Dexter gets back to the station and Debra calls him into her office. You can tell it’s important but even I didn’t see this one coming: Trinity is back! Wait, what? Trinity is dead, isn’t he? Oh that’s right, only Dexter knows he’s dead, everyone else thinks he’s on the lam. Apparently the story of record is that Jonah, Trinity’s son, came home to find his mom and sister murdered by Trinity, whom he fought off. Now, Dexter knows the story is bogus because he alone knows Trinity is dead. Along with the help of his new psychological manifestation, Brian, Dexter determines that nut didn’t fall far from the tree and that Jonah murdered his family. And as the title of this episode suggests, this all went down in Nebraska, so it’s road trip time!

We then check in with Travis who is having a nice breakfast with his sister as they share a very Dexter and Deb like moment. Travis catches me off guard with some personality when he tells his sister the stupid predictive text feature on his phone caused him to text his boss that he had two tickets to Jizzfest. First of all, that line made me nearly shoot root beer out of my nose and secondly, to all of you single men out there, that’s a fantastic line to use the next time you are out on the prowl. But I will digress and say that it appears the writers are trying to humanize Travis a bit and make him a bit more likable so that when they reveal Gellar is just a figment of his imagination, we will feel sorry for the poor, troubled soul. Speaking of Gellar, Travis is washing the dishes when the creepy bastard appears through the window in the side yard and Travis meets him at the door to tell him that he’s finished with all this crazy business. Gellar doesn’t take it well and tries to enter the sister’s house, but Travis closes the screen door on him. If there was ever a reason to believe my theory that Gellar isn’t real, this is the one as a grown man was foiled by a screen door. Gellar leaves promising to continue the work without Travis. Yeah, OK, whatever you say, crazy imaginary old man.

Dexter is doing some online murder recon at his apartment with little Harrison playing on the floor and Brian hovering over his shoulder. Brian as a manifestation seems more aggressive than Harry ever was, and while Harry seemed to represent Dexter’s light and reason (this season more than any other), Brain is clearly representing Dexter’s darkness and fears as he points out that Jonah has taken up the serial killer mantle passed on to him by his father as Dexter watches Harrison. Brian pushes Dexter’s buttons, accusing him of being a domesticated serial killer and suggests a murder road trip would be fun. We once again hit with that silly score to remind us that they are really going over-the-top this episode as Dexter is packing his murder gear while shouting out instructions to the babysitter in the next room. Dexter and Brian hit the road for Nebraska and the look on both their faces as the drive through the night is priceless. The only thing missing was them stopping for ice cream and one of them knocking the others into his nose and them both laughing about it.

Debra is presents her division’s statistics to the captains, and of course LaGuerta takes the opportunity to slam her in front of anyone. Debra, to her credit, takes it in stride and has calm words with LaGuerta afterwards simply asking if that was personal, or not, which LaGuerta obviously says it wasn’t. Oh, and they are now referring to the Doomsday Killer as DDK so I guess I will now too, less typing is always better.

At this point, the episode goes all “Natural Born Killers” as Dexter stops at a gas station for some nachos. Brian notices Dexter checking out the young cashier. He whispers that they should “do her” and proceeds to talk Dexter through the process of hitting on her and next thing you Dexter is coming out of the back room and doing up his zipper. Brian seems very disappointed because when he said “do her” I think he meant kill her, not bang her. Dexter doesn’t seem to care what Brian thinks because he reaches over and under the counter to steal the cashier’s gun, claiming he now what he got what he came for. It then cuts to a crazy scene with Dexter driving at high speeds, firing the gun out the window, and killing innocent stop signs as he blows through them with Brian yelling at him to drive faster. It seems Dexter didn’t just swap Harry for Brian, as Brian’s appearance may be indicative of a much larger psychological problem.

Dexter arrives in Nebraska and shows up at Jonah’s work to confront him. He’s got his killer face on when he sees Jonah, but it quickly slips as Jonah walks up to him refers ot him as Dexter Morgan and not Kyle Butler. Jonah tells Dexter that they heard about Rita Morgan’s death and saw Dexter on the news as the grieving widow. They put the pieces together but kept it from the police because Dexter had helped them. Jonah then describes the fictional series of events involving him looking his father in the eye as his mother was shoved down the stairs; neither Dexter nor Brian seemed convinced.

Over at the station, Batista tells Debra that a woman came in having reportedly been chained up for two days by two men, one of whom was called The professor, and when Debra asks if the woman was Mary Ann or Ginger, Batista seems confused and says her name was Holly … and Debra, like me, was disappointed he didn’t get the Gilligan’s Island reference. At the hospital, the former Whore of Babylon describes being blindfolded and hearing two men, a younger one and the one referred to as The Professor. Red Herring alert here, I can only speculate that Travis must voice the professor when talking to him.

Dexter gets a flat tire and pulls into a shady motel for the night – no really, it’s called Shady Inn Motel. The desk clerk is a familiar character actor so you know immediately he will be doing more in this episode than just checking Dexter in as he is very chatty and asked a lot of questions, including questioning Dexter as a landscaper when he notices Dexter didn’t have a single callus on his hand. As Dexter leaves the Shady Inn to get some grub, the desk clerk watches him walk off with a suspicious look in his eye and we quickly find out why as Dexter stumbles upon his little pot farm growing in the middle of the corn field.

We catch up with Travis who rides up to his creepy little church on a bicycle. (Maybe he doesn’t want to risk the car anymore since Dexter surprised him in it.) Inside the church, we see Gellar ripping out the intestines of an alligator; your guess is as good as mine on that one. At the station, the Miami PD chuckleheads have narrowed the suspect pool down to 2400 possible previous students (take that number with a grain of salt as it was Batista who did the math on that one), and Louis, Masuka’s brainy intern (and budding love interest of Harrison’s babysitter, Jamie), seems to think he can narrow it down further. Debra, who’s getting a bit antsy with Dexter being MIA, heads over to his place to try calling him from there in hopes he will answer a call from home and interrupts Louis’s nerd date with Dexter’s babysitter. Debra’s plan worked and Dexter answered the phone, against Brian’s advice, and he is forced to blow her off, both as a sister and as his lieutenant, and rushes out to off Jonah so he can get home.

When Dexter arrives at Jonah’s place, he wants to do some murder recon before the kill as “The Code” requires him to be proof positive someone is guilty before murdering them. Of course Brain questions The Code and encourages Dexter to ditch the code. Dexter is not convinced – yet – and pops the trunk only to find someone has lifted his knives and forensics kit. Brian puts the desk clerk forward as suspect number one for the theft.

Dexter is making a homemade forensics kit when he turns to find Jonah in the house threatening to call the cops. Dexter walks Jonah through the real story of what happened and accuses him of killing his mother and sister. Jonah fires back his own accusation that Dexter killed his father and then for some inexplicable reason Dexter watches as Jonah bolts from the house, gets in a car, and drives off before even moving to chase after him at which point the neighbor gets a very good look at Dexter. Dexter then waves as if nothing is wrong and jumps in his own car making plans for a kill room for Jonah before remembering that someone pinched his knives.

Dexter arrives back at the motel and confronts the desk clerk in the shed. He admits to stealing Dexter’s knives and kit and attempts to blackmail Dexter to have them returned, and Brian is pushing for Dexter to kill him. Dexter grabs his knives but the desk clerk then pulls out Dexter’s shiny new gun and threatens him. Brian has clearly seen enough as he grabs a pitchfork from the shed wall and guts the desk clerk. It was a very cool shot as we see Brian pitchfork the desk clerk – and before we can say, “How did he do that?” the camera swings behind the desk clerk, left to right, and when we come around the other side Dexter is now holding the pitchfork. Dexter’s usual look of satisfaction during his kill slips a bit as he looks into the eyes of the desk clerk and doesn’t like what he sees. Normally Dexter sees the look of a killer getting what he deserves, but this time it’s something different. Dexter pulls the pitchfork out and falls in beside Brian as they both stand in front of a picture with a yellow farm house, giving us a very American Gothic look. Dexter and Brian are now discussing how to dispose of a body with no ocean in sight, and Dexter gets the bright idea to climb to the top of the grain silo and dump the body in there.

Checking in with Travis, we find him packing up Gellar’s things. He swings by the creepy church to drop them off in the hopes of getting some closure, and I think Gellar said it best when he suggested dumping them in the trash might have been a better solution; it seems as if Travis is reaching out to be welcomed back. Gellar begins telling Travis about all the horrible things happening in the world and why it needs to end, and Travis surprisingly resists. He tells Gellar what he wants and Gellar, for his part, tells him he will check with God to see if it’s okay.

