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Dexter

Episode Report Card

Mr. Stupidhead: A- | 1654 USERS: B-

YOU GRADE IT

"Dex, As A Dark Shadow, Beckons His Prey."

By Mr. Stupidhead | Season 2 | Episode 2 | Aired on 2007.10.07

In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description!

So, things are still kind of hectic for our main man. His inability to let go of Brian is making him act erratically, and now that he's been dubbed "The Bay Harbor Butcher" since the discovery of his underwater graveyard, the FBI has sent Special Agent Frank Lundy (played by Keith Carradine) to head up the investigation into Dexter's previous killings. Naturally, this development only serves to compound the stress that Dexter's already dealing with.

Another factor is that Little Chino fella. You see, Beef Bus has done away with Eva Arenas, making Dexter want to finish what he started last week. But when he hunts Beef Bus down, the guy's got some of his own goons waiting for him, so Dexter runs to the hills. Well, the sewers, actually.

Also adding to Dex's stress load is Deb. She's still living with him, and still not fully dealing with her pent-up rage from the whole ITK incident. Deb ends up freaking out and pulling a gun on some kid from the 29th Street Kings' barrio, and instead of filing a police brutality suit, the kid totally snitches on The Kings, leading to about twenty arrests for Officer Morgan. Luckily, Dexter figures it's only a matter of time before Chino hunts down the little kid for selling his whole gang out, and essentially uses the kid as bait to slaughter the gargantuan fucker. Due to the Federal scrutiny of his crimes, Dexter decides to dump his remains in the Gulf Stream, which should have his baggies o' murder in the middle of the Atlantic in a week's time. Smart thinkin', that.

The brief respite that murdering Chino provides is not long-lived, unfortunately, because there are myriad other factors adding to Dexter's anxiety. For example, Doakes is still on him like a fly on shit. Also, after forcing him to go to FIP's unnecessary funeral, Rita extracts a confession from Dexter about what really happened with Paul, and Dexter claims his assault on him was not pre-meditated. Rita, however, trips him up when she asks how the drugs came into it if that were the case, forcing Dex to confess to being an addict instead of being a cold-blooded murderer.

Finally, Dexter and Debra both come to their own individual grips with their experiences with Brian, and find their own ways of letting go. Too bad the same can't be said of Lt. Pascal, who has decided to use department resources to trace her fiancé's phone records. Guess we'll file that under Couldn't Give Less Of A Shit If We Tried, until next week, when we find out that he's actually a perfect framee for Dexter's misdeeds. That's not a spoiler, I promise. I know nothing.

Want more? The full recap starts right below!

Previously: Dexter was having a hard time killing evil-doers because Doakes was on his ass, and because something in his conscience was nagging him. Deb had been living with Dex since Brian tried slicing her up, and was still so freaked that she ended up smashing some poor guy's nose in a bar. She returned to work nonetheless. FIP pleaded with Rita to help him get out of prison, and when she refused, he got pissed, got in a fight, and got dead. Upon finding this out, Rita basically accused Dexter of being complicit in FIP's arrest. Dexter found another guy to kill, a "beef bus" named Little Chino, a hit man for a gang called "The 29th Street Kings." Dexter tried in earnest to kill the mountainous man, but didn't tape him down hard enough, and the guy escaped, leaving Dex to feel dejected. At least he got some serious punches in before Beef Bus took off. Compounding Dexter's stress was the discovery of his previous victims' bodies by treasure hunters. Deb was psyched about the development; Dexter, not so much.

Dex is lying in bed, staring at his ceiling fan as it spins slowly. Seems like he's having trouble sleeping, and if I were in his predicament, I'd be shitting myself. "I'm drifting," he VOs. "I finally get a chance to kill and I can't do it." Yeah, you really are off your game, homeslice. "A second chance, and he gets away. And now, all my secrets are floating to the surface." He starts tossing and turning in bed. "Where is the orderly, controlled, effective Dexter? How did I lose him? How do I find him again? I'm drifting, but not to sleep." Fade out. Dude, this shit is heavy, man. So far, the tone of this season is way darker than the first. A lot of the comic relief is missing, and Dexter's myriad problems are weighing things down. He needs to get rid of some baggage, seriously. I'm having trouble keeping up with all the things that could go wrong here.

"A shocking and gruesome discovery off the coast of Florida yesterday," blares Dexter's clock radio, awakening him. Looks like he drifted off to sleep after all. "Police are still searching through mountains of evidence found lying at the bottom of the ocean." A quick shot of the doll head keychain pans to Dexter's face, which has a Dude, You've Got To Be Kidding Me expression on it.

Down in the barrio of the 29th Street Kings, where a body lies under a sheet beyond police tape. Angel is standing over it as Dexter pulls up in his car. "Here I am," Dex VOs. "Back in the belly of the beast." I'm going to go ahead and assume that the beast he's referring to is Little Chino, our beefy buddy. "But how can I solve a crime when I can't even solve what's wrong with me? Duty calls..." He gets out of the car, and crosses the police tape. Masuka accosts him, and says, "Eight confirmed." "Here?" "No, here's just one," says Angel. Masuka reveals that he's referring to the "Bay Harbor Butcher," a moniker the press has assigned to our main man. Dexter repeats the name unbelievingly, and Masuka says, "That's what the press is calling whoever dumped those bodies off-shore." "That's a little...lurid," says Dexter, clearly unimpressed. Angel expresses his hope that it's really the ITK's dumping ground. "Tell me about it," says Dex. "Last thing Miami needs is another serial killer." Heh. Masuka uncovers the body on the ground, and it belongs to Eva Arenas, the mother of Little Chino's last victim, Rafael. Looks like Chino got to her before she could take the stand. Angel recaps for us that all she wanted was justice against The Kings for what happened to her son: "First she's the messenger --" "Now she's the message," jumps in Doakes out of nowhere. Dex says she was clearly killed with a machete, and Angel mentions that the Gang Crash Unit is all over Little Chino for this. "Last thing I want is for the cops to bring Little Chino in," Dex VOs. "He's mine." Yeah, well, some could say that ship has sailed, my friend. "Why don't you take a picture, Morgan? It'll last longer," Doakes snaps. "What would I do without you, Sergeant?" I don't know, kill someone?