Waiting To Exhale
Updated 2008-04-18 19:17:06
Previously: Dexter was having a hard time killing evil-doers because Doakes was on his ass, and because something in his conscience was nagging him. Deb had been living with Dex since Brian tried slicing her up, and was still so freaked that she ended up smashing some poor guy's nose in a bar. She returned to work nonetheless. FIP pleaded with Rita to help him get out of prison, and when she refused, he got pissed, got in a fight, and got dead. Upon finding this out, Rita basically accused Dexter of being complicit in FIP's arrest. Dexter found another guy to kill, a "beef bus" named Little Chino, a hit man for a gang called "The 29th Street Kings." Dexter tried in earnest to kill the mountainous man, but didn't tape him down hard enough, and the guy escaped, leaving Dex to feel dejected. At least he got some serious punches in before Beef Bus took off. Compounding Dexter's stress was the discovery of his previous victims' bodies by treasure hunters. Deb was psyched about the development; Dexter, not so much.
Dex is lying in bed, staring at his ceiling fan as it spins slowly. Seems like he's having trouble sleeping, and if I were in his predicament, I'd be shitting myself. "I'm drifting," he VOs. "I finally get a chance to kill and I can't do it." Yeah, you really are off your game, homeslice. "A second chance, and he gets away. And now, all my secrets are floating to the surface." He starts tossing and turning in bed. "Where is the orderly, controlled, effective Dexter? How did I lose him? How do I find him again? I'm drifting, but not to sleep." Fade out. Dude, this shit is heavy , man. So far, the tone of this season is way darker than the first. A lot of the comic relief is missing, and Dexter's myriad problems are weighing things down. He needs to get rid of some baggage, seriously. I'm having trouble keeping up with all the things that could go wrong here.
"A shocking and gruesome discovery off the coast of Florida yesterday," blares Dexter's clock radio, awakening him. Looks like he drifted off to sleep after all. "Police are still searching through mountains of evidence found lying at the bottom of the ocean." A quick shot of the doll head keychain pans to Dexter's face, which has a Dude, You've Got To Be Kidding Me expression on it.
Down in the barrio of the 29th Street Kings, where a body lies under a sheet beyond police tape. Angel is standing over it as Dexter pulls up in his car. "Here I am," Dex VOs. "Back in the belly of the beast." I'm going to go ahead and assume that the beast he's referring to is Little Chino, our beefy buddy. "But how can I solve a crime when I can't even solve what's wrong with me? Duty calls..." He gets out of the car, and crosses the police tape. Masuka accosts him, and says, "Eight confirmed." "Here?" "No, here's just one," says Angel. Masuka reveals that he's referring to the "Bay Harbor Butcher," a moniker the press has assigned to our main man. Dexter repeats the name unbelievingly, and Masuka says, "That's what the press is calling whoever dumped those bodies off-shore." "That's a little...lurid," says Dexter, clearly unimpressed. Angel expresses his hope that it's really the ITK's dumping ground. "Tell me about it," says Dex. "Last thing Miami needs is another serial killer." Heh. Masuka uncovers the body on the ground, and it belongs to Eva Arenas, the mother of Little Chino's last victim, Rafael. Looks like Chino got to her before she could take the stand. Angel recaps for us that all she wanted was justice against The Kings for what happened to her son: "First she's the messenger --" "Now she's the message," jumps in Doakes out of nowhere. Dex says she was clearly killed with a machete, and Angel mentions that the Gang Crash Unit is all over Little Chino for this. "Last thing I want is for the cops to bring Little Chino in," Dex VOs. "He's mine ." Yeah, well, some could say that ship has sailed, my friend. "Why don't you take a picture, Morgan? It'll last longer," Doakes snaps. "What would I do without you, Sergeant?" I don't know, kill someone?
Some woman outside the police tape is kvetching at Deb in Spanish about how ineffective and racist the police are. Deb doesn't understand much Spanish, which is normally fine, but come on, Deb. You live and work in Miami. I'd think by now you'd at least have a working knowledge of the language; it would totally make you a better cop. Deb tries telling her to slow down, but the woman leaves in a huff. Some kid on a bike says, "She's saying you fuckin' cops don't do nothin'." Deb says, "Oh, really? She has such a flippant attitude towards double negatives?" Ah, if only. What she really says is, "Grandma really talks like that?" "Not exactly, but you get the point, right, bitch?" Whoa, dude. If my mom ever heard me talk like that to an authority figure, I would have had a boot so far up my ass I would have been tasting leather for a week. Deb looks incredulous as the kid rolls away, and walks over to Dexter. "Fucking people don't want our help." What tipped you off? Looking at Eva's body, Deb mentions that she had a little girl. "I know," says Dex. "This stuff never gets to you?" Deb asks. "I'm more of a crying-on-the-inside kind of guy." Masuka cracks that the hatchet job in front of them "makes the Ice Truck Killer look like a goddamn artist. Oh, right. Sorry, Morgan." "What?" she says, trying to appear normal. "I'm so over that." Of course you are. Except for the "Of course you are" part.