Back at the station Debra and Quinn have a heart to heart where he apologizes for everything, including proposing to her. They make out for a bit and then put their relationship to bed for good. It was actually a very touching and real moment, the kind that makes us overlook some of the flaws inherent to these types of shows.

Speaking of inherent flaws, Dexter needs to kill Jonah quickly and head back to Miami, so thankfully Jonah just calls him up and sets up a midnight rendezvous. Dexter arrives, and as expected, Jonah is waiting with a meat hook in hand. Just when you think Dexter is about to waste the kid, Jonah gasps, “Kill me,” and Dexter finally clues in the something isn’t right. Brian also sees Dexter hesitate and starts coaching Dexter for the kill, but instead he manages to get Jonah to confess that he didn’t kill his sister but that she committed suicide. Jonah blamed himself but he blamed his mother more as she continually ragged on the kids for chasing their father off, so Jonah lost it on her and killed his mother in a rage. Dexter recognizes that Jonah has a conscience and regrets what he did so instead of killing Jonah, he flees, and when Brian tries to stop him, Dexter runs him over and Brian disappears. I thought this Brian thing was going to be an ongoing story arc and not just a one off. Or maybe he will be back … what do you guys think?

Meanwhile, at the station, Louis has narrowed the suspect pool from 2400 down to 200, including Travis. Speaking of Travis, he’s back at his sister’s, looking very happy for himself for having given up on his crazy crusade with Gellar when he notices a picture of himself and Gellar on the counter that he had returned to Gellar the previous night. He immediately looks out the window. There is no Gellar creeping in the flowers this time, but it’s looking like shaking a psychological manifestation of one’s own design is harder than he thought it would be.

We close on Dexter driving back to Miami, and in voice over mode, he’s talking about how light is required to define darkness – yadda yadda yadda – and he picks up Harry who is hitchhiking at the side of the road, which I thought was hilarious. It seems Dexter is back to being his normal self, which is to say crazy as all hell, but in a good way.

Photo Courtesy of Showtime

Dexter shows up at Brother Sam’s garage with his blood work gear and Debra tells him that she can’t let him work on the case because of his personal relationship with Brother Sam. I was completely floored that something logical about police work came out of Debra’s mouth, but then Dexter asked to work on this case very sternly and Debra relented. So Dexter uses his blood superpower and describes the entire sequence of events just by looking at the pool of blood. Masuka is showing his new intern Louis the ropes by equating fingerprint dusting to getting a woman’s nipple erect. Dexter has a theory that this is a revenge shooting from Julio’s gang and since Dexter killed Julio, suspect number one has to be Julio’s former number two man, whom Dexter had previously bashed in the head with Brother Sam’s bat. Dexter snags some blood form the bat to track him down.

So naturally Dexter gets a match and an address from the blood: one Leo Hernandez. I do try and suspend belief to a great extent when it comes to Dexter testing DNA and conducting searches from work, but he actually calls Leo’s house from his office! Come on dude, you are about to whack this dude, making phone calls from your office are probably not a great idea.

Debra gets “the boss is looking” looks from Batista and Masuka, and realizes that being in charge ain’t all it’s cracked up to be – and WHAM! LaGuerta leaps from the shadows to remind her that she’s not part of the gang anymore and that she wants a briefing on Deb’s progress on the Doomsday Killer later that day. Can someone tell me what job LaGuerta has right now? (Other than leaping from shadows at opportune moments.) Seriously, when she was Lieutenant no one was doing this to her. It’s getting kind of ludicrous.

After visiting Brother Sam in the hospital, Dexter heads to a candlelight vigil at Brother Sam’s garage – a candlelight vigil during the daylight hours. I swear it only gets dark in Miami so Dexter can kill someone, otherwise it’s sunny all the time. Dexter asks Nick where he can find Leo and before nick spews some crap about not being a rat he shushes the barking garage dog who was present during Brother Sam’s shooting. Now those of us with half a brain realize that the dog was fairly calm during Brother Sam’s shooting, and those of us with whole brains know that it’s just another Red Herring in a season full of them. Nick finally tells Dexter where to find Leo and to be sure we fill this week’s religious quota Nick takes Dexter’s hand so he can participate in a group prayer.

Back at the precinct Beavis and Butthead brief Debra on their findings so far after going through Gellar’s box. Apparently Gellar’s notes indicate there was some cult who believed there was a seven step recipe for bringing about the end of the world and it involved deciphering a code in the Book of Revelations. The notes are full of drawings, indicating that Gellar had figured out that code. Furthermore, and here is the hilarious part, they found an article of some tableau Gellar did that ticked off the university and there was an unknown woman in a picture accompanying the article – and low and behold only Quinn could identify her because of a lower back tattoo. Obviously Quinn didn’t mention to Debra that the woman is Clarissa because he would have to explain how he knows. Hilarious. And it’s not as if he is keeping it from her because she is his ex and cares about her feelings, he just doesn’t want to explain to his lieutenant that he banged the key witness in a serial murder case. The best part – it’s not as if she became key after he banged her, she was key before and he still did it. What a complete moron. The writer did give Quinn some more good lines as he asks Batista not to tell Debra because they are partners and should stick together. Batista tells him not to play the partner card on him and Quinn snaps, telling him that situations like this are the exact reason why the partner card is in the deck. It was a good line.

Back at the creepy abandoned church, we see Travis acting all incompetent as he tries to construct his Alpha Omega brand for the tied up Whore of Babylon. The writers are really trying to sell us on Travis being a dimwitted accomplice to Gellar, but I’m not buying it. Are you?

Beavis and Butthead’s plan to pull the wool over Debra’s eyes unsurprisingly fails and she tells them to haul her ass in to the station. Quinn is so FUBAR. Dexter wraps up some quick murder recon at Leo’s location then heads home to his hot babysitter packing up Debra’s belongings before she calls it a night. The only thing I haven’t figured out about this season of Dexter is who, exactly, is going to tap that – and I am still concerned it’s going to be Batista. Anyways, Dexter has a minor melt down over a jammed kitchen drawer and Harry shows up to help Dexter figure that he not only cares about Brother Sam but that he cares about him because he can see the light in Dexter, something Harry never did. I had a silly thought during this scene: wouldn’t it be cool if imaginary Harry had to battle imaginary Gellar? But I digress.

Debra has another shrink session in her office (is this the worlds coolest police psychologist or were the producers too cheap to spring for a new set?) and she cries about how tough her life is having just been promoted and living in her new beach house. The shrink wraps the session and gives Debra her card which she leaves sitting on her keyboard. I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess LaGuerta will find it.

We catch up with Chicago Transfer Anderson rolling in his police vehicle sporting some nice shades and a more appropriately coloured suit for Miami. He rolls up on a couple of druggies and snags one so as to catch a lead on Brother Sam’s shooting. He flamingos the dude to get some information. Flamingo? You ask, well apparently in Chicago in order to shake down a deadbeat for information, they would handcuff one arm to one ankle giving us the highly uncomfortable Flamingo pose. Hey, it’s better than waterboarding, right? I thought it was quite hilarious. Anyways, Anderson gets the name he wanted: Leo Hernandez. So of course, just as Dexter is about to land Leo, Anderson and Co. show up and spoil his plans. Also wrecking Dexter’s plans is Leo’s great idea to take on ten cops with a shotgun. Needless to say Leo lost. Even though his coworkers showed up and did his work for him, Dexter’s serial killer senses were still tingling and he couldn’t figure out why, until he discovered the missing surveillance footage in Leo’s DVD player. Back at the station, they view the footage and it shows a hooded man shoot Brother Sam, and Dexter notes the garage dog wasn’t barking at the assailant. That Red Herring from earlier turns out to be just a super obvious clue – or rather Dexter’s suspicions – that Nick is the culprit and not Leo.

Back at the creepy church we find Travis draining his own blood into a jar, placing it in a fridge among other jars of his own blood, and then casually removing some bologna and bread to make the whore a sandwich. Travis then heads over to a school to visit his sister who is apparently a kindergarten teacher, and upon her insistence, he takes a seat to paint with them. Travis asks the children what they’re painting and they respond that their painting what they want to be when they grow up. Travis’ sister leans over to hug him and says – I kid you not – “Don’t you just envy them, so full of dreams, and all the time in the world to make them come true.” Now I will praise the writers for some great lines this season, and I will also give them some grief over some of their attempts to fool us, but that line is just downright atrocious and someone should lose their job in the writing department. Envying children and their dreams is normal and natural dialogue, but pontificating aloud about a child having all the time in the world to make their dreams come true is just plain contrived crap that is present for no other reason than to make us watch Travis’ reaction. I don’t know, maybe I’m being a bit harsh and maybe writing these reviews has caused me to watch this show more critically than a normal viewer. Or maybe I’m plain wrong, but I doubt it and as always I will digress.

