Episode Report Card Couch Baron: B | 53 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Fava Beans And A Nice Chianti
By Couch Baron | Season 8 | Episode 3 | Aired on 07.14.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Batista puts Quinn up to Matthews for sergeant, and Matthews literally laughs in his face, so Batista takes it upon himself to help Quinn study for the test, but after getting frustrated with Quinn's thickheadedness, he unwittingly blows up his spot about leaving to bail Deb out in the middle of the night. When Jamie hears the truth, she's understandably pissed off and sad, so it's just as well she doesn't see what Quinn gets up to the rest of the episode.
To clarify what's referenced above, Deb gets arrested for drunk – like, wasted -- driving, and still not wanting to have contact with Dexter if she can help it, she calls Quinn to pick her up. Quinn succeeds in making the charges go away, but also tells Deb that when she turned him down, he hit the bottle much like she's doing now, and he's wondering what her reason for doing so is. She seems to want to tell him, but of course can't, so Quinn goes straight to Dexter with the news. When Dexter gives Vogel a quick summary of the fact Deb knows about him, Vogel is struck by Dexter's depth of feeling for his sister, and she later asks why, when she found out what he was, Dexter didn't kill her. Dexter tells her it's because he loves her, but Vogel points out that psychopaths see love differently than others, so he asks him to be specific, and when he obliges, she points out the things he claims to love are more about him than her. She also offers to try to help Deb, but Dexter refuses – initially.
MM finally tracks down Sussman's cabin – but when Dexter arrives, he and he alone knows that the crime scene has been altered, as Sussman is no longer hanging (from a hook stuck straight into his head, not from a noose as I originally thought). From the changes The Brain Surgeon (presumably) made, the evidence points to Sussman having killed himself, and this leads MM to close the case. However, Vogel gets a text from an unknown source telling her to look outside, whereupon she finds two "presents" on her doorstep – one for her and one for Dexter -- and unless the show is playing unforgivable shenanigans we can safely discount her as the killer. This time, The Brain Surgeon left her the occipital lobe, which is responsible for vision, and as such Dexter takes as a message that TBS is watching both of them. On the plus side, Dexter has been hard at work researching Vogel's "client" list, and he goes to check out one of the guys, who's currently selling fitness equipment at a mall. His investigation reveals that the guy isn't The Brain Surgeon – but he is a cannibal.
Elway gets TMI with Deb again about her sleeping-with habits, and on the one hand he seems reasonably nice and possibly normal. On the other, though, after getting a new case involving a cheating husband, Elway, sensing her hangover from across the room, gives Deb another "electrolyte" solution. Dexter then turns up all worried about the almost-DUI, and Deb reluctantly agrees to go to dinner with him, literally only so he'll go away and leave her and her headache in peace. At dinner, Dexter points out a man sitting happily with his family – who just so happens to be someone whose life Deb once saved in the line of duty – and tries to convince her that she's a good person. This only increases Deb's PTSD, though, and she drunkenly staggers into MM and tells Quinn she killed LaGuerta. Thinking she's just wasted, he drags her away from prying eyes, and although he obviously still doesn't believe her, he does suffer her to write down everything she remembers from that night while he goes to call Dexter.
In desperation, Dexter takes Vogel to the station with him, and on the way, she does point out that Deb accepting her punishment might be the best thing for both her and Dexter, but Dexter doesn't want to hear that, surely not least because Deb would have to bring him down with her. Dexter is forced to agree that Deb needs professional help at the very least, so with Quinn guarding the door, Dexter knocks a hysterical Deb out with an injection ("That was interesting!" Vogel HILARIOUSLY comments) as Vogel smoothly scoops Deb's confession while assuring Quinn that she'll treat Deb for her PTSD, and Quinn gets them out of there with no one else the wiser. Vogel assures Dexter that she can help Deb, so Dexter leaves his handcuffed sister in Vogel's care while he goes, I think, to dismember the cannibal? Hopefully that's as far as he takes the poetic justice.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Elway and Deb have caught the husband, who is not only cheating but is really keeping it classy by doing so in the cab of a cheap commercial van. As Elway enthusiastically snaps photo after photo, he casually inquires about Quinn, giving Deb some light shit as seems to be his wont, and she's like, fine -- we're not sleeping together, but we used to date until he proposed and I dumped his ass. Elway remarks that he couldn't stay friends with a woman who turned down his proposal, and Deb's like, that's because you're a giant pussy. They chuckle, and that's… cute, I think is what they're going for?
Dexter saunters up to the "Workout City" display at the mall and regards Galuzzo, who's young and in good shape, as DVO notes that the mall is a pretty good place to grab potential victims. Galuzzo is chatting up two girls who seem interested in him, but as soon as he sees Dexter, it's like everything else is forgotten, which makes Dexter wonder if Galuzzo recognizes him. I read his look more as he's liking what you're selling, and soon he's taking a body-fat measurement, although he does at least use calipers. He notes that Dexter's in pretty good shape (although to be honest, I'm not sure when Dexter has time to work out these days), and when he gets the reading back, he announces that Dexter has a very low fat-to-muscle ratio. Dexter tells him he's looking for something to change up his workout routine, so Galuzzo gets a big smile on his face and points out a machine he claims "cuts you up faster than a chef at Benihana." Without the later revelation, that'd seem labored, but it's actually pretty clever on the show's part. Dexter hops on the machine, oh-so-casually placing a copy of one of Vogel's books and chatting about her, but Galuzzo says he's never heard of her, and his convincing delivery is nice to see in a professional psychopath. Galuzzo watches with an appraising smile as Dexter plugs away on the elliptical machine…
…and then later, Vogel is alarmed at Dexter's rash exposure of himself to Galuzzo. Dexter tells her, however, that Galuzzo is hiding something, so he's going to break into his place the next day and look for hard evidence. Actually, the evidence is going to be fairly mushy, but still useful. Vogel inquires what happens if he comes for her in the meantime, so Dexter asks if she has a way to protect herself and she admits she has a gun, although she hasn't used it for years. So what was that business with the letter opener, girlie? Dexter tells her to keep her weapon loaded before starting to head out to get Deb, but Vogel stops him to tell him something -- when she and Harry devised the code, his biggest concern was that Dexter only kill bad people, while Vogel wanted Dexter to err on the side of not getting caught. In light of that, she'd like to know why, after Deb found out about Dexter's extracurricular activities, he didn't kill her? Ooh.. Vogel had me at hellew, but this is new ground and I like it. Dexter, a bit stunned, says he loves Deb, but Vogel asks what exactly Dexter loves about her, adding that psychopaths mean something different when they talk about love from the rest of you… I mean, "us." Dexter says he loves having steaks and beer with her -- which is not something they've done in a while, since he mentions it -- and the way she used to look up to and be there for him, but Vogel gently points out that those things aren't about Deb, but his needs. Dexter asks if she's labeling him selfish, but she assures him she's not criticizing. "Selfless love is hard enough for typical people, and for psychopaths, it's… impossible." Hmm, I wonder if that's going to be indicative of Dexter's final conflict -- I could see him being faced with the possibility of sacrificing himself for Deb. Vogel gets to her ultimate point -- as she said, he's perfect as a psychopath, so all this talk about helping Deb makes him "like Michelangelo trying to play the banjo." Evocative while rhyming. This woman is the best. She suggests that she be the one to help Deb, but Dexter thinks Deb wouldn't listen to her. Vogel: "You admitted to being the cause of her pain. How can you expect to be the solution?" It's a solid question, but Dexter defensively says he can handle Deb -- he's been doing it his entire life. If he ever tried to handle cleaning up her mouth, that's not a great sign.