As Deb walks away, she passes Pascal in her car; she's on her cell, yelling at someone. I won't bore you with the details, because until it becomes relevant, I'm not going to justify her story line. LaGuerta walks up and knocks on her window, startling her. Pascal puts the phone down and rolls down the window. "Fiancé?" LaGuerta assumes out loud, then says, asserting herself, "How about you take off, and let me handle this?" Pascal says half-heartedly that she couldn't let her do that, but LaGuerta tells her she'll email the report to Pascal for signature, no problem. Pascal nods, and says she also wants the report on Deb's bar fight. "Maria," she says as LaGuerta walks away. LaGuerta turns around. "I owe you." Nice. You guys are buddies. Way to work that angle, LaGuerta!
Dexter, still standing by Eva's body, watches as a social worker carries Eva's daughter away, and flashes back to Harry carrying him out of the shipping container thirty-three years ago. Dexter and the girl lock eyes, and can't seem to break off. Angel walks up, and says, " Pobrecita , seeing her mother that way. Can you imagine that?" He doesn't have to, but you don't know that, Angel. "I can't even go there, Angel." Fade out. That's two fade-outs, by the way, something this show normally doesn't do. New editor, perhaps?
Later, in the evening, the coroner is finally loading Eva's body into their van, and Angel says to Dex, "This one's on us, bro." "If I had killed Chino last night, that little girl's mother would still be alive," Dex VOs. Some firemen start hosing down the street to get rid of the blood as Dex walks to his car. "I gotta find Chino before he finds me." Yeah, that's definitely a good plan, unless he's expecting you. Which he will be. Dexter starts driving, and there's another report on the radio about his bodies. "I have to focus, tune everything out. If I don't, being linked to my beautiful bodies of work will be the least of my worries." Headlights instantly blare into Dexter's rearview. "Shit! Little Chino. He was out there. The timing could be better. That, plus I don't have my tools, but it does give me the chance to tie up one massive loose end." Dexter weaves out of traffic into an alleyway, and the other car gives chase. He slams on the brakes, and gets out quickly after grabbing something from his glove compartment. He walks briskly to the other car, only to find Doakes waiting for him. "Oh, it's you, Sergeant," he says, shining his flashlight in Doakes's face. "Who else you got following you?" Doakes asks. "Apparently no one," Dexter responds, looking around to suggest that he could bludgeon Doakes with his huge flashlight. "Go ahead, try it. I've been waitin'." "This neighborhood is full of crazies," Dex says, shining the light in his own face, mockingly. "I'd lock my doors."
Dexter's watching footage of his kills being retrieved on his computer, and Deb comes out of the bathroom. "Bathroom's all yours." "Kind of always was." Heh, true. Deb goes to the fridge, grabs the OJ, and drinks straight from the bottle. "We run out of glasses?" asks Dex smarmily. "Clean ones," she replies. Dex tells her to come over to the computer, where he's found some apartments on Craig's List . Deb is unimpressed with all of the offerings: "Shitty neighborhood." "It gets morning sun," says Dex hopefully. Deb doesn't reply, and Dexter implores her to give it a chance. Deb just says that she has to meet with Pascal, and rushes out after leaving the OJ bottle on the desk. "I will not kill my sister, I will not kill my sister, I will not kill my sister," Dex VOs. Why not, dude? As Dex puts the OJ away, his cell rings, and it's Rita, according to his caller ID. "Hey, you," he says, only to find Astor on the other end. "Dexter?" "Astor? Sweetie, what's the matter?" "Mom's acting all weird and stuff." "What kind of weird?" "She keeps talking to people on the phone about my dad, then she starts yelling at them. Then she yells at me and Cody." "I'm on my way." Good man, Dex.
Over at Rita's, Rita is on the phone, saying, "No, calm is what I was thirty-five minutes ago, pissed is what I am now." Dexter comes in, and he announces that he's got Eggo waffles. The kids don't seem to care much, which is bullshit, because when I was that young, I would have been psyched for waffles. Hell, I'm psyched for some now. In fact...excuse me.
Okay, I'm back. Mmm, waffles. Anyhow, Rita hangs up the phone, and exclaims, "Assholes!" "Which assholes were you talking to?" asks Dex. "Funeral home assholes," replies Rita exasperatedly. Dexter wonders aloud why she's having a funeral for FND (Father Now Dead). "For the kids. For me. We had his old insurance policy, it's only about five thousand dollars, but it should cover everything." Dexter points out that the county will bury FND for free: "He wasn't even your husband. Anymore. Technically." He goes on to say that maybe the money would be better used for starter scholarships for the kids. "Dexter, I didn't ask for your help, or your advice," she says snippily, and turns away. "I'll never understand how people deal with death," he VOs. "Why they can't just...put it in its place," he finishes, watching Cody play with Russian nesting dolls. Got it. Symbolism. Compartmentalizing. Loud and clear.
