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Dexter visits Hannah in prison, who confesses that she did poison Deb while bitterly reproaching Dexter for choosing her over Hannah. She does promise not to tell anyone about him, if only to lord it over him, and he almost has a breakdown about how he's going to miss her, but he won't consent to getting rid of the poisoned pen, which would result in her release, so they say goodbye. Hannah then calls Schram for help, and we don't hear her request, but she's feeling good enough that when Deb shows up to her arraignment, she rubs her hypocrisy in covering up Dexter's crimes in her face extremely gleefully. In the hearing, Schram uses a fake breakdown to hug Hannah and slip her something that Hannah ingests; soon enough, she's having some kind of seizure in the back of an ambulance – only to escape the hospital once she comes to and everyone's back is turned. She stops by Dexter's to leave him a remembrance, and even though these seasonal contracts rarely vary their routine, I hope we haven't seen the last of her.
Within the first few minutes, LaGuerta turns up to Dexter's place and personally arrests him…for Estrada's murder, and him being perp-walked through MM was no dream sequence, which is truly amazing. She goes on to interrogate him, revealing her personal stake in the investigation; Dexter turns fairly ugly in exploiting that, and things get worse for her when it turns out the evidence on which she arrested him – Estrada's shirt and wallet – were planted by Dexter to make it look like she was trying to frame him. With things having gone south for her, LaGuerta calls Deb in to apologize – but soon Deb realizes she's the fly in LaGuerta's parlor, as she just now got a package from Anderson's widow. Remember when Deb went out to get that gas to light the fire in the church in which Dexter killed Colin Hanks? It so happened that Anderson had ordered the security footage of all gas stations in the area, which means Deb was caught on tape. Deb tries to cover, badly, which only makes LaGuerta press her advantage, and although nothing's resolved, Deb now knows it's just a matter of time before she as well as Dexter are exposed. When Deb tells Dexter what's up, he breaks into her place and finds a warrant to search his and Deb's phone records, which will prove that they were at the church that night, and Dexter, out of ideas, goes to the "LaGuerta needs to die" place.
Meanwhile, Estrada, it turns out, is still on the loose. By tailing his ex-wife, Dexter finds the man in question, and, through a little subterfuge, captures him. He has him call LaGuerta and tell her to come back to the shipping container at which she almost caught Dexter, and when Dexter tells him he's going to kill him anyway, he points out that he killed Dexter's mother the same way Dexter's about to kill LaGuerta. Dexter acknowledges the parallel before taking his revenge, while Deb, having a sixth sense about what's going on, gets the location of LaGuerta's vehicle and figures out what he's up to. Dexter drugs LaGuerta and plans to set it up so it looks like LaGuerta and Estrada shot each other – but Deb gets there before he pulls it off. LaGuerta then comes to and tells Deb to shoot Dexter, and Dexter tells her to do what she has to – AND SHE KILLS LAGUERTA. I mean, it's probably where we should have figured the show was going all season, given how much it's been taking pages out of Breaking Bad's playbook, but oh my God, what an entry into the show's New Year.
On top of all this, there's a series of Doakes "flashbacks." Great to see Erik King and every MF he utters again.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!In prison, Hannah, wearing the orange jumpsuit we last saw on Isaak Pullo -- it's been a pretty heavy season on the putting-people-in-jail front for Dexter -- walks out of lockup and sits in the visiting room with Dexter. It's uncomfortable, as you might expect when Dexter has made Hannah a "life partner" in not exactly the way she anticipated, and she looks at him for a long time while he tries unsuccessfully to come up with anything to say. She finally offers that it looks like he got some sun, and he replies, "The boat" before asking if they're treating her okay. She sardonically tells him she gets ten minutes outside a day, and adds, with the same brittle smile, "My cellmate seems nice. She robbed a liquor store so she could buy some meth." Well, Hannah, she may well be nice, but I have to say in that tone it sounds bad.
Dexter starts to apologize, but she cuts him off, bitterly saying that he claimed to love her, but he intones in a voice that will brook no dissent, "You poisoned Debra." And lied about it to his face very convincingly, I will add, since Dexter doesn't. Hannah takes in the expression on his face and decides that further denial is useless, so she tells him it's because Deb was trying to keep them apart, and adds that Dexter could have just broken up with her. I have to admit that solution never occurred to me, probably because, as Dexter points out, that would only have completely freed her up to kill Deb.
