When Season 6 of Dexter left off, one of the things Dexter had always been trying to avoid had finally happened. Tonight's episode dealt with the immediate aftermath, and also managed to address a few other ongoing issues and also make time for a fresh kill.
For those who haven't seen the episode yet, Showtime was kind enough to put the full episode online here. Spoilers from "Are You…?" ahead!
"Give up Deb. Give up and just leave this alone."
You have to figure that Dexter would make an attempt to try to lie his way out of the situation when Deb found him hovering over Travis' freshly killed body. Yes, Deb caught him red-handed as he plunged the knife into Travis' chest, but maybe there was some way he could get her to believe that it was self defense. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. It wasn't something he's done numerous times before. It was worth a try, right?
And that's what he did. As Deb tried to wrap her mind around what she was seeing, Dexter cautiously began to spoon-feed her excuses and nudge her away from going by the book on this. After she seemed to be accepting his "self defense" excuse, she was prepared to call it in and report it as she would any other incident. Because that's what Deb would do in a situation like this. Knowing what would happen if Deb called it in, Dexter managed to talk her out of that, and before long, she was helping him cover-up what he'd done, to make the whole scene look like Travis' final tableau.
The episode messed with our minds a bit by flashing forward to Dexter appearing to be on the run. His credit cards were deactivated and he was digging out his emergency escape kit and headed for the airport. So we were left to wonder if at some point in the near future, he was going to have to make a break for it. As it turned out, the kit and the airport had to do with a different matter, but we'll get to that in a minute.
Back to Deb. Deb is Deb! And while she may have wanted to believe the stuff Dexter was feeding her, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was much more to that church scene than what Dexter told her. So, being Deb, even after she helped Dexter alter the crime scene, she began to snoop around. This led her to looking at the old Ice Truck Killer files and seeing photos of a table covered in plastic wrap. That led to a flashback of herself being strapped to the table when Brian/Rudy was trying to kill her. And that led to more questions.
It seemed like she was willing herself to accept that Dexter was telling the truth and the weight of the effort soon because too much to bear. It certainly would've been easier for her to sleep at night if she could believe Dexter's story. The last straw was when she called Dexter late at night and got Jamie, who admitted that Dexter is sometimes out late at night. The pieces were coming together. Or they came together when Deb went to Dexter's place and tore the apartment apart looking for them. The episode ended with the truth coming out as Dexter arrived home to find Deb surrounded by his secret treasures, including his box of slides. The question on Deb's lips: Are you a serial killer?
Dexter was out of lies. Or maybe he just realized there was no way he was ever going to back out of this. Not with Deb. So now she knows. He's a serial killer. What happens from here? We'll have to wait and see, but I have to admit, I like that she knows for sure. We could've been looking at a full season of Deb asking questions and Dexter trying to convince her he's not a serial killer. For the sake of the show, I think it'll be better for Deb to have the truth outright than to spend a season wondering and obsessing. As for tonight's ending, once again, we're left to wonder how Deb is going to react and how Dexter will deal with this situation.
Baggage Claim
Despite having to deal with all of Deb's questions and suspicions, Dexter did manage to find time to tend to his dark passenger tonight.
Mike Anderson got himself killed, which is a shame. The detective was only introduced to the show last season and I actually kind of liked him. Seemed like a waste to off him so soon, and yet he wasn't so well known a character that his exit felt especially tragic. But his death was relevant to Dexter's next kill. Mike was unfortunate enough to stop on the side of the road to help a man having car trouble, not realizing that this man had the body of a stripper in the trunk of his car. When he came upon the stripper, the man promptly shot Mike, then left him there for dead.
The "man" in question was Victor (played by guest star Enver Gjokaj), who appears to be connected to some organized crime ring. But Dexter wasn't aware of that when he tracked Victor down and eventually killed him. That's where the airport tied in. Dexter used his cash and passport to get through security at the airport and get to Victor before he was able to get on his plane.
I couldn't believe that Dexter was actually planning on setting up a kill-room in the middle of the Miami airport. That seemed especially ballsy, even for him. It was a bit too far outside of reality for my liking, but I guess if the idea was to trick us into thinking Dexter was going to the airport to escape, it worked. And maybe there's some metaphor in there about Dexter finding himself surrounded by baggage.
He killed Victor in the unclaimed baggage room. RIP Victor. Cut to an important looking man (Isaac) in the Ukraine receiving a phone call from George at the strip club informing him that Victor's on a plane headed his way and assuring him that he'll make the dead cop situation go away. They should find out soon enough that Victor never made his flight.
Everything else
Louis got caught lurking around Dexter's side of the apartment and appears to be resuming his creepiness. He was also seen shutting off Dexter's credit cards, which explains why Dexter's cards were declined when he tried to use them at the gas station.
LaGuerta spotted the dropped blood-slide at the Travis crime-scene. Dexter later realized the slide was missing but aside from assuring himself that everything would be ok, he didn't seem particularly panicked by the missing slide. He probably should be, as LaGuerta is already asking questions about it.
Things ended off in a bad place with Batista and Quinn, since Quinn spent last season on a drinking and womanizing binge. It seems like the writers have back-tracked a bit this season, as Batista admitted he didn't really put in a transfer request, and Quinn doesn't appear to be taking any serious steps to cleaning up his act aside from admitting he needs to clean up his act. So I guess they're sort of ok? Hard to say at this point.
We saw a few flashbacks of Deb and Dexter when they were kids. Deb's mom got her a dog but Harry made them bring it back, knowing Dexter could not be trusted around a small animal. The whole thing seemed to be a set-up to establish Dexter's need to keep Debra from seeing who he really was. Harry seemed to think there was no way Deb could ever understand or accept what Dexter really is. "She loves who she thinks you are. If she ever saw the real you, she'd never get over it," Harry told Dexter.
Is Harry right? I'm going to say no. I'm not saying I think Deb's going to take this situation easily or that it won't affect how she sees her brother. But I'm choosing to be optimistic that she will find a way to make sense of all of this.
And with that. we're left to wonder how Deb will react to the full truth. And where will she and Dexter go from here?
