Dexter - Season 8 Episode 1 - Recap - A Beautiful Day
After 7 wonderful seasons with enough death and misery to satisfy anyone, we have finally arrived at this, the final season premiere for Dexter. The opener is every bit as splendid as I'd hoped and provides the stepping stones for an epic finale. Check out my full recap for Dexter Season 8 episode 1, A Beautiful Day.
It's been several excruciating weeks since the demise of Maria LaGuerta, and there have been all sorts of juicy developments in our time away from the characters. Let's play catch up on where they are now, and some of the surprising developments that happen in this episode.
Maria LaGuerta is forever memorialized in a rather fabulous-looking… bench. Everyone shows up to support her, save for Deb who has vanished and abruptly quit the force. She isn't returning anyone's phone calls, least of all Dexter. Nobody can even get through long enough to leave a message because she has neglected to erase her messages.
It turns out that Deb is running a case for a new agency she is working for, if you could even call it a case. She has taken to doing bounty hunter work, bringing in men who steal stuff and reaping the rewards. It looks like she's a tad too wrapped up in her latest case, though, as her first moment in season 8 involves the snorting of cocaine. The greasy guy she is spending all her time with nowadays is actually kinda cute; although it's never fully clear what Deb's intentions might be, it does seem like she's comfortable being around this guy and chilling in what essentially looks like his sex den.
In his search for Deb, Dexter finds Xanax and other abusive substances in her house, indicating she might have taken a pretty deep dive off the rails. In terms of his workplace environment, Dexter heads in for a bizarre case in which half the victim's skull has been removed and a chunk of the brain in scooped out. It's nasty stuff, but nothing Dex can't handle. Deb's phone continues to jump to voicemail each time it rings, so Dexter takes it upon himself to research the guy Deb is spending all of her time with these days. Briggs is his name, and he's got a laundry list of problems including breach of bail, armed robbery, destruction of property, and assault. Deb's credit card records lead Dex to a grocery place where he has his first confrontation with his sister in weeks. Deb urges him to leave and ends the conversation with a friendly dose of "I shot the wrong person in that trailer," which is always a nice way to reunite with someone you haven't seen in ages.
Quinn is banging Jamie now, in secret of course. This guy really knows how to pick his girlfriends. Angel is more determined than ever to be a good cop thanks to LaGuerta's death, and as of now remains totally clueless about the relationship between Quinn and Jamie. When Briggs meets up with a client outside of his hotel sex den, Deb rings Quinn and orders him to run a search on the client, El Sapo.
That pesky brain-removing killer? His/her deed brings what could be a formidable friend or foe for Dexter: Dr. Evelyn Vogel. She studies psychopaths for a living, which automatically puts her on Dexter's radar. The woman certainly has a fascinating way with words. She notes the uniqueness of the empathy part of the brain being what the killer decided to take, and also presses she is sure this person has killed before due to the complexity of the pre-kill ritual. Dexter isn't doing so hotly himself, snapping on someone who cuts him off on the road and again on Batista when he gift's him a precious vase that belonged to LaGuerta. He still seems on edge when Vogel calls on him in the morgue and questions him about the Bay Harbor Butcher, curious to know how he acted. She is also particularly interested in the moral guidelines that a serial killer such as Doakes must have operated on concerning the way he chose his victims. The intensity in this scene alone makes it quite clear that Vogel knows more than she is letting on. Dexter does some snooping after that, finding out the only reason Vogel is there is because she had a meeting with Matthews. She became interested in the case and volunteered to come on board right away.
Quinn bumps into Dex on the way out of the office, telling him that the search for El Sapo came up with nothing and then Jamie dumps Harrison on Dexter for the night. Dex does his own search on El Sapo, finding out that he is actually a gun for hire who is obviously out to kill Briggs. Dex snaps for the third time on poor Harrison after he accidentally destroys LaGuerta's vase, but Dex quickly apologizes afterward. He stops by to see Quinn with Harrison since he doesn't answer the phone and gets Deb's location out of him (The Pink Motel). After leaving, Dex even tries calling Jamie but she is currently preoccupied with Quinn, who Dex ironically just left from seeing.
After arriving at the Pink Motel, Deb and Dex get in a big fight outside of her room and when Briggs comes outside and gets himself involved, bad things happen. Namely, Briggs ends up on the receiving end of a very sharp knife. Broken Deb seems particularly shaken up, and though Dex wants to get rid of the body himself, Deb insists on doing things the right way. Dex loses Harrison, but finds him: he left the car looking for daddy. When Deb leaves the motel after the authorities arrive, creepy El Sapo looks on sardonically like he has some tricks up his sleeve. Uh oh.
Dexter freaks out about losing Deb, fearful that now he has no idea who he is. Just when he's chilling on the LaGuerta memorial bench, Vogel pops by with a folder full of drawings Dexter made when he was a kid. He runs to confront Vogel and threatens her, but she's not scared.
"You can't kill me. Because I don't fit Harry's code."
What did you guys think of the premiere episode? Are you excited to see how this crazy show is going to end? I am honestly not anticipating the ending because I know I'm going to weep. And weeping just hurts.