Having ruled the ex-boyfriend out, MM pegs Norma Rivera's boss, with whom she was having an affair, as the likely suspect in her murder, but Matthews pulls Quinn aside to let him know the "Hamilton" family are "friends" to MM. Confronted with Quinn, Angie, Dexter, and a cheek swab, Hamilton admits to the affair, about which his wife had found out, but assures them he didn't kill her. This is backed up by an interaction Dexter has with Hamilton's creepy son, whom an eyewitness later places at Rivera's around the time of the murder – but the guy later suspiciously recants his story, leaving Matthews to tell Quinn to drop the whole thing. I suppose this must be going somewhere?
Janet Thornton survives and gives Batista Yates' name, and when MM checks the place out, they find several corpses from victims dating back to 2008, all with the toes of one foot having been broken in lengthy sequence. Meanwhile, despite having recovered from Deb's attempt to kill him with no apparent ill effects, Dexter, it may surprise you to hear, is hilariously sarcastic and bitter toward both Deb and Vogel and completely over any warmth for family. However, Yates busts in and abducts Vogel, not even letting her finish the Mama Cass song she's listening to; when Deb discovers this, she rushes off to grab Dexter from the Yates crime scene.
Once Deb confesses she saved Dexter because she couldn't imagine her life without him, he consents to team up to rescue Vogel. Yates berates Vogel for sending Dexter after him, unaware that Dexter, with some unwitting assistance from MM, is closing in on his hiding spot – one of the currently-unoccupied houses he's done work in. Vogel tries to save the structural integrity of her toes by offering sympathy over the abuse Yates suffered at the hands of his mother, but when that doesn't work, Vogel resorts to impersonating his mother, which buys her time to call Dexter from Yates' phone and leave the call open so he can hear her.
With Elway's help, they get the location, and Dexter and Deb uncomfortably listen to Vogel perform her Psychopath Whisperer routine – only Yates checks his phone and figures out what's happened. When Dexter and Deb arrive, they eventually find an unharmed Vogel upstairs – but Yates is hiding under the bed just like he did as a child from his horrible mother, poised to strike out lethally at Deb. Dexter, however, figures him out and spectacularly impales Yates with a curtain rod. In the end, Dexter brings Deb and Vogel out on his boat to dispose of Yates and calls them his family. I'm still not convinced that Yates was the Brain Surgeon, but the show certainly wants us to buy that this is the subplot's end, so why not enjoy the happy/grisly moment?
We focus in on Deb's face looking forlorn and intent, but instead of following with Dexter's prone form in a hospital as the shot kind of leads you to expect, we see that Dexter is sitting sullenly to her, and the wider shot that reveals Vogel in front of them in her office gives us the impression this little family-therapy session is a bit rocky. I KNOW! Vogel informs them that at least one of them is going to need to talk here, but when Dexter and Deb both silently think "Not it," Vogel turns to Deb and offers that "it seems" she tried to kill both herself and Dexter. Haltingly, Deb's like, well, yeah, but then I saved him, and at this Dexter snaps up and bites out that she only had to do so because she'd tried to kill him, no "it seems" about it. He is talking now, though! Dexter steamrolls Deb's attempts to explain by pointing out that she almost left Harrison an orphan, and I'd be interested to hear how his apparently genuine concern for his son fits into Vogel's analysis of his psychological makeup, but he then moves on to declare that he's always tried to take care of her and to protect her. Deb starts to be like, yeah, about that "protect" part, but Dexter bellows that he's not perfect, and by the way, has she ever tried being her sibling? He's angry, but that's not the worst point I've ever heard. Her taste in men alone!
Deb tries to explain about the PTSD and her fragile mental state, but Dexter snarls that according to Vogel, he can't understand these kinds of emotions, "so when my sister tries to kill me, for some reason it doesn't make sense!" This is the first time I remember Dexter going off on someone he cares about; it's a nice acting moment for Michael C. Hall, not to mention the part where I don't think Dexter could ever deny that on a cosmic level, he deserves to die – it's just the betrayal of someone he cares about that hurts. Vogel, however, backs Deb up on her claim of PTSD-related cloudy thinking: "The weight of what she has been through has been too much for her to bear." She adds that when Deb came up with a solution that seemed viable, she had to take it, and Deb pipes up to remind him that she'd just found out Harry killed himself because of Dexter, which was like a little traumatic? Vogel interjects that Deb trying to kill both of them was her hitting rock bottom, and Dexter hilariously rolls his eyes at the terminology, so it's no surprise that when Vogel suggests this is a positive sign for Deb, Dexter turns to Deb and affectlessly offers "Great. I'm so fuckin' happy for you."
