If you’re not up-to-date with Dexter, I recommend avoiding this article until you are. The second episode of Dexter’s eighth season aired Sunday, July 7. “Every Silver Lining,” spent 55-plus minutes clarifying every can of worms opened by the season premiere.
The episode opens with Dr. Vogel explaining how she knows so much about Dexter, and actually clues you into parts of his childhood overlooked by the show in the past. Vogel had recorded her sessions with Harry, Dexter’s father, and gives the discs to Dexter. The tapes reveal that Harry didn’t necessarily believe in Dexter—it was Vogel who encouraged his nature. Though Dexter believed all his life for the killing code to be Harry’s—calling it simply Harry’s Code—it was in fact Vogel who developed the system. Harry developed the details under her guidance, Vogel explains.
Throughout the episode there are parallels between young Dexter’s burgeoning killing obsession and his current state. In the tapes, Harry expresses worriedly that after begging to view a murder scene, “[Dexter] just stood there staring… like he was admiring a painting.” Dexter watching the tape, corroborates, “I remember that day. It was like a painting… and I wanted to be the artist.” The tape continues and Harry reveals that young Dexter stole a bloodstained shard of glass from the crime scene, a trophy. Later in the episode, Dexter steals another bloodstained shard of glass from a present crime scene. Not much has changed.
The tape ends with Harry, unnerved by Dexter’s behavior and expressing doubt, setting the tone for the rest of the episode: Dexter losing faith in all he has known.
After the session with Dr. Vogel, she reveals to Dexter that she needs his help. Vogel received a package containing part of the brain, the anterior insular cortex—the part of the brain, which controls emotion—the part of the brain missing from the murder victim in the previous episode. Vogel discloses to Dexter that the serial killer might be one of her former patients and she asks him to track the murderer and kill him or her, under Harry’s code.
Concurrently, there is Deb’s private investigator gig to be resolved. Briggs is dead, but the jewelry is still missing and El Sapo, the mob is unfulfilled. Deb runs through the case with her boss, Elway, telling him that she thinks she knows where the jewelry is: Briggs’ storage unit, to which she has the keys.
In the meantime, Miami Metro is called to the scene of another murder victim, whose skull has also been cut open and whose anterior insular cortex is also missing. The victim is recognizable as the person in a previous cutaway, strapped to a chair. Ironically, the killer apologizes to the victim before asphyxiating him. We might also have moniker for the murderer now—coined by Quinn, approved by Masuka—“The Brain Surgeon.”
Continuing with their investigation, Dexter and Vogel check the package for fingerprints—they belong to a Lyle Sussman, which Vogel doesn’t recognize. Dexter wonders why he can’t remember Vogel from his childhood, but she explains that Harry refused to let them meet. Dexter then admits that he could’ve used her to talk to after Harry’s death. Vogel is surprised that Dexter shows so much emotion for a psychopath, and tells him so. This would’ve been impossible for Dexter to do early in the series, perhaps more has changed than once thought.
Later, Miami Metro is again called to a crime scene—this time a shooting. The victim is El Sapo, Javier Guzman, or El Sapo. Previously, Guzman showed up to the storage unit, which Deb was searching for the jewelry; there was a physical altercation and Guzman left with Deb’s gun. Dexter takes a shard of glass from the scene, runs a blood test and discovers the blood is Deb’s. Dexter confronts Deb and there’s yet another expletive-fueled Deb rant-burn: “What if Harry had left you in that f*cking shipping container… El Sapo’s not the first person I f*cking shot… and he may not be the f*cking last… Anything can happen in this hellhole that is now my life. Your gift to me, Dexter.” Shockingly, quite obviously to Dexter, Deb also admits that “[she] didn’t want to hate [him]; [she] wanted the opposite. Changing tides, Dexter covers Deb’s tracks, but is nonetheless aware that he has done this to her—he is feeling emotion.
Back to Vogel’s case, Dexter is finally able to track down Sussman, but finds he has hung himself. Speaking with Vogel, Dexter explains that Sussman probably had an accomplice; Vogel thinks that Sussman is an innocent victim. In this discussion, Vogel explains her theory about psychopaths, opening Dexter up to a new sense of emotion he has lacked throughout the series, a sense of belonging. Psychopaths, Vogel explains, are a gift to society, showing the rest of the world how to remain civilized. Psychopaths are, in Vogel’s world, “an indispensible demographic.” Vogel has given Dexter a place, breaking down perhaps his biggest wall.
Sticking with the Dexter m.o., there is a big reveal in the final minutes of the episode. After sweeping Vogel’s house for an intruder (and finding no one), Vogel and Dexter find a DVD left on her computer. The tape shows Sussman strangling the second victim, but Sussman is doing so at gunpoint. Dexter expresses disappointment in trailing the wrong man, beating himself up.
Vogel wraps her arms around Dexter in a motherly (“mother-like” is probably a better word) embrace. Previously Vogel admitted to feeling like Dexter’s “spiritual mother.” Vogel cares for Dexter and believes in him and Dexter seems to appreciate the encouragement, but is this going to be the vibe throughout the rest of the season?
Vogel still seems to me a bit too perfect to be trusted; she seems to believe in Dexter a bit too much and Dexter seems to trust her a bit too easily. Dexter has never been this straightforward and I doubt they would want to switch it up with only a handful of episodes to go. And though ‘Every Silver Lining” begins to clarify the convoluted storylines presented by the premiere, there is still a lot of confusion, and a lot of explaining to do. I’ll be waiting for the big drop—or that big, dark cloud, to which these silver linings belong.