Episode 08 | Aired Aug 18, 2013

Dex and Hannah take a wild road trip and a serial killer from the past returns to claim another victim
দ্বারা James Hibberd @ EW



Better? Better. Sunday's ডেক্সটার episode was better than সাম্প্রতিক hours. Zach Hamilton got a personality transplant, Dex bared his booty, and a serial killer who we thought/hoped was dead returned.

This week's episode is titled "Are We There Yet." Some অনুরাগী have been saying exactly that about the প্রদর্শনী in সাম্প্রতিক weeks. And the first half was likewise pretty sleepy. Then four killer characters came together and ডেক্সটার got a pulse. Here's 11 things we learned this week, followed দ্বারা some new theories:

1. Masuka's daughter took the job: Nicki has opted for part-time employment in the Miami Metro. Most people don't know this, but serving buffalo wings topless is exactly the experience a major metropolitan police department requires for scoring a job in its forensics lab. Nicki is also apparently a New Age type, and is worried about all that negative energy floating around in the murder lab. Masuka introduces Dex as the "king of spatter" -- oh, if he only knew!

2. Cassie has Zach Hamilton's blood under her nails: So obviously Dex's Mini Me killed her, right? I প্রণয় the slyness of this Dex voiceover when he's mulling Cassie's death: "What a waste. He could have had a great future." Not what a waste that his poor neighbor died, but what a waste of great potential serial killer -- very ডেক্সটার Morgan, that line. Later, Dex goes প্রথমপাতা and we get a shot of Cassie's traumatized friend Jaime doing Dexter's laundry. Jeez, Dex, offer your nanny the দিন off!

3. Quinn is still obsessed with catching Zach: Even after he was told to lay off this case, Quinn is determined to prove Zach is a killer. He says something strange: "You see any of Zach's DNA at crime scene, আপনি let me know." This is sort of an obvious thing to say (finding DNA at a crime scene is Dexter's job) BUT প্রদত্ত the revelations later in this hour, could it be a hint that Quinn was the person who planted the blood there? We're probably over-thinking this.

4. Deb shows promise as a ডেক্সটার recapper: Deb visits Dex and they fight about Hannah McKay, with Deb wanting a 1-10 scale measurement on how close the woman is to being dead. Dex insists his serial killer ex-girlfriend who just broke into Deb's house and drugged her "isn't a threat." Naturally, Deb is rather skeptical of this claim. "She's using আপনি and আপনি still want to protect her ... you're lying to yourself" and adds "She's a murderer, she needs to be locked up" (a rather ironic statement). But my পছন্দ Deb lines are were when Dex tries to explain Hannah's actions in সাম্প্রতিক episodes. Deb wants to know: Why would Hannah poison them and leave Dex on the side of the road as a means of asking for help? And why didn't Hannah just have the confidence to kill her husband herself? Deb later rants: "That's what she does! She murders people and gets away with it!" Deb should recap this প্রদর্শনী since this is pretty much exactly what I wrote last week. It's almost like the writer of this week's ডেক্সটার episode is annoyed at having to explain last week's episode.

The honest context of this scene is that Deb is implying that Hannah doesn't have Dexter's best interests at হৃদয় and is somehow playing him. But is she just manipulating him to get closer to him অথবা for some other purpose? Perhaps Deb's bringing this up because there's a whole layer to last week's "leave him on the side of the road" stunt that's going to pay off later. Did Hannah do something with Dex while he was unconscious? Again, are we giving the প্রদর্শনী too much credit, অথবা not enough?

5. Dex and Hannah have a getaway. At the marina, Hannah walks toward ডেক্সটার in slow motion like she's in a shampoo ad. I wouldn't be surprised if Yvonne Strahovski can actually slow down time when walking in real life. At a beachside dinner, Hannah compares ডেক্সটার to a shellfish, saying he's a bottom-feeder who takes out Miami's trash. He's so smitten she gets away with this.

6. Zach Hamilton gets an extreme personality makeover. "This Zach Hamilton character isn't working. Let's make him into a hyper, spastic funny screw-up instead." / "But he's been a brooding creep for the past several episodes!" / "And...?" / -- That's how I imagine the behind-the-scenes conversation going, but I don't mind. This is the character Zach should have been the entire time.

Here's what happened: Dex tracks Zach down to a plastic-wrapped motel room where there's a new cutlery set on the bed. Looks like Zach went into kill room-modeling overdrive with the tarp and bought knives big enough to slay White Walkers. Dex criticizes the room and starts fixing Zach's mistakes. Harry appears and says, "Better than your first try." Dex replies: "Shut up, ghost dad!" (Okay, Dex didn't say that, but he should have). Zach comes in dressed just like ডেক্সটার in a dark knit shirt. Instead of sedating his victim like usual, Dex jams a ছুরি to his throat and demands an explanation for Cassie's death. Zach convincingly explains he didn't kill Cassie and instead was stalking a killer he knows, instinctively following The Code. "What did আপনি think of the room?" Zach says, then looks around. "Did আপনি do something to it?" It's the first of several laughs thanks to New and Improved Zach. Later Dex growls, "Do not 'dude' me." Look, they have chemistry now! (And no, we can't credit this radical change on Zach having a post-kill high, since Harry later notes that Zach is peacefully napping post-kill like Dex used to, and it's not like Zach was acted like this after his পূর্ববর্তি murder). Zach proudly shows Dex the body in his truck. Sure, the kid screwed up nearly every aspect of the kill room and left a bunch of evidence leading to him, but I'm sure he did due diligence vetting that his victim deserved to be bludgeoned to death... right?