Despite being related to Deb, it's true that Dexter doesn't curse that often, and it does go to show that saving it for when it counts can be very effective. I should fucking remember that. He stands and reminds them he's got a serial killer to catch, so maybe he should get back to it, but before he leaves, he tells Vogel, "Don't forget to write all this down!" I've reused innumerable lines that were way worse than that. Also, hee. When he's gone, Vogel sucks in her cheeks like she just took a sip of tea with too much lemon, and Deb ruefully says she's never seen him so mad. Vogel points out that it was obviously more than just anger – he's deeply hurt by what Deb did. Deb: "That makes two of us."
Dexter gets into his car, still fuming from the session, as DVO hisses about the burdens of family; he goes on about their annoyances and irritations into a cut to the morning, with Harrison running up to Dexter and pestering him about watching cartoons even though Dexter tells him to get ready for school. As Dexter impotently looks at possible places Yates might be (i.e., anywhere), Jamie asks if he has plans for the evening, to which he distractedly answers he's not sure as he screens a call from Deb. From her car, Deb leaves a terse message asking if they can talk, and then Jamie tells Dexter she was thinking of having Cassie over for dinner. Dexter, typically missing her conspiratorial tone, is like, go for it, but Jamie clarifies that she's trying to fix the two of them up, and eventually Dexter, with ninety percent of his attention focused on telling his suddenly obstinate son to get dressed already, agrees before deleting Deb's voicemail and bouncing…
…and then he's entering MM with the DVO thought that for once, he's happy Deb's not there. He talks about locking himself in the lab for some quality alone time…whereupon Quinn and Angie tell him to get his ass into the briefing room. Do people not get these events texted or emailed to them these days, or did Quinn go around and tell everyone in the station about it just now? I mean, I'm not sure he has anything better to do, but it still seems inefficient even for MM. Anyway, people pick up materials and sit down, and first we have to endure a bunch of Masuka bullshit about his daughter, although when he tells Dexter that now they're both fathers, Dexter's reply of "Great news, Vince!" is possibly the most hilariously fake I've ever heard from him, which is obviously saying a lot. He doesn't even try for the supporting fake smile. After Quinn cautions Masuka that randomly appearing family members often have ulterior motives (such as wanting to kill you, DVO points out, and Dexter's petulance is making DVO SO much more bearable than usual), Matthews enters, and we learn Quinn's running the Norma Rivera briefing because Batista is off taking a statement from Janet Thornton, Yates' frizzy-haired victim who apparently survived.
Hamilton, however, puts up a hand and says the test won't be necessary – he and Rivera were in fact involved, and his wife even found out about it and insisted Rivera be dismissed. Sure, that'll solve the problem. Hamilton goes on that the wife has been in Atlanta visiting her sister for two weeks, and when Rivera came by to pick up a few things she left behind, he gave her…well, I guess it's too ironic to call it severance. He assures them, though, that Rivera was alive when she left. Just then, a boy in his late teens appears and asks his father if he needs help, but Hamilton angrily shoos him away, and it didn't occur to me at first but this probably indicates that he knows what the kid did. When the boy's gone, Hamilton recovers some equanimity and tells them that his security cameras will back up his story (we've already got proof of the sex part, I hasten to remind him) before adding that he loved Rivera and would never hurt her. Dexter's eyes go to the son lurking nearby, however, and wonders what's up there before getting another call from Deb. He hesitates, but this time decides to take it, only to find that she's hung up. His efforts to raise her again fail, and what an odd filler-y thing to spend time on…
…and then we cut to him putting his stuff in his car when the son strolls up to him asking creepily interested questions about Rivera's murder scene, and rarely has it been so obvious from the jump that we're dealing with a murderer as with this kid, but that seems to be the point – he doesn't think anyone can touch him, nor does he feel any remorse. He tells Dexter that his father is an asshole but not a killer, which is not exactly an uncommon sentiment among boys his age but does give DVO the opportunity to note he's just encountered "one more happy family." You probably don't need me to tell you that's not particularly interesting…
…especially not when it was keeping us from visiting Vogel, who sits down with a cup of tea after cueing up Mama Cass' "Make Your Own Kind Of Music" on her computer. Wouldn't necessary have pegged Vogel as a fan, but maybe she watched a lot of Lost. Unfortunately, she doesn't even get to finish the song before Yates breaks the window with a patio chair, jumps through, and grabs her, telling her any escape attempt will result in him killing her. Vogel, maybe you can distract him by telling him that your cable's out?