Dexter has now moved on to doing murder recon on Nick and breaks into his place, through the front door, in broad daylight. Sigh. Moving on. In voice over Dexter recalls the night he was doing murder recon on Brother Sam when Nick took a shot at him, so he looks around briefly and finds the bullet had only penetrated the dry wall about a half inch and is just sitting there in plain sight for Dexter to retrieve. Double sigh. So Dexter heads back to his lab and conducts some ballistics testing using a microscope and finds it to be a match to the bullets that shot Brother Sam. Okay – come on! Who is writing this stuff? Deep breath Tom. Obviously some poor bastard was given the job of moving this story arc along as fast as possible. I need to remind myself that this is still a damn fine show in spite of all its faults.

Back at the station Batista is interrogating Clarissa while Debra watches, so naturally she questions why Quinn isn’t in there and sends him in. Of course Clarissa gets bent out of shape about the accusations and plays the “Quinn fucked me” card before storming out of the interview, and Debra gets so mad she’s nearly in tears. Quinn accuses her of being jealous, which I was wondering myself with Debra getting all teary-eyed, but she reins it into a very scary calm and makes Quinn hightail it out of the room.

Dexter arranges a babysitter so he can go kill Nick, but he gets a call that Brother Sam has come out of his coma. When Dexter arrives, he finds out that although Brother Sam has come out of his coma, it’s not good news and that he only has a little time left. Dexter tells Brother Sam he knows it was Nick who shot him and promises to avenge him, but Brother Sam ain’t having it and tells Dexter to pass on a message of forgiveness to Nick … which totally confuses Dexter, who you can tell is in full Darkness Mode. Brother Sam explains to Dexter that he too needs to forgive Nick, and that if he doesn’t let go of the darkness, the darkness won’t let go of him. What Brother Sam says makes sense but unless they plan on turning this show into a situational comedy, I’m guessing Dexter won’t let go.

Back at Debra’s new beach house, her housewarming shindig is in full swing and everyone’s been invited – from Masuka’s new intern Louis to Dexter’s babysitter whatshername (who seems to hit it off with Deb at last). Batista shows up with a bottle of tequila as an apology to Deb for keeping her in the dark about Quinn boffing a person of interest. Speak of the devil and he shall appear – Quinn strolls in drunk as a skunk with a tart on his arm that blows him off when she realizes Deb’s his ex.

Back at the creepy church, Gellar shit talks Travis a bit then tells him to brand the whore because he has other business to take care of and leaves Travis’ mind … er, the church. Travis then picks up the Alpha Omega brand, and just when I think I’m about to see sizzling whore flesh, we cut to Travis dropping her off at some beach and telling her that she’s free. Huh.

We return to Deb’s party, and Louis is working his nerd magic on Dexter’s babysitter when a drunk Quinn strolls over and throws an enormous cockblock, aggressively hitting on her. Batista notices his sister is in trouble, so he grabs Quinn and politely mentions that she’s his sister. Quinn states he wants to have a relationship with her ass and Batista drops him like a sack of potatoes. Partner card that, Quinn. Quinn and Deb have moment on the floor where he asks if she ever loved him and when she fails to answer, he does his usual daytime-television-storm-off.

At the hospital, we learn that Brother Sam has passed, and as the camera pans to Dexter’s left, we see Harry sitting beside him. There was a brief moment where I thought we would see Brother Sam as well. Wouldn’t it be great if Brother Sam became Dexter’s psychosis manifestation instead of Harry? Anyways, Harry surprisingly counsels Dexter to grant Brother Sam his dying wish and give Nick a pass just this once. Dexter runs into Nick outside and after an awkward fist bump, Dexter asks Nick to join him for a ride. At this point I’m really hoping for a kill but I don’t have my hopes too high as Dexter isn’t wearing his kill gear. Deb’s home alone and keeps getting Dexter’s voice mail so she picks up her psychiatrist’s business card and seems to ponder calling her.

Dexter is now strolling on the beach with Nick. He confronts Nick, tells him he knows he shot Brother Sam and that he wants to know why. Nick confesses that he felt duped by Brother Sam and his religion and he wanted to go back to his gang homies who wouldn’t take him back unless he proved himself. So he shot Brother Sam. Dexter tells Nick that Brother Sam wanted him to know that he forgives him, and just when you think this is all going to work out for the light in Dexter, Nick starts laughing and telling Dexter that there is no proof and nothing anyone can do about it. Basically he throws everything Dexter stands for right in his face. Naturally, Dexter’s Dark Passenger surfaces like the Incredible Hulk to smash Nick into the ocean and drown him. Dexter says there is no light in Nick and no light in himself, and when he turns around, lo and behold Dexter’s brother, Brian (a.k.a. the Ice Truck Killer), is applauding – and Dexter actually seems half happy to see him.

Dexter described this moment with Nick as a crossroads, and I totally believe it was – for Harry. I think if Dexter chose the light, it would have been Brother Sam applauding on that beach, but he chose the darkness, so instead we get Dexter’s brother, the manifestation of everything dark in Dexter. Also, I knew there had to be a reason for all of the Ice Truck Killer references throughout the season.

Photo Courtesy of Showtime

During Dexter’s examination of the wings, he finds a very small spot that appears to have been repaired and Dexter seems confident this is the clue he’s been looking for to find his Doomsday Killers. Speaking of whom, we see Travis and Prof. Gellar kneeling in their grubby little church praying. Travis glances at Gellar and has a quick vision of blood running down Gellar’s head, and then it’s gone. You know what that’s all about, right loyal readers? Travis is having a vision of when he killed Gellar. That’s right, I am adding to my theory that not only is Gellar just a figment of Travis’s imagination, but that Gellar was Travis’s first victim. Anyways, Gellar suggests it’s time to get their kill on and when Travis seems caught off guard, Gellar asks him if he’s still not hearing God and Travis sadly states that he is not. So now we know why Travis has Gellar as an imaginary friend; it seems to be how he rationalizes not hearing God himself and that God is speaking through Gellar. Gellar then glances at his new painting of a scantily glad woman with no face and he says they need to find their Whore of Babylon.

Back at the lab, Dexter, having analyzed the repaired portion of the wing, has determined that it a special type of glue and fabric used in ancient manuscript repair. Too bad Travis just didn’t get his glue from Dollarama like the rest of us, because the Angel of Death is now one step closer to getting you on his table. During the police briefing, Debra mentions that the angel victim was a waitress at the Miami Cultural Centre where there are many ancient artifacts in need of repair; make that two steps closer Travis. Debra then sends Beavis and Butthead (Batista and Quinn) up to the University of Tallahassee to interview Gellar’s previous TA, Carissa Porter. Also, during the police briefing, we are introduced to Masuka’s new intern, Louis Green (aka Goose), who seems to be a bit of a computer whiz (as Masuka requests if he could use his techy powers to track down the Ice Truck Killers prosthetic arm evidence stolen, and sold, by his previous intern). After the briefing, Quinn asks Debra for the engagement ring back and they seem to be somewhat civil with each other.

Dexter then bumps into Brother Sam who’s leaving the police station and ends up setting up a man date with him. Brother Sam reveals he’s at the police station because the garage got shot up overnight. Dexter then hits up the Miami Cultural Centre to conduct some kill recon and runs into an old lady who refers to herself as a Docent, which is basically just a Museum-Know-It-All (Wikipedia to the rescue). Dexter plays as if he needs a painting fixed; the Docent blows him off and makes him sit in a dark room with a bunch of school kids on a day trip as they watch a film about the museum and how it works. Wouldn’t ya just know it - Dexter spots Travis in the video only moments after he sits down. Dexter gets a call from Chicago Transfer Anderson to meet him at a crime scene so Dexter has to jet. When he attempts to ask the Docent what Travis’s name is, she shushes him, and in VO Dexter busts out his best line in a long time: “Worst Docent Ever.” Oh that made me LOL. (You kids are still saying LOL right?)

At the crime scene, Dexter takes all of 30 seconds to read the blood and solve the crime for Anderson who once again puts his foot in his mouth by asking how a professional like Dexter can work with these Miami chuckleheads. Dexter casually points out that Debra is his sister. Geez. This Anderson can’t catch a break. The writers did give him a good line, however, when the landlord shows up and asked how long for the police to clean up the crime scene. Anderson, in his crazy deep voice, asks, “Do I look like your maid?” I thought it was very classy of him not to add a “bitch” at the end of it.

