‘Dexter’: Morgan Siblings Go For A Drive — Season 8 Episode 4 Recap – Hollywood Life

‘Dexter’ Recap: Vogel Pushes The Morgans Over The Edge

Now that we know that Dexter is willing to stick a needle in his own sister's throat, what recourse does Debra even have left? Well folks, get ready for a splash! Let's fast-forward a little, because Dexter clearly did. We've skipped that awkward period between Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) waking up in a murderous haze after Dex (Michael C. Hall) needle-poked her to when she actually accepts Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling) as her shrink.

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Dexter Season 8 Episode 4 Recap
Image Credit: Courtesy of Showtime

The Great Manipulation Of Dr. Evelyn Vogel

Because we’re back in that shipping container where Debra shot and killed LaGuerta — Vogel is making her relive the experience, and working oddly hard to convince her that she did the right thing by shooting Dexter. Is her persistence selfless?

“Why the motherf**k do you even care,” Debra so eloquently asks, and really, I’m sort of wondering the same thing. (Sorry guys, this is gonna be a long one.)

As a last ditch effort to get Debra to see things her way, Vogel goes to her trusty DVD collection to show Debra a recording of when her father, Harry, realized what the code really means — brutal, concise murder.

“What if the code is a mistake,” Harry says. Vogel (she’s really running the show this episode) abruptly stops the recording and tells Debra that Harry eventually came around and learned to understand that the code was necessary to keep Dexter alive and under the police’s radar. Harry protected Dex the same way Debra protected him, Vogel preaches.

But we get our first hint that the increasingly aggressive Vogel isn’t the gem she’s cracked up to be. Swiping another DVD from the stash, Debra sees that she’s been manipulated — Harry was NOT okay with the monster he created, he was so un-okay with it that he killed himself, which we already knew but Debra definitely did not. But like father, like daughter, right?

Has Dexter Found The Brain Surgeon?

Dexter meanwhile, who’s less and less seeming like the master of his own decisions and more like a tool of Vogel’s, is still doing her dirty work, trying to track down the Brain Surgeon. He hits his first real lead of the season in AJ Yates, a patient of Vogel’s who has curious scar line across the back of his skull.

But whether or not Yates is the Brain Surgeon (Dexter thinks he is, I’m not convinced), his biggest impact in the episode happens when he’s not even around. Dexter, snooping into Yates’ computer, finds Vogel’s case files and learns that HE is patient zero. He’s the first person Vogel experimented on. The Code isn’t some masterpiece, it’s a work of trial and error. And what’s more, Vogel seems to be purposely dividing Dexter and Debra to better fit her theories.

Oh man, Dex and Vogel’s relationship just did a complete 180.

Dexter & Debra Morgan Go For A Ride

All of this brings us to the most suspenseful scene of the entire season so far. Knowing that Deb is possibly on her last leg after finding out about her dad’s suicide, she visits Miami Metro and seems to be saying her goodbyes before asking to go for a drive with Dexter. Thanks to the dreamy way the scene is shot, you’re left shouting at the screen, “Debra, don’t kill yourself!!!”

But it turns out she doesn’t just want to kill herself, she’s planning on taking down Dexter too. “He only got it half right,” she says, referring to her dad before grabbing hold of the wheel and driving them both into a lake. A fisherman screws up the plan by saving Deb and wouldn’t you know it, she once again chooses Dexter and drags him out of the sinking car. Oh my god.

Things have changed. Vogel is not in control anymore, and in trying to push Dexter and Debra apart, she actually might have made them closer. Will they now be a dynamic duo again, while realizing how manipulated they’ve been by Vogel?

Thank god we can all take a week-long break before finding out.

— Andrew Gruttadaro

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