Deb calls Vogel and leaves a message saying she needs to talk and is coming by, and we immediately cut to her finding the evidence of the kidnapping…
…while Dexter is arriving at Yates' house to find evidence of other crimes of his – rosebushes marking the spot of several graves in his backyard. Masuka calls Dexter over to check out one of the desiccated corpses, telling him that all the toes in one foot were broken, and the fact that some of them had begun to heal suggests the trauma was inflicted one toe at a time before he killed the victims with a stab wound to the chest. Again, even with the bone saw and drawings Dexter found, it seems off for Yates to be the Brain Surgeon; for one thing, the Brain Surgeon's MO suggested someone far less emotional than Yates seems to be. Also, if Yates decided to pursue this Brain Surgeon thing, would he simultaneously be continuing his old pattern with the girls and the shoes? It might just be somewhat shoddy storytelling, but I'm more inclined to give the show the benefit of the doubt these days; also Dexter himself noted that something seemed off about Yates as TBS, and I haven't seen enough to shake that feeling. One other point and I'll let it go – although he only remarked this to himself and Thornton, Yates expressed surprise that Vogel had a champion, but the "his/hers" boxes show that TBS was well aware of that fact even if he didn't know exactly who it was.
Anyway, Deb turns up and breathlessly tells Batista she needs to see her brother, and although Dexter isn't thrilled both on general and situational principles, when Deb tells him about Vogel, he pulls her aside to get details and berates himself for not having killed Yates yet. Deb wants to help, and when Dexter resists the idea, she tells him that she can hate him, but for right now they need to team up. Dexter softens a bit for the first time this episode as he tells her he doesn't hate her, and they sit with that for a long moment before Dexter asks why she saved him in the end. She too takes her time before stammering that she saw the car sinking and realized he was going to die, and that "I couldn't imagine my life without you in it." If I were feeling less charitable, I'd wonder whether this actually means that she couldn't live with killing her brother and didn't feel like trying suicide again, but with the hesitant smile she throws in it still gets an "aw" from me, and Dexter seems touched even as he uncertainly wonders what happens now – do things just go back to normal? She soberly tells him there was never any such thing before bringing it back around to Vogel, saying once again that she needs to help, and after Dexter takes a look at one of Yates' victims for emphasis, he urgently agrees that they need to find their surrogate mother…
…and then he's leading Deb into the house as Deb suggests they bring the police in. Dexter pulls out Yates' work log and suggests he might be hiding in one of the locations, as some of them might be empty for the summer. I know people are old down there, but they must have Air BnB in Florida now, right? Deb likes the thinking but points out that MM could help with the sheer volume of possibilities, but Dexter craftily tells her that MM will be helping them – "they just won't know it." That is usually how MM renders assistance, I'd say. Dexter tells Deb to plot the places out on a map but not to do anything on her own, and when she takes this as a sign of his continuing mistrust, he replies that he doesn't want her hurt. If she could see this, Vogel would be proud…
…but she's not seeing much of anything at the moment, at least until, in some house somewhere, Yates removes the hood from over her head and asks who "the guy" is. Vogel stutters that what "A.J." is doing is very serious, but he barks that he wants to know about the guy in his house, and when Vogel, whose wrists are bound by the way, confesses he's a friend of hers, Yates, sounding a bit like a little boy, tells her he doesn't like him going through his house. Vogel haltingly speculates that "this" is happening because he blames her for his surgery, and when Yates sarcastically is like, no, brain surgery was fan-fucking-tastic, she tells him she was only trying to make him better. He spits that that worked just great and then adds that she's a hell of a doctor, and while I don't want anything bad to happen to her it's possible she kind of deserved that one. Talk then turns to Dexter, and when Vogel tells Yates she asked him to protect her, he tells her she should have just left him alone. I know I said I was done, but this doesn't sound consistent with someone who was leaving pieces of brain on Vogel's doorstep. She goes on that he should let her go, since Dexter is looking for him, but Yates, putting the hood back over her head, says he can't wait for Dexter to show up. Before you say that, Yates, I'm pretty sure Dexter's happy with his cable and internet service already.