At the lab, Dexter's looking at Little Chino's mug-shots and VO-ing, "Now I have to find someone who knows I'm looking for him. Not exactly ideal in the element-of-surprise department. And I have to find a new way to dispose of Little Chino's body, if I can close the deal this time." Dexter looks up in time to see Deb and LaGuerta walking out of Pascal's office. "You totally douched me in there," Deb tells her. "You clocked a guy in a bar who touched your arm. Yeah, I told the Lieutenant you weren't ready for active duty." Deb thanks her sarcastically for the "fucking vote of confidence," and storms off in a huff. Mmm mmm mmm. What a little asshole. Masuka walks in and announces that there are now thirteen confirmed bodies from the BHB (Bay Harbor Butcher), and Angel mentions that he heard the FBI is coming in to work the case. LaGuerta snarks that Matthews is going to take all the credit for the FBI's work: "Nice political move when you're bucking for Deputy Chief." Yeah, you wouldn't know anything about political moves, would you? Doakes asks who the feds are sending, and Angel says it's "some guy named Lundy." " Frank Lundy?" Doakes asks, recognizing the name. "He's a rock star! The Green River Killer and the DC Sniper? The case was impossible, and he broke it." Gulp. LaGuerta tells Doakes he should do whatever he can to get on Lundy's task force: "It's a career-maker!" Doakes looks skeptical, so Angel rolls over to him in his chair and says, "Hey, just visualize the door of opportunity just opening up wide for you, bro, and just walk right through it." Doakes says what we're all thinking: "Angel, you keep up with this woo-woo shit, I'm gonna walk right through you ." Heh.
The elevator bell rings, and out steps Beef Bus with his attorney. "Little Chino, shit!" Dexter VOs as he rolls his chair out of sight. "This guy is officially the highest point in all of Florida." Yeah, word. Dude is a fucking elephant. Doakes stands up to stare at BB, and Dex VOs, "What's he doing here?" "People tell me you're looking for my client," says BB's not-so-beefy attorney. "People tell you right," says Pascal, who's just stepped out of her office.
On the interrogation room monitor, BB and Co. sit down as LaGuerta and Angel circle the table. Deb 'n' Dex watch outside, and Deb comments again on how huge BB is: "Fuck, he's big." "The harder they fall," says Dex distractedly.
Noticing his new scar, LaGuerta asks BB, "That come with a story?" Predictably, he answers that he cut himself shaving. Angel tells him to be more careful, as if he's in some noir film. The attorney chimes in that Chino has been harassed by the department enough, and as he's about to say he's considering filing suit, LaGuerta tells him to cut the shit. "Word is, you're looking for me regarding this...tragedy," says Chino, smiling. "Bet your ass we are," noirs Angel. "The victim was the mother of one of your compadres who we know you killed." "But can't prove, right, officer?" asks the attorney. "It's detective , and can't prove... yet !" Chino tells the lawyer to "show 'em the disc," and the guy pulls out a DVD, which they pop on outside. It shows Chino reading yesterday's paper, and the video has a time-stamp on it of the exact time of Eva's death, providing Chino with a paper-thin alibi, even though time-stamps are very easy to tamper with. "That arrogant prick," says Angel, watching Chino smile and joke around in the interrogation room. "He knew we'd peg him for Arenas's murder, so he covered his ass and had someone else do the deed." Deb asks if that at least makes him an accomplice, but LaGuerta says, "Not without evidence." "Cut him loose," says Pascal, pissed off. Dexter smiles. "Red Rover, Red Rover, send Chino back over." Oh, you're so clever, Dexter. Except not really. That was actually a pretty lame thing to say.
Masuka calls Dexter into his room, where he's watching more footage of Dexter's underwater cemetery. "Thirteen and counting. They're so swamped up there, they had to bring in outside talent...which would be moi ." Dexter just looks at him, and we can see a glint of fear on his face. "Bet this guy never expected his work to see the light of day," says Masuka after a long pause. I love how he calls it "work." "I'll bet you're right," says Dexter. "Still, it can't be easy to hide a body nowadays," he continues, hoping to get some ideas from Masuka. "You shittin' me?" "Hypothetical: you're the Bay Harbor Butcher. How do you make sure a disposed body stays disposed?" "Tons of options!" says Masuka excitedly. "Everglades. Alligators. Pig farms. Sulfuric acid. Wood chipper. Incinerator. Hell, even meat pies!" Okay, remind me to stay on Masuka's good side. Yeesh. "Don't all those run the risk of coming in contact with the outside world?" "You got a better idea?" "No," Dex covers. "And that's the problem," he VOs. "Where do I put Chino when I'm done with him?"