Hannah goes on that she's going to spend the rest of her life behind bars, and when Dexter breathes that she left him no choice, she counters that he did have a choice -- and he was supposed to choose her. When Dexter snaps that Deb's his sister, the vehemence of his response leads her sadly to note that she never stood a chance, and you can point out that she would have done better if she hadn't killed Price, but her point is still maybe kind of taken.
She stands to go, but, with his face breaking more than I ever remember seeing it, Dexter gets up and grabs her, begging her not to go. I'd think this is the part where someone would yell, "No touching," but this is going to seem like nothing in a couple minutes. Hannah wonders why he's even there, as she's not going to tell anyone "what" Dexter is. "I would never do that to you." Dexter ignores the frost coming off those words and plows on that he came because he needed her to know that if he could have thought of any other way to keep Deb safe, he would have opted for it. Hannah's suddenly heartened by how emotional he's getting, and when he goes on that he misses her so much, she smiles that she feels the same.
Dexter takes a ragged breath and reiterates the sentiment he's been saying since he met her -- that she's the only person in the world from whom he doesn't have to hide anything -- and that he doesn't know what he'll do without her. She urgently tells him it's not too late -- if he were to disappear the poisoned pen from evidence, the case against her would break down, and they'd be together again. She even suggests that they could go to Argentina, which would solve the Deb problem, but Dexter flatly tells her he can never trust her. He's probably also not super-jazzed about getting a recycled fantasy as his getaway destination, either. He goes on that she can similarly never trust him -- again, man's got a point -- and finishes, "We both knew it would come to this -- one of us dead or behind bars." Hannah nods and smiles with equal parts humor and menace: "Except I always thought it would be you." Also not devoid of humor, he apologizes, and then they mack for a bit -- and then she bites his lip, drawing blood. He may have put her behind bars, but I always thought she was the scorpion in this relationship, so it's nice of her to admit it with such flair. She tells him goodbye and really kind of swaggers off, and it's no surprise that DVO admits how smitten he still is: "I tried to kill Hannah, but I couldn't. I want to hate her for what she did to Deb, but I can't." And I have to ask: Who can? Besides Deb, that is, but she hates everyone.
Cut to Schram getting a collect call from Hannah, which she accepts with only minor hesitation. Hannah puts on her best damsel-in-distress voice and tells Schram she can't live like this anymore, and even though Schram is like, "Uh, you haven't even been tried yet," Hannah is like, yeah, well, that time I "took care of that counselor" (good thing to be discussing with the operator listening in) means that you owe me, so here's what you're going to do. Schram's all ears, but what Hannah tells her is not for ours yet.
Dexter and Harrison are playing in the living room, and the array of stuff on the floor prompts Jamie good-naturedly to proclaim it "Toymageddon," which while not the best line is more amusing than Harrison's subsequent declaration that he misses Hannah. Possibly having anticipated this coming up, or possibly being one of the only people on his show who's actually well-adjusted, Jamie has no problem smoothly telling him that Hannah had to go away, but she surely misses him very much, and while that's not exactly original, Harrison's still young enough to buy it.
But what happens has the potential to make him grow up in a hurry, as when Dexter answers a knock at the door, he finds LaGuerta, who with the aid of two uniforms arrests him on the spot for the murder of Hector Estrada. Jamie, who you'll remember was once LaGuerta's sister-in-law, tries to intervene, and after being thwarted by one of the unis, she goes to call Deb, leaving LaGuerta emotionally to read Dexter his rights. LaGuerta, it's your big moment, so how about not casting your eyes down every two seconds so it looks like you've got a Miranda cheat sheet written on your hand?
Cut to Dexter being perp-walked right into the MM work area, which seems perhaps a bit much, and obviously, everyone is like WTF? Batista makes a big show of confronting LaGuerta, and look, I have no problem with people generally exhibiting shock at this development, and Batista has always been a staunch ally of the Morgans. But I think the show missed an opportunity to involve Quinn in an interesting way, given that he was the only cop on the force besides Doakes who ever thought there was something weird about Dexter. Maybe they're holding back everyone's suspicion of Dexter until season, but it does seem like he should be an early adopter.
