Hannah McKay is back, y’all.
This week’s Dexter, “Dress Code,” could thematically be considered a continuation of the previous episode;) a final slow wind-up before the blood hits the fan in the show’s final four episodes.
The meat of the episode indeed features the return of season seven vixen McKay. Since we last saw the murderous McKay, it seems she married a rich SOB named Miles and has been living as his dutiful trophy wife Maggie. But life isn’t so sunny for McKay, who came back to Maimi to make amends with her ex Dex and maybe ask for some help.
It doesn't go off on a good foot – mostly because her hello hug involves drugging Dexter and Debra. After waking up unharmed, Dex tracks her down to a swanky club where Miles and “Maggie” are dining. After a chilly introduction, Miles becomes suspicious about Dex, whom Hannah told him send her to jail. He later sends some goons to beat him up.
But in one of the final scenes of the episode, we learn that she originally contacted Dexter in hopes he’d kill Miles, who she says is abusive and jealous. But before Dex can intervene, an altercation with her husband ends with his death at her hands. After ex Dex helps dispose of her husband’s body, the two share a warm moment where we once again question whether she is Dexter’s soul mate or his personal Judas. “Do you ever wish you had followed through and killed me?” Hannah asks on the peer. While Dexter assures her, intoxicated by her beauty and Dark Passenger of her own, that he doesn’t, we can’t help but get the feeling that she is bad news. Dexter’s few sources of happiness have most always been his undoing and it seems that Hannah is no exception. At least Deb thinks so, calling her a “black hole” hell-bent on destroying their lives.
Meanwhile, Mazuka’s daughter Nikki gets over her pride and reconnects with her dad (again). While she’s opening up to him, the fact that she works in a topless bar uncharacteristically stuns Mazuka. While he’s no stranger to the kinkier side of life, seeing Nikki’s “daughter boobs” on a visit to the sports bar leaves him speechless enough to offer her a gig as the lab’s newest paid intern. Sweet and funny, this subplot is a great welcome to the somber storyline and allows Mazuka, mostly an entertaining if not one-note character, to shine.
Once again, the crux of the episode is Zach Hamilton, a new edition who quickly became the focus of Dexter’s final season. Here, Dexter is struggling whether to teach Zach, a fellow psychopath, The Code that Harry taught him. But is he too young? And is Dex stable enough to be teacher rather than pupil?
After getting annoyed that Dexter isn’t giving Zach enough attention, Zach goes rogue and kills his neighbor Cassie, whom recently went on a disastrous date with Dex. Perhaps this will be the tipping point wherein Dexter realizes that, without his guidance, Zach will become just another victim on his table.
Dexter airs each Sunday at 9/8 central on Showtime.