Spoilers from Dexter Season 8, Episode 9 ("Make Your Own Kind Of Music") ahead!
Just when I think I have this mystery with Evelyn Vogel all figured out, more information comes in to tell me that I'm wrong. Or am I? Even after what we learned tonight, I still don't trust her. Tonight's episode managed to squeeze in some extremely relevant history about Charlotte Rampling's character, which offers what appears to be some major set-up for whatever's to come next.
Dr. Vogel has two sons. Or she did. One killed the other when they were just kids, and the murdering son, Daniel, was sent to a mental facility where he was believed to have died in a fire. As it turns out, he didn't die, however. Presumably, he got away, learned out to speak with an American accent, and at some point moved to the U.S. to become and take on the identity of Oliver Saxon, a man who would go on to pursue a relationship with a woman named Cassie, who just so happened to live next door to the serial killer colluding with his mother. Yes, we were all suspicious of Cassie's overwrought barely-boyfriend Oliver - or I was anyway - and as it turns out, we were right to be. Not only does it look like he targeted and killed Cassie due to the woman's proximity to his mother's patient, but Dexter also found solid DNA evidence that suggests he killed Zach Hamilton.
In fact, it was the hair that Dexter found in Zach's studio - a hair that seemed intentionally left by a presumably dying Zach for Dexter to find - that led Dexter to discover the DNA connection between Zach's killer and Vogel. That's when Vogel told Dexter about her son, whom she thought was dead. Through some age progression software, Dexter was able to make the connection between Vogel's son and Oliver, Cassie's boyfriend. And from there, it came down to Dexter wanting to kill Oliver and Vogel wanting to make a connection with the son she thought she lost… supposedly. I'll get to my suspicions in a minute.
Dexter used Vogel to get to Oliver. Realizing Oliver was hacking her computer to spy on her, Dexter had Vogel send an email saying she was going to be at a specific diner, after which Dexter drugged Vogel and went to the diner to stalk Oliver. Now, I don't know why Dexter thought he had to get out of the car and stand creepily outside staring in at Oliver as he creeped up the joint from the inside, playing "Make Your Own Kind Of Music" over and over on the jukebox. If Dexter had just stayed in his car, maybe Oliver wouldn't have noticed him and taken the time to slash his tire. But he did notice him and he did slash his tire, which slowed Dexter down long enough for Oliver to run home to his mother.
So, is this Oliver's first time visiting his mother since she thought he died? Or has Vogel known about him all along? How do we know she didn't start the fire in his mental institution as a way of breaking him out of there so many years ago? Just a theory, among a number of theories I've had in an effort to prove Vogel is a shady lady who's manipulating Dexter. What we did see tonight was Vogel verifying to Oliver that she didn't send Dexter to the diner to stalk him. Beyond that, it seems unclear whether or not they've only just connected, or if they've been in touch this whole time. I'm leaning toward the latter because I refuse to trust her. But taken at face value, a lot of stuff is slipping together a little too easily to be believable, so I'm hoping my conspiracy theories aren't completely off base.
In other Vogel news, she no longer thinks Dexter's "perfect" because he has emotional connections with people, and she thinks it's a bad idea to run off with Hannah. I think it was a bad idea for Dexter to tell Vogel he was planning on running off with Hannah. The fewer people he shares that with, the better.
Speaking of Hannah, there's a federal marshal in hot pursuit. He collected the information Elway had on her and then interviewed Dexter and Arlene, Hannah's old friend, who's been stockpiling money for Hannah. Dexter happened to be with Arlene (and Hannah) when the marshal showed up, and he threw the guy off by pretending to be in a relationship with Arlene. The Marshal seemed to buy it, but red flags may have been raised later on when the marshal saw Harrison drawing a picture of Dexter, himself and Hannah. Remember when Harrison never used to talk? Well, now he talks all the time, and he draws pictures and he wants Hannah to be his mommy. Fortunately, that last fact led Harrison to refer to the blonde lady in his drawing as his mother. If the marshal looks into what Dexter said about Harrison losing his mother, he'll see that Dexter does indeed have a thing for blondes, and maybe Harrison was just trying to be close with his deceased mother by drawing her picture, as Dexter casually indicated.
So Hannah and Dexter are talking about making a go of it, running off to Argentina with Harrison. I don't think it'll ever happen, but I think the implication is that Dexter thinks he can start over with Hannah and maybe even not be a serial killer. Again, I'm not seeing this happily ever after in the cards for them, but who knows? Maybe that's where this series is meant to end up. Either way, I'm guessing that sharing this bit of news with Vogel was a bad idea, especially considering he did it while creepy Oliver-Daniel was in the other room.
Deb's dealing with indecision over whether to return to Miami Metro or stay at her private eye job where Elway's constantly yelling at her. Elway seems to realize Deb's checking out lately, so maybe he's not wrong for throwing his weight around. Meanwhile, Batista gave Deb her detective badge back, but she's still not sure she wants to return to police work. She remembers how messy her life was when she was a detective. The only way I see her being able to return to Miami Metro is if Dexter really does leave the country and she can resume a semi-normal life. But if she goes back to being a cop now, she should be prepared to resume covering up her brothers' crimes and handing suspects over to him, like Oliver Saxon, who was interviewed by Quinn and Deb, and may be a person of interest in the Cassie investigation.
That brings us to Quinn. He's obviously still in love with Deb. He kissed her tonight, and then asked that they pretend it didn't happen. Yeah right. Meanwhile, Quinn's all mixed up in the Zach Hamilton and Oliver Saxon issues, not realizing that two people he knows very well have all the answers he's so determined to uncover. The cops know Zach has disappeared, his parents reported it. How long before Quinn - determined to prove himself and earn Batista's respect - gets to the bottom of Zach's disappearance and Saxon's involvement? That all points right to Vogel and Dexter. With three episodes left, anything can happen!