Anyway, Deb's shocked when she sees what's going on, and even as Dexter gives his blandest, most unconcerned look, Deb tries to get Dexter released, to no avail. LaGuerta tells her in no uncertain terms that as family, she needs to recuse herself from involvement in this situation, and then walks off, but not without Batista hot on her heels.
In the interrogation room, LaGuerta confirms that Dexter's official statement is that he went fishing the night before and then went home to be with Harrison. Dexter tells her he didn't kill Estrada, so she asks if he didn't take his body, cut it into bags and throw it into the ocean? As Batista observes from inside the room and Deb from out, Dexter's like, still no on that, and why would I, so LaGuerta replies, because Estrada cut up your mother, and sometimes there's a symmetry in the way killers operate? Dexter's like, la la la, I brought ice on the boat because my cooler broke, and that's what was in the bags, and by the way, what phone are you using because that's pretty good resolution from your little impromptu stakeout. LaGuerta, however, heatedly informs him that she found in one of the bags a shirt with Estrada's blood on it, along with Estrada's wallet. But the mild scientific curiosity Dexter's exhibiting toward her suggests he's got an ace up his sleeve even as LaGuerta goes on that he framed Doakes after she defended Dexter to him, and he betrayed her and the Department.
This is where Dexter shows just how ugly he is, asking if this is about LaGuerta's desperate need to believe that Doakes wasn't a killer, going on that she's so hurt, angry and scared; it's the condescension in his voice that really makes him loathsome. LaGuerta swears she's going to nail him to the wall, but Masuka then busts in with news that the shirt LaGuerta claimed to recover was actually the shirt Estrada was wearing when he was arrested back in 1973 -- the arresting officer broke his nose. Wasn't there another instance where blood only a handful of years old had degraded beyond recognition? Maybe it was stored more carefully, but if we're going to go down that road, isn't it worth investigating how "LaGuerta" got the shirt out of evidence? Remember how they looked into the missing blood that Quinn took? Not that it's definite they could prove it either way, but if Dexter and not LaGuerta visited the place where the shirt was being kept, that would be fairly conclusive, no?
But everyone needs to believe that LaGuerta framed Dexter here, which I suppose is more understandable given that Masuka found a partial print on the wallet -- LaGuerta's. Deb asks if LaGuerta's trying to frame Dexter, and LaGuerta in turn wheels and snarls that Dexter set her up. Dexter asks in his little-boy voice if he can go, and if he's going to play it this way maybe he shouldn't have run LaGuerta over the coals just now...
...especially since, when he's on the elevator with the doors closing, LaGuerta slips on with him. She looks at him like he's a snake as she tells him he set her up, just like he set up Doakes, and he's probably already killed Estrada, so she's not going to be able to prove anything. She congratulates him, but when she gets off, tells him, "[Doakes] always knew there was something wrong with you." Dexter's like, thanks for letting the viewers who joined us after Season Two know...
...but this is our cue for a Doakes "flashback" -- I mean the quotes to indicate that we're going back in time, but the footage is new, as Erik King, in his inimitable voice, is like, "Surprise, motherfuckah!" He's talking to Dexter, who's wearing like that exact complete dork-o expression he was sporting on the Season Two poster, which is a detail that is absolutely HILARE enough it may actually factor into my episode grade. Hee.
Doakes asks if Dexter got his report, and the answer is yes; they talk about the latest of three victims of the same killer, who apparently stabbed this most recent prostitute over two dozen times despite the forensic analysis revealing the very first one killed her. Sounds like he's OCD, too. That's a clue! Doakes, who's not showing the same distrust of Dexter early viewers of the show will remember, actually has a suspect, but says he's a slippery one, and he can never get anything on him. Dexter, who even at these best of times is short of conversational topics to share with Doakes, just kind of sits there, but he's spared any further awkwardness by Doakes catching sight of LaGuerta beckoning to him.
Well, I spoke too soon -- without preamble, LaGuerta references "what [they] talked about," and without further ado hands him what can only be a key to his place he'd given her at some point. Looking kind of devastated, he asks if she doesn't at least want to think about it, but she shakes her head. And she might not have had an office back then, but still, right in MM's town square, LaGuerta? Cold. Doakes then realizes that Dexter's sneaked up on him, and calls him invisible...
