Dexter Episode 809
“Make Your Own Kind of Music”
Written By: Karen Campbell
Directed By: John Dahl
Original Airdate: 25 August 2013
In This Episode...
Vogel and Dexter are checking Zach’s studio for evidence. The killer cleaned up well, but Dexter finds a spot of blood-caked hair stuck to the underside of the table. Dexter thinks Zach did this on purpose, which impresses Vogel. She uses this as a chance to turn on Dexter a bit, complimenting Zach for acting with “extraordinary calm” while Dexter is currently being “irrational.” Dexter runs the hair for DNA, and while the sample doesn’t have an exact match, it does have a familial match: Evelyn Vogel. Dexter goes straight to Vogel and demands the truth.
Vogel no longer has any family. She used to be married, and they had two sons, Richard and Daniel. One day, Richard drowned in their swimming pool. Vogel thought it was an accident, but it soon became clear that her elder boy, Daniel, killed him. She should have known instantly: Daniel was devoid of empathy and a sense of right and wrong. She and her husband covered up Daniel’s involvement and sent him back to England, where they put him in a secure mental institution. Daniel was 14. Three years later, a terrible fire erupted in the institute, killing seven. One of those kids was Daniel, and while Vogel never saw the body, her husband did. Vogel gives Dexter a photo of Daniel, which Dexter ages up and matches with Oliver Saxon. A quick check of British death certificates shows an Oliver Saxon who would have been about the same age as Daniel. Plus, Oliver Saxon is a really, really British name.
So let’s let that stew for a few minutes and focus on Dexter and Hannah. The manhunt for Hannah is growing intense. Elway has tipped off the federal marshals, and Agent Clayton pays Dexter a visit to “warn him” that Hannah may be in town. Batista wants to put uniforms on Dexter 24/7, but Dex talks him down to just his home and Harrison. But that leaves a couple of problems. First, Hannah has been having her friend Arlene hold onto lots of money for her - whatever the ladies could squirrel away from Castner. She needs to go pick up that money, but Dexter won’t let her go alone. While there, Clayton shows up, and Dexter explains that he met Arlene through Hannah. When questioned about her fancy new digs (paid for by Hannah as a thank you for acting as a bank) Dexter puts his arm around Arlene and lets Clayton fill in the blanks.
With the money in hand, they need to stash Hannah someplace private for a few days, and there is only one place Dexter can think of: Deb’s house. Neither woman is thrilled at the prospect, but Hannah doesn’t have any other options and Deb seems to have given in to this whole “Hannah” situation. She even sits down and has a meal - that Hannah cooked - with her. (Of course, Deb chooses the chicken that Hannah took for herself, and eats the salad very cautiously.) When Dexter has a few minutes alone with Hannah, talking about their future, he agrees to give notice at Miami Metro, pack up Harrison, and move to Argentina with her. (Harrison, after seeing Hannah’s picture on television, tells Dexter that he misses Hannah, and wishes she could be his mommy.)
But first, there is this little matter of Oliver/Daniel to take care of. Vogel insists that Dexter not kill him. Dexter agrees, but this is all a lie. He figures that Oliver has been reading all of Vogel’s journal entries from her computer, so she writes up an entry about how she will be at the King’s Bay Cafe, a coffee shop she and Daniel used to frequent when he was a boy. The plan is for Dexter and Vogel to snatch him outside the cafe and take him directly to a mental health facility. But Dexter has other plans. He drugs Vogel with one of Hannah’s potions, then waits outside the cafe for Oliver. The plan is to follow him and abduct him a few miles from the cafe, then get him on his table. Oliver must have spotted Dexter beforehand, because when he goes to his car to pursue Oliver, Dexter finds his tires slashed. Dexter races straight to Vogel, who is annoyed that Dexter drugged her. Dexter promises she can be mad at him later, and tells her that Oliver escaped him and he is worried that Vogel is in great danger. Vogel assures him that she will take care of Oliver from this point on and pushes him out the door. The bum’s rush is because Oliver/Daniel is there. “Now do you believe that I didn’t send Dexter after you?” Oliver does, and sits for breakfast with his mom.
Also: Deb is very close to rejoining the force. Elway is sick of her and encourages her to resign. Batista desperately wants her back and has a detective’s shield all ready for her. She really enjoys helping Quinn with his investigation into Cassie’s death, but when he leans in and kisses her passionately, without warning, Deb is a little weirded out. (But only a little - she has a big smile and it is clear that she would be open to dating him again. The Jamie thing obviously isn’t going anywhere.) Further complicating her decision to return is that Dexter and Hannah were with Zach in the Keys (“What was it, a serial killer’s convention?”), that her brother is a serial killer, and she has another one hiding out in her house.
Dig It or Bury It?
Last week, several commenters eviscerated me about my belief that Vogel was the killer. Well, I was wrong - she merely gave birth to a killer. It is sad that Vogel is so blindly trusting of her psychopathic son - someone that she herself admitted was without empathy. Because there is no way that this will end well for her. Saxon had murder in his eyes when they sat down for that strangely creepy breakfast.
I can’t stop thinking that, after this episode, there are only three left... three left... it is haunting me. The “romantic” part of me (if I have such a part) wants Hannah and Dexter to escape to Argentina and live a blissful life. I want to see if Hannah can be enough for Dexter, if he will stop killing because of her. Not because she forces him to, but because he no longer feels the need to. But that just doesn’t seem like a realistic ending. At the beginning of the season I predicted that Deb will die, and I still think that is a likely scenario, but if she does, it’s starting to look like Elway is being set up as the killer.
Psycho Babble
Dexter admits to Vogel that he couldn’t say goodbye to Hannah, and insists that they will make a life together - “We will figure it out.” Vogel almost seems disappointed by this: “You are not the perfect psychopath I thought you were. You have a depth of emotion I never thought possible.” She thinks that Dexter’s plan of living a “normal” life with Hannah is dangerous. “Killers can’t have full emotional lives.”
Prophecies?
Someone is going to die next week. At least one person. Judging by the blood-splattered sleeve of the person that Dexter is clutching, that is looking like Vogel. It is definitely a woman’s blouse, it is nothing that Deb or Hannah would wear, and I don’t think he would have that panicked a look on his face for any other female in the cast (which is pretty much just Jamie).
Only three episodes left...