Deb storms into the office and announces that Mathstor is on his way up with "that FBI guy. He's got a fuckin' entourage." Everyone in the room sits up expectantly, and Mathstor walks in as Agent Lundy (played by Keith Carradine ) struts past with his crew. "So this is the man that stands between me and death row," Dex VOs. Mathstor tells everyone to be in the briefing room in two minutes for Show And Tell.
"All right," Mathstor begins, "the Bay Harbor Butcher case is now a Miami Metro case, and it is shaping up to be the biggest one in our history, now with fourteen confirmed. The FBI has sent over their top man, Special Agent Frank Lundy, to help solve this crime." He goes on to express that he wants the agencies to play nicely together "for the public good." He then introduces Lundy, who starts right in: "Hello, everyone. There is no such thing as the perfect crime, not in my experience, anyway. With your help, and the mistakes this person has made and will eventually make, we'll find whoever did this awful thing." Dexter looks sick. "I need everyone in every department up to speed on what we are doing while I review your files, and put our task force together." LaGuerta looks at Doakes to reinforce her hopes for his presence on said task force. "Let's get a jump start on the Bay Harbor Butcher, a moniker which, by the way, repulses me." "Well, we have something in common," VOs Dex as he looks on. Lundy projects a picture of a hacked-up torso and some other appendages, and says, "Initial reports had these parts as coming from one body." "Actually, it's two," VOs Dex. "Actually, it's two," says Lundy as though he read Dex's mind. Dexter squirms a bit. Lundy goes on to dispel the notion that these are the ITK's bodies, because of the "gender, exsanguination, and specific methods of dissection." "Not to mention my guys deserved it," VOs Dexter. A slide of Brian comes up when Lundy mentions the ITK, and Deb looks ill. Dex hallucinates the picture coming alive, and Brian says, "Miss me, brother?" "I can't afford to lose it like this," Dex VOs, "not with Special Agent Rock Star on my case. I need to clear the decks, and my head." Or "clear the Dex," know what I mean? ["Boo." -- Sars ] Oh, shut up. [" You shut up." -- Sars ] Dexter walks briskly out of the briefing room and to his lab, where he puts Chino's mugshot back on the screen. "I'm coming for you tonight, Little Chino, and this time there won't be any screw-ups."
Dexter's in...well, I don't know what it's called, but it's clearly some room where cops go to get weapons. A cop behind the counter is showing him an air pistol one would use to tranquilize a large animal, like a Beef Bus, and asks, "Gators giving you trouble, Dex?" "They, uh...ate my puppy," he says unconvincingly. The guy nods understandingly, and pulls out long rod with a big-ass needle on it. "This sucker? You load her up right, she'll take down a goddamn grizzly. You may have to get closer than you like, but she'll do the job, I promise you that. So, which will it be?" "Both." "Excellent." Yes it is. Yes it is.
Deb's at the gym (guess Dexter told her to get her working out done during the daytime), and she's hitting the stair-master like a mutha. She finishes up, and walks past a punching bag. She hits it a couple times, then lets loose with a huge punch that instantly bruises her hand. While she's doubled over in pain, Captain Handsomepants walks up and is all, "First time?" Like, ha ha, douchebag. Take a walk. "Sort of," Deb replies. The guy says that he's been boxing since he was ten, and Deb asks, "Tough neighborhood?" "Tough family. And those are just my sisters." Duhr. This guy's a total wad. "Want some help?" he asks hopefully. "I'm doing enough damage on my own," she answers, indicating that she does not. "Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?" "That was a 'yes.' It sounded like a 'no,' but, yeah...yeah," she smiles. He's happy with her response, and pulls out some tape. As he mentions how important it is for her to wrap her wrists, he rips off a piece, making Deb instantly flash back to Brian taping her mouth shut as she lay next to a corpse in the car when he abducted her. Freaking out, she tells the guy that she's sorry, and hightails it out of there. He looks a little upset, because she's cute, but hey, he doesn't need a nut job like her around, anyway.
Dex can't get into the apartment, again , because Deb's bolted the door. "Yo, Deb!" he yells, irritated. We hear the sound of the treadmill winding down, and Deb gets the door, still wearing the same clothes from the gym. "You scared the shit out of me." "How are you doing?" "How am I doing? I saw the man I thought I loved...no, did love, up on some goddamn screen with a gallery full of women that he murdered and cut into pieces." "Deb, I --" "Don't! You fuckin' asked." Oh, Jesus. Will someone please get her to a fucking shrink?