We then cut to Travis and Gellar chilling on a Miami boardwalk while surrounded by many young, beautiful, drunk women (aka whores) while they are drinking coffee. The Red Herring for this episode is that this time Gellar has a cup for himself but you ain’t fooling me writers … a hallucination can drink a cup of coffee just as easily as the next guy. Travis then notices the paper box – front and centre is Gellar on the cover as the Doomsday Killer, and Gellar is totally calm about it. Why wouldn’t he be, he’s an F’ing hallucination!

Back at Dexter’s place, he and Harrison are doing some murder recon on the PC before Brother Sam arrives, and Dexter gets Travis’ name. Brother Sam shows up with beer and stuffed animals. After Dexter puts Harrison to bed, he and Brother Sam retire to the balcony for their man date. Now it’s Dexter’s turn to get real on Brother Sam and relates how he watched his mother murdered as a child and he has a darkness because of it. Brother Sam tries to convince Dexter that there’s no darkness that the light can’t overcome, and that all you need is just a little bit of light to keep it at bay.

Everything else aside, the moment seems genuine between the two and it seems as if Dexter finally has a friend of the non-murdering type.

We then jump back to Travis flying solo. His a really poor attempt to nab a whore off the boardwalk is interrupted and he has to awkwardly run away. So Travis crawls back to Gellar who promises to help him try again the following night.
The next day, Travis leaves for work and Dexter breaks in for some more murder recon and sees Travis’s diploma on the wall from the same university that Gellar taught at. He also finds a very old book with the page numbers cut out, corresponding to the numbers found on the Doomsday Killer victims – and that’s all the evidence Dexter needs. It’s killing time. Well, first Dexter cuts out a page from the book and heads to the lab to make sure the cut out numbers match those of the one in the book. Either Dexter is being unusually thorough, or the missing page to the book will get him in trouble later.

So Beavis and Butthead arrive at the university and conduct an off-the-cuff interview with Gellar’s old TA, Clarissa, who defends Gellar and pretty much admits to sleeping with him as well. So naturally, Quinn hits on her and Batista rolls his eyes. I think these two are pushing for a sitcom. Anderson and Debra have a bonding moment over the Miami Homicide chuckleheads. We then cut to Quinn, drunk as a skunk, hitting on Clarissa. Batista halfheartedly attempts to dissuade him from actually sleeping with a key witness in their serial killer case, and Quinn blows him off and bangs her anyways.

Harrison busts in on Debra, who is unexpectedly back at Dexter’s apartment, and he sees pictures from the Doomsday Killer case. Harrison’s babysitter/Batista’s hot sister has the nerve to get uppity with Debra and attempts to dress her down. Dexter walks in during the argument and actually takes the babysitter’s side. This is just another weird subplot involving Batista’s sister/Dexter’s babysitter.

We then catch up with Travis and Gellar sitting in a car bird dogging potential whores when a couple walks by. Gellar tries selling the idea to Travis who is naturally concerned about the size of the dude with this whore. Gellar lashes out about the dude not being as big as God and pushes Travis’s leg down on the accelerator, running the couple over. Gellar tells Travis to hurry and throw the woman in the trunk. That’s it for me, I am 100% sold that Gellar is not real.

The next day, Batista shows up at Clarissa’s apartment to collect Quinn and while waiting for him to get out of the shower, he finds a box in plain sight marked “Gellar” (*rolls eyes*). Inside it, he finds a journal with hand-drawn depictions of people with snakes coming out of their bellies and women hanging in angelic poses. Clarissa enters and gets all pissy about Batista going through her stuff (which, by the way, is just as bad as Quinn banging a key witness. Beavis and Butthead strike again). When Battista asks her if this is Gellar’s stuff, she hesitates just long enough before answering yes – that tells me the answer is actually no, and that it probably belongs to Travis.

At the station, Debra gets cornered by a therapist. Debra’s been dodging this woman for weeks since the restaurant shooting. So Debra proceeds to answer the therapist’s questions totally and completely wrong, ensuring that this therapist will become a recurring character. The therapist’s first course of action is to suggest Debra get a place of her own, which strangely leads Debra and Anderson to their crime scene from earlier, and they bully their way into Deb renting the place. The funny part of this scene is that the landlord mistakes Debra for Anderson’s wife, and Anderson laughs it off and mentions that he’s married. My official theory on Anderson is that he and his wife are separated, and she took their kid and moved to Miami which forced him to leave Chicago Homicide for Miami.

We return to the station where Goose tells Masuka that while he was unable to retrieve the Ice Truck Killer hand, but he was able to completely remove any evidence of the sale from the web. Oh, and he added a porn scrubber to Masuka’s PC. I think Masuka loves this guy more than the last intern.

Just as we think the episode is winding down, Travis gets in his car and is quickly jumped by Dexter from the backseat. Dexter places a wire around Travis’s neck, instructing him to drive. During the drive, Dexter accuses Travis of being the Doomsday Killer and Dexter suggests that God told Travis to do it, but Travis is quick to mention that God doesn’t talk to him … but God talks to Gellar. Travis also divulges that he hasn’t killed anyone, he wants to kill them but he can’t, and that Gellar does the killing. Dexter tells Travis that Gellar is pulling him towards the darkness and that Gellar is pure darkness. Dexter doesn’t even know how right he is. Gellar is Travis’s Dark Passenger. Knowing that Travis hasn’t actually killed anyone makes Dexter second guess himself, and knowing that he needs Travis to lead him to Gellar he lets Travis go. Red Herring number two: Travis calls Gellar on his cell phone and doesn’t mention getting jumped by Dexter. The dude is batshit crazy and just lied to his imaginary friend.

We’re lead once again to think the episode is winding down, but during Dexter’s VO  and the score leading us into the credits, we see Brother Sam opening the garage on a bright and sunny morning - and WHAM! A stranger steps out of the darkness and puts three bullets in him at close range. All three bullets are in totally non-lethal parts of the body though, so I’m sure he is fine, but still, another jarring ending this season. I have to mention I’m really enjoying this season and these endings.

Photo Courtesy of Showtime

Speaking of faith, the episode opens with Brother Sam christening one of his flock, and Dexter – in VO mode – acknowledges that, right or wrong, Brother Sam truly believes. As I suspected, Dexter mentions to Brother Sam that he needs his car fixed again and is then called away to a crime scene, which reminds us how insanely the previous episode ended, with the two horses galloping through the streets ridden by mannequins interspersed with body parts.

Dexter arrives on the scene and everything is surreal: for him because he is in awe of the imagination of this new killer; and for everyone else because of its gruesomeness. Dexter mentions the Ice Truck Killer in his VO and Debra actually mentions him aloud, catching Dexter off guard, reminding him that he isn’t the only one who had a relationship with him. While Debra is flexing her new lieutenant muscles, her new detective appears unannounced with a theory about the horses being a reenactment of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – and Beavis and Butthead (Quinn and Batista, I’ll explain later) immediately get their panties in a bunch because they don’t know who this guy is. Debra does a quick introduction for Detective Mike Anderson from Chicago, and because being a transfer wasn’t going to be hard enough, let’s quickly do an introduction at a crime scene and get everyone disliking you even more. I can already see it – this guy is going to sniff out Dexter right quick. The writers give Quinn another funny line when Anderson mentions his theory and quips it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out, and then proceeds to take his suit jacket off commenting on the heat. Quinn fires back, “Yeah, it’s Miami genius.” Keep this up writers and I might start to like this guy again.

For some reason, Dexter – the Department Lab Geek Blood Splatter Guy – is doing the autopsy on a major crime victim, and discovers and small piece of paper in the victim’s eyeball that reads “1242” … which leads him to find another on our first victim, Fruit Stand Guy, which has “1237”.

Jamie, Dexter’s babysitter/Batista’s sister and love interest, calls Dexter and mentions Harry isn’t feeling well. Deputy Matthews shuts down LaGuerta, telling her Debra will be doing the press conference regarding the dead guy on the horses, and LaGuerta is pissed which makes me happy. Anderson tells Debra she needs to start dressing more professional and she seems to actually take the advice. Debra took advice from someone other than Dexter? Which means Anderson is probably Debra’s next love interest, which also means he is completely f**ked.

Masuka’s relationship with his new intern seems to be progressing strangely.

During a briefing, Beavis (Quinn) starts getting on Anderson’s case again and Dexter jumps in to defend him, which means to me that Anderson will definitely start catching on to Dexter’s alter ego. Debra coins the killer the Doomsday Killer. Well done Deb, I like it.

