DEXTER (S08E01) - READY FOR GOODBYE (sort of recap)

The first episode of Dexter's final season aired last Sunday and in general I share the "meh" feeling expressed by my better half: it wasn't too exciting and frankly, not particularly promising, however, since I'm a big fan of the series, I naively hope for the best.

So Dexter's moved on with his live, like nothing happened, his son has finally reached the age when he can actually comprehend something, Quinn is fucking someone new (like in every other season!) and this time Angel's little sister is his babe, Batista himself returned to Miami Metro (who opens a restaurant in this economy anyway?), LaGuerta is turned into a concrete bench, and only Debra dived into a self-created version of hell, where she does cocaine along with the full range of other illegal substances, screws a criminal she's supposed to give in (oh yeah, she's a bounty hunter of some sort now) and avoids Dexter, who doesn't get why. "Because you made me compromise everything about myself that I care about. And I hate you for it", says she while shooing him away, when he finally tracks her down, concerned about her.

But it looks like deviant step-sister should be the least of Dex's concerns now, even though she said she should have shot him instead of Maria. Evelyn Vogel, a neuropsychiatrist specializing in psychopaths, who looks more like NBC's Hannibal Lector offered her help to Miami Metro in solving a new murder case (potentially, cases) - a body was found with part of the brain responsible for empathy scooped out. She takes particular interest in Dexter, asking him all sorts of uncomfortable questions about the Bay Harbor Butcher and such.

Don't they look alike?

To her disappointment, he doesn't get paranoid enough, as poor Deb occupies his thoughts. A hitman named El Sapo is after her "boyfriend" slash wanted guy Andrew Briggs, and she might get hurt. Together with Harrison Dexter gets to the Pink Motel to warn her, where he picks a fight with Briggs and consequently stabs him in front of his sister, which makes things even more awkward between the two siblings. "What'd you do? I felt OK around him!". Debra gives another speech about how open her eyes are now, sends him away and calls the police to tell them some lies about what happened. El Sapo watched her so I guess we'll see more of him in the upcoming episodes.

And finally, Dr. Vogel finds Dexter sitting on LaGuerta's bench the next day. He tries to avoid the conversation and then she gives hims the pictures he drew as a child (naturally, with loads of blood). When he presses her against the wall, she says he can't kill her "Because I don't fit Harry's code". Oh, God! She knows everything.

What can I say, there was definitely too much of Deb, and although Jennifer Carpenter doesn't have the gorgeous hair she had last season, which leaves jealousy out, it is still hard for me to like her character. She's too messed up. But I'm glad that Carpenter has finally got a chance to yell "I hate you!" at her ex-husband with no repercussions.

The main question of the episode is who the hell Evelyn Vogel really is. Was she the one who spotted Dexter's "dark passenger" when he was a kid and informed Harry about it? Was she the one who suggested to channel Dex's destructive energy?

The problem I have with Dr. Vogel is that she comes off as a more of a psychopath than Dexter (what could make her study psychopaths in the first place, huh?) To be completely frank, Dexter doesn't come as a psychopath at all, despite the fact that he numerously suggests so himself and that's the problem of this series. I understand that it was revolutionary at the time - following the life of a maniac  - but the maniac was lost along the way, what was left is a version of hero from the action movies in the nineties, portrayed by Stallone, Swartzeneger or Willis (I wonder if Dexter killed less guys within seven seasons than characters of those guys in a single movie).