'Dexter' Final Season Recap - What's Eating Dexter Morgan?

After last week's phenomenally well-done 2nd episode of Dexter's final season, this week we have our first taste - as well as a reminder - that this is indeed the end for Dexter Morgan and things are never going to be OK again.

Rather than get into too many details like I feel I did last week (though I'm still trying to introduce you to what new plot points will be developing this season), I'm going to basically give you the important facts and highlights that happened this week.

We start off the episode with the reminder that Dexter still has a son named Harrison - in a sequence that harkens back to the infamous Rita reveal - but soon jump to good ol' Deb, drunk off her ass in her car and sleeping peacefully until a cop finds her.  Little to Deb's realization, she's hit a pole and sure enough, gets arrested.

This leads us to everyone's favorite jerk-off/yet nice guy, Quinn, who while sleeping comfortably with Jaime, gets a call from Deb to come bail her out.  Quinn - of course still in love with Deb - comes right away after lying to Jaime that he needs to go to work.

Quinn comes to the rescue, bails Deb out, then we get a nice little dialogue scene where Quinn basically implies he still has feelings for Deb...and Deb might too.

Meanwhile, Dexter's still trying to figure out what happened with what he thought was Dr. Vogel's killer/stalker after he finds the guy that certainty hung himself, on the floor at his cabin with half his head blown off.  Miami Metro is there to investigate the scene, and of course, Dex gets curious.

I had a theory last week that Dr. Vogel is behind this so-called 'new killer' in town, but seemingly was put to rest when we find the good doctor getting an anonymous text message to look outside and finds two boxes with brain pieces in each, one addressed to her (Dr. Vogel) and the other addressed to him (DEXTER!).

After talking this new development over with Dr. Vogel, Dexter gets asked a not so friendly question from the good doctor herself:  Why didn't he kill Debra after she learned who he really was?

Dexter of course exclaims that he loves Deb and that he can never kill her, but somehow can't describe why exactly he does love Deb.  Only to be poised by the idea from Dr. Vogel that he needs Deb to exist, and that he really is selfish to want to help her.

Fast forward to Dex trying to help Deb and pick her up from this dark hole she's gone down, Debra realizes how much of a good person she really is and decides to - in a drunken fashion - go to the police station and confess everything about killing LaGuerta.  Fortunately, Quinn is the one to find her and - foolishly - thinks Deb is delusional and completely out of it (though he does call Dexter for help).

Dexter is able to come in - along with Dr. Vogel - and save the day by, probably for the first time ever, giving Deb a shot to knock her out, and get her out of the station before she can confess to anyone else.

So overall, where does this leave us at the end of the third episode?  Well, Dexter thinks he's still in-control of both Debra and his double-life (which it's obvious he's not), Deb is finally starting to breakout from her funk and realize who she really is, Dr. Vogel is still scaring the shit out of me that she going to turn around and kill someone soon enough, and Quinn is becoming to the go-to good guy yet can't seem to please Jamie at home.

We'll have to see what happens next week.

Notes:

• A little plot point that I glossed over, the workout dude who is really a cannibal.  Kind of reminded me of the earlier Dexter years where he would basically have a killer-of-the-week that he would eventually get on his table and take care of.  Nice to see a glimpse of the Dexter of old.

• How funny was it when Batista let it slip to Jaime that Quinn really wasn't out on a case?  Poor guy just can't catch a break.

• Not too sure where this new guy Elway is going with Deb by giving her weird colored drink and stuff but something tells me he's going to start playing a bigger role once this season hits its final lap.

• Where was Masuka this week?

• Jennifer Carpenter's acting in that confession scene to Quinn?  Fantastic.  Still shocks me she hasn't won an Emmy.

Grade: B-