Angie's telling Quinn that it's down to the two of them for Sergeant before saying she hopes whatever decision isn't going to ruin their friendship. Quinn, with a smile, says he didn't know they had a friendship, and I know he's kidding, but as I kind of mentioned earlier it's not like we'd really know either way. The two of them then talk to the proprietor of a produce truck, and Angie hands him a photo of Hamilton as Quinn asks if he saw "that man" around the time of the murder. The guy says yeah, totally, and when Quinn asks him to point him out for the record, the guy obliges – and fingers the son. To their credit, Angie and Quinn aren't all "BOOOOING!" about it, with Angie only mildly asking if he's sure and the guy telling her he was especially conspicuous and memorable given the Porsche he was driving. Quinn asks the guy if he'd come down to make a statement, but the guy tells him he can't until later that day, which Quinn says is fine. He hands the guy his card and asks Angie to get his information before calling Batista and letting him know what's up. Batista tells him he'll let Matthews know, and Quinn doesn't object, which is like his third mistake of the last thirty seconds. If I cared, I'd wonder whether he was Sergeant material myself. (Actually, Quinn's harmless enough, but unless this ties into something with Dexter, zzzzz.)
Okay, if I have to have Masuka on my screen, it's not that I don't appreciate the respite from him acting like he's on the world's loneliest/grossest Spring Break, but this scene is way too long so I'm going to boil it down: Although he seems to want to bond with his daughter Nikki, especially when he learns her mother recently passed away, he's worried Quinn might be right that she's a moneygrubber, and the girl doesn't help her case by (a) making joking (?) comments about how Masuka must be rich and (b) ordering half the menu of the food truck and then claiming she left her bag in the car so Masuka will pay for it. And no opinion on her motives, but who orders food without being clear someone's got it covered? Your mother would be so ashamed.
DVO despairingly realizes just how much ground he and Deb will have to cover to find Vogel, but he does hold out hope that Batista will have some luck with Yates' money trail; pursuant to that, he heads into Batista's office, and while Yates hasn't used his credit cards in the past three days, Batista does get the location of an ATM Yates used more than once recently. Dexter's like awesome, you go get Yates while I totally don't conduct my own investigation, and then he leaves as we pan over to Quinn telling Matthews their witness recanted his statement. Although Quinn doesn't seem to suspect anything beyond the fact that the guy was obviously paid off – again, great Sergeant material here – by far the most likely occurrence is that Matthews warned Hamilton about the witness; if the son had suspected anything he would have acted on it earlier. Matthews, playing it like the pro he is, doesn't make Quinn feel bad about his work; instead, he tells him to drop it for now while assuring him that if he finds anything concrete Quinn will have his full backing. Quinn agrees, but when Matthews is gone, he doesn't seem too happy about it. I know the feeling!
