Tonight’s the night. Dexter: Resurrection Episode 8 is now available to stream on Paramount + and will air Sunday night on Showtime. If you haven’t seen “The Kill Room Where It Happens”, which was directed by Monica Raymund (Teleplay by : Tony Saltzman, Story by : Tony Saltzman & Dane Anderson) proceed with caution. This article will be full of spoilers.
Caught In a Trap (But He Can Walk Out)
After last week’s tremendous episode, former Miami Metro Captain Angel Batista has become the embodiment of the Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia meme. He’s got all kinds of papers pinned to his hotel room wall. He’s drawing over maps. He’s tracking Dexter’s every move and recording his thoughts and ideas on his phone, speaking out loud the places his mind is taking him. He knows Dexter is his man. He also, to some degree, knows Dexter the man. He knows he’s a creature of habit and he’s quickly figuring out what these habits in a new city look like.
Writing the Batista character right now has to be tricky. He needs to come across as the best chance of apprehending Dexter given their three decade plus history. He’s also emotional about this case, as many people he has loved are now dead in relation to this case. Angel doesn’t know the full truth, but as a viewer, I find myself wanting Dexter to answer some of his questions at some point. To the writers’ credit, everything involving Angel has been excellent all season long. When that ends (likely next week, if I had to place a bet), it will mark a major milestone in this television franchise’s history.
Angel came really close to busting Dexter this week. Dexter had a scumbag landlord on his kill table (whom he only intended to threaten, not kill) and Angel acted quickly, getting to the scene in impressive time. Dexter had no choice but to free the man quicker than planned and flee himself. This led to a pretty remarkable moment, where Angel got to see what the kill room looks like. He got to see the plastic and the lengths Dexter has gone to so that no evidence could be discovered. We got to watch Angel take this all in and director Monica Raymund gave the scene time to breathe, which was needed.
When Angel called Detective Wallace, she and her partner showed up to also see the abandoned kill room. Angel’s retelling of the evening’s events made him sound like either a rogue cop or a crazy person, and it’s clear that Wallace at least partially believes Dexter’s story from last week about Angel becoming a tragic person over the years. Wallace made it clear that it’s at least a possibility that Angel staged the kill room himself, which had to eat at him. Upon leaving, Wallace called the now Lieutenant Joey Quinn, who confirmed to her that the Bay Harbor Butcher case has been closed for years, Batista retired in a hurry under weird circumstances, and Quinn has no idea why he’s in NYC.
While it’s easy to look at the deaths on this show as the ultimate tragedy, they’re often not. The biggest tragedies are the people caught up in these messy situations. I’ve written extensively about Harrison being a tragic character. Angel Batista has been too, but now more so than ever. Not only has he lost all these people he’s loved over the years, trying to catch Dexter is proving to make him look insane. His career is being tarnished because of his pursuit of his former friend. People who love him, like Quinn, are second-guessing him. Angel is sacrificing a lot in the name of justice, but we as viewers all know that justice isn’t coming. He won’t capture Dexter. He’s either going to die or be ruined. I can’t think of a more tragic ending for a great cop, who’s been an outstanding character.
Why Can’t You See?
Dexter: Resurrection Episode 8 gets the honor of being the episode where Leon Prater finally becomes suspicious of Red, or Dexter as we know him. We all knew this was coming. We saw Prater early in the episode tell Charley that he trusted Red, but Charley was having none of it. This week’s episode ended with Prater showing up at a restaurant where Dexter and Harrison were eating and saying, “I didn’t know you had a son, Red.” The jig is clearly up.
What does the fallout look like? I’ve written about my belief that Charley was the New York Ripper, under orders from Prater, and that this season would end with them forcing Dexter to take over the role moving forward. I still strongly believe that could be the case. My assumption is that Prater really hates being lied to and we’re going to see some rage pour out from him next week. But he’s also a smart man and his anger will be used for some kind of gain. Dexter is about to pay for his crimes and he will pay through service to Prater.
Dexter desperately wanted to kill Al so he could round out his mission of taking out the entire Boogeyman Social Club, but Al really hated Hamilton and left at intermission. Either that or Al was tipped off by Prater that Red isn’t who he says he is and left town. Secretly, I was glad to see Al survive. He’d be welcome back next season for sure.
What You’re Doing To Me
Dexter let it slip to Blessing’s daughter during an acupuncture session that Blessing was forced to fight in the conflict in Sierra Leone as a child. He clearly had never shared this information with his daughter and both she and him were very hurt with this reveal. Blessing later told Dexter that he had betrayed him, which felt like foreshadowing. Blessing isn’t going to be there to help Dexter over the next two episodes, when he’s going to need the help the most. He’s also a lot more likely to become suspicious of Dexter himself.
Harrison’s two love interests both had adequate screen time this week. He had a nice scene with Elsa at the park, which prompted him to tell Dexter about the landlord who needed to be talked to. But Harrison found himself back at the college he’s soon to be a student of, asking GG on a date. They went dancing, where GG revealed that her injury to her hand included nerve damage and she would never become a detective. Harrison told her of his father’s career as a blood splatter analyst and comforted her, leading to them sleeping with each other in the hotel.
Harrison and GG have very clear chemistry, whereas Harrison is very protective over Elsa. A lot of parallels can be drawn here to how Dexter handled relationships before and the two different sides of himself. While it’s also somewhat normal behavior (and Elsa made it clear she didn’t want a romantic relationship with Harrison), one of these women are likely to be hurt soon.
Final Thoughts
Dexter: Resurrection Episode 8 put suspicion into the forefront. Prater and Charley are now both suspicious of Dexter. Wallace is suspicious of Batista. Blessing might soon be suspicious of Dexter. Al is likely suspicious of Dexter. Quinn is suspicious of Batista. Then there’s Harrison and his two love interests. Suspicion is inevitable there too I suppose.
This was an episode that advanced all of the chess pieces on the board but certainly not on the level of Episode 4 or 7 quality wise. Nothing wrong with that, though. There’s a lot of conflict on the horizon and with only two episodes left this season, I’m anticipating a lot of fireworks. Until next time.