Hey, it's a party! Oh, it's The 29th Street Kings. I guess I probably wouldn't like that party too much. Beef Bus stands up to leave, and we see Dexter a couple of blocks away, sneaking around. "I might be playing fast and loose with my father's code, but I don't think Harry would disapprove, considering..." Chino starts walking towards Dexter while finishing off a cerveza . "Attaboy, Chino. A little closer." Dexter readies his tranquilizer gun, as lightning and thunder start flashing and clapping all around. His hand is shaking slightly. "Come on, don't get the shakes now. This is no time for performance anxiety." Beef Bus tosses his beer bottle aside, breaking it, and lights up a ciggy. As he continues walking, Dexter steps out, holding up the tranquilizer gun, and is illuminated by the lightning. BB stops in his tracks and says, "I've been waiting for you." Out of nowhere, some other dude slams into Dexter clumsily, and after a brief scuffle, Dexter runs away. The goons all chase him, but he's disappeared down in the sewers, where the dankness of his surroundings make him flash back again to his time with Brian in the shipping container. It's all very stylized and lightning-y, with lots of "Dexter, don't leave me"s from Brian when Harry picks little Dex up. "What the hell is wrong with me?" Dex VOs. "Brian, my brother." Yeah, we know, dude. He was a total prick. Time to move on.
Back at the station, Pascal is batting ideas around with LaGuerta, Angel, and Doakes about how to get Chino when Deb busts in, apologizes for being late, and slams her foot into a briefcase on the floor, sending it sailing. "What fucking asshole left this here?" "It's, uh, Special Agent Fucking Asshole," says Lundy amiably. He picks up the briefcase, which now has water dripping from it. "Morgan, right?" he asks, as Angel tells him they have witnesses to interview. As Angel and Deb go to do just that, I imagine, Lundy heads over to the break room to dry off his briefcase. Doakes approaches him, and asks him if he has a minute. "Or three: good tea takes time." Well, whoop-de-do. "What's up, Sergeant?" Doakes tells him pretty much flat-out that he'd like to be on the task force for the BHB, and Lundy tells him he's looked over his file: "You've done some fine work here in homicide. Miami Metro is lucky to have you. But I don't think you'd be a good fit for my team." Ha! Doakes seems confused, because he heard that he was qualified, when Lundy really just said that he'd done fine work. "Frankly, Sergeant, you're more of a leader than a team member. I'm not convinced you play well with others." Now done making his tea, Lundy barrels past Doakes, who looks more than a little pissed.
Dexter's returning home from a long night of sewer dwelling, and he VOs, "I feel like a jigsaw puzzle missing a piece, and I'm not even sure what the picture should be." As he reaches his front door, Rita comes from around the corner with a somber look on her face. "I've been calling you for hours." "I kinda pulled an all-nighter." "Dexter, I called the station." The husky voice is back. Dexter explains that he was "off the clock," and that it's a huge case that's taking him places he's never been before. He gestures to his own fouled clothes as evidence. Rita seems unamused, and just stares at him. "What?" he says evenly. "I've been thinking a lot about Paul's death, and how I'm going to deal with it." How 'bout you just get on and deal with it, missy? He was a fucking cock-ass. Let him go! "First of all, I'm not going to let the county bury him. I'm using the insurance money to give Paul a proper funeral. It's in an hour." Well, that's pretty short notice. "Rita, Paul was such a...destructive force. Why can't you just put him behind you?" Rita says it's about saying goodbye to him and "the grip he had on my life. It's called moving on." Yeah, it actually sounds more like dwelling on an abusive shit-heel to me, but hey, what do I know? Rita tells Dexter to go clean up because the kids are expecting him, and Dexter says he's just going to make them late. "Dammit, Dexter! I need you there, too. You have no idea what this feels like." Dexter looks down at his doll head, and tells her to give him ten minutes.
"I can't wait to get another door slammed in my face," Deb tells Angel. "If I lived in this neighborhood, I wouldn't tell the cops, either," Angel replies. "It's about survival. These people have families, kids. It's not easy to be talkative when you got The 29th Street Kings playing Whack The Witness." Good call, Angel. "It just takes one, right?" says Deb. "That's it! Put that out into the universe." Oh, Jesus. I really hope he cuts that out soon. Deb just looks at him. Angel knocks on another door, and the lady inside tells him to go to hell. "Look at the bright side: karmically, we're batting a thousand." Angel...knock it off, dude. You dress too cool to act like a hippie. Deb walks away, frustrated, and sees the same kid from before spray-painting their police cruiser. "Goddamn it!" yells Deb as she starts running after the kid. All that working out has definitely paid off, though, because she's like a cheetah chasing a gazelle. After about five seconds, she's on top of the kid, asking him if he really thinks he can get away with spraying a gang sign on a police car. "Get off me, lady, unless you wanna fuck me like you fucked the Ice Truck Killer!" This sends Deb completely over the edge, and she draws her pistol and slams it into the kid's neck. "No! Please! I'll tell you where the shit is, the drugs and shit! Please don't shoot me, miss!" Angel's finally caught up, and yells, "Morgan!" She gets off the kid and starts pacing back and forth with her hand in her hair, looking distraught. Angel looks down to see that the kid has pissed himself.
