells him she's sticking to her story. He asks if the DA gave her immunity for cooperating, and she rather coquettishly admits that yes, she's immune from prosecution for any crime she committed with Randall. "Girl's gotta protect herself. I'll see you around, Dexter Morgan." Let's just say that subtextual vibe I talked about before hasn't gone anywhere.
Speaking of not going anywhere, when Dexter heads to the driver's-side door, he sees Isaak Pullo not very far away, which doesn't exactly surprise him. He gets going, with Isaak Pullo in hot pursuit. Dexter makes sure not to lose him, because he's got a plan; soon, he's pulling into what he describes as "the wrong side of town" and entering a bar with Spanish signage. Inside, there are only a few hombres, who look up at him questioningly as DVO notes that they're not used to strangers, but this is a perfect setup for the from-out-of-town Isaak Pullo. Dexter says one word -- "Koshkas" -- and heads to the men's room, while outside, Isaak Pullo locks and loads his gun. Back inside, one of the Colombians (yes, this is Dexter's plan; not bad as it goes) enters the men's room, but Dexter's gone out the window, and I'm assuming Dexter scouted the location, but man, that window looks pretty tiny. Soon, though, we have bigger, more Ukrainian fish to fry, as Isaak Pullo enters. When he hears a Spanish-accented voice make him as a Koshka, he immediately understands what's happened, and even smiles a little in appreciation of the trap...
...and then, as Dexter returns to his car, he hears several gunshots, so he figures his plan has worked perfectly. You know, Dexter, I'd be surprised if you never watched Rome, given it had almost as much blood as this show, but if not, you should know that I didn't call this guy "Isaak Pullo" because he's easy to kill.
Back at the police station, Deb congratulates herself on saving Dexter's ass, but she doesn't have long to dwell on such things before Batista comes in and now tells her his theory about the damn bartender, and if he felt this strongly about it, why didn't he bring it up to her before? And it's not like he really gets the chance here, as he's only mentioned that he feels like something's off about it before Dispatch calls with news about the Colombian homicide. Hey, just curious -- is there another precinct in this entire city? Batista calls to Dexter, who's just returning to the station, that they've got blood at Mateo's Bar, and asks if he knows it. Dexter: "Nope!" Heh. Deb, suspicious of the timing of Dexter's return, says she'll meet them there...
...and then Batista, Masuka, Quinn, and Dexter are entering the bar, in which they find several dead Colombians and no sign of Isaak Pullo. When Dexter sees the tableau, his shit-eating grin vanishes as DVO wonders where the hell Isaak Pullo is. Quinn IDs one of the corpses as a member of the Colombian drug cartel he recognizes from his Narcotics days, and even semi-correctly speculates that the Koshkas could be behind the hit. Deb, probably already having suspected that, double-meaningly asks Dexter to tell them what happened, and as Dexter reluctantly is forced to tell the story of how Isaak Pullo, despite at one point being shot in the head, running out of bullets after killing the first two, and taking a knife slash to the arm, managed to kill three assailants, the last with a combination of a bottle to the head and a stomp on the guy's skull. Yes, I will congratulate myself on the "Pullo" nickname now.
Deb: "So we're looking for the fucking Terminator." Dexter defeatedly sighs, but Deb isn't done -- she wants blood work immediately so they can try to match it to a name. She asks everyone but Dexter and Masuka to clear out, and Quinn asks permission to run an errand, which is given. When no one else is within earshot, Deb asks Dexter if this was all part of his "fantastic plan," and Dexter has to admit that this was a wrinkle he didn't anticipate, but they can still make things work if they can find a match for the blood. Deb: "The sooner the better." I guess at this point Dexter would rather Isaak Pullo talk than... well, do what he did here.
It turns out that Quinn's errand was driving Nadia to the strip club, and I wonder how that, um, "information exchange" between them is going. Meanwhile, as Isaak Pullo gets his arm stitched up by his mute bodyguard, Jason Gedrick blathers about how they have to pay the Colombians back. This is weird -- it doesn't seem like Isaak Pullo told Jason Gedrick about Dexter's involvement in all this, but I'm not sure what Jason Gedrick thinks Isaak Pullo was doing walking into that bar by himself. Among many other things, it doesn't seem like the part of town you go to for good vodka. Jason Gedrick is then chagrined to see Quinn canoodling with Nadia, and Isaak Pullo asks who he is, like, didn't he tell Nadia to get close to him? Show, you were doing so well. Jason Gedrick tells Isaak Pullo about the understanding he used to have with Quinn, the one that involved leaving large bags of cash in his car, which would get Quinn to look the other way from certain things. Isaak Pullo turns to his mute goon, who kind of nods barely perceptibly and hilariously...
...and when Quinn gets to his car, he finds a paper bag on the front seat with, as you might expect, lots of cash in it. He's not super-happy about it, but after considering, he puts it in the glove compartment and drives off. Well, at least he can keep Nadia in way better than the style to which she's become accustomed.
