Dexter Episode 705
“Swim Deep”
Written By: Scott Reynolds
Directed By: Ernest Dickerson
Original Airdate: 28 October 2012
In This Episode...
Masuka is freaking out. An acquaintance tells him that Laguerta is running evidence through an outside lab, and he thinks he is getting fired. Deb speaks with Laguerta, who admits to finding the blood slide and worries that the Bay Harbor Butcher is alive and well. Laguerta never believed Doakes with the Butcher; neither did Lundy. Deb is inclined to agree, and Laguerta lets her in on her secret side investigation. Deb takes this to Dexter, showing him a list of a dozen or so missing that fit the Bay Harbor Butcher’s MO. Three were Dexter’s victims. Of those, only one has family in Miami. Laguerta wants to reinterview all the families; Deb makes sure she takes that interview. The victim, Barnes, was a wedding photographer who liked to lure young out-of-town guests back to his room. Naturally, they were never seen again. Deb is worried that Barnes may have snapped a photo of Dexter amongst the wedding guests; Dexter assures her it wasn’t possible. Which of course means he was. So Deb goes to interview Barnes’s wife and kid, and Laguerta, who finished with her interviews already, tags along. It is just the son who is home, and Deb is surprised to hear him say that the day his father disappeared was the best day of his life. Barnes beat him and his mother every minute of every day, and with dad out of the picture, they were free. Deb is intrigued, and perhaps it is because of this that, when the son presents them with photos from the last wedding his dad shot and Deb sees Dexter in the corner of one of them, she quickly pockets it.
Dexter is doing a routine cleaning on his boat and he finds some blood in a corner. Pulling out his forensic toys reveals that copious amounts of blood had been spilled, enough that someone was killed there, and it definitely wasn’t at Dexter’s hand. He runs the DNA back at the lab and it comes back as Louis’s blood. “Louis is dead?” This is news to Dexter.
Dexter heads home and instantly notices his curtains are askew. He retreats back to his car and leaves a false message on his own answering machine, telling Dexter that he will meet him at a local cafe in a half hour. Isaak is in Dexter’s house, a wide variety of torture tools laid out before him, when he hears the message. So he decides to meet Dexter at the cafe. Dex watches him leave, recognizes, and follow. He calls Isaak at the cafe and tells him he knows about Louis. Dexter thinks Isaak is a hired gun for the Koshkas; Isaak does not correct him. Instead he blames a police conspiracy for Viktor’s murder and threatens the entire department - including Deb. Dexter warns his sister and insists they stay at an anonymous motel until he can neutralize the Isaak problem. He sees Isaak follow him home from a crime scene one day. Dexter pretends he doesn’t see him and instead heads to a seedy Columbian bar. The Columbians and the Koshkas have a long history of hatred, as two warring heroin cartels. Dexter strolls in, mumbles “Koshka” and heads to the bathroom, where he slips out the window. Isaak follows him in, as Dexter is leaving, and hears gunshots from the street. He smiles.
Dexter is part of the team that responds to shooting at the bar. What he finds is not what he expected: the three Columbians are dead; Isaak is nowhere to be seen. While walking through the likely scenario of what happened, Dexter finds some blood that didn’t come from victims. He knows it is Isaak’s blood. Deb knows it is Isaak’s blood. If they can prove it, he is done. Dexter does, in fact, match it to Isaak in Interpol records, and Isaak is arrested. Dexter visits him in lockup, and Isaak promises revenge, no matter how long it takes. (He better hurry up - next season is likely the last.)
Hannah is back to help locate Wayne’s remaining victims. By the time she and Wayne made it down to Miami, they were two of the most wanted criminals in the country. While they waited for a cruise ship to stow away on, they stayed off the radar in various motels. Wayne would kill people so they could stay in their rooms, and made Hannah help bury the bodies. She and Dexter bond over their first crime scene, and Hannah is definitely flirting with him. They are at a dig site, and find a couple. Dexter walks through what the blood tells him about how the crime was committed. The male was killed first, but when he comes to the woman, he stops and says he will have to do further analysis at the lab. Hannah comes up to him privately. The blood tells Dexter that someone far smaller than Wayne straddled the woman as they stabbed. Hannah won’t confirm or deny, she will only smile coyly and admit that the DA gave her full immunity.
Dig It or Bury It?
This was easily the least emotional episode of the season so far. It was methodical. It seemed like the characters are getting back to normal - or rather, the new normal. And that's good. Deb doesn't need to be hysterical all the fucking time. The two reminisce about family holidays together, about how Dexter was so protective of his sister, and how Deb saw him as a hero. There was a moment, with the two of them together in the motel, that I thought Deb might her feelings for Dexter. She didn’t; it passed, and frankly, she has way bigger problems to concern herself with.
Curses!
Deb was in rare form tonight, using a couple obscure humdingers that are apparently catching on - I have been saying them for far longer than I should: “cock monkey” and “fucknugget.”
Flashback to the Future
Harry keeps Dexter company while he is cleaning the boat. Dexter muses that this might be his and Deb’s new normal. Harry is not happy that Dexter has exposed Deb to his Dark Passenger. “She didn’t abandon me,” Dexter protests. “But she didn’t accept you,” Harry reminds him, “and it will eat away at her.”
Prophecies?
Dexter has his eye on Hannah - as his next victim. Harry suggests that she is reformed, and no longer a threat, but Dexter believes once a killer, always a killer.