Dexter: Grave Robbing (recap)

By: Jen Smith
Fancast.com

Last night’s Dexter brought this whole season into perspective. Something wasn’t quite right about Miguel and his incessant need to do good will, but Dexter went ahead and befriended him anyway. This week, we find out just what it is that Miguel’s up to and we confirm the identity of the Skinner. If this episode is this exciting, just imagine what the season finale will be like.

Dexter (Michael C. Hall) wakes up for yet another day of pretense. He’s still reeling from having to share his secret with Miguel (Jimmy Smits), and sharing last night’s mercy killing with him isn’t much easier. Dexter has a visitor before he can leave for work—it’s Sylvia. She wants to know if Miguel was lying to her about being with Dexter the night before. Dexter confirms that they were hanging out until midnight or so. The problem? Miguel didn’t come home until the sun came up. Sylvia thinks he’s having an affair, so Rita (Julie Benz) comforts her while Dexter slips away. He heads to Miguel’s house to confront him about his whereabouts. Miguel claims he was so wound up after the kill, he went to a bar to calm down. Dexter knows he’s lying, and warns him to get better at thinking up alibis to tell his wife.

Over at Anton’s place, Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) is freaking out. They can’t find any indication of foul play, but she’s convinced the Skinner has him. Dexter notices the trash can doesn’t have a liner, so they head down to the dumpster to look for clues. That’s when they find all the evidence. It appears Anton was taking the trash out when we was attacked and nabbed. He’s been gone 24 hours now and has likely already been partially skinned. Deb still suspects George King, the tree trimmer guy, and is promised a quick warrant to search his house. Until then, she and Quinn stake it out. Over at an undisclosed location, Anton has a few strips of skin missing from his back and is rightfully in a lot of pain. His torturer enters the room baring a large knife… surprise, surprise, it’s King. He’s trying to torture Anton into giving him Freebo’s location, but since Dexter conveniently disposed of Freebo not too long ago, Anton doesn’t know anything. King gives him an hour to think about it until he makes more cuts.

Back at Miami Metro, Maria is leaving a worried message on Ellen Wolf’s answering machine. Ellen never showed up for work, and Maria wonders if she’s sick. Dexter overhears and doesn’t think her sudden disappearance is a coincidence. He calls Miguel to gauge his mood, which turns out to be quite jolly. He even has the gall to suggest they look into more projects together.

Deb is not being very patient over at King’s house. She’s certain that he’s their guy but can’t quite wait on a search warrant to break open his tool shed. Anton wasn’t inside, of course. King’s not an idiot. That’s when the man in question pulls up. He claims to have been working all night, but Deb isn’t buying it. Quinn tells King that if he doesn’t have anything to hide, then he’ll come down to the station to answer a few questions. During his interrogation, Deb flips a lid and has to be sent outside. She runs into Dexter to find out his opinion on everything. Dexter knows a sociopath when he sees one, and tells her that he’s definitely the guy. He suggests that she try an alternate method of interrogation—kill him with kindness. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. She tries it for 3.5 seconds, but then ends up attacking him again. King doesn’t seem fazed.

Maria is still worried about her missing friend, so Dexter takes off to Ellen’s home office to investigate. Her car is in the driveway, but no one answers the door. He lets himself in to look for clues and ends up finding some remnants of blood. Whoever did this wasn’t very good at cleaning up. Dexter is trying to figure out if Miguel could have done this. After all, he never taught Miguel how to dispose of a body. Oh yeah, except for that time he suggested disposing of one beneath an open grave. So, Dexter heads to the cemetery to do a little investigational digging. He strikes gold, so to speak, on the second open grave. Ellen’s dead body is in there as predicted. Dexter. Is. Pissed.

On the outside, it could look like a friendly lunch between a couple of guys. But if one were to eavesdrop, it’s actually a confrontation between two murderers. At first, Dexter and Miguel discuss the King case. Miguel has the brilliant idea of setting King free so they can take care of him the dirty way. Dexter wonders if this is another one of Miguel’s solo projects. The light goes off in Miguel’s head and he figures out that Dexter’s onto him. Dexter thought they agreed to leave Ellen alone, but apparently Miguel only said that because he knew Dexter would interfere. The two argue about it for a while (in a brilliantly acted scene, I might add), and Miguel still doesn’t feel remorse. Miguel thinks he’s untouchable, but Dexter’s about to teach his little monster a big lesson… he uncovers Ellen’s body. Let the mayhem begin.

Deb, Angel and Maria are trying to convince Miguel to press charges against King. Miguel, as we learned earlier, shoots down every one of their theories and releases King back into the wild. A-hole. And he calls Ellen the bad guy? Speaking of Ellen, Angel gets the call about a body in a cemetery and it has been identified as Ellen. She’s been beaten, strangled, and stabbed, but the killer was a pro and didn’t leave any evidence with the body. Dex took care of that part. He only wanted to teach Miguel a lesson, not let him incriminate himself. Miguel sees what he’s doing and understands that he has to follow the code—or else. Does he really understand, or is in an act? After work, Dexter goes home to be the ultimate wedding cake tester, but remembers a way to prove if Miguel is lying or not… the bloody shirt. Remember when Miguel gave Dexter his shirt with Freebo’s blood all over it in an effort to prove his loyalty? Dex decides to test the blood… just in case.

So now, Deb is left without their key suspect and their witness, Mario, isn’t saying a thing. She has a scare tactic that just might get him to talk. She drives Mario back to his house, where he sees trimmed trees out front. He freaks out, thinking that King has been there. Then he cracks and gives Deb the location to one of King’s secret properties. Over at this shack under the interstate, King has arrived to check on Anton. When he sees headlights, he takes off into the darkness. When Deb and Quinn can’t get the door open, Quinn smashes the cop car into the wall, making a nice big opening. It was not only awesome, but it was also kind of hot. I’m just sayin’. Anyway, they find Anton barely alive, but it looks like he’ll make it.

Dexter is good at his job. Very good. While he’s running the blood sample through the work computer to look for a possible match, Miguel is comforting Maria in her office. He’s feeding her lines about how wonderful of a friend he is to her. Yeah right. He also appears to be hitting on her in her state of vulnerability. Back to Dexter—he has a match. Guess what? It’s not Freebo’s blood. It’s cow blood. First of all, that’s not a surprise. Second of all, wasn’t there an easier way to get blood than from a cow? Dexter realizes that he didn’t create a monster at all; he was merely used by one. He decides to keep up the pretense another day and hides the fact that he knows the truth about the shirt, but he’s comforted because today he didn’t have to fake emotion. Oh no, what he felt was something real. Miguel better watch his back.

Next week on Dexter, Miguel proves to be quite the handful—aimlessly killing, making out with Maria, and pretty much thinking he’s god. Last night’s episode is definitely the set-up to what looks like an awesome last third to the season. We still have a lot to discover, even if we do know who the Skinner is and what Miguel’s really doing. What are Miguel’s motives? Has he killed before? Will he get caught? Also, what was Oscar Prado doing at Freebo’s house to begin with? And what’s the real truth behind Anton? We’ll find out over the next month or so, and I have to say, this season has been kind of dull—until now.