Dexter - Season 8 Episode 4 - Recap - Scar Tissue

This week's Dex & Deb get majorly manipulated which leads to an explosive ending that will change everything. Check out the recap for Dexter season 8 episode 4 Scar Tissue.

This episode brings Deb to center stage as Vogel tries to counsel her and help her to realize that she will always choose Dexter no matter what the circumstance. This brings Deb to the storage container where she killed LaGuerta several times, an obvious parallel to Dexter's beginnings as a killer. Vogel does manage to get Deb off alcohol and drugs, at least for this episode. Maybe staying with Vogel temporarily might be good for Deb? Vogel shows Deb some tapes of her sessions with Harry, a convenient method which seems to draw on the heartstrings of both Dexter and Debra. Deb also has a heart-to-heart at work with her PI boss about their dead fathers, which is always a nice way to connect.

Vogel is also working her magic on Dexter, who apparently hasn't been able to see his sitter for a week. She thinks it's best that he keeps his distance and is sure to warn him that he had better start managing his expectations regarding Deb: she might never want to have Dex in her life ever again.

It's clear something is strange with Vogel when Dexter starts spying on another of her patients, AJ, and discovers that he has a scar on his scalp indicating brain surgery. When Dex confronts Vogel about it, she is unsurprisingly coy about it but admits an X-Ray had found something wonky with his brain tissue. She says she wanted the part removed, but never did a follow-up on whether or not the surgery was performed. Is anyone really buying that explanation? Seems fishy to me. Vogel makes the visit about Dexter's relationship with Debra which only serves to annoy him. Afterward, Dex pays a friendly visit to AJ's house, doing some snooping around and secretly being watched by AJ at the same time. There are hidden cameras all over the house, and AJ eavesdrops on the conversation when Dexter calls Vogel to tell her about some weird things he has found. While it isn't immediately apparent to us as an audience as to whether or not AJ is actually the brain surgeon, he certainly has a girl tied up in his basement and lots of knives and sharp objects down there too. When Dex runs the prints he finds on some shoes in AJ's closet, he returns to the house a bit too late as AJ has clearly fled and cleared out most of the evidence. The girl who he tied up is bleeding out in the basement, but Dex manages to get to her in time and drop her off at the ER.

Vogel shows up to AJ's house to meet with Dexter, but when he finds a log of her writings on AJ's computer, things don't exactly end happily. It turns out she has been documenting every conversation and situation she has had with Dexter and it certainly doesn't make him very happy. I guess tea and biscuits will be out of the question after this whole thing with the Brain Surgeon fizzles out then?

In the boring couple of the week news, Quinn's possible promotion gets called into question twice, first by Matthews, who doesn't feel Quinn is qualified. The second time comes in the form of some coworkers shit-talking Deb at an event when Quinn sticks up for her in the sweetest of ways, punching the guy out. Jamie and Quinn are okay in the bedroom, though. How sweet. In other news (and probably the most seemingly random moment of the season so far), Masuka gets a visit from a pretty young gal who claims she is his daughter from his sperm donor days in college. They certainly have the same laugh down. How will this spool into the main storyline? Only time will tell.

Deb breaks into Vogel's private stash of videos, leading to more of her sessions with Harry and sadly no old-people porn to speak of. Manipulation is key, as the video Deb finds herself watching reveals Harry to be extremely uncomfortable with the idea of his son killing anyone after the first time he discovers a victim Dex has killed. It's clear that Vogel was only picking and choosing what she wanted to show off as to make both Dex and Deb think their dad was totally okay with Dex's killer habits when it was eating away at him all along. He even goes so far as to say he can't live with himself anymore, and this session haunts Deb all the more considering it was his last session with Vogel.

Dexter tries to pull AJ out of hiding by calling from the hospital where his dad is being kept on life support, but the plan misfires when AJ would rather let his father die than get caught. So much for having a conscience. Deb goes to see Dex at work, but doesn't want to talk there: she suggests they go for a ride. On their little road trip, Dex reveals to a clearly conflicted Deb that their dad committed suicide because he couldn't live with the monster that he had created any longer. This new fact clearly drives Deb over the edge as she steers the car into a body of water, trying to kill both Dexter and herself. Both are knocked unconscious, but Deb is saved by a nearby fisherman. Just when it looks like she will willingly let Dexter die, she jumps back into the water and rescues him. Cue ending music.

This episode was insane and that ending just further complicates everything about the relationship between Dexter and Debra. For a second it looked like she was having a turnaround about the way she felt toward him. What's going to happen from here? How would you like to see the show end?