7. Hannah and Deb make-up, sort of: Deb tracks down Hannah and gets the drop on her while she's alone in the motel room. Deb throws cuffs onto the বিছানা and tells Hannah to cuff herself. Now we're talking! Oh wait, Deb just wants to bring Hannah to justice. Damn. Hannah refuses to put on the cuffs and says the only way she'll leave with Deb is if she shoots her. This stumps Deb because apparently she's forgotten how to arrest and cuff somebody herself. Hannah threatens to expose Dex as a serial killer if she's arrested and Deb says, "No one would believe you." Which, as we've seen, is totally accurate. Dex could start stabbing বাটিস্টা to death and the lieutenant would ask, "Now what is it আপনি wanted to talk to me about?" as he bleeds on the floor.

Hannah tries to explain her actions -- "in extreme situations sometimes people do extreme things" -- which registers with Deb. Suddenly ডেক্সটার bursts in -- awkward. Then Zach bursts in -- আরো awkward. The single funniest exchange this season is Deb to Zach: "Who the f--k are you?" and Zach replying: "Who the f--k are you?" Again, I can't believe I'm praising Zach Hamilton, the Poochy of ডেক্সটার season 8, but the character was clicking for me this week. Later, as they're driving back, with ডেক্সটার and Hannah in the front and eager young Zach in the back, the kid asks, "Are we there yet?" Dex and Hannah exchange a look. It's a fun moment: they're a serial killer family.

8. Another Dr. Vogel secret hint: Dex, Hannah and Zach have ডিনার at Dr. Frankenstein's house. Hannah asks Vogel what got her interested in serial killers in the first place and she says, "an incident long পূর্বে that I won't bore আপনি with." Okay, I'm not sure whether a lot of various plot points in ডেক্সটার eventually pay off, but I'm pretty certain this is a neon-sign flashing HINT. We also know she was previously married to a doctor and he died. Hmm. Dex brings up how he's still troubled দ্বারা Cassie's murder, apparently the killer put something sharp under Zach's car door handle to get a blood sample to frame him. "I doubt it's anything this টেবিল can't handle," Vogel says proudly. Yes, they're like The Avengers of Miami vigilantes.

9. Deb is thinking about starring in the ডেক্সটার spin-off returning to law enforcement: Deb gets so frustrated with Hannah wooing her brother, she gives Elway a whiff of fugitive Hannah's trail. Finally, a plot that Elway can get involved in! She later gets out her old uniform and tells Elway she's considering quitting. At least have some homemade electrolytes and think about it, first.

10. Hannah isn't leaving Miami: Dex drops Hannah off at her hotel room and they blather to increase sexual tension. Once they start making out, my inner 13-year-old is thinking: Bet they won't প্রদর্শনী her naked. And they don't. Instead, they প্রদর্শনী ডেক্সটার butt, which shocks me for a wonkish reporter-y reason -- usually cable series stars get naked in the first couple seasons until they renegotiate their contracts and then start refusing to shed their clothes. Dex flips over a couple আরো times, প্রদর্শিত হচ্ছে his butt from আরো angles. And-- whoa! Dex has sex naked except for dark socks? Yikes, is he the Eliot Spitzer of sexy serial killers? The পরবর্তি morning Dex asks Hannah to stay in Miami and she does. That's a great idea! I'm sure it will work out.

11. The brain surgeon returns! ডেক্সটার finds Zach brainless and Vogel has a new trophy box. The brain surgeon theorists on the মতামত boards can celebrate: Yates was not the brain surgeon. He/she is still out there. A few episodes back, I predicted Yates was the brain surgeon despite the plot holes in that solution because it seemed like there were even আরো plot holes for the killer to be yet another elaborate misdirection, especially if it's Vogel. I'm sure many of আপনি are, once again, thinking Dr. Vogel, yes?

My theories having not seen beyond this episode অথবা even পরবর্তি week's preview:

1. Here's my stab at Vogel's secret: One of Dexter's earliest victims was Dr. Vogel's husband ... that's not a bad theory, right? But ideally the secret should impact the action moving অগ্রবর্তী and I'm unsure how that would -- unless Dr. Vogel is also the brain surgeon and ডেক্সটার is her ultimate target. Or: Is her supposedly dead husband the brain surgeon? Ahhh, that could be it -- he was a doctor, after all, and there could be all sorts of reasons he'd have a grudge against his ex-wife. But at this point in the season, wouldn't the brain surgeon be a character we've already met?

2. Brain surgeon theory. The easiest candidate is Cassie's boyfriend since we don't know anything about him. Deb? ... I mean ... the Brain Surgeon is killing serial killers, true, but is also about tormenting Dr. Vogel, and Deb was in her motel-sex-coke spiral when all this started and didn't know Vogel yet. Quinn? Masuka? Matthews? Batista? Nope, not unless we've been wildly misled about their characters. Elway? Again, no connection with Vogel and wildly out of character. Somebody from a পূর্ববর্তি season? It would be hilarious if it was Lumen ... but not in a good way. Which leaves Dr. Vogel. Maybe her first victim was her husband and all those brain pieces are her trophies. I previously dismissed the idea it might be Vogel because that solution seemed to have আরো plot holes than rage-filled Yates being the killer: Why would she put boxes on her own doorstep and then look surprised to find them when nobody was around? Why would she presumably manipulate Yates into violently kidnapping her, when he came so close to killing her and ডেক্সটার barely found her in time? The only motive she'd have for killing Zach Hamilton, who she nurtured and embraced The Code, is if everything she's previously ব্যক্ত about the value of teaching The Code is utter b.s. ... and if that's the case, then pretty much everything she's ব্যক্ত and done this season is in contradiction to her being the brain surgeon. So I'm going with Vogel's husband, Cassie's boyfriend or, long shot, Vogel herself.