Travis and EJO are having lunch in some café and Travis starts Bird Dogging the waitress, which seems to piss EJO off, who, by the way, is sitting there with nothing in front of him. I’m starting to think this is a reverse red herring. They just want me to think EJO is not there when he is, in fact, there. Whether he’s there or not, I do have to give credit to the writers because it’s driving me crazy trying to figure it out. Travis asks EJO if he should ask the waitress out. I really didn’t think they had that kind of relationship.

Debra and Dexter are enjoying their new roommate morning routine, and she asks his advice on her new professional attire. I wonder if it’s lost on Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter that during the first five seasons of this show they had a romantic relationship in real life while playing brother and sister on the show, and then when they divorced in real life they are now living like husband and wife? But I digress, Debra and Dexter are having another husband and wife – I mean brother and sister moment at Dexter’s apartment while little Harry still seems unwell.

The next day, Dexter gets his daily Sunday School lesson at Brother Sam’s where he realizes he has had faith his whole life, in his father. Dexter is then riding the elevator with Debra at the station and Debra ponders aloud whether a person can die from crotch asphyxiation as she pulls at her pantyhose, and Dexter tells her she has crossed a line between healthy brother and sister exchanges. I knew it wasn’t just me who felt that way!

The station is full of religious whack jobs as Miami PD continues its search for the Doomsday Killer. Debra kicks off the heels to practice her press conference speech and LaGuerta slips from the shadows to advise her to just be herself. I smell sabotage. Dexter and Harry debate the possibility of there being two Doomsday Killers because of the seemingly different styles between the crime scene tableaux and the hacking off of the limbs. Oh no you don’t, I will not accept this Red Herring! EJO is not real!

Masuka then gets a call from a terrible voice actor inquiring about the authenticity of the prosthetic hand from the Ice Truck Killer killings on buythistreasure.com. Showtime actually set up this faux website with Ice Truck Killer memorabilia, and when you click to buy an item it takes you to the Showtime website. I thought it was pretty neat that Dexter went a bit interactive. Anyways, Masuka may be a total pervert, but stupid he is not and he immediately calls out his hot intern who cops to the theft saying she was short on rent, and Masuka fires her hot ass. Also, not buying the “short on rent” thing and I’m pretty sure she is bat shit crazy; she’ll be back.

Debra holds her first press conference, and – surprise surprise – she dropped an F bomb, causing LaGuerta’s face to light up like a kid on Christmas morning, and it didn’t go unnoticed either. New transfer Anderson caught it and asked Butthead (Batista) about it who basically relayed that it was par for the course.

Beavis and Butthead have one more religious nut job to track down and jump in the Trans Am to make a house call.

Dexter gets the call we’ve been waiting for: Harry’s in the hospital. The doctor tells Dexter that Harry’s appendix ruptured and he needs surgery. We then cut from an ultra-serious moment to Beavis and Butthead on a wild goose chase for this last preacher, and Butthead (Quinn) finds a joint under the passenger visor and Beavis (Batista) claims it’s from the car’s previous owner. Uh, OK. So naturally Quinn decides to light it up and they both get completely FUBAR’d while on the job. I do give both actors credit, they both really pulled off the look that stoners get on their faces. Something tells me they both went a little “method actor” for this scene if you know what I mean.

Back at the hospital, Dexter receives a call from Brother Sam telling him his car is ready and Dexter blows him off telling him he’s at the hospital with his kid, so naturally Brother Sam shows up to give Dexter some moral support. While sitting in the waiting room, Brother Sam relates his life story, describing his gangster father who once used him as a child to distract a man so he could kill them right in front of little Sam. By the look on his face, you could tell Dexter was thinking he was looking at another kindred spirit who was born in blood. Brother Sam’s next story was about how when he tried to kill another inmate in prison, he literally saw the bright light of God that made him stop. Like anyone else listening to these stories, Dexter rattled some change in his pocket and fled to get a coffee. While getting coffee, Dexter did what many of us did in situations like these – he turned to God and asked for his son to be okay and that he would do anything in exchange for that to happen. Dexter didn’t feel like God was listening so he looked up and angrily asked, “Okay?” Only Dexter would try intimidating God.

We then peek in on Travis, who tells EJO he’s going on a date and EJO is clearly not happy, but goes on to say God gave us free will for a reason and continues painting. Travis quickly, and impressively, ends up in bed with the waitress.

Back at the hospital, the doctor tells Dexter it’s a miracle – Harry is fine and in recovery. Brother Sam tells Dexter that while he can’t prove God exists, Dexter can’t prove that he doesn’t and Dexter doesn’t seem to have an argument.

Travis wakes up in a an empty bed, and if you are like me, your initial thought is that she woke up and saw creepy EJO staring at her and bailed, but no. It seems EJO has plans for her and he has her tied up in the kitchen. Travis kinda protests, but not a whole lot.

Debra thinks she’s about to get spanked by Deputy Matthews and is surprised to learn, as I’m sure he was, that her press conference was a success and people responded well to her candor. You go girl. New transfer Anderson refers to Quinn and Batista as Crocket and Tubbs, but I’m sticking with Beavis and Butthead. It seems Beavis and Butthead uncovered a new lead identifying EJO as James Gellar, Revelations expert, and new suspect. A suspect because Mr. Gellar went underground three years previous when he was fired for stealing the ancient sword of John The Revelator, the man who actually wrote The Book of Revelations. Am I the only one who thought of Sons of Anarchy at this point? Hopefully Beavis and Butthead will smoke up every week; you can’t ignore these kinds of results!

Debra gets a hot tip about some Alpha and Omega symbols at some botanical garden and calls in her brother – the blood spatter guy? Oh wait, the tip also said there was some blood, now it all makes sense.

Dexter shows up and seems to be the only one interested in actually following the blood. It leads to Travis’ hot date strung up in a new religious tableau, complete with a gag, angel wings, and a nasty looking spiked collar, spikes turned in, not out. Of course there is an idiot cop on the scene that instead of standing in awe of what they are seeing, blindly rushes forward and hits the trip wire causing our angel to spread her wings and the collar to puncture her neck. Naturally it’s Dexter who announces that it’s too late for her as her jugular is punctured, but he is also the guy who hears the buzzing sounds coming from the closet. Inside the closet is a crazy huge swarm of locusts, and much like the snakes, they are portrayed with some impressive CGI. As the locusts spread into the crowd, Dexter sees one civilian not ducking in panic, but watching in awe. It’s Travis. Dexter purposefully notes in voice over that Travis must be “one” of the Doomsday Killers. I’m sorry, but I ain’t buying it. Gellar, much like Harry, may have been real once but I am convinced he is just in Travis’ head. You’re going to have to try harder than that writers. Show me EJO actually interacting with someone. Ever since the The Sixth Sense (when I was completely fooled), I am very conscious of whether or not people interact with other people.

What do you guys think?

Photo Courtesy of Showtime

It’s Deb’s first day as Lieutenant and she is concerned about everything including what to wear and whether or not she should go to the office or the freshly reported crime scene. She chooses the office but the predictable bitching about not being a detective has already begun. This season will end with her as Detective and Batista as Lieutenant, mark my words.

Next we have Travis in an old church preaching to previously assumed murdered jogger chained to the floor, repent your sins blah blah blah. We then cut to the murder-scene-of-the-week with a trashy hooker as the victim looking very dead on the shore under a bridge. Batista and Dexter notice a Trans Am and quip about who drove it, Smokey or the Bandit, and Batista looks disgusted by Dexter’s intelligence and tells him Burt Reynolds drove it. Masuka makes fat jokes about the victim (stay classy Masuka) and Quinn arrives late to the crime scene dropped off by some hootchie blonde in a convertible. I guess the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else as the saying goes. Batista grabs him up like Debra’s big brother until Quinn reveals that he and Debra are done and claims she dumped him because she made Lieutenant. Batista calls bullshit and Quinn accuses him of being oblivious and letting everyone walk all over him, and even calls him Ms. LaGuerta, which caused me to shoot root beer out my nose. I am still unsure the root beer nose evacuation was because of how funny the line was or just out of surprise that the writers gave Quinn something remotely interesting to say – still undecided.

Dexter notices the victim’s tooth is cracked and Masuka suggests it’s probably from the beating she took (duh) and Dexter thinks it may have been from someone trying to rip it out (seriously?). Debra is at her desk being Lieutenant-y and trying to find a replacement detective when LaGuerta appears from the shadows in what appears to be her first attempt to F over Debra. Batista places an office to office phone call and tells her to stand her ground. Batista is being a way more solid guy than usual – consider my antenna up.

