Dexter - Season 7 Episode 1 - Recap Video - Are You...?
Here's our recap of Dexter Season 7 Episode 1: "Are You...?" on SHOWTIME.
Wow. What an episode. In what is easily the best episode since the season 4 finale, Deb helps Dex cover up the murder she saw him commit. This is going to be one hell of a season!
In case you needed a refresher, last season ended with Dexter finally killing the annoying split-personality Travis Marshall, and just as he struck his body with the blade, his sister Deb looked on from the sidelines. At the start of the premiere episode, we pick up as Dexter seems frantically driving and stops for gas. All his cards are declined, so he reaches in his bag (which includes some pay-cell-phones and foreign bills) and pays for his gas in cash. He makes it to the Miami airport and asks for one ticket to Budapest… Hmm.
But back to that church… Deb is freaking out and frantic to call the authorities even as Dexter claimed he "snapped" and that he was acting in self defense. He manages to convince Deb that the best course of action would be to make the killing look like a ritual suicide and set fire to the church, making it look like "one final tableau." Dexter has a flashback to when he was younger and his sister had just gotten a new puppy from the neighbor who had a litter of them. His father yells at his mother as soon as they see the puppy, afraid of what Dexter could be capable of doing to the creature.
Reluctantly, Debra brings back gasoline to set fire to the church despite her obvious objections. Meanwhile, as Dexter "cleans up" the plastic wrap around the body and plunges the ritual sword into Travis' chest, he mistakenly knocks the blood slide he was using down into little nook. Deb and Dex successfully set fire to the church, then flee. It isn't long before they get the call to head to the crime scene, where it is already being scoped out by the usual team.
When combing over the body, Dex notices a small piece of plastic on Travis' burnt toe; he motions to Deb who then distracts Masuka. He is able to get rid of the plastic before any else notices, and then everyone disperses so Deb can talk to the press. LaGuerta, however, stays behind when she notices something shining in a small nook near the altar. She finds the broken blood slide, handing it off to someone and telling them to make sure they file the evidence. Something tells me Dexter is about to be in some deep shit this season, if this episode alone isn't evidence enough.
When Dexter gets back to his apartment, Louis is acting all suspicious and Dex immediately notices that his computer was used. He practically screams in his face, but in that coy soft I'm-better-than-you-so-you-better-listen-to-me tone that Dexter is so good at. In Louis' apartment, he hates on Dexter to Jamie, but she isn't having any of it. He claims he was "getting a glass of water", and that's why he was on Dexter's side of the apartment. It's obvious he's up to something, because he is going into Dexter's credit accounts and deleting them! As if this freak wasn't weird enough last season, now he's practically mind-raping Dexter.
Mike calls Deb, suspicious about the lack of a car at the church crime scene. He spots a man pulled over on the side of the road as soon as he's off the phone with her, coming to his rescue (or so he thinks). As soon as he opens the guy's trunk (nosy much?) he finds the body of a dead girl… and then the man shoots Mike, several times. Can't say I really cared about his character, but it was kind of surprising to see him offed in such a way. The man hops into Mike's car, stealing it, and leaves the car and dead bodies just where they lay.
The next morning, Deb is busy interrogating Dexter about the knives he had and where he had gotten the plastic wrap (what, doesn't everyone just carry around a ridiculous amount of plastic wrap to wrap bodies in?) when she gets the phone call about Mike's shooting. Dexter has another flashback: his heartbroken sister is upset about giving up the puppy, and Dexter blames himself. In the present, Debra runs out pretty quickly and Dex lazes behind as usual, grabbing his "getaway pack" which he tells us in voiceover that he just might need in case he doesn't have any other options.
At the crime scene, Dexter is able to get a fingerprint on the woman (which he openly shares) and obtains a fingerprint on the turn signal from the car. Observing Dexter from inside his car, Debra has an obviously uncomfortable flashback to season 1, back when she was all strung up in plastic wrap in the finale… the same way that Travis was tied down. She goes to the evidence room later, requesting to view the ice truck killer files. As soon as she sees the pictures of the plastic wrap from the file, she knows it is more than coincidence.
Dexter, doing his thing, runs the fingerprint he found through Interpol, hoping he will find a match. Deb also confronts him in his office about the odd coincidence of her being set up the same way as Travis when she was on Rudy's table all those years ago. He pretty much just lets her talk, not really giving many answers. As soon as she leaves, a match is found; the man who shot Mike was Viktor. Dexter leaves work suddenly to scope out his newest kill, and just when it looks like Deb is going to follow him, she sees the background on his computer (it's the two of them and Harrison).
Dexter finds Viktor's apartment, finding blood and gunshot residue on a shirt; on his computer history, Dex then finds that Viktor booked a ticket to Ukraine leaving from Miami airport, leaving in less than two hours. He books it to the airport, which is where the episode began, and now the whole buying-a-ticket-thing suddenly makes sense. Dexter scopes out the place after buying his ticket, spotting Viktor pretty quickly.
Meanwhile, Miami Metro takes over the strip club that the dead woman was working at, interrogating every person there to try to get some answers. Batista talks to the manager, who seems to know more than he's letting on but doesn't say much.
Back at the airport, Dexter follows Viktor into a bathroom, where he puts up a sign, grabs a wheelchair, and injects him in the neck. The wheelchair bit is pretty brilliant: "The smart traveller must be prepared to make last minute adjustments." He carts the man into the unclaimed baggage area. At the office, Debra asks Masuka where Dexter is, but he says that Dexter offered to work early if Masuka could work the late shift. Quinn and Batista, meanwhile, bond over some drinks in honor of Mike. Batista says that Quinn will never be half the cop that Mike was, but he's not half bad.
Dexter has Viktor all taped down in the unclaimed baggage area, and even though he warns Dexter that he has some "very scary friends", he kills him pretty brutally with a fire extinguisher to the head. In Ukraine, a mysterious man (Isaac) gets a phone call from the strip club manager George, telling him that Viktor is on his way to Ukraine now. He says the "dead cop" is still a problem but "they don't have shit" on them and he promises to "make it go away." Dexter dumps the body into the water from his boat as usual, while at the same time Debra has a breakdown so she calls Dexter's phone. When Jamie picks up, Deb asks for Dexter, but she says he's not home and is working late. In fact, he constantly works crazy hours and is rarely home before 3am.
Dexter has another flashback: he is about to tell his upset sister about the real reason Harry wanted to get rid of the puppy when Harry warns him that his relationship with Deb is a delicate one. If she saw the real him, he warns, she would be terrified. At the office, LaGuerta asks Masuka about taking blood slides, and he says only one person ever took bloodslides: Doakes. God how I hated that man. She takes the evidence bag with her on the way out containing the bloodslide; looks like she's about to do some investigating on her own
Just as it seems we're going to have a nice ending with Dexter getting back to his apartment and tucking in Harrison goodnight or something, as soon as he opens the door, Debra has everything all laid out around her. The blood slides… the knives… even the package that Louis sent in the finale. She asks him simply: "Did you kill all these people" to which he replies, "I did." Then he admits to her that he is a serial killer.
I don't know about anyone else, but this premiere totally floored me. Excuse me while I pick up the broken pieces of my jaw that fell off while watching this. The rest of the season looks totally bonkers! What will Debra do? What is LaGuerta going to do with that blood slide? Season seven just might be the best one yet!
