I’ve recently been re-watching the earlier seasons of Dexter and have noticed that each season can basically be summed up in one word. Season 4 (which is also my favorite due to the phenomenal writing and John Lithgow’s chilling performance) could be called “Balance” while Season 6 (incidentally the weakest one) could be dubbed “Faith.”
As Dexter is finally wrapping up its storyline after eight very good years, it is interesting to note that the show’s last and penultimate seasons have a sort of mirror effect with the first two. Seasons 2 and 7 both deal with Dexter’s murderous alter ego (dubbed the Bay Harbor Butcher) coming to light. Now, both the first and last season share a very tangled theme, that of “Identity.”
In the first, we see Dex come to grips with his Dark Passenger as he uncovers the truth about his childhood. But now, eight years later, he’s realizing that his Dark Passenger may not be his altogether.
The most fascinating part of the last season of Dexter is Dr. Evelyn Vogel (a chilling turn by Charlotte Rampling), a neuro-psychiatrist specializing in child psychopaths. In the latest episode, “Scar Tissue,” we learn more about the good doctor and how her efforts may have shaped Dexter’s Dark Passenger. But more on that later.
The episode begins with Dr. Vogel helping another Morgan family member, Dex’s sister Debra who is still reeling from her murder of LaGuarta. After months of heavy drinking to dull a gnawing conscience, Deb went to the station to confess the murder only to be taken home by Dexter and Dr. Vogel before she could say anything incriminating. This episode begins back in the storage container where LaGuarta’s life ended and where Debra’s problems began. While she vehemently says that she “shot the wrong person in that trailer,” Vogel reminds her that she was doing so out of a love for her brother who has been “trapped inside a container” for most of his life too.
(A quick Dexter reminder for those foggy on the earlier seasons: a drug lord killed Dexter’s mother in front of him in such a storage container when he was a toddler. When Dexter adopted father rescued him, he noticed Dexter’s violent tendencies and taught him The Code, along with Dr. Vogel, to help guide his murders)
This earliest scene in “Scar Tissue” starts Debra’s own therapeutic treatment in a place that is an important Dexter motif. Now, with LaGuarta’s death, both siblings have been reborn in blood. Throughout the rest of the episode, Deb undergoes underground treatment for PTSD with Dr. Vogel. The treatment seems to be working as Deb is finally sober and able to go back to her PI eye, where she bonds with her new boss over their “family sh*t.” But when Dr. Vogel shows Debra video footage of a session between her and Deb’s father Harry, in which he confesses his guilt over teaching his adopted son the murderous Code, Deb begins to put together the pieces that her father’s death wasn’t a simple heart attack.
Meanwhile, Dexter is having his own struggles with Dr. Vogel and tracking down the Brain Surgeon. While going through Dr. Vogel’s list of past patients, Dexter locates a criminal sociopath named Yates who now works as a cable bundler. Watching him from afar, Dex notices that Yates has a scar across his head from brain surgery – similar to the ones on the Surgeon’s victims. Finding this a point in the right direction, Dexter goes to his house where he discovers proof that Yates is indeed the serial killer and even recues a victim who he had stabbed and left to die. But unbeknownst to him, Yates watched the whole thing on his closed-circuit surveillance cameras. Trying to track him down, Dexter lures Yates to the nursing home where his dying father lives but he narrowly escapes.
The most interesting part of the episode, and the whole 8th season so far, is the relationship between our title character and Vogel. I previously said the first season was about identity – one that he believes is a mixture of his sociopathy and his father’s teaching. But perhaps there’s more to the story. With Vogel’s involvement in Dex’s childhood coming to light, Dexter is starting to reevaluate exactly who he is. After learning that Vogel thinks Dexter has “deluded himself into thinking his feeling for his sister are genuine," Dex storms out, telling the doctor that he will completely shut her out after the Brain Surgeon is dead. So is Dexter really a psychopath or are his murderous tendencies closer to nurture than nature? Does he really care for Debra (or Rita or Harrison) or are his feelings learned rather than genuine. In her cold, clinical, unflinching role as therapist, it is Vogel that now seems like a unfeeling sociopath who once controlled a young Dexter like a marionette.
Meanwhile at the station, Angel is positioning to make Quinn his new sergeant. While he surprisingly passes ("I’ve never been that happy for a positive test result"), Quinn almost blows it when he gets into a bar fight trying to protect Debra’s honor.
Also, a quick scene with Mazuka illuminates the episode’s first surprising twist. When a UMiami student (who must be “majoring in beautiful” according to the pervy lab tech) comes to Vince’s lab, she introduces herself as Nicki, a girl who might be Vince’s daughter from the sperm donation he did in college. While this tongue-ties the usually talkative Vince, he notes that they both share “soulful yet haunting eyes" and yes, the same giggle.
But that’s nothing compared to the shocking revelation in the last scene, one that’s equal to Rita’s death and Deb catching Dexter in the act in terms of great, surprise endings. After learning that their dad killed himself due to guilt of Dexter’s murders, Debra take the wheel and forces herself and Dexter to drive off the road and into the water. While a local fisherman rescues Deb, she plunges back in to save her brother.
Where the show will go from here and how Dexter will conclude is anyone's guess, but the shift back to it's original themes is a fascinating way to conclude one of TV's best dramas.
Dexter airs each Sunday at 9/8 central on Showtime
Photo Courtesy of Showtime