...but in the present, DVO notes that he's not invisible anymore. Elsewhere, Batista accosts LaGuerta and tells her he's discovered she was behind Estrada's release, and it's true this looks pretty bad on the "she tried to frame Dexter" front. But I admit it's still hard to believe that Batista, who was married to LaGuerta, could think she's obsessed with Dexter for no reason. Sure, Dexter seems harmless, but these are cops! Whenever anyone seems like a nice guy who keeps mostly to himself, they should be running a background check! Batista does get through to LaGuerta how damaging what she's done could be -- she could even lose her job -- but also says that if anyone can damage-control her way out of this, it's she. Looking shaken but determined, she takes his hand and thanks him for the friendly advice...
...while in the land of less righteous conspirators, Deb turns up to Dexter's and tells him they need to talk. With a hilarious look of distaste, she shoves Hannah's plant to the side before sitting on Dexter's desk and asking for maybe a warning time he's going to get himself arrested, "or make our Captain look like a fucking lunatic?" Well, he's been turning you into a lunatic all season, Deb, but I suppose you're only a lieutenant. Dexter's like, hey, she won't come after me anymore, and besides, she's still way ahead in the "careers destroyed" column, so who cares?
Deb continues to complain about this -- far too much, if you ask me -- but it does allow Dexter to reply, "Would you prefer my normal method of conflict resolution?" In response, the Mojave Desert is like, "That line was a bit dry, bro." Dexter does admit he didn't like doing this, but at least it's over, but Deb notes that he keeps saying that, and by the way, Hannah knows all about him, right? Well, Deb, you might have thought of that little nuance before you swore to bring her in at all costs, but Dexter assures her he's got nothing to worry about from her -- "because she's in love with me." Deb's like, let's hope so, and BTW, why don't you not show your face at the office tomorrow?
She leaves, and I'll break my Harry embargo for some important exposition: It's been six days since Estrada escaped Dexter, and he still hasn't found him; if LaGuerta gets to him first, she'll put him up in some safe house to testify against Dexter. Dexter goes to his computer...
...and then it's the day, as DVO lets us know that Dexter is arriving at the last-known address of Estrada's wife, who he thinks is Estrada's only contact left in Miami. He knocks, and when a middle-aged Latina woman answers, he identifies himself as "Arthur Curry," Estrada's parole officer. (Another instance where Dexter's reluctance to wear disguises should come back to bite him -- he doesn't think, once he kills Estrada, the police might come talk to his wife, even if they're not together anymore?)
The woman tells Dexter she hasn't seen Estrada in years as some male voice (not Estrada's) calls to her from within. She replies that it's a neighbor, and then steps out and tells him in hushed tones that he shouldn't come there again. Noting she's still wearing a wedding ring, Dexter wonders why she's still married to Estrada, and she shrugs: "I'm Catholic." Ha! I think this actress got hired solely on her delivery of that line, and good work to all involved. Back in his car, DVO notes that the wife gave herself away in the blink of an eye: "Sometimes it only takes a moment to reveal who we really are." If you're paying attention, you know what that means...
...it's time for more Doakes! The guy he suspects has apparently claimed another victim, or at least that's what Doakes is hoping Dexter will prove. Hilariously enough, the crime happened by a boat, and what ensues is that Dexter positively dances out a reenactment of the crime. It reminds me of nothing more than that time Sal on Mad Men acted out the steps for his Ann-Margret look-alike TV spot, by the end of which Sarah Drew was like, "Okay, everyone who said I married a gay dude was right." In this case, Doakes is like, "You like this blood shit a little too much," and while the words might not do his newfound suspicion justice, the industrial-strength clamp of his jaw leaves no doubt as to what he's thinking.
Back in the car, Dexter sees Mrs. Estrada walk by and head to her car, and pulls out in pursuit...
