Episode Recap
Dexter: Season 8, Episode 4
“Scar Tissue”
This episode of Dexter was half mentally captivating, half unoriginal character development. The part with Dexter, the psychopathic serial killer we have all grown to love…lame. The part with Deb, the once predictable crude, loudmouth (well she is still those things) awesome.
The episode starts with Deb and Dr. Vogel entering the same container where Deb shot and killed Lieutenant LaGuerta. Now how Deb went from handcuffed to a couch to being treated for PSTD is loosely explained. But somehow it happened and you and me will just have to ignore the plot gap.
Now up to this point Vogel hadn’t done much. You could say she’s helped Dexter understand himself better, but Dexter has gone through this process already in past seasons. Where Vogel finally shows us her worth as a doctor and as a character is through her interaction with Deb.
Vogel explores the night of the murder with Deb and illustrates a situation that many people have trouble understanding. In essence, Vogel shows Deb that often good people find themselves in bad situations. And in these horrible situations, there is no right answer. In these situations you can only follow your heart and hope for things to get better.
What Deb has trouble accepting is despite killing an innocent woman that she is still a good person: she was only a sister do anything she could to protect her brother. It takes Deb about three-quarters of the episode to reach this psychosis. Meanwhile, Dexter is off tracking another one of Vogel’s ex-patients in hopes of finding the infamous brain surgeon killer.
Dexter’s chase leads him to AJ Yates, a seemingly normal member of society (aren’t they always) but with a large scar on the back of his head. So what does Dexter do? Well he investigates of course. Dexter breaks into Yates’ house and starts rummaging around.
Dexter finds some incriminating evidence in the form of women’s shoes, but little does he know that Yates is watching him as he searches. And right as Yates is about to attack, Dexter calls Vogel to give her a status update. And for some reason Yates backs off, WHICH MAKES NO SENSE! And Dexter leaves the house to only return and find out that Yates had been watching him. Oh and by the way, Yates left a little surprise in the basement in terms of a dying blonde woman, but don’t worry Dexter inconspicuously saves her.
Convinced Yates is the killer that he’s been looking for (which I’m not so sure because that makes the plot all too predictable) Dexter tricks Yates to go to see his sickly father. Then when the moment arises, Dexter calmly walks from behind a door and tells Yates, “I was counting on you being a good son.” AHHHHHHHH!!! What are you doing Dexter? Harry taught you better than that. As a result, Yates has enough time to pull the breathing tube from his dad’s machine so that the hospital nurses rush to the room. Yates dashes out the hospital room window and Dexter escapes by being a sly fox.
The season doesn’t seem to be presenting any new obstacles for Dexter. It’s the same cat and mouse game between him and another serial killer. Just like with Trinity, the Doomsday Killer, and the Skinner. And like last season Dexter is trying to keep his relationship with Deb afloat. Unfortunately, Dexter’s serial killer bit seems fully explored. All that is left is how Dexter interacts with the one person he loves the most, Deb. The two have a climatic scene before the episodes end. But before then, a bunch of subplots involving Quinn and Masuka develop.
Quinn is still having trouble proving to Angel’s sister, Jaime, that there is nothing going on between him and Deb. It doesn’t help though that Quinn gets into a bar fight trying to defend Deb’s honor. Furthermore, the fight comes after Quinn gets the good news concerning his Sergeant’s exam. Could the writers be anymore transparent? Quinn is obviously going to break Jaime’s heart; probably at the same time he doesn’t make sergeant.
As for Masuka, he supposedly has a child back from his sperm-donating days. Okay…I guess Masuka needed some more screen time.
Now back to the important stuff. Deb at one-point finds a DVD of Harry hidden in Vogel’s locked tape drawer (she is staying with Vogel while being treated). The tape is dated right before Harry died, and shows him struggling with himself in creating the monster that is Dexter. So Deb decides to “talk” to Dexter about the tape asking if Harry killed himself because of Dexter. When she hears the truth, Deb decides to take the two of them on a little off-road trip straight into a lake, trying to take both of them out via a watery death.
Luckily, a good-hearted fisherman is nearby and saves Deb from the sinking car. And as Dexter is left to drown, Deb has a change of heart and dives into the lake to save Dexter. Warm-hearted yes, a total copout by the writers? Absolutely.
Instead of developing a real complex, mental duel between Dexter and Deb, the writers decide to fix Deb’s inner torment/feelings toward Dexter. The writers created the perfect scenario, but chicken out in the end. It would have been better if the writers had Dexter miraculously save himself, creating a tension-filled season between Deb and Dexter. Or better yet, put Debra in another situation where Deb has to decide to either kill Dexter or save Dexter while killing someone else, her own mortality excluded (this may still happen, but a lot of conflict is now lost). Instead, the audience is left resolved, but at what future cost for the season.
My hope is that Dexter once more becomes a compelling character and may face a situation where he must kill or save Deb, but only after realizing that he doesn’t need her anymore.