'Dexter' Recap: "Sunshine and Frosty Swirl"

Last week’s cliffhanger was almost as bad as the season finale with Dexter walking in on Deb in his apartment and all his secrets, quite literally, laying all over every available surface for him to see. Deb, never one for subtly asked him point blank if he was a serial killer and he sincerely answer “yes”.

ICYMI: Dexter Season 7 Premiere Recap: “Are you…?”

For this week’s episode of Dexter, we pick up right after we left off, Deb is taking off running from his apartment and Dexter is right after her. She doesn’t stop until she gets sick on the side of the road and when he tries to help her, she pushes him away. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.” He says. “I will never be okay.” She answers. Can’t blame Deb there, especially not since the build up last season about how much she leaned on him for everything (and then some according to her creepy therapist).

When he finally talks her into going back inside, he begins to explain everything to her, starting from their dad finding him in a pool of his mother’s blood. He tells her about his ‘Dark Passenger’ and Deb thinks it sounds stupid, too. He explains the code to her, but Deb isn’t buying it and the more he talks, the darker, angrier he looks. But she is calling him on it, calling him what he is and how she is now an accomplice since she helped him cover up Travis’ murder. She can’t turn her back on everything she found out, he asks her what she is going to do and she answers with a punch to his jaw before walking out of his apartment again. Dexter is left behind with the ghost of his father and the hand from the ice truck killer case he mysteriously got in the mail last season.

In the next morning, Deb is going back and reading articles on the Bay Harbor Butcher in her office, but she’s using her laptop instead of her desktop. Serial killers have an addiction and will continue until they are caught, the article says. But a picture of her and Dexter with Harry (their dad) as kids makes her stop.

Dexter is keeping busy too, but he’s not focusing on Deb so much as figuring out who sent him the hand. Does someone else know about him? He’s in the archives room and the hand isn’t in the Ice Truck Killer’s file box. It’s the real thing. But there is no record of it being checked out. Masuka apparently followed him there because he was curious and regretted it, He knows Dexter is looking for the hand, and he can explain: his former intern, the one before creepy Louis, she stole it to sell it on ebay. Masuka had Louis himself try to track the hand down, but he wasn’t able to. Dexter thinks he found it, and kept it.

Masuka gets beeped for a briefing and Dexter comes with him, Deb is talking about Mike’s death. No new leads yet, they don’t know that Dexter already finished that case up his way. They move on to Wayne Randall. He was a serial killer fifteen years ago with his girlfriend, he’s in prison for life but he wants to come clean about a few other deaths he has information on and help investigators. Dexter volunteers, but Deb wants Masuka helping with this case instead.

Deb calls Dexter to go for a walk and tells him she was super close to arresting him. Every alternative seems crazy. She wants to help Dexter out of his addiction, like a rehab for serial killers. He tried stopping before, it didn’t work. But Deb believes in him and loves him, she can help and she’s not giving him a choice.

Cut to LaGuerta, she’s talking to a lab who is investigating the blood slide from Travis’ crime scene. It’s a match with Travis’ blood sample. And she’s contacting the FBI about it.

Quinn and Batista are back at the strip club about Mike’s case. Lights are back on, show is over. They are not leaving the club owner alone until someone talks and they are going to keep shutting the club down for as long as they have to. One of the girls tells Quinn they all need the money they are not making with the club getting shut down, he tells her he cares but someone needs to talk so they can figure out who killed the other girl. She tells him the girl was dating one of the bouncers, he hasn’t been coming to work since the murders, they have a trail.

Dexter is at Deb’s for their first sleep over so she can keep an eye on him. She’s taking the couch and he’s taking the bedroom so she can be between him and the door, to make sure he doesn’t kill. She tells him he has to be completely honest. His new code. Harry shows up once Dexter is settling in. Deb doesn’t know what he is really like. She wants to know what his urge to kill feels like, it sounds like he is possessed. He says it feels like it sometimes. He’s not blaming on anyone else, he’s just being honest. It starts with the image of blood, it flows and it fills him up, then it turns black. Feels like his head is going to explode. The only way to relieve the pressure is to let the blood spill out. Later that night, he’s in Deb’s room, on his laptop, trying to figure out how to get into Louis’ penthouse. Deb comes in to check in on him. It will be next to impossible to get into it without Deb knowing, but he doesn’t know how long he can wait.