...while back at the station, Captain Jack comes in, having been summoned by LaGuerta, and I guess he knew about her zeal for the Dexter-is-a-killer theory more than anyone; regardless of what he believes, he tells her that the Commissioner is planning to open an investigation, and he might be dragged in to testify, at which point he'll have to tell everyone how, from his point of view, she ignored open-and-shut evidence that Doakes was the BHB. LaGuerta tells him people still respect him, and all but begs him to have her back; if he even could say she had reasonable suspicion it would be invaluable to her defense. He, however, keeps up with the cheap shots until she asks him to stop kicking her when she's down, and you can practically see him creak under the strain, but he complies. She tells him her job is on the line, and much like with Hannah and Dexter, I think there's something in Captain Jack that won't do to her what she did to him, so I believe him when he agrees to do what he can to help her. He tells her to keep her head low, and he must really be taking that "don't kick me when I'm down" thing seriously not to add "not that that will be a problem for you," and then, beckoning to the stacks of unopened mail in her office, suggests that actually doing her job might be a way to keep hope of retaining it alive. Knowing he's right, LaGuerta gets to work.
At the courthouse, Hannah is led in by some Sheriff Department non-speaking extra when she sees Deb and sardonically asks what she's doing there. Deb, matching her tone, reminds her she was the arresting officer; they trade barbs for a bit, but then Hannah laughs that with all the Xanax she's taking, Deb must have trouble sleeping at night. Catching the snap, Deb grits that Hannah doesn't know anything about her, but Hannah positively grins as she says that Deb's the Lieutenant of Homicide, but knows exactly what Dexter is, and while she's not going to give them up, "knowing that you have to live with it is punishment enough. Still, I'm curious -- how do you justify arresting me and not him?" Deb tries to tell Hannah that she's a liar and a killer, but Hannah won this exchange long before the coup de grace: "But not a hypocrite." However you parse it, Hannah certainly never claimed the moral rectitude that Deb always has, pretty much, so it's no surprise that Deb doesn't have a comeback. Hannah's led away...
...and then we cut to the arraignment, the conclusion of which is that bail is unsurprisingly denied. But then Schram stands up and gets all "Oh no, Hannah!" and the two of them embrace -- but not without Schram slipping something into Hannah's hand. Hannah sincerely thanks her for whatever she just did, and then, under cover of putting her hands to her mouth in a gesture of horror and despair, ingests what I can only assume is a pill Schram just gave her. Based on general principles, Schram, I'd wash your fingers at least three times before you put them in your mouth.
Batista comes in to see LaGuerta and tells her that she needs to show up to his New Year's Eve/retirement party to mend fences, and that it wouldn't feel right without her there. And I'm trying not to allude to the end of the episode, but boy, is he more right than he knows. LaGuerta is touched by his concern and promises to be there, and when he's gone, takes a look at what just could be a fateful package in her hands.
In the paddy wagon, Hannah starts having some kind of seizure, and when she keels over, the guards call for an ambulance. I know she wrote the book on dosage, so I have to admire her accuracy because those convulsions look like no joke to me...
...so it's no surprise she's rushed into the ER. A doctor says something about contacting her of kin, which is a great idea as long as they have sonar available.
Dexter follows Mrs. Estrada to a public park, and DVO hopes that she still cares enough for Estrada to lead Dexter to him. Yeah, that'd be helpful. Can we move this along?
Okay, here we are: Deb comes in to see LaGuerta, having been summoned, and LaGuerta hits her keeping-her-job talking points, saying that she was in fact overzealous because of her relationship with Doakes, and what she put Dexter through was negligent and unforgivable. I was thinking when she was saying this the first time that she was doing a good job of selling this; little did I know just how good.
Deb sits silently as LaGuerta goes on that her career is going to take a hit, and Deb at least has to express that she hopes LaGuerta doesn't lose her job. LaGuerta thanks her for the thought, but goes on that if that does happen, she'd like to leave things in good order, and she was so busy with the BHB angle that she overlooked some loose ends on the Colin Hanks death, so she was hoping Deb could help her with the timeline. Deb, who really looks a wreck, not surprising given the emotional and Xanax abuse she's been through lately, agrees, so LaGuerta gets some facts about Dexter's final forensics sweep.
