Dexter: The Boy Who Cried Wolf (recap)

By: Jen Smith
Fancast.com

Dexter is veering further and further away from his animalistic urges to kill, and more toward his “feelings.” This is new territory for our hero, but it doesn’t seem to fit the point of the show. Sure, Miguel accepts his murderous tendencies considering he’s taking out the bad guys of society; but, the show is inferring that Dexter is simply doing this out of a need for vengeance, rather than a deep-seeded need to take life. We learned about his desires in the first two seasons, but it seems like his urges are being ignored for storyline purposes. Hopefully next week we’ll start to get back on track. For now, it’s back to the growing bromance between Dexter and Miguel.

Dexter is having a nightmare involving Miguel. He’s dreaming that Miguel shows up during one of his kills and doesn’t seem to mind. Dexter wakes up in bed with Rita, who concludes that he’s just nervous about the wedding. No duh. I would be nervous too if I had to marry that whiny woman. Anyway, she starts bugging him about making his guest list and he quickly heads off to work. Before he goes to the station, he drops by the hospice care to see Camilla, who is still dying of lung cancer. She has a present for him—and shoebox full of pictures of the Morgan family throughout the years. She also gives him her funeral plans for when she finally passes. She actually seems excited to go so she can see her husband again.

Things aren’t looking good for Ramón Prado. He was arrested by Deb last week for kidnapping a guy, but since he’s Miguel’s brother, he won’t be going to jail. The compromise, though, is to take a forced early retirement from the force. Ramón is beyond pissed, but hands over his badge and gun in order to keep the peace. Angel, meanwhile, is still leading the Skinner case. He has the great idea to use Anton as bait since the killer seems to be going after all the witnesses. Let’s just say Deb isn’t too thrilled with the idea of putting her guy in harm’s way. Before she can raise a stink about it, she gets a call that Windell’s mother wants to see her. It’s not a friendly meeting, and ends with the mom trying to attack Deb for luring the killer to her son.

This week’s crime scene is at the home of a girl named Lisa, who was a pretty girl headed to Harvard. She was murdered during an apparent break-in, but the killer accidently cut himself at the scene. Dexter figures out that he was wearing socks, rather than shoes, and it fits the profile of a guy named Albert Chung. Masuka, who is pissed that a fellow Asian is giving them a bad name, tells them that Chung committed a similar crime but got off on a technicality. Dexter senses a new project. Miguel is having the same thoughts… sort of. While he wants to nail Chung to the wall, he’d rather focus his attention on the DA Ellen Wolf. She’s the one who defends these criminals, bending and twisting the law so it goes in her favor. She’s putting guilty men back onto the streets and needs to be stopped. Dexter says she doesn’t fit the profile of his usual kills, but Miguel begs him not to be so literal.

Camilla is having a bad day. Her cancer has stopped spreading. Usually this is a good thing, but it means that she’ll have another month to live in agony. She tells Dexter that she wants to die and infers that she wants him to help her do so. Dexter has never killed someone innocent before. He doesn’t know if he can just change the rules for a friend. This also applies to Miguel, who still wants to kill Ellen Wolf. Speaking of Miguel, his wife Syl is worried about his recent behavior. She thinks he’s having an affair. Rita confides that Dexter went through a dark phase last year and it turned out that he was doing drugs and having an affair. (Just a reminder—he was only pretending to do drugs.) Syl doesn’t feel much better.

Deb is still worried about Anton. She meets up with him to do something totally unprofessional. She warns him that he’s going to be used as bait, and since she doesn’t want him in harm’s way, she begs him to leave town. Anton doesn’t seem to mind one bit that he’s being set up, which doesn’t sit well with Deb. Angel, meanwhile, is still trying to woo Gianna after starting off on the wrong foot with her. I guess most girls don’t like it when you try to pay them for sex. It seems Angel actually got some action on their date, but Gianna has decided they should just be friends. She changes her mind when Angel asks her to be his plus one at Dexter’s wedding. Is that a turn on that I wasn’t aware of? Speaking of which, Dexter’s guest list is so minimal, in is pretty much limited to his sister, his co-workers, and the donut guy (whom he sees every morning).

To no one’s surprise, Ellen has decided to take on the Chung case. Chung is still m.i.a., but Ellen shows up at the station to negotiate his surrender with Miguel. Dexter is pulled into the room by Miguel to demonstrate the forensic evidence that Chung left on the scene, but Dexter knows that Miguel just wants to show off how heartless Ellen is. She demands, among other things, that the charges be demoted to manslaughter. Miguel freaks out, saying that the evidence is too substantial to agree to that. Ellen threatens that she could discredit both Dexter and Miguel, so they could either take it or leave it. Dexter is actually impressed with her skills and concludes that she’s not evil; she’s just really good at her job.

The search for the perfect Key Lime pie is still underway. Camille figures that as long as she’s still looking for it, she has something to live for. She asks Dexter if he’s given any thought to her question, but he doesn’t think he’ll be able to kill her. She confides that she knows his secret. She knows his brother was the Ice Truck Killer. She had read Dexter’s file before Harry asked her to destroy it all those years ago. She promises to take it to her grave and swears that Dexter will never be like his brother. Later that night, Dexter heads to Miguel’s house for yet another couple’s dinner party. It’s getting a little old, isn’t it? Miguel pulls Dexter aside and asks him what he’s decided about Ellen. Dexter says that Ellen is just doing her job. Miguel would only want to kill her as a personal vendetta. Miguel responds with a resonating “F**k you!” Dexter stares him down and calmly declares that it’s time to leave. Well, it looks like Dexter’s lack of emotion is back! I hope it lasts.

Deb has forgone a night of sleep and a caffeine-free body to work through the night on the Skinner case. She’s come up with a lead… she thinks that the killer has been posing as a tree trimmer in order to spy on his victims. It’s far-fetched but plausible. Angel is proud. Her mood is soured when she gets a call from Anton to meet at his place. She’s pissed at him for not skipping town, but he tells her that he wants to help. He’ll be the bait to try to catch the killer. After staring each other down for several seconds, Deb and Anton start making out. I presume they also had sex, but we didn’t see that part. Deb usually has sex with her guys though.

Back at the Chung case, Ellen has decided to be a good person and has set up Chung to be arrested. Miguel contends that he was wrong about Ellen and apologizes to Dexter for being such an ass. “We’re not going to man-hug are we?” Dexter asks. Best line of the night. Oh, and he asks Miguel to be his best man. Why am I not surprised? Later, Dexter has finally decided to put Camille out of her misery. He’s put his secret poison into a Key Lime pie. He asks her one more time if she’s sure she wants to die. She says she only wants peace. He begins to feed her, and in between bites she says that he’d finally brought her the perfect pie. She promises to tell her husband that Dexter says hello, then whispers that she was right about his brother. He tells her that she doesn’t have to worry because he killed him. “Good,” she says. And then she’s gone. Dexter finally realizes what it’s like to kill out of mercy. Next week, however, he’s in for a treat: Miguel wants to start killing people, like he’s Dexter’s little apprentice. Didn’t they teach that in college?