Church. "If I believed in God, if I believed in sin, this is the place where I'd be sucked straight to hell. If I believed in hell." Yeah, got it. Dex is following Rita and the kids down the aisle, and Rita's not even waiting for him. She's clearly got another bone to pick with Dexter, and it's not the one in his trousers, for a change. Cody walks back and retrieves Dexter, telling him, "It's all right," and I miss the old Cody. This kid's bowl cut makes me want to...well, really, just give him a better haircut. My kids are never going to rock that shit. Mohawks all the way. Anyhow, Dexter sits down with everyone, and the service begins. They're the only people in there. After some sermonizing about family and such, the pastor calls Rita and the kids up for some silent prayer, which they do as Dexter looks on. "I hope you found your peace, Paul," says Rita before she and the kids kneel down. Dexter looks over at a statue of a dying Jesus lying in Mary's arms, and focuses on the gash in his side. The pastor comes over and says, "I'm so sorry for your loss." Dexter thanks him without thinking about it, and the pastor goes back to the pulpit, revealing Brian sitting right next to Dexter in the pew, obviously a figment of Dex's imagination. "I'm not sorry," he says. "You're still here," says Dex. "Never left." "Yeah you did, I killed you." "No, you just took my life." "So, how do I make you go away?" "You can try doing what these people are doing." "I'm not like them," Dex whispers, and Brian looks at him mockingly as if to suggest Dex is more like them than he thinks. "Well, if it helps, I can tell you it's not your fault, what you did to me." "I never said it was." "But you feel it. It's human nature." "But, I'm not human." "No, you're just fucked up." Dexter looks at Rita and the kids in prayer, and says, "I need to let you go." "You think it's as simple as that?" The fam has gotten up from their prayer, and as Cody walks back to the pew, Dex whispers, "Nothing's simple." Cody says, "Does this mean you'll be my dad, now?" Dexter just smiles, and Rita looks back at him seriously. I wish she'd just come out with it already.
Over at the station, we start with a really weird shot: Dexter's looking around the office with a strange, open-mouthed smile as Lundy stands in the elevator as the doors close. Lundy's face looks... proud , as if he just left his son a present. I don't know. It's just weird. Dexter looks to his left, and realizes that everyone is by the windows, watching something. He goes to join them.
When he reaches Angel, he looks down to see a huge lineup of gangsters. "The 29th Street Kings?" he asks. "Yeah," says Angel. "We got 'em." LaGuerta says that the SWAT team did a sweep of one of their addresses: "Maybe we didn't get them on murder, but we busted their asses on drugs, weapons, and money laundering." Pascal chimes in that half of the guys are "three-strikers," and that they have Deb to thank. Deb just smiles briefly and heads back into the main office. As everyone disperses, Angel stops Dex. "Hey, there's something you should know. Deb pulled her gun on an unarmed boy to get him to give up the gang. Some kid named Joey Nuñez." "Thanks, Angel, I'll talk to her." "Okay. I'll give her one thing, though: she's in motherfucking good shape." Word. Dex wonders if Little Chino was involved in this most recent bust, and Angel says he wasn't there. "Too bad," says Dex, even though he doesn't really think so. Dex takes off, and LaGuerta gets a package hand-delivered to her. "What you got?" asks Doakes. "None of your business," she says jokingly. "Damn!" LaGuerta takes the package into Pascal's office, and tells her she opened the package by mistake because she forgot she's not Lieutenant anymore. She then tells Pascal that she should reconsider using department resources to track her fiancé's phone records, because it "could open a shit-ugly can of worms that you might not be able to close." "Only if someone mentions it." "This is me not mentioning it," LaGuerta smiles, and turns to head out. "Maria, I'm new at this...this, not trusting the man that I love, and...I really appreciate your support." LaGuerta nods, and I'm not really sure what the hell is going on here, but I do know that I love it with all my heart. What? No, not really.
Dex is packing up his things and leaving a message for Deb, saying that he has some "unfinished business outside the office" that he has to deal with. There's something on his computer screen that looks like an artery pumping blood, but I can't really tell what it is.
Looks like Joey Nuñez is still spray-painting stuff, but this time, he's in what looks like an abandoned warehouse. Downstairs, Beef Bus arrives in his sweet cholo -mobile, and he's got his machete. He hops in the freight elevator, and upstairs, Joey hears it and stands up. The elevator stops abruptly, and judging by the look on Chino's face, he hasn't reached his desired floor. The doors swing open, and there's Dexter with his long-ass tranquilizer rod. He walks right up and stabs the Bus in the neck, and they struggle briefly. Upstairs, the elevator finally arrives, but Joey Nuñez just stands there as the doors open to reveal nobody.