When Deb says that she wasn't present, as Dexter doesn't need supervision, LaGuerta's tone and manner completely change, as she's like, oh, how very interesting -- in going through my mail that was piled up waist-deep in my office, I came across a package from Anderson's widow. It turns out (presumably after the fire), Anderson ordered security footage from all the gas stations near the church, which is good police work you'd think someone else on the force would have replicated. When he died, somehow the footage got lumped in with his personal belongings, but his widow eventually came across it and sent it to LaGuerta.
Deb is tensing for what she knows is coming as LaGuerta pops the DVD into her computer's drive, and sure enough, clear as day, there's Deb filling up a can of gas on the night the church burned, with a time stamp of only 22 minutes before the FD was called. Deb does her best to talk her way out of this one, saying that she forgot that she brought Dexter some food, but the proximity of this event to the fire would alone make it almost impossible for anyone but Deb or Dexter to have set it, and that doesn't even take into account the fact that Deb is putting gasoline into a container instead of her car. LaGuerta closes the computer and asks if there's something Deb wants to get off her chest, and considering she must now know that Deb probably actively thwarted her investigation into the BHB, it's hard to begrudge LaGuerta a little attitude here.
Deb sits for a long time, but finally looks into LaGuerta's eyes: "I think you have been under a lot of stress." LaGuerta's disappointed, but unbowed: "You know what I think? I think I'm not the only one who made a mistake trying to protect someone they care about." Good play there, trying to build shared experience with Deb, and even though Deb covers, you can be pretty sure that landed. Deb asks if there's anything else, and LaGuerta's like no, but I suggest you study up because the questions are only going to get harder.
Back in the park, Dexter does indeed find that Mrs. Estrada leads him to her husband, as they sit together on a park bench while a bunch of kids play around them. Dexter observes Mrs. Estrada hand Estrada a large paper bag full of supplies, one of which he surreptitiously slips into his waistband, so either now he's packing or he's a fan of some really peculiar sensations down there. I mean, it's not crazy -- he was in prison.
The wife takes off, probably already having some explaining to do to whatever lay about she's living with now, and speaking of which, Dexter observes Estrada lean back on the bench and worries that he might be there all day. However, looking at the kids playing nearby, he gets an idea...
...and soon he's paying off two young boys to do him a favor. He takes off, and then the boys throw a baseball into Estrada's chest at close range, which produces the desired effect of him chasing after them. They lead him out the park entrance, which just so happens to be right by Dexter's car, whereupon, after he shouts some threats in Spanish after the kids, Dexter injects him in the neck and hustles him into the back of his SUV. I mean, doing this in broad daylight does seem ridiculous, but I guess if no one was going to raise an eye at some gringo paying off two young boys for no reason that we can see, the general observation level isn't too sharp. Dexter then gets a call from Deb and says he'll meet her in fifteen minutes...
...while Hannah, apparently having been stabilized, is showing signs of life as she moves a couple fingers. And they're on her poisoning hand, too!
In his car, parked in some construction site or dump or something (all these clandestine meetings they've had this season have really shown us the side of "Miami" the tourists never see), Dexter is at a loss to know what to do with this latest news. He once again apologizes for Deb getting involved in this side of his life, but then decides that if all LaGuerta has is the DVD, it won't be enough to prove anything, so he needs to discover what her move is. Deb goes to the well again in asking if this is ever going to end, but he promises it will, and tells her to go back to work. She starts to get out of the car, but hears a noise and asks what it was; when Dexter tells her it's Estrada, the FML look on her face is seriously not to be matched. Hee.
Some hospital staff members come in to check on Hannah -- and she's gone. Can't say I wasn't rooting for that.
Dexter breaks into LaGuerta's place and discovers, much to his chagrin, a warrant request that would allow her to access the GPS records of both his and Deb's phones the night Colin Hanks was killed. Someone suggests that it's time to run, but Dexter thinks he can't leave Deb behind to take the fall, nor could she handle life on the run. Not only that, he no longer wants to run either. Turns out the fake life he and someone created as a cover has become the truth, and he doesn't want to lose it, so he's going to stand his ground -- he's going to kill LaGuerta. And I don't have a problem with this development from a story perspective, but does Dexter really think, in addition to killing her, he's going to be able to effectively eradicate all the evidence she has piling up? But Dexter looks firm, and someone, in shock, asks how they ended up here...