Quinn is questioning the bouncer who was dating the dead stripper. He doesn’t know anything. Batista interrupts, security tapes show the bouncer was working all night, he’s not their guy. But he knows his girlfriend was with Viktor that night.

Back at the station, Masuka is complaining about the waiting around for things to get dug up based on Wayne Randall’s tips. Dex offers to go for him (so he can go to Louis’ penthouse instead), but he needs to clear that with Deb first. She agrees, and she’s driving. But before Dexter can protest, Quinn and Batista come to her with their news about Mike’s shooting case, so Dexter gets to go on his own.

He is actually at the scene and they are not making any progress on Wayne’s tips. Dexter is amused, and wants to know why Wayne decided to lead them to these bodies now. He has a conscious, that’s why. And the team is on break, so Dexter heads to the penthouse. He finds the list of his credit card numbers that were cancelled. He gets on Louis’ computer, and finds his video blog. Definitely a technology much more used in fiction than in real life. One is about an Aquaman action figure (Aquaman, I mean, really.) Another about an app idea, but this suddenly features a very naked blonde that is definitely not Jaime.

And then one about Dexter himself. Louis says no one messes with him, this is worst than Bob Henley, he wants Dexter laying in a puddle of his own piss. But there is a $4.99 Lost in Space mug that is much more interesting, apparently. Dexter googles Bob Henley and finds he is a co-founder of Louis’ software company, he has been arrested for having child pornography in his work station. 

Louis gets home and Dexter corners him. The hand was a stupid joke, he was bitter about Dexter not helping him with his game. Dexter never wants to see him again, at work or with Jaime. And Louis promises he’s done.

Back at Wayne’s possible crime scene, Deb is freaking out, asking where Dexter was. He was running errands, didn’t kill anyone. But she’s supposed to know where he is at all times. Wayne asks if there is trouble in paradise, Dexter tells him she’s his sister and boss. Wayne tells Dex he accepted his situation, being in prison and the anger just fell off.

Back at the strip club, Batista and Quinn are now looking for Viktor. He’s just a customer, they don’t really know him. They leave and club owner is back in his office, finds his boss there. He’s looking for Viktor too, he’s caused them some trouble before. Maybe something with the brotherhood. But the club owner doesn’t think so. The stripper that was talking to him earlier is calling him back, she’s having car trouble and needs a ride home.

LaGuerta is being sneaky again, she has a box from the FBI. The Bay Harbor Butcher investigation, it includes a picture of Doakes and his blood slide box. She’s comparing it to Travis’. Getting too close, LaGuerta. Too close.

Back at his apartment, Harrison is having dinner with Jaime the nanny when Dex and Deb walk in. Louis is there, Dexter has to play cool. Louis isn’t afraid of Dexter, he needs to be stopped.

Quinn and he stripper are in his car, he thought she was going to give him info, but her car really did break down. She says he should make up to her for the tips she’s not making, tells him to use his imagination, and he’s somehow talked into picking up the bill for her messed up car.

Back to Deb’s place, the are having steak. Dexter injects Deb’s with one of his injections when she’s not looking. For a good night’s sleep. And then he’s at Louis’ apartment, injecting the creeper’s neck. He is about to kill Louis, but he calls Deb instead. He couldn’t go through with the killing, he says Deb should arrest him. He is a monster. But Deb says Harry was wrong. She believes this is a good thing.

Dexter needs a few more minutes, Deb drives off. Louis is still in Dexter’s truck. He’s alive, but out, will wake up with a headache and probably have a decent idea how he got to the parking lot Dexter is leaving him at.

Club owner’s boss shows up at boncer’s garage. He never met him before, but he quit the club. This is Tony’s exit interview. He wants to know if he quit because of the tragic death of the dancer. He knows Tony talked to the police, and Tony is dead with a screwdriver to the eye. Gross.

 Back to Wayne, the ice cream loving serial killer. Dex and Deb are talking about the previous night and Dex tells her he just wants some ice cream. She says it’s good he’s thinking about normal things, maybe he’s becoming more normal. But none of them are really normal. Deb goes get them ice cream and Dexter thinks maybe he will be okay with her watching him all the time. Wayne is happy to see the two of them getting along, he never got to do that with Hannah. He never felt as alive as when he was with her. He’s gonna miss Hannah, but she just sees him as a killer. And she’s not wrong.

 There’s just one last person Wayne needs to kill. And with that, he runs right in front of a passing truck. He didn’t care if the bodies were found, he just wanted a couple more days of sunshine and frosty swirl.