We learn that Dexter is a scrapbooker from way back; he flips through an old one as Harry reminisces about the time he discovered his son was a serial killer. Good times. Dexter remembers a serial killer from long ago with an MO that included ripping out incisors. Holy Weak Connection Batman. Dexter figures that serial killer would be an old man now, so he hits up a nearby old age home and vets out suspects until he has just one. Sometimes these Kill-of-the-Week story lines are so contrived it would be almost better to do away with it here and there, or at least use two episodes for the set-up, but I digress.

We then get Debra’s first briefing as lieutenant and Quinn proposes a really stupid idea about releasing information about the snakes to the press to drum up a lead. Debra shoots the idea down so as not to compromise the case if it goes to court, and LaGuerta leaps from the shadows to screw with Debra again by supporting Quinn’s stupid idea. I’m starting to realize that Batista’s solid, good guy act is meant to balance LaGuerta’s evil bitch act. I would not be surprised if in the next episode, LaGuerta has a large, black, up-twisted mustache on her upper lip and maybe a black top hat.

Next, we have Travis yelling at his chained jogger victim that he doesn’t believe what he is saying, the irony being that in this scene in particular, it’s Travis who doesn’t seem to believe what he is saying. Travis leaves the room to chat with EJO who cautions him that the victim is just telling him what he wants to hear and that they can’t proceed until he is pure. Until I see EJO interact with someone else I will continue to believe he is just Travis’ dark passenger and not real at all. I will not be M. Knight Shyamalan’d.

Dexter rolls up on a golf course to do some murder recon on his possible elderly serial killer who turns out to be more crotchety than the two old balcony Muppets combined. Dexter notes the old bastard has a false tooth that matches all of the teeth the serial killer pulls. Dex then gets a call from Brother Sam to pick up his repaired car, so he bails on his murder recon but not before setting up a play date for the next day.

Brother Sam seems to be happy with his ability to rehab his flock and invites Dexter to a church service. He convinces Dexter to come by extending the invitation to little Harry as well. Dexter heads back to the office for some more murder recon and gets ambushed by Debra in total freak out mode; he, of course, talks her off the ledge. Dexter discovers Walter, his crotchety old serial killer, has no criminal record and is listed as a victim of parental abuse.

Dexter shows up the next day to give Walter a lift so he can do a few errands, and Walter answers the door in his briefs – totally unnecessary! Some of these errands include picking up prescriptions, booze, and spank material including issues of “Teen Ass”, “Nipple Parade”, and “Spanked”, I kid you not. Walter makes a strange request to be dropped off at a storage facility where he takes his booze and porno mags into a storage locker (eye roll).

Back at the ranch, Quinn catches Debra looking at him; he turns on the slime, hits on Masuka’s new intern and gets shot down completely. Debra tries to have an adult conversation with Quinn about the situation and he behaves like a whiney bitch and again insinuates that Debra dumped him to be lieutenant. What a douchebag.

Next we see our jogger victim break free from his chains and makes an escape attempt which ends up being foiled by a horse chilling in the church. Travis catches him and EJO can be seen observing in the background, commenting that the victim is ready. It’s so obvious now that I’m starting to wonder if they just want me to think he’s just a figment of Travis’ imagination.

Dexter recons the storage facility and, lo and behold, finds a tin full of teeth. He concludes Walter is the Tooth Fairy killer from his scrap book. This is all too easy.

Now it’s night, and Dexter is decked out in his Murder Gear. Just as I think Walter’s time is up, Dexter gets a phone call from a frazzled Walter claiming to have gotten off at the wrong bus stop and needs a ride home. Come on Dexter, this is too easy, get a clue. So Dexter picks up Walter and surprise! Walter pulls a gun on him and says while Dexter was getting his booze and porno, he checked the vehicle registration to get his real name and then “Goggled” his name to find out he is Miami Metro. That is not a typo by the way, the old bastard said “Goggled” instead of “Googled” (this episode does have some great one liners). Walter wants to find out how Dexter figured him out but Dexter cuts that plan short by ramming his vehicle into a chain-link fence, deploying the airbags. I’m guessing once Dexter whacks his old bastard, another visit to Brother Sam will be in order.

We see Debra telling LaGuerta that she will not be taking her advice and that she has chosen a Chicago transfer as her new detective and not the guy hand-picked by LaGuerta. LaGuerta makes no bones about her feelings on the issue and openly questions Debra’s decision. When our new detective shows up and thinks Debra is pulling a prank on him when she introduces herself as the lieutenant, LaGuerta literally leaps off the screen to give her an “I told you so” look – god, really wish she was wearing the mustache when she did it. Debra handles him well, dressing him down immediately and threatening not to give him the position. He appears properly chastised so I’m reserving judgment on this guy for now.

Dexter and Walter are now sufficiently bloodied. Thankfully, Dexter is wielding a knife and unthankfully, Walter is half naked again wrapped to a dentist’s chair – get it? Dentist? Tooth Fairy? These ironic kills are way better than sensible kill locations. So of course our victims last words cause Dexter to contemplate his life and whether or not he will be like Walter in 30 years. When Walter claims he wishes he could see the look on his son’s face when he finds out his dad was a serial killer, Dexter gets an idea to make the kill look like a heart attack and tells Walter so that he dies knowing know one will ever know what he was. Dexter then takes the tin full of teeth and dumps them from his boat instead of dumping Walter, who he slipped back into the elderly home to be found.

We then see Masuka’s hot intern stealing evidence from the Ice Truck murders. Masuka had shown it to her earlier in the episode to impress her because he knew she had a fixation about it. Then we cut to Dexter putting Walter’s blood slide in his little box when he drops it on the ground. Is Dexter showing his age? He’s certainly showing a lapse in intelligence when he notes he named the inserts rather than the actual slides because now he doesn’t know which slide is which. Really, Dexter? You didn’t name the actual slides? If you say so.

Finally, we are treated to what is probably the biggest WTF moment in the history of television – we cut to a city street, in broad daylight, with two horses running down the middle carrying what appears to be two riders, both of which are made up of human body parts strung together with mannequin parts. Aside from a few Medieval symbols, and one of the riders holding a sword aloft, it’s hard to tell what the hell this is all about.

Consider me intrigued.

Photo Courtesy of Showtime

We open this week’s episode with Dexter engaging in the ritualistic bathing of his two year old. I’m not sure if it’s just me or not, but without Dexter’s wife and stepchildren, there is something decidedly disturbing about him raising a child now. This is especially true when he sits in a rocking chair with little Harry who requests a “monster” story which turns out to be Dexter regaling the child with his murderous exploits in which he describes his victims as monsters and himself as the hero. This behavior may have been acceptable when Harry was an infant, but at two years old, he’s starting to register certain things. Case in point, little Harry finishes Dexter’s story by saying the monster goes in “daddy’s box” – yikes! Better curb the creepy stories Dex.

We then see Creepy Colin and EJO (Edward James Olmos) lugging mannequin parts up some stairs. God knows what these two are up to. See what I did there? God knows? Get it? We are two episodes in and the religious overtones are starting to get to me already. I can’t help myself.

Quinn then proposes to Debra at his apartment by placing the ring in the fridge, and when she sees it and freaks, he responds by saying, “What? I’m trying to be fucking romantic here.” Smooth Quinn, smooth. Needless to say she says she has to think about it. Is that ever a good sign?

Debra then flees to Dexter for a brother and sister heart-to-heart. I have always attributed their true-to-life brother sister relationship to their off-screen relationship, but since they have married and divorced each other during the course of Dexter’s six seasons, I have to admit these two are just pretty darn good actors. Considering Dexter’s feelings about Quinn, I was very surprised he didn’t out-and-out campaign against marrying Quinn. I think he’s just trying to play it cool for now.

Masuka is shown flashing his smartphone to everyone in the squad with the YouTube video of Debra taking down our crazy restaurant shooter. Where are they going with this?

Acting Lieutenant Batista informs the squad the Fruit Vendor/Snake Incubator victim has cartel connections and sees this as a message killing. But a Dexter voice over tells us Dexter smells a kindred spirit and isn’t buying the cartel theory.

We then get introduced to guest star Mos’ character (you might also know him as Mos Def) Brother Sam. I will admit, I am very excited about Mos guest starring this season, I’m a big fan. So Brother Sam is an ex-con who has apparently turned over a new leaf and runs a garage that employs ex-cons and has connections to our Fruit Vendor/Snake Incubator victim. Dexter apparently has history with him as well.