Downstairs, as Dexter rolls Chino to his car on a huge flatbed dolly, he VOs, "It was simple, really: all I had to do was put myself into the mind of a killer. Hardly a stretch. It was only a matter of time until Little Chino went after little Joey Nuñez for snitching him out." Dexter somehow manages to get Chino into his trunk, certainly no easy task. "Here's hoping I'm back on my game." He gets into the driver seat and takes off.
After a few shots of Miami at night set to a very Elfman-esque score, we jump to Dexter using some industrial hydraulic lifter to raise Chino up to a proper killing level. It seems he's in a garage somewhere, judging from the wheel rim that's propped up behind one of Dexter's plastic curtains. Chino awakens instantly, and Dexter tells him, "Trust me, you're not going anywhere this time." "Who the fuck are you?" asks Beef Bus. "That kind of talk is just going to bring you closer to your victims," Dex responds, motioning with his head toward the pictures he has strewn about. All of the faces have a single red teardrop falling from one eye, a nice touch. "What are you, a cop?" he asks, looking at Eva Arenas's picture. "'Cause I was cleared of that bitch." Dexter laughs, "Well, maybe you didn't do the deed, but her blood is on your hands. A lot of blood is on your hands." "What do you care about these people?" asks the Bus. "Actually, I don't," Dex replies while reopening Chino's cheek wound from the last attempt. As Dex takes his blood sample, Beef Bus asks why he's doing this to him. "I'm not so much doing this to you as I'm doing it for me." BB growls at him angrily, and Dexter walks over to the picture of Eva's daughter. "I never killed no kid." "But you killed most of her. Her mother. Her brother. Her innocence." He leans in close to BB's face: "You leave pain wherever you go." Dexter goes to his tools and grabs a machete, a fitting weapon for this job. "You kill me, what do you leave behind?" "A world without you," he says, marveling at how steady his arm is hovering over BB's chest. "Look at that! Steady as a surgeon." Slowly, deliberately, he plunges the blade into Chino's chest, and a gurgly, splattery sound saturates the soundtrack. Dexter makes a disturbing Oh Face, and he patiently admires the blood trickling down Chino's arm, past his bloody, thorn-crowned heart tattoo, as the Beef Bus expires.
Out on the water now, Dexter VOs, "This kill was the first of the loose ends I needed to tie off. I found a newer, safer place to dump my trash. Moving at over four miles an hour, the Gulf Stream is one of world's most powerful deep water currents. This time tomorrow, Little Chino will be north of Palm Beach." On Dexter's onboard monitor, we see the same artery that was on his laptop a few scenes ago, but I guess it's actually the Gulf Stream. Fitting, though, that it should look so much like a blood-carrying vessel. "After that, it's on to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, until eventually...well, let's just say the North Atlantic's a pretty big place." It most certainly is. As Dexter dumps his Beef Bags, he gets a call from Rita, who says she needs to see him. "I was just dropping somebody off." Hee! "Can it wait?" Apparently, it cannot. Weak sauce, Rita. Weak sauce. I still can't believe she didn't just let the county foot the bill for FND's funeral. Anyway, Dexter finishes "dropping" Chino off, and heads over.
At Rita's, Dexter is sitting at the dinner table, staring at FND's shoe. Damn that shoe! Well, it's really more of a slip-on boot, but I'm not one to pick nits. "You wanted to see me about a shoe?" "It's Paul's shoe," says a somber Rita. I gotta say, I'm gettin' pretty tired of this Rita. I miss the damaged, yet slightly adventurous, Rita of yesteryear. Whatever. Dexter says, "Oh, okay," and he does so in such a way that implies, "Rita, I understand. You're still kind of caught up on this whole 'Paul dying' thing, so I'll just go along with this." It really speaks not only to how good Dexter is at acting a certain way in order to save his own hide, but how Michael C. Hall understands the depths his character has to go to in order to save face. It's really rad. He's such a good actor. "What do we do with it?" he asks, as if half-expecting to have another funeral for the shoe. Rita explains FND's assertion that Dexter was responsible for him being in prison. "Sounds like one of his stories, huh?" says Dex, looking at her like she's crazy for believing it. "He asked me to look for his shoe, and I did." "Maybe --" "No, let me finish, Dexter. I didn't have a lot to hope for until I met you. You gave me something to believe in when I didn't even believe in myself. Maybe I was so desperate that I looked the other way. Paul begged me to help him, and what did I do? I hung up on him, and he was so upset he got into a prison fight and he was beaten to death with a pipe." Dexter tells her it's not her fault, but she thinks part of it is, and she's right. "Part of me believes that with all of Paul's flaws, he paid the price for my dreams. Did you attack him, Dexter? I'd understand if you did; he attacked me." Dexter admits that he attacked FND to protect Rita and the kids. "It was totally an act of impulse." Rita looks relieved: "Okay. Okay. Where did you get the drugs?" "Stolen from the evidence locker." Rita stands up, and points out that if it was an act of impulse, Dexter would have had no reason to have the drugs. "What are you trying to say? That you planned on acting on impulse?" Oh, snap! "It's all kind of jumbled now --" "How did you know how to cook the heroin? How did you know what dose to give a big guy like Paul?" "Um, I don't know. I'm a fucking scientist? I've read enough fucking tox reports to know how much heroin will or will not kill a fucking guy, no matter how big? What's with the fucking inquisition?" Alas, that's not what he says. He actually says nothing; he just looks at her unbelievingly for what seems like a full minute. I also don't understand why he can't just say that he stopped by the station to hit up the evidence locker while FND was in the trunk. Also, regarding cooking the heroin, it's not like he's never seen a fucking movie. I mean, I've never cooked heroin, but it doesn't look that hard. You get your shit, put it in a spoon until it melts, suck it up in a syringe, and presto! Right? You know what? I'm probably wrong. Don't email me, you wacky addicts.