With Deb hanging over his shoulder, Dexter's computer succeeds in matching the blood to Isaak Pullo, and just like that, the man himself is being hauled in, cuffs on his wrists. Good thing he went quietly, as I'm assuming, because if he'd put up a fight it would have made Speltzer look like a sleepy kitten by comparison. Deb goes to meet Isaak Pullo, who's flanked by his attorney and Batista, and after the lawyer informs Deb that Isaak Pullo will not be answering any questions, she tells Batista to get him to Booking. "Your client's going to jail for the rest of his life." Isaak Pullo blandly calls after her that it's nice to meet her, adding her name to the end, but his amused smile vanishes momentarily when he catches sight of Dexter. DVO wonders if now that Isaak Pullo's going to be behind bars, they can have their little chat. Isaak Pullo is led away...
...and later, Batista comes in and brings up the bartender yet again, and I know Deb feels bad about it but I can't say I'm too upset when she cuts him off and tells him he needs to let it go. Of course, she's got the twin motivations of (a) protecting Dexter and (b) knowing that Anderson's death has been avenged, but I think she's not completely lying when she tells him that one of the hardest lessons she's had to learn as Lieutenant is "knowing when to back the fuck down." Batista looks like she just spat on his lucky hat, but Deb goes on that he doesn't have concrete evidence, and as such she can't reopen a murder investigation. She orders Batista to drop it, and he looks at her long and hard before telling her she's got it. And honestly, I respect the show for also trying to make me care about Batista, but since I never did it's kind of more of a challenge than with LaGuerta.
Oh, here's Dexter at the jail, and seriously, how would he ever explain coming to see Isaak Pullo? He may feel like it's a risk he needs to take, but can you imagine if anyone got wind of it? Regardless, Isaak Pullo rather grandly takes a seat, and he and Dexter stare at each other through the protective glass for a good few seconds before picking up the phones and greeting each other by name. Dexter then asks why it's so important that Isaak Pullo kill him, and Isaak Pullo chuckles before telling him it's quite simple -- Dexter killed Viktor, and he liked Viktor. Dexter points out that Viktor killed Anderson, but when Isaak Pullo asks if that's why he killed Viktor, Dexter hesitates the briefest second before answering yes. Isaak Pullo astutely notes the pause, but goes on to say that if Dexter is being sincere, he shouldn't require an explanation -- he should understand the need for vengeance. Either proving that he does not understand or else baiting Isaak Pullo into laying his cards on the table, Dexter wonders if the fact that Isaak Pullo is facing a long prison sentence means that this is over, so Isaak Pullo, brimming with anger, tells Dexter a long story about the wrongs a "fat little Party official" visited on Isaak Pullo's great-uncle. His brother, Isaak Pullo's grandfather, was sent to Siberia for years. Finally, when the Soviet Union fell, his grandfather returned to Kiev, whereupon "he got to enjoy the pleasure that belonged to him, and him alone, by sticking a six-inch knife into that fat little man's kidney. So you ask me if this is over." I really don't think I will, thanks!
Dexter, however, looks amped at the idea of having such a worthy adversary, and tells Isaak Pullo there's just one problem: "I'm not some fat little man." Isaak Pullo laughs, this time without mirth, and admits that he doesn't know who Dexter is. Dexter, his eyes starting to shift wildly: "If you ever find out, you'll regret it." He hangs up with purpose, and Isaak Pullo clasps his hands together in interested consideration. A powerful killer waiting behind bars with a desire to kill Dexter that will never fade? That is a setup that will keep.
Dexter answers his door -- for all the people out there after him, you'd think he'd ask who it is -- but it's Deb, who hands over the photograph. Dexter at least looks stunned at the near miss, and although he at first protests her involvement again, soon he can't help but smile that this time, she saved him. He thanks her, but she tells him she can't be involved in that part of his life anymore. "I know you're not gonna stop, but I don't want to know about it." And honestly, this feels earned -- Deb has seen and been through enough in the past few episodes to have her moral compass permanently recalibrated. She berates herself for having had to lie to Batista, and adds that all the stealing and lying and covering up isn't her. Dexter wonders if LaGuerta's investigation is closed, and Deb has to admit that she does not think so. Dexter guesses that if Keith Carradine didn't figure him out, there's no reason to think LaGuerta will, and as he gets two beers out of the refrigerator, Deb chuckles mirthlessly about what Keith Carradine would say if he could see her now.
She pauses again, and smiles for real this time as she says she's been thinking about Myrtle Beach a lot, how they ran up and down the shore and how she always chased him but couldn't catch him. Dexter laughs genuinely as he recalls that she wouldn't take off her flippers, but Deb thinks that even if she had, "You were always just out of reach." Dexter offers that maybe they're learning it's better that way, and Deb nods; as if to prove that point to the viewer, she goes on to ask about the blood report from the dig. When Dexter says he got it back, she asks if there's anything she should know. Dexter, after a pause: "Nope." He burns the photograph as DVO tells us that as kids, he and Deb would try to outrun the waves, but he would always dive under them. "I'd swim deep, because I could withstand the pull of the tide." As the flames consume his image, DVO goes on, "But Deb was always safest at shore. From here on out, I'll face the depths by myself." And while certain threats may lie dormant for the moment, this Hannah situation is only going to get more complicated. Will she be an ally, an enemy, or both?