At work, Elway has agreed to help Deb narrow down the possibilities without her telling him the circumstances, and it's not like I'm invested here either but it's been just short of blindingly obvious that he likes her and we're five episodes deep here. Might want to get on that, bro. Masuka then turns up, and when Deb tells Elway he's there for her, Elway mildly snits to himself that he hopes Masuka needs a favor too. Heh. They go into Deb's office, wherein Masuka tells Deb he needs a background check on a family member, to which Deb lightly offers that "you don't always want to know everything about family." The theme is heavy-handed, it's true, but the fact that the characters aren't giving in to the ponderous material, for the most part, renders it bearable. Also, Deb's kind of endearingly thrilled to hear the news about Masuka's daughter, but although he confesses he's excited for the prospect too, he also relays his nervousness about the potential moneygrubbing. Deb tells him she's sure it's fine, and smiles that either way, "it's really nice to have family." If she can say so now, we can take it as gospel. Deb then assures Masuka that Nikki will never know she's being checked into…
…and then we cut to Dexter arriving home and having absolutely no idea what Cassie (and Quinn, for that matter) are doing in his apartment. He pulls Jamie around the corner, and after she reminds him of their plans and he seems belatedly to recall something about it, he tells her he's going to have to postpone. He heads into the bedroom, but she follows him and tells him in no uncertain terms that he does this all the time, and normally it's fine, but she went out of her way to set up this whole evening for him and if he ruins it now she'll stick him with Harrison for the night. He tries to protest, but she sternly tells him he hasn't gone out with anyone since Hannah – I guess Jamie wasn't aware of the fake-boob action Dexter got after LaGuerta died – so this is for his own good. She heads back out, whereupon DVO plaintively observes, "Serial killer bested by one-hundred-pound nanny." HA! It's awfully late in the game for them to be upping the quality of the DVOs, but I sure will take it.
It's not clear if the foursome has made it through dinner, but when Dexter sees Deb calling, he makes an excuse about more wine and heads off to grab the phone. When they compare notes, they realize they have nineteen homes to cover, and Deb wants to get on it, so Dexter tells her to give him five minutes. Showing that he's got a few social tricks up his sleeve, Dexter sticks his head out of the kitchen and beckons to Cassie to join him without Jamie or Quinn being the wiser, and when Cassie obliges, Dexter tells her it's awkward, especially with Jamie having put so much into the evening (which suggests that they haven't even eaten yet), but he's got to go. Not only is Cassie okay with it, she offers to run interference with Jamie, and Dexter, looking like he's finding an attraction here after all, suggests they reschedule. She agrees with a smile before turning back around and telling Jamie she's got an early start, and Dexter's like, yeah, I've got a thing too lates! Heh. Maybe let Cassie get out the door first time, Dex.
From the car, Dexter calls Deb, who worries about the daunting task ahead of them, but Dexter tells her they're going to find Vogel before telling Deb he'll be to her in five minutes. After they disconnect, Dexter repeats into the silence that they're going to find her, and I know you're doing that for effect but could I suggest you add "alive" to the end of the sentence for good luck?
As if to give weight to my point, Yates is just now removing Vogel's right shoe, and Vogel tries to tell him the way he is isn't his fault given the way his mother abused and beat him, and she understands the terror he must have felt as he'd hide under the bed from her. Yates unwillingly goes along with the memory as he recalls his mother would pace back and forth in front of the bed, her shoes clacking, which is presumably the source of the shoes' significance in his kill ritual. But soon, he's telling Vogel not to say another word, and it's not like anyone thought he was going to give her a foot massage but the evil-looking instrument now in his hand removes any doubt as to his intentions.
When Vogel sees it, the panic rises, but when Yates tells her either to take the pain or he'll kill her, she settles down for the moment. The thing in his hand is very sturdy clippers or small shears or something of that ilk, which makes me wonder if rather than break the bone he intends to sever the toe completely, which explains why Vogel gets AWESOME as she suddenly drops her voice an octave and starts berating "Albert" just like Mom used to, and when he grasps one of her toes with the weapon, she slaps him as hard as she can. Getting to her feet, she repeats the move, this time with a backhand that draws blood from his lip, and although he stops her from doing it a third time, he's clearly shaken as he runs to the kitchen to treat his stanch the flow. As soon as he's out of sight, Vogel rushes over to the door, but she can't get it open, so she instead grabs Yates' phone, and it seems pretty unlikely in this day and age that she'd have Dexter's number committed to memory, but it does seems fair to say she doesn't have a lot of other friends' numbers competing with it.
