Secrets are revealed in this past episode of Dexter’s final season, relationships are cemented and rekindled, but the most important remains: Are the writers aware they’re writing their two main characters into husks of what the premise of the show promised us?

Let’s examine the above scene for a moment. We’ll get to the rest of the episode in a minute, but this is sort of a biggie.

It’s been well-established throughout the course of the series how important blending in is for Dexter. Without blending in, he sticks out, and people who stick out attract attention, and that’s exactly what a serial killer does not want. More specifically, waaaaaaay back in Season 3, when Dexter was out with Miguel for a night of recon, Dexter almost called the entire kill off because a single stranger said “Hello” to Miguel. Blending, camouflage, element of surprise. Standing motionless outside the goddamn window of a restaurant and staring intently at your intended murder victim is precisely none of those things. I’m aware that the jig is up between Saxon and Dexter, insofar as Saxon knows who and what Dexter is, so it’s not exactly like Dexter could just stroll in, order coffee and pie and hide behind a newspaper. But this is usually where Dexter hides behind a car, dumpster, or, you know, slashes the other guy’s tire and while the victim is inspecting the tire, knock out Saxon. Or follow him to his home and wait for it not to be broad daylight.

This entire sequence managed to epitomize exactly where Dexter the show and the character have gone off the rails. He is no longer the patient, methodical, ritualistic murderer he once was. At this point, he’s a low-grade Frank Castle.

I feel as if a reminder of the premise of the show is in order: Dexter Morgan really likes to murder people. He doesn’t really care about whether or not they’re good people or bad people or who deserved it. This is why Harry and Vogel needed to institute the Code. They could direct Dexter’s murderous urges to sectors of society that, if gone missing, nobody would miss or look very hard for. Over the years, I imagine that Dexter had developed a sort of Pavlov’s dog-type reaction to a murderer falling through the cracks. He wasn’t excited about meting out justice; he was excited about having someone new to kill.

Bringing this all back around to the episode at hand, in short, we discover through the death of Zach, that the Brain Surgeon is actually related by blood to Dr. Vogel, which is a shock to her, because she was under the assumption that her genius, psychopathic son with a penchant for murder had been dead for years.

And through some further investigation of Dexter, we find out that her not-dead-yet son is actually the boyfriend of Cassie, Dexter’s neighbor who was killed (and Zach was framed for that, for some reason; we know the how – razor blades – but not the why). And here’s one thing that actually did catch me offguard that I don’t think the show was even trying to do. When Dexter was messing around with the aging software of the picture with Vogel’s son, did anyone else think that the picture was starting to look eerily like Deb’s PI boss, Elway? I mean, they had the weird cheek wrinkles and everything. For the brief seconds that Dexter didn’t tell us who we were supposed to think the picture resembled, I thought it was supposed to be Elway. I then proceeded to rack my brain to come up with motive and all that stuff, and came up with nothing.

So Vogel is shocked that her son is still alive, and even more shocked that he’s somehow bugging her laptop to read what she types into it. Dexter and her set up the play date with him at the restaurant I mentioned earlier, but since Dexter wants to kill him and Vogel doesn’t we get to see Dexter drug Vogel. This pretty well will destroy any trust they have between each other, but that’s only, like, the second or third time that’s happened this year, so I don’t know how big of a deal we’re supposed to think it is.

Interspersed between all of this are scenes of Dexter and Hannah doing their best to try and hide by authorities by not hiding at all while they’re in public. There was the song and dance at Hannah’s friend’s house, but, come on, I really thought that the US Marshal was going to be in one of those parked cars hiding. Incidentally, that US Marshal is none other than Kenny Johnson, aka Lem from The Shield aka one of my favorite characters from any TV show ever. I’m glad he has work, but this role could be played by anyone.

So, generally, when you’re on the run from the federal government, and you’re having your picture circulated everywhere, it’s a good idea to not be everywhere. I know they had to make the risky play for the cash, but they could’ve just stashed Hannah anywhere. Here’s the thing I don’t understand. They have the new passport and identity paperwork. They have a half a million dollars in cash. So what the hell are they waiting for? Just get out. You don’t have to get out via Miami International, but cut her hair, dye it brown or black, and just drive to Idaho or Montana or anywhere but Florida, hide out for a while, and then when the heat’s died down, fly off to Argentina. If I’m missing something here, please, someone hit me up, because I just don’t get why it isn’t that simple.

And while Hannah isn’t dallying around with Dexter, she’s now hiding out at Deb’s house. And making her dinner. And Deb is eating it. Yes, I’m aware that if Hannah really wanted Deb dead, she could’ve already poisoned her when she made her reappearance, but you Do. Not. Eat. Food. Made. From. A. Serial poisoner and murder. Oh, Hannah made a salad? Great night for a TV dinner. Oh, Hannah poured some wine? Great night for that awesome Miami tap. I don’t care what kind of heart to heart they had. It’s important for Deb and to her character to always hate this woman. She is, objectively, a gigantic pain in the ass for everyone involved with her, and will only end up leaving destruction, intended or not, in her wake.

And we end the episode with Vogel telling Dexter to essentially get the hell out of her house and leave her son to her. And then we get the reveal that she is actually housing her son and has proven to him that she wasn’t the one that sent Dexter to kill him.

Obviously, wherever they go from here, I can’t even begin to guess, because all of my guessing involves the structure of character development of who these people have always told us they have been. So I would assume that, since Dexter says he’s still intent on killing Saxon, he plans to do just that. I foresee some reconnaissance work, maybe even some detective work. What we will probably get, however, is Dexter breaking into Vogel’s place in the middle of the day with a flashlight, calling out very loudly, “Is anybody here?”

My main frustrations with this episode and the season at large are not so much of anger, but of disappointment. For years, this was my show. I got my family hooked on it. I told everybody who would listen to me about it. But over the years (with one or two notable exceptions) the series has decided to play it safe, and so rather than a series progressing, it felt more like it was coasting. With any ordinary season, it’s disheartening, but with this final one, it’s truly disappointing. This was it. The final year. Throw it all at Dexter. It should all be about Dexter. His world collapsing. Every episode, every scene. Instead, we’ve gotten another serial killer with a bizarre angle, muddled motives, disappointing character arcs, and missed opportunities.

@kent_graham