Anyway, Rita says, "Oh my God, why didn't I see this? They were your drugs. Now it makes sense." Dexter looks both terrified and relieved. "That's where you disappear to at all hours of the night like Clark fucking Kent." Actually, I'm pretty sure Superman doesn't really do drugs, although I'm sure he could and he wouldn't feel anything, because he's awesome ! "Look," says Rita, laying down the law, "if there is anything left between us, you will answer this one question, and you will tell me the truth: are you an addict?" Dexter takes his time, slowly realizing that, while not ideal, this confession could tie up this loose end easier than if he confessed to being a killer. "Yes, I have an addiction." Rita cries a little, and tells Dexter that they're going to get him the help he needs, and that she'll be there every step of the way. Jesus. The poor guy doesn't wear enough masks, now he has to wear an addict mask, too? What a life.
Deb is punching the speed bag at the gym, and it seems like she's crying, all in slow-motion. Dex VOs, "If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then grief is the door. As long as it's closed, it's the barrier between knowing and not knowing." Damn, she's pounding the shit out of that thing! Now Dexter's closing up all his files on his laptop. There goes Beef Bus, and the Gulf Stream. "Walk away from it, and it stays closed forever. Open it, and walk through it, and pain becomes truth." He closes his laptop and heads out of the lab, walking towards the elevators. "Now I'm faced with the struggle for my own survival that I always knew was coming." He passes Lundy in the hall, and they give each other The Head Nod Of Male Recognition And Bro-ness. Dex gets into the elevator. "I've been preparing for this my entire life."
At home, Dexter puts the Beef slide into its new home. "When all is said and done, Chino, you're the same size as everyone else." Deb starts pounding on the front door. Dex quickly puts his slides in their air-conditioned spot, and gets the door, which he's chained shut. "It's annoying, isn't it?" he says. "I'm not taking the bait," she replies irritatedly. "You been at the gym?" he asks. "No, I've been sort of driving around." "Around what?" "I saw some buildings with 'For Rent' signs. I'm going to check 'em out," she says, once again leaving the OJ bottle on the counter. Noticing Dexter's glare, she grabs it before he can: "Then Chez Dexter can return to its semi-lived-in, museum-quality state." After a pause, Dex says, "Deb, you don't need to do this." "Yes, I do." Dex convinces her that she can stay longer if she wants, because now he's the really vulnerable one, even though he can't say it without revealing himself. "You sure?" Deb asks. "No, get out." Ha! Finally. They share a laugh, and embrace as Dex VOs, "This way, I can take care of my sister the way Harry would have wanted." Dexter takes a whiff of Deb's smelly, gymmed-out ass, and says, "You really reek." "You're right, I smell like a fucking sewer," she says, and heads to the bathroom, where she slams the door. She opens it again, and pointedly shuts it more quietly to appease the master of the house. "For every door that closes..." Dex VOs. "It was always right there."
The next morning, on the Slice Of Life, Dex continues, "I had to say goodbye in order to reconnect with what's really important, with who I was...with who I have to be." Dexter takes the doll head off of his keychain, and fills the hollow cavity in the neck with a fishing weight. He tentatively holds the head over the water, and, after a pregnant pause, releases it. It sinks down out of sight, and Brian instantly lunges out of the water, grabbing onto Dexter's forearm. They lock eyes, Brian trying desperately to hold on. "Rest in peace," says Dexter, and he takes Brian's hand off his arm, and lets him sink back into the water. "I am."
Good episode. Finally, Dexter's getting back to his normal self, and was thankfully able to follow through with the Beef Bus. I'm curious to see where his "addiction" is going to lead him: obviously the writers wouldn't just throw that in there if they didn't have some sort of plan. I'm definitely looking forward to some of the inevitable back-and-forth between Dexter and Agent Lundy as well. It's shaping up to be a fun season. Hopefully the tone will lighten up and become a bit more playful like the first season was. Peace out!