Dexter's phone rings, but hearing Yates returning, Vogel doesn't have time to talk, so she leaves the connection open and puts it down before rushing back to the couch. Dexter answers, and he initially hears nothing so is about to hang up, but then he hears Vogel asking Yates to let her help him, and she sounds awfully clear – if she put the phone on speaker, Yates should be able to hear Dexter and Deb babbling about getting Elway to trace the call, right? Regardless, Elway agrees without question…
…and then Dexter and Deb are sitting in the car, helplessly listening to Yates saying that Vogel is just like his mother and Vogel trying to talk her way out of a toe-rectomy or worse. Soon, though, Elway calls with the address, and they're off – but as they go, they hear Yates tell Vogel she shouldn't have hit him, and Dexter seems kind of horrified, as if that's even in the top ten of Vogel's most objectionable forms of therapy. Regardless, the fact that Yates is sitting on the couch with Vogel now suggests she's getting somewhere, and after Vogel tells Yates that no child should have to hide under the bed from a parent and Dexter and Deb look uncomfortable to a degree that manages to be both profound and hilarious, Vogel tells Yates that they have a real connection and puts her arm around him, calling him "my poor boy" and literally whispering in his ear so as to justify her moniker in every way. Just then, though, Yates catches sight of the light on his phone, and Vogel gives up the ghost as she yells Dexter's name. Kind of awesomely, Yates shouts, "Fuck you, Dexter!" before disconnecting…
…and then Dexter and a gun-wielding Deb are busting into the house to discover the room we just saw is now totally empty. They find no one on the ground floor but do note the evidence that someone's been bleeding, and when they hear a noise from above, they head upstairs. They find Vogel in the bedroom closet, bound and gagged but unharmed, and get her to her feet. Deb cluelessly asks where Yates is, but Dexter has noticed a little spot of blood by the bed. His eyes roam the room to take note of the curtain rod over one of the windows, whereupon he feigns a normal voice as he tells Vogel they'll get her out of there and then worry about finding Yates. Meanwhile, Deb's bare ankles are within tantalizing reach of Yates and his weapon, and he readies himself to slash her across the tendons – only Dexter, so quick we don't even see most of it, grabs the pointed curtain rod out of its housing and spectacularly impales Yates straight through the bed. It makes me wonder if that mattress was made of foam rubber and bubble wrap, but it's still pretty cool. Vogel, completely unfazed, asks Deb if she's okay, and Deb similarly is like, I'm five by five, so can we get this shit cleaned up and blow this popsicle stand? Well, surviving a murder-suicide can certainly alter your worldview, I'd guess.
Back at Vogel's, she gives Dexter the brain samples to dispose of with Yates' body before telling Dexter it's over thanks to him. Dexter amends that to give credit to Deb as well, and Vogel tells them she's happy they've found their way back to each other, and whatever she may think clinically she does seem to mean it. Deb, with more gallows humor than I would have expected or possibly believed from her, is like, "The family that kills together…" which incredibly doesn't get a laugh from the room. Instead, Vogel and Dexter both tell her she's extremely resilient, and then Vogel adds that she's impressed by how Dexter never gave up on Deb. She goes on that Harry always feared the two of them would drift apart, and given that he opted to end his life rather than face the monster his son was becoming that seems like a valid concern, but Deb's once again keeping it light, saying that they had no choice but to stay together, for if anyone knew the truth about them, he'd run screaming. Heh. This gets a small smile out of Dexter, and then he finishes packing the bag full of Yates evidence and heads to the door. Deb wonders if it's over, and the three of them exchange a look…
…whereupon we cut to Dexter out on the Slice Of Life -- accompanied by Deb and Vogel. Well, at least Vogel's found a setting in Miami where the way she dresses is temperature-appropriate. DVO talks about how, thanks to Yates and Vogel, he's got his family back, and after he dumps Yates' body, he sits down and closes his eyes in relief. Vogel remarks that it's beautiful out on the water, and Dexter replies that he likes it – it's peaceful being alone. Seizing on that latter part, Deb points out that he brought them out with him, to which he replies he wanted to be with family. So there you have it – a killer brother and sister team, with a morally questionable psychiatrist stepping in at the maternal helm. What could be coming along week to disrupt them? (If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you.)
John Ramos is a writer and film producer living in Los Angeles. His new film, a documentary on online privacy and the exploitation of personal data called Terms And Conditions May Apply, a New York Times Critics' Pick, is currently in theaters as of July. You can get news on it from the film's Twitter accountor website, or check out trackoff.us to learn how to protect your privacy. 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.