...so it's time for one last flashback. Dexter, with that same psycho-dork look on his face, comes off the MM elevator with a big box of doughnuts, which are picked off one by one by passers-by, including a uniformed and bangs-sporting Deb, who mentions she's going to pick up steaks and beer for them that night. Ah, steaks and beer. Were we ever so young?
With only a couple left within, Dexter drops the box on Doakes' desk and advises him to get them while they last, but Doakes is like, "I don't want no fuckin' doughnut." And in this case, when I say he's "like" that, I mean that he says it verbatim. He then actually apologizes, saying that he's preoccupied about LaGuerta, and after an awkward pause, Dexter offers, "Never jump the fence if you're not willing to see what's on the other side." I mean, I don't think Doakes is the type to be consoled by platitudes at the best of times, but in this case, Dexter's made a real mistake.
You see, as Doakes explains, he's had the journal of that "motherfuckin' hooker-killer" locked up in his desk -- a journal that just so happens to contain the exact line Dexter just quoted. Dexter's like, huh, weird coincidence, but Doakes isn't playing, and when Dexter tries to take off, Doakes gets to his feet and says there's something off about Dexter. "The fake smile, the doughnuts -- you don't even walk like a normal person; you glide, like a... fucking lizard on ice." Probably best that Dexter doesn't point out that lizards are cold-blooded -- that's just the sort of thing Doakes would unfairly turn around! Dexter keeps the smile plastered on his face through all this, and tries to tell Doakes he's overreacting, but Doakes' last line gets through: "You are one creep motherfucker." The smile gone from his face, Dexter walks off...
...and in the present, DVO muses that it was a mistake to try to act human in front of Doakes. "All I did was reveal how fake I was." I'd be interested to go back and rewatch Season Two now because I don't recall Dexter being quite that bad at seeming normal, but I have the feeling I'm misremembering.
LaGuerta's in her car, presumably on the way to the party, when she gets a call from Estrada, who tells her he needs her help -- he's back at the shipyard, in the same container. You'd think this would be a red flag for her, but the prize of a living Estrada, who could testify against Dexter, looks like it's going to be too much for her to resist, as she makes a U-turn.
Meanwhile, Estrada is of course back on Dexter's table, and I can't believe he really thought Dexter would let him go, but regardless of what happens to him, he probably doesn't mind putting LaGuerta in harm's way after the way she used him. Anyway, Dexter informs Estrada that he will not in fact be departing, and Estrada, after railing against Dexter for a bit, finally apologizes for killing his mother. Dexter asks if it was hard to do so, and Estrada yells that she was a snitch, so it was her or him, and besides, it was forty years ago. But it's obvious Dexter's statute of limitations on that particular crime has not expired, so he asks if killing his mother made Estrada feel bad, and I'm not exactly a Dexter sympathizer these days, but I do appreciate him avoiding my pet peeve "feel badly." You don't "feel badly" unless you're stabbing someone with your fingers, and Dexter pretty much always uses a knife.
Dexter muses that killing Estrada is going to be easy, but he has an upcoming kill that won't be so, and Estrada, trying to bond as a last resort, asks why he's doing it. Dexter replies that it's to protect himself and his sister, and Estrada tries to tell him that's okay -- he's doing it for "the normal reasons." Dexter's amused by the idea, as he's never killed for normal reasons. "I used to think I was special; a special kind of killer. But tonight, I'm not." Estrada asks what he is, then, and Dexter's answer shows that he knows what he's become: "I'm just a creep motherfucker." He raises the knife and stabs Estrada, as viciously as he ever has swung a blade, and then takes a moment to digest it all...
...while at the restaurant, everyone's already dancing and having a good time -- everyone except Dexter and LaGuerta, of course. Also, despite the fact that he once grossly hit on her, Jamie takes pity on drunken sad-sack Quinn and chats him up, so I guess that's something to look "forward" to in Season Eight.
Batista talks about how weird retirement is, but I have the feeling that he's going to change his mind as a consequence of how the episode ends. When Deb hears from Batista that LaGuerta was planning to be there but hasn't turned up, alarm bells go off in her head, and she calls Dispatch and learns that LaGuerta's vehicle is heading for the shipping yards. I assume that means LaGuerta called in her intent because if officers' cars have location finders on them as a matter of course, I don't know how Deb is going to explain any of her driving this season. Deb calls Dexter and leaves him an urgent message begging him not to do whatever he's thinking of doing...