Newly minted Captain LaGuerta drops by freshly blackmailed Deputy Matthews’ office to push for her ex-husband’s promotion to Lieutenant … yeah that’s happening.

Battista interrogates Brother Sam and the thing most apparent to me is that Mos has taken some acting lessons since I last saw him – bravo my good man. Brother Sam isn’t buying the cartel connection either, saying our Fruit Vendor’s demons were long gone.

During Brother Sam’s interrogation, we get another Dexter VO explaining that Brother Sam was previously on Dexter’s hit list before a drug charge landed him in jail and therefore out of Dexter’s purview. Everyone deserves a second chance, right?

Deputy Matthews then drops bombshell number two on Detective Debra Morgan by offering her the Lieutenant position. Turns out her viral video has landed her on Miami’s hero list and gives Matthews the perfect opportunity to stick it to LaGuerta. Debra is unsure about accepting because she has mentored under Batista.

Dexter is bouncing little Harry on his knee while he researches killing Brother Sam and little Harry mentions Daddy’s box again. Dexter seems to be catching on – this isn’t working out very well for him.

Deb and Dex have another brother/sister moment over more than a few beers discussing taking the Lieutenant job. I love the scenes … these two have great chemistry.

Next we see Creepy Colin sneaking into someone’s apartment. Uh oh, someone’s gonna get killed. Or not. Turns out it’s Creepy Colin’s sister’s apartment, he’s there for dinner, oh and he has a name now: Travis. Travis and his sister have their own brother/sister moment over dinner. I’m sensing a pattern here. Anyways, she convinces him to blow off work and she doesn’t seem to know “work” consists of hanging with EJO and participating in murders and mannequin shenanigans.

Dexter reverses his car into a wall for an excuse to swing by Brother Sam’s garage for some murder recon. The garage is full of ex-cons, who appear to be heavy on the “con” and light on the “ex” part. Brother Sam is in the back working over a punching bag in a completely unbelievable way and stops to provide this random white boy with an estimate for his dinged SUV and proceeds to talk about the time he got away with murder. No, I’m not kidding. Dexter sometimes reminds me of the show 24 in that there are times you have to ignore sloppily handled exposition just to get to the good parts. Brother Sam also explains the his role as the “Good Shepherd” and how he needs to protect his flock of ex-cons. We also get some foreshadowing to one of his employees having wandered off the path.

So Dexter seems convinced it’s time to put Brother Sam in “Daddy’s Box”. Is Mos really the “Kill-of-the-week?” Say it ain’t so Mo!

Masuka was checking out his intern’s ass. So was Batista. So was I.

Quinn ambushes Dexter and says he is concerned that Debra is worried about choosing between the two of them and asks Dexter to put in a good word for him. Really, Quinn? Dexter was just like, ”whateves”.

Deb then asks for Batista’s blessing to take the Lieutenant job and he surprisingly takes the news like a man and offers his genuine blessing for Deb, and then dresses down LaGuerta just because he’s tired of her shit.

That night, Dexter follows Brother Sam for some more murder recon and as it happens Brother Sam drives to some sketchy neighborhood, enters a house, there’s a gunshot, and he then walks out with a body over his shoulder, which he then shoves in the trunk. The only thing that would have made this scene better would be if it showed Dexter burst out laughing while he watched this happen.

What’s even funnier is that Dexter wants to be one hundred percent sure the guy in the trunk is dead, so he follows Brother Sam back to the garage where a dog blows Dexter’s cover and he has to prove that he’s there for his garage door opener. Inside we are treated to a surprise (NOT) – the guy in the trunk is not dead. Turns out the Good Shepherd was retrieving one of his flock from a drug den and he had to knock him out because he took a shot at him. Well that explains everything just in the nick of time. Then three BAMF (Bad Ass Mother F$%*ers) show up with baseball bats, and they want their amigo back. Dexter steps up, disarms one of them, and knocks them out. Oops! Clark Kent slipped a bit there. Then a gun comes out and Brother Sam steps up telling Dexter to back off, that God is in charge now. Good Lord. Well, it seems God was enjoying the show because Dexter had to flash his badge and blow his cover to defuse the situation. Brother Sam claims it’s a miracle. The dude with the gun puffs up his chest on the way out and claims he will do them just like he did some other guy and goes on to talk about how no one found his body. He flinches at killing a cop but has no problem discussing the murder he got away with in front of one. Sigh. Anyways, just like that, Mos passes off the Murder-of-the-week Paton to this nobody gang member. Well played Mos, well played.

Travis then shows up at some creepy abandoned looking church with EJO roasting a metal bar in a trash fire. Travis apologizes for pulling a no-show the previous night and EJO burns his own arm as punishment. Hey, whatever works. Travis seems extremely despondent over these actions and promises to prove his worthiness and to not see his sister again.

Debra then tells Quinn she can’t marry him. He has a bit of a hissy fit and runs out of the room. Masuka and his new intern narrow down where these baby snakes came from and we find out the new intern is possibly as pervy as Masuka – woohoo. LaGuerta wigs out on Deputy Matthews to no avail. Not sure what she thought would happen. Quinn then shows up at work to a full on press conference announcing Deb’s promotion to Lieutenant, his new boss. Awkward.

After some quick murder research on our new murder-of-the-week victim, Julio, we are then treated to an equally quick murder.

The episode ends the same way it began, with Dexter giving Harry a bath and also his very own box, hoping he will forget about daddy’s box. This is intercut with Travis killing a jogger and bringing it to EJO the way a dog brings home a dead bird.

Creepy, just the way I like it.

Photo Courtesy of Showtime

I tuned in to Showtime for the Season Six premiere of Dexter with high hopes and it needs to be said upfront: I was not disappointed. My hopes were high simply because I needed this season to be better than the last because, for me, Season Five was like a hangover to Season Four’s awesomeness. Everything about this season premiere told me that Dexter is back and better than ever.

We open the episode with Dexter decked out in full murder gear, holding a bloody knife, with his stomach oozing blood, and he makes a desperate 911 call from his cell saying he’s been stabbed and needs help. Fifteen seconds in and we’re treated to our first “How-the-hell-is-he-gonna-get-outta-this-one” moment. Consider me fully engaged and gripping the safety bar; let’s get this ride started. Two paramedics show up, lean over Dexter, and wham, double syringe to their necks! Cut to Dexter’s Kill Room where we get our first voice over assuring us that not only is Dexter not in any trouble, things have been going quite well for him for the past year, and that he has been getting his kill on quite regularly. We’re then treated to an ironic “Dexter Double Death by Defibrillator” for our organ selling/harvesting/whatever paramedics topped off with a defibrillator prayer pose foreshadowing a season filled with religious overtones. Mere minutes into the episode and I have a huge, stupid grin on my face, the kind you reserve for good friends you haven’t seen in too long.

The next few scenes include some standard, yet mandatory, subplot exposition stuff: Dexter’s new babysitter is Angel’s previously never mentioned hot sister; Dexter still rents his apartment and now the one next door as well (one should never mix raising a child and murder under a single roof); Quinn and Debra live together; and Lt. LaGuerta is now Capt. LaGuerta after blackmailing her way into a promotion. Wait, what? Sleeping her way to the top is distasteful but blackmail is okay? Doesn’t matter, I can barely tolerate her character.

Next, we catch up with little Harrison who is moving on to preschool, Catholic preschool no less, which apparently came highly recommended by Angel, so you know it has to be good, right? Have I mentioned he is now twice divorced? Yep, he and Cpt. LaGuerta are finito. Anyways, during Dexter’s interview with the Catholic school teacher, it is clear that the religious overtones hinted at during the trailers for Season Six will be a central storyline.

Then we get our first look at the precinct and it looks like Masuka – sorry, Professor Masuka - has watched too much House and has his own gaggle of possible interns following him around, and yes, there is a fat, bearded one, and a hot blonde one. I wonder which one Masuka will choose?

We then find out Dexter is hitting up his school reunion, not because he’s normal or anything like that, but because while skimming his alumni newsletter (seriously?) he noted an obituary. Apparently three years ago, a woman who was nice to him as a teen killed herself, but there was someone else’s blood under her fingernails. Dexter seems sure it was her husband who was a jock/dick in high school and he needs to get a blood sample to see if he’s a match. The reunion allowed for much comic relief. Dexter discovers that he’s popular and needs a small bathroom break with Harry who explains that Dex is one of the few people who actually looks better since high school and has a cool job.

We are then treated to a weird scene in which we see Colin Hanks rowing a swamp at night looking for a pregnant water snake with some creepy old guy. Wait, that’s no creepy old guy, that’s Edward James Olmos of Miami Vice and Battlestar Galactica fame! Welcome back to Miami, Admiral Adama!

