Dexter Season 8, Episode 3 - "What's Eating Dexter Morgan?"

I am perfect. But only at one thing.

While watching this episode of Dexter I thought back to what initially made me watch the show before it settled into being merely a sense of conflicted obligation. I settled on two main points of attraction. The first was seeing the twisted inversion of a crime procedural, where the hero operated in the shadows like the villain would and every perverse psychological quirk was given centre stage. The second was the question of whether there was any worth to a psychopath, someone who is admitted and designated as being entirely devoid of emotion. The anti-hero cable drama has become a certifiable genre at this stage but Dexter, even at its lowest moments, has stood out by having a protagonist whose inhumanity wasn't just a question but merely a given. What’s Eating Dexter Morgan? zeroed in on those two main draws that had largely come out of focus in recent years and delivered one of the most satisfying episodes in a long time.

So once again we have an episode centred around Deb and her long, hard descent into guilt-fuelled alcoholism. I've said it every week but Jennifer Carpenter continues to nail her performance here. When she has to be completely hammered she doesn't just fall back on clichéd behaviour but instead creates an intoxicated state that is downright tragic. When she’s threatened with a DUI she has no one to turn to but the ever-uncharismatic Joey Quinn and when he sees her at her lowest he tells Dexter that some sort of intervention is required. The thought of dragging Quinn into this plotline made me extremely worried as he has the tendency to turn every plot he touches into pure superfluousness but he’s actually used in a mostly sensible fashion here (mostly, but more on that later). He has to act as a line of communication between Deb and Dexter, whose busy with his latest serial killer nemesis. But Deb’s spiral is becoming too much to ignore so Dexter has to intervene but it takes Dr. Vogel to ask the question that Dexter and the show have been shying away from for so long. Why?

Indeed it’s always been hazy as to why exactly Dexter feels so bound to Deb the way he is. In a show where the protagonist narrates every corner of his psychological make-up the nature of this relationship has remained refreshingly complex, probably because Dexter isn’t exactly sure why he cares so much himself. Why did Dexter reject his brother when Deb was on his table way back in Season 1, besides some vague notions of family duty? Dr. Vogel doesn’t answer that question, and it’s probably for the best that a straightforward one isn’t given, but she does get him questioning the very nature of their relationship, rather than just letting it being accepted at face value.

There’s always been a sense that Deb is Dexter’s morality pet, an accessory that lets him feel somewhat human. When Vogel asks him what it is that he likes about her, because a psychopath can’t possess unconditional love, he mentions how he simply likes to drink beer, eat steaks and shoot the shit with her, stopping short of saying that he likes her making him feel like a human being. We’ve seen before how this relationship will immediately shift to second place when it interferes with his killing habits and now its taken an even more selfish and sinister angle. Dexter doesn’t just need to save Deb for her sake, she’s also a liability now and its becoming increasingly clear that his need to intervene is motivated mostly out of self-preservation. This all comes to a head in the climax of this episode which could have been a disaster but manages to be distinctly powerful. Deb goes to the station, in a state of drunkenness that is downright scary, and tries to confess her involvement in LaGuerta’s death. This scene was so well played by Carpenter that I began to grind my teeth when the show began to twist her words and Quinn’s reaction to make sure that the secret stayed buried for longer, a typical Dexter spinning of wheels. But what saved it was how Dexter intervened, cleverly using Vogel to discredit Deb. Dexter had been good so far at combining his care for Deborah with his need for preservation but in that last moment he broke the ultimate taboo and stuck a needle in her neck. Biney, Miguel Prado, Trinity, they all got that infamous signature tranquillizer but to see it used on Deb, even for non-fatal purposes, was chilling. After Dexter underlines his harsh behaviour by handcuffing Deb to her couch for some involuntary therapy he has a moment of self-realization that he can never be the big brother he says he is. We’ve had this kind of sentiment so many times before but it really feels like Dexter is actually beyond saving now.

Which leads to the other part of this episode, the one thing Dexter is good at. He’s tasked with tracking down all of Vogel’s old patients and gets to slip into Dark Avenger mode as he stalks a potential killer. This whole sub-plot was pretty much inconsequential but I actually really liked it. It felt like the Dexter of old, the hunt for the next big bad guy and when it’s revealed that the fitness instructor is actually a gourmet cannibal (nice touch) the show's reliable sense of perversion came back to give the episode a bit of colour. It was all very slight and merely served to demonstrate what Dexter’s up to and give a climax to his realisation about his true nature but it all felt very comfortably familiar, in a good way.

 What’s Eating Dexter Morgan? is a slow episode, but not the pointless wheel spinning that the show has fallen into lately. It’s a rich character study that we rarely get to see, one that explores the central characters without just having Dexter or Harry narrating it to the audience. This show has a tendency to slip between complete inertia and rushing through plot so its nice to see a balance being struck. I feel like we moved to the next stage in the story this week, but we got there with some depth and some stakes. And those two things have been missing from Dexter for an extremely long time.

Some other stuff worth mentioning

• So we continue on the almost self-parodying sub-plot of Quinn doing his Sergeant Exam. The scene in the Batista house almost felt like some misguided revival of Hill St Blues.
• Re: the opening scene. How much mileage is this show going to get out of things that look like blood but are actually innocent?
• Gotta love the famous Friendzone app. On the subject of phones, notice how they're just using iPhones now instead of those really strange generic ones from days prior.
• Is the shooting video that Dexter shows Deb the one from Season 6 (or 5, or 7, I forget) because if so that's some nice continuity.
• I actually really don't mind the P.I. Firm, probably because its a nice change from Miami Metro. Also what's with the boss and all those liquids. Something sinister perhaps?

Next time on Dexter

• So Vogel's going to guilt trip Deb and generally fuck things up. Sounds good!
• Still no sign of Hannah McKay. Probably for the best.