...while Hannah, dressed all in black, leaves a plant in front of Dexter's door as a remembrance, and then glides away like...well, a lizard on ice, if you'll forgive a little convenient appropriation.
Down at the shipping yards, LaGuerta, gun and flashlight out, enters the open container. Estrada's corpse is enough of a distraction, I guess, that's she's unprepared for Dexter to do his patented appearance out of nowhere, and she's unconscious in a heartbeat. He then reveals his plan: He gave LaGuerta a low enough dose of M99 so it won't be found in her system (oh really?), and he's going to discharge her gun into Estrada's chest right at the point of the stab wound, and then use Estrada's gun to shoot LaGuerta. I'm not sure the amount of blood Estrada has left is going to seem consistent with a shot that apparently killed him instantly, but that's probably the least of Dexter's worries at the moment...
...especially since Deb is now arriving on the scene, gun in hand. She hears a shot and rushes into the container, wherein she finds Dexter getting LaGuerta ready for the end. When he sees his sister, he tells her she shouldn't be there, and in a little-girl voice, she tells him he can't do this. As she tries to convince him, LaGuerta regains some measure of consciousness, which is pretty much the final step in the die being cast irrevocably. Hearing Deb hysterically tell Dexter that he can't do this, LaGuerta tells Deb to shoot Dexter, and she might be overplaying her hand here, but she is on elephant tranquilizers.
Dexter grabs a knife, but Deb covers him as LaGuerta keeps saying she needs to shoot Dexter. Dexter looks sadly at Deb, the knife in his hand, while LaGuerta tells her that "this" isn't who Deb is. "You're a good cop. You're a good person. You're not like him. Put him down!" Deb's confusion and desperation are palpable, and Dexter finally realizes what he's done to her as he admits everything LaGuerta said is true, and Deb's a good person. "It's okay." He's giving her leave to kill him (or at least shoot him; death doesn't have to be the result for him here), and he drops the knife. He quotes another killer -- "Do what you gotta do" -- and Deb, crying, utters his name -- and SHOOTS LAGUERTA DEAD.
Of course, you can cynically say that of course she wouldn't shoot Dexter, but the scene was constructed and acted well enough for there to be some doubt, and I give the show credit for making the stakes high enough that this outcome is believable. It's a smart progression -- at the end of last season, Deb found out Dexter was a killer; at the end of this one, she joins him. As Jennifer Carpenter continues to nail it, Deb rushes over, wailing, and takes LaGuerta's corpse in her arms, and speaking of people who did their best work this season, I'll miss Lauren Velez, but they gave her ten times more interesting stuff to do this season than in any other, so I can only imagine she's glad to go out on a high note. Dexter kneels beside them helplessly as he tries to get his head around what just happened...
...and later, Dexter and Deb walk into the festive party, the former wearing his usual kill shirt and the latter looking grim but recovered, as DVO tells us we all make rules for ourselves, and when we break them, we risk losing ourselves and becoming something unknown. And that's pretty much what we have to look forward to in Season Eight: "Is this a new beginning... or the beginning of the end?" The New Year's fireworks go off, people sing "Auld Lang Syne," and we're out.
So that's it, and while I'm grading on a curve -- this show has too much suspension of disbelief built into it to do otherwise -- I'm really satisfied with the season as a whole, to no one's surprise more than my own. The show has obviously taken a page out of Breaking Bad's playbook, with Deb (loosely) being the Jesse Pinkman and Dexter the Walter White. And following that show's arc, I expect Season Eight to be about Deb's shot at redemption. As for Dexter? For the first time, I truly want him to die.
I can't wait to see how it all ends. Hope to see you for the final season!
John Ramos is a writer and film producer living in Los Angeles. His new film, a documentary on online privacy and the sale of personal data called Terms And Conditions May Apply, will premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival in January. You can get news on it from the film's Twitter account. Also, you can email John at couchbaron@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/couchbaron, or check out his blog, "Pull Up A Chair," which he'd just love for you to stop by.