If there's a lesson to be learned from tonight's episode of Dexter, it's that exercise is dangerous. Just ask Harrison or that cyclist who became the victim of road rage. Then again, sitting down isn't and enjoying some tea may be hazardous to a person's wellbeing too, so maybe there's no winning for anyone on this series. Spoilers if you haven't seen tonight's episode of Dexter ("Goodbye Miami")!
As many of our commenters accurately theorized, tonight's episode of Dexter saw the demise of Evelyn Vogel. After weighing the options and convincing herself that she could help her son, Dexter showed her the video of Saxon killing Zach, which convinced her he's beyond help. She was supposed to meet him someplace public to set him up for Dexter to stalk and kill him, but instead, she had him come to her house for a "private goodbye," which was an absolutely terrible idea. Saxon picked up on her fear while she attempted to drink tea with him, and he eventually slashed her throat while Dexter watched, unable to stop it from happening.
I'm going to go deep on this and theorize that Evelyn Vogel wanted to her son to kill her. Maybe she feels she failed him as a mother or maybe she just knew she wouldn't be able to live with the fact that she helped create the monster who was going to destroy another monster she technically, biologically created. The alternative to this theory is that Evelyn was stupid -- or at the very least, blinded by her love for him as his mother -- enough to think she could enjoy some tea with her son and then walk away from it. But I think we need to give her the benefit of the doubt. Or maybe I just want to because I've been desperately searching for more depth from her all season. It was a bad idea to follow him into his kill room, but after that experience, she had to know she wasn't safe alone with him. So I'm going to say that on some level, she wanted this to happen.
I can't really grieve for Vogel's death because I spent the whole season not trusting her. I kept thinking she had sinister motives or that she was somehow involved with the brain surgeon killings. I was wrong about that. But I'm still not sure I ever understood who she really was or what was going on in her head. She came off as educated and intelligent at the start, and she had a fascination with Dexter, which may have stemmed from trying to understand her son, but in the end, she came off a bit undercooked as a character. Maybe I set my expectations for her too high in terms of how she'd fit into Dexter's life.
In other news, Hannah's very close to getting caught, and dragging Dexter and Deb down with her. Dexter announced to Batista that he was planning on leaving Miami Metro to travel. As bad luck would have it, Batista casually mentioned that little tidbit of info to Marshal Clayton, who became immediately suspicious. Dexter Morgan decides he wants to quit his job and "travel" right after his gorgeous, murdering ex-girlfriend is said to be in the area? Seems suspicious. Clayton did some sniffing around and while Deb seemed to throw him off the scent, a hospital nurse put him right back onto it.
Harrison didn't heed his father or Hannah's warnings about staying off the treadmill. And to be fair, I don't blame him. I always thought treadmills looked like so much fun when I was a kid (I know otherwise now). Of course, back then they didn't have those little magnet safety key thingies that keep the treadmill from being operational if they aren't attached to the little lock. Let's just pretend Deb's treadmill didn't have one of those safety features, because such a thing would've completely prevented Harrison's accident. While Hannah was alone with him at Deb's place, he set the treadmill to run and soon fell, splitting open his chin, which resulted in Hannah having to take Harrison to the hospital and be identified by the nurse who recognized her.
To Hannah's credit, she risked her own freedom to get Harrison some help, knowing full well that the U.S. Marshal was still in the area looking for her. She deserves some credit for that, I think. Of course Harrison was bleeding everywhere and Dexter wasn't answering his phone. Presumably, she either didn't have Deb's number or Deb was too busy kissing Quinn to notice her phone ringing. We'll get to that in a minute. Hannah's trip to the hospital with Harrison resulted in a nurse reporting her and Clayton not only knowing she's in the area, but also that she's in contact with Dexter and has his son. And since Hannah put Debra Morgan on the register, he probably knows Deb's involved too. Not good.
Speaking of Deb, she's back at Miami Metro and back with Quinn! Double-yay. Of course, not everyone is as happy about that as we are. Elway wasn't happy at all to see her leave, and he seemed on the verge of saying, "You can't quit, because you're fired." He didn't do that, but he did tell her to leave her stuff and her case files. Security will bring her her things. Which is the kind of thing that happens when a person is fired on the spot. So there was some tension there, and I'm guessing we haven't seen the last of Elway. He's loosely connected to that Marshal who's on Hannah's trail. Something tells me Elway would be all to happy to help track Deb down if she were to go on the run.
There was also tension when Deb came back to Miami Metro and Jamie told her to go to hell (or something to that effect.) Jamie blamed Deb for Quinn dumping her. And she wasn't that far off in thinking that. Quinn dumped Jamie because after he learned that she was passing up a job in Atlanta to be with him, he couldn't in good conscience stay with her when he knew he was still in love with Deb. And Deb later admitted to Quinn on that she still has feelings for him. So it seems like they're back together, which is awesome. And considering there's still two episodes left, there's still plenty of time for that to fall apart. Pardon my pessimism, but I'm waiting for more terrible things to happen before this show ends. Vogel's death seems like the prelude to that.
In other news, Masuka's daughter smokes pot. No idea what the relevance of that is to anything, but he sent her off a job because she showed up stoned.
And that's all there is for "Goodbye, Miami." With two episodes left, there's still plenty to wrap up before the series draws to a close. Vogel dead but Saxon's still out there and something tells me Dexter won't be satisfied until he gets the man on his table. He even has the kill room all ready. And it's a classic kill room too, full of plastic and victim's photos. Old school Dexter! Meanwhile, there's a U.S. Marshal that has Hannah, Deb and Dexter in his sights. How long before he catches up to them?
