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!Quinn turns up to the station and finds Deb sprawled out, mostly unconscious, in the waiting area, although she's not confined in any way. He sits with her and without opening her eyes, she confesses it's like a truck hit her. Imagine how the parking meter feels! After asking him to spare her a lecture, she tells him that they kept her out of the drunk tank but she's still waiting to be booked, so Quinn heads off to see if he can intercede on her behalf. It's a nice thought, Quinn, but you of all people should know this isn't really going to help.
In daylight, Dexter returns to Sussman's cabin, as MM has tracked the location down and discovered his corpse. What they do not realize -- but Dexter does -- is that the crime scene has been restaged. Instead of the back of Sussman's head being jammed up on a hook (due to the dim light, I mistakenly thought he was dangling from a noose), he's lying face down in the garage, a gunshot wound obscuring any other trauma. Rolling the corpse over, Dexter notes that its front teeth are broken, so he tells the group that Sussman must have put a nearby shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, which also explains the brain fragments so appetizingly splattered around a certain area of the room. If only Galuzzo were here. It's not clear whether the available evidence completely supports Dexter's analysis or if he's merely covering for his own purposes, but everyone seems convinced that Sussman was The Brain Surgeon, with Angie speculating that the guy must have found his conscience and killed himself as a result. After DVO notes that the Brain Surgeon clearly wants the cops off the case, Dexter asks if Vogel has arrived yet, and Batista tells him he just called her before asking where the hell Quinn is…
…but the answer, of course, is "driving his downward-spiral ex-fiancée to work." Hey, we've all been there. He suggests that maybe stopping by her place so she can shower instead of going straight to work might be an act of humanitarian mercy (I'm paraphrasing), but she tells him she keeps deodorant in her desk. Admirable! Now what's your plan for the hair? They arrive, and Deb thanks him for the ride, but when Quinn asks if he should be worried, Deb literally is like, "About what?" I mean, denial is one thing, but you were a cop for a long time, Deb. Surely your training should at least be prompting you to pay a bit of lip service to the fact that you were driving blackout drunk. When Quinn haltingly continues his inquiry, Deb scrolls down the Addict Pull-Down Menu to "You of all people," but Quinn is like, the very fact that I had a period of hopeless boozebaggery -- which was, by the way, thanks to you -- is precisely why I know that there must be a reason for you spinning out like this. Deb's façade momentarily crumbles, and it looks like she wants to unburden herself, but she's not ready for that so she mumbles something about not knowing her own limits. Elway then pulls up near them, so she peaces out -- to Quinn's chagrin. Holding the building door for her, Elway suggests she "straighten up," as they have a new client coming in at nine. He's got a point, because if it's only been a few hours since the cop found her there is no way she's even half-sober. Elway shoots a look Quinn's way before following Deb inside…