This is followed by Dexter chugging beers and being told Blood Splatter guys are the new cowboys or some such nonsense. The comedy works really well and is capped nicely as Dexter, who rigged his school ring to snag a blood sample during a hand shake with our now grown up jock/dick, instead gets a fist bump, poking himself in the process. Oh and apparently he made a woman gay, but I digress.

It’s now an early, sunny morning. Colin Hanks and the Admiral are in a car watching a fruit vendor set up at the side of the road. Colin gets out of the car, approaches the vendor, starts spewing some religious nonsense and pulls out a nasty looking rusty machete. I am sure bad things happened. I am also wondering if the Admiral may be Colin’s very own Harry and not really there at all? Or do they want me to think that?

Dexter, Deb, Quinn, and Masuka & Co. are called to a crime scene at the fruit vendor’s stand where we get to see human intestines on a fruit scale. Awesome. Oh, and Quinn, looking anorexic and heavily tanned, invites Debra to dinner to talk about something while she’s standing over a fresh puddle of blood. Dexter ducks out of the crime scene to go play flag football. WTF you ask? It’s just a ploy to get that blood sample he needs, silly. Dexter sucks, but with some solid coaching from Harry on the sidelines (Make ’em bleed Dexter), he manages to get his blood sample.

Angel then has a religious conversation with Dexter, basically saying that normal people believe in God. Dexter puts on his “uh-oh, I didn’t know that because I’m not normal face”, foreshadowing his need to expose Harrison to religion so he will be normal and not like him.

Then there’s a weird dinner with Angel and his sister to celebrate his impending promotion to Lieutenant by his ex-wife and now Captain, LaGuerta. Who the hell is in charge of this police force? Anyways, I say the dinner was weird because she is apparently a blood sister whom he did not grow up with, and there was some obvious sexual tension. Not sure where they’re going to go with that.

We get a body on the beach and the whole crew shows up, including Masuka with his newly selected intern. Yep, you guessed it the hot … fat, bearded one? Turns out it’s our fruit vendor from earlier who has his chest sewed up in the Alpha Omega symbol (intel on the symbol courtesy of Quinn because he needs to be around for a reason right?) and then baby snakes crawl up out of this dude’s chest (with unusually good CGI I might add), and the intern faints. Looks like Masuka will get the hot intern after all. Dexter voice over: this murderer is no amateur and Colin Hanks becomes our official big bad for the season.

Dexter heads back to the school reunion to finish off the jock/dick who, surprise surprise, was a blood match; however, Dexter is sidetracked by the school hottie who informs him that she cheated off him throughout high school, and that he’s the reason she graduated. Dexter’s reward for this turns out to be a blow job in a darkened classroom. If I were to make a list of things I did not expect to hear in this episode somewhere around the top of said list would be “Dexter’s blow job noises” – and I would have been completely wrong. Leave it to Dexter to take a completely normal and human thing as a random blowie and turn it into a kill set up by texting the jock/dick from the hottie’s cell phone and setting up a midnight rendezvous.

Of course jock/dick shows up and as Dexter is about to syringe him from behind, we are surprised as jock/dick spins around and knocks it away. It only makes for a sweeter takedown as Dexter effortlessly chokes him out. When you juxtapose this scene with the flag football scene, it has echoes of Christopher Reeve’s performance as both Clark Kent and Superman, which further solidifies (in my mind at least) Dexter’s status as a true anti-hero.

Cut to Dexter’s newest kill room, and of course the jock/dick has to have a tattoo of Jesus on his chest, giving way to lines such as “What would Jesus do?” and more surprising ones such as the jock’s answer to Dexter’s question as to why he killed his wife: “Do you know how expensive a divorce is?” Which leads me to conclude this season will balance the religious overtones with the proper amount of campiness so that we know it’s not taking itself too seriously – one of my major criticisms of last season – so I am very happy with the apparent new direction the show seems to be taking.

Oh yeah, and that dinner conversation Quinn wanted to have with Debra? It was to propose of course; however, he was interrupted by some insane dude who entered the restaurant guns a-blazing and wearing Kevlar, requiring Deb to pump an entire clip into him. The episode ended rather abruptly, and I can’t be totally sure, but it appears Debra may have gotten hit. Quinn was in the bathroom practicing his speech at the time, but rushed out to handcuff the perp in time to be captured on cell phone cameras by the other patrons in the restaurant. I got the impression the video of this take down will be important. How? I am not sure. What do you think?

Photo Courtesy of Showtime

Everything about it is perfection, especially the musical selection (Marilyn Manson’s cover of the Depeche Mode classic “Personal Jesus”).

Who’s ready for Dexter to make them a believer?

Dexter‘s back October 2nd on Showtime.

Photo Courtesy of Showtime

Last season, Dexter found out he was going to be a father, bought a house, and married Rita. But does a leopard ever change his spots? Fatherhood certainly hasn’t stopped Dexter Morgan from carrying out his brand of justice, but the accompanying sleep deprivation has definitely made him sloppy.

Deb and Anton are still an item, they’re living together, and we’ve never seen her happier. But old feelings are stirred up when Agent Frank Lundy, Deb’s former love, re-enters the picture. Why has Lundy returned? Now retired from the FBI, Lundy’s on the trail of a predator that eluded him for years, The Trinity Killer, who’s at work terrorizing Miami.

Rita seems to be enjoying married life and motherhood. When all her husband wants is to catch some z’s, she’s breaking out the pleasure chest!

Seeing Dexter in action as a father is certainly remarkable, whether he’s singing “America the Beautiful” or confessing his sins to baby Harrison.

I can’t wait to see what happens next! Season 4 begins September 27th on Showtime in the US, and TMN in Canada.

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror films announced the nominees for the 35th Annual Saturn Awards. I am thrilled that many of my fave TV shows are among the nominees, including BSG, Lost, and Dexter.

Here are the TV nominees:

Best Network Television Series
Fringe (Fox)
Heroes (NBC)
Life on Mars (ABC)
Lost (ABC)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox)
Supernatural (CW)

Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series
Battlestar Galactica (SCI FI)
The Closer (TNT)
Dexter (Showtime)
Leverage (TNT)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Cartoon Network)
True Blood (HBO)

Best Presentation on Television
24: Redemption (Fox)
The Andromeda Strain (A&E)
Breaking Bad (AMC)
Jericho (CBS)
The Last Templar (NBC)
The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (TNT)

Best Actor in Television
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, AMC)
Matthew Fox (Lost, ABC)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Showtime)
Timothy Hutton (Leverage, TNT)
Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica, SCI FI)
Noah Wiley (The Librarian: The Curse of The Judas Chalice, TNT)

Best Actress in Television
Lena Headey (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fox)
Jennifer Love Hewitt (The Ghost Whisperer, CBS)
Evangeline Lilly (Lost, ABC)
Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica, SCI FI)
Anna Paquin (True Blood, HBO)
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer, TNT)
Anna Torv (Fringe, ABC)

Best Supporting Actor in Television
Henry Ian Cusick (Lost, ABC)
Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fox)
Michael Emerson (Lost, ABC)
Josh Holloway (Lost, ABC)
Adrian Pasdar (Heroes, NBC)
Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes, NBC)

Best Supporting Actress in Television
Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter, Showtime)
Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fox)
Yunjin Kim (Lost, ABC)
Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost, ABC)
Hayden Panettiere (Heroes, NBC)
Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, SCI FI)

Best Guest Starring Role in a Television Series
Kristen Bell (Heroes, NBC)
Alan Dale (Lost, ABC)
Kevin Durand (Lost, ABC)
Robert Forster (Heroes, NBC)
Jimmy Smits (Dexter, Showtime)
Sonya Walger (Lost, ABC)

Best Television Series Release on DVD
Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series (BBC Warner)
Heroes: Season 2 (Universal)
Lost: The Complete Fourth Season (Walt Disney)
Moonlight: The Complete Series (Warner)
Reaper: Season One (Lionsgate)
Torchwood: Season 2 (BBC Warner)
The Tudors: The Complete Second Season(Paramount/Showtime)

Best Retro Television Series Release on DVD
Columbo: Mystery Movie Collection 1990 (Universal)
Early Edition: Season One (Paramount)
The Incredible Hulk: The Complete Series (Universal)
The Invaders: The First & Second Seasons (Paramount)
Mission Impossible: The Fourth & Fifth Seasons (Paramount)
Spaced: The Complete Series (BBC Warner)

The Saturn Awards will be presented on June 25th.