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Dexter<\/a><\/p>\n The Kill Room Where It Happens<\/p>\n \n Season 10<\/p>\n Episode 8\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 4 stars<\/p>\n ****\n <\/p>\n \n Batista tries to get into a cat-and-mouse game with the Bay Harbor Butcher, only to get severely outclassed by Dexter. In my last recap, I wondered if Dexter Morgan had a favorite Taylor Swift song. This week, I\u2019m questioning whether or not he\u2019s seen Hamilton. I\u2019m leaning toward no, but he does have enough cultural awareness to at least misquote it when he remarks, via voice-over, \u201cI\u2019m not gonna ruin my shot.\u201d It\u2019s a cute in-joke in an episode that\u2019s at least partially indebted to Lin-Manuel Miranda \u2014\u00a0just look at the title, \u201cThe Kill Room Where It Happens<\/a>.\u201d While Dexter himself might not appreciate the reference I\u2019m about to make, Batista is emerging as an Aaron Burr\u2013like figure to the Bay Harbor Butcher\u2019s Alexander Hamilton, a deeply devoted hater who doesn\u2019t believe the world is wide enough for both men to exist.<\/p>\n As the episode opens, Batista is actively tracking Dexter thanks to his AirPod ruse, and he is in luck because Dex is preparing to strike. His next target is Al, the only other surviving member of Prater\u2019s serial-killer club and an obvious fit for the Code after the real-life found-footage horror film he screened last week. Dexter will have to act quickly, though, because Al is leaving New York tonight. \u201cIt\u2019s a little earlier than I planned, but to be honest, these little gatherings have lost their luster, what with all the deaths,\u201d he confides. They agree to a good-bye dinner after Al sees Hamilton, but if all goes as planned, Al will end up with a knife in his heart instead of at a Times Square restaurant. (Personally, I can\u2019t decide which sounds worse.) Dexter finds a temporarily closed wig shop that he\u2019ll use to remind Al of his crimes \u2014 I guess there are enough ponytails to do the trick \u2014\u00a0and preps his kill room. When Batista observes Dex stepping outside of his usual routine, he follows the blinking dot to midtown. By the time he gets there, however, Dexter is already on the move again.<\/p>\n If he wants to be able to hoist Al onto his kill table, Dex realizes he needs to deal with his spiking shoulder pain, so he enlists Joy for some more acupuncture. She doesn\u2019t seem very good at it \u2014 it\u2019s not supposed to hurt when the needles go in \u2014\u00a0but she\u2019s also distracted by the fight she had with Blessing about moving across the country with her boyfriend. Dexter points out that Blessing is in an especially tender state after losing his mother, particularly because she was the person who rescued him from being a child soldier<\/a>. This is the kind of information I might hesitate to share, but not our Dexter. He\u2019s surprised to discover that Joy had no idea about her father\u2019s past in the Revolutionary United Front, and she ends up leaving in tears. Blessing made it clear he wanted to keep the darkness separate from his family, something that Dexter should have been more sympathetic to, since it\u2019s been his own struggle for as long as this show has been on the air. While he contemplates his massive faux pas, Harrison calls to meet up. Dexter will be cutting it close if he still wants to kill Al, but he can\u2019t say no to his son. \u201cKeeping my killing life separate from my personal life is difficult when my personal life keeps calling asking for help,\u201d he reflects.<\/p>\n Over a meal at the Times Square Applebee\u2019s (literal hell on earth), Harrison expresses his own regrets about speaking out of turn. Confronting Vinny, the landlord, when he was babysitting Dante, didn\u2019t do anything to fix the black mold situation. In fact, Vinny has turned the heat off in retaliation, and Elsa has nowhere else to stay because Prater\u2019s upcoming police gala has the hotel booked solid. Dexter offers to try talking to Vinny, reasoning that his law-enforcement background might persuade the landlord to change his act. But although Dex swears that he has no intention of murdering Vinny, it\u2019s pretty clear he\u2019s looking for any excuse to do so. After dinner, he does some research on the landlord\u2019s bad behavior, looking at reviews from his tenants. \u201cWhile Al learns about Hamilton the statesman, I can learn about Vinny the landlord,\u201d he reasons. And there\u2019s plenty of bad out there \u2014\u00a0including a news story about a faulty railing giving way and causing a woman\u2019s death. Killing him would still be a stretch, but it\u2019s a delight watching Dexter try to talk himself into it. How many tenants has Vinny thrown out on the street in potentially deadly cold, he wonders. When Harry points out that he\u2019s reaching, Dex responds with a very funny \u201ceh.\u201d I also laughed at his explanation that while, yes, he\u2019s trying to separate his family life from his murder life, \u201cVinny fitting the Code would really streamline things.\u201d<\/p>\n And Dexter is going to have to find someone to kill, because the Al plans fall through. Turns out Al didn\u2019t realize Hamilton was a rap musical \u2014 this is the most unbelievable thing that\u2019s happened all season, incidentally \u2014\u00a0so he bailed at intermission and is already driving back to Wisconsin. He turns down a desperate Dexter\u2019s suggestion to meet on the road (perhaps in Weehawken<\/a>?), and politely declines to share anything more about his real life before throwing his Prater-supplied phone out the window. Rapunzel will walk free, and Dexter now has no way to track him down. Plus, Dex is murder horny<\/a>! Is it any wonder he decides to kidnap Vinny and take him to the wig-shop kill room he\u2019d already prepared for Al? For what it\u2019s worth, I wouldn\u2019t call this a well-thought-out plan. Earlier in the day, Dexter did try to talk to Vinny sans violence, but being seen barging into the landlord\u2019s office a few hours before his disappearance is only going to reflect poorly on Dex in the event of a police investigation. Let\u2019s not forget that he also assured Harrison he would not be serial killing his way out of the Elsa apartment problem. Ah, well, nobody\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n Vinny wakes up on the kill table and immediately begins pleading for his life, but Dexter is going off script. \u201cI\u2019m here for your tenants,\u201d he growls, his face obscured by a stocking. \u201cThis is the end of you ignoring their pleas.\u201d It does seem like Dex really just wants to torture Vinny into being a better person instead of killing him, which I guess counts as progress? He holds a knife to the landlord\u2019s neck and repeatedly suffocates him (just a little!) to mimic the feeling of not being able to breathe from a black-mold-induced asthma attack. \u201cIf you don\u2019t start doing right by your tenants, I\u2019ll be disappointed,\u201d Dexter warns just as Batista begins to break in. Yes, \u00c1ngel has followed his AirPods back to midtown and finally clocked the wig shop as the perfect place for the Bay Harbor Butcher to assemble a kill room. Once inside, however, he\u2019s knocked over by a fleeing Vinny, who shoves him with an \u201cOut of my way, you cocksucker!\u201d Sounds like a changed man to me. Dexter, meanwhile, is nowhere to be seen. After nearly being caught, he smartly searches his car and finds the AirPods, angrily crushing them to the tune of Danzig\u2019s \u201cLong Way Back From Hell.\u201d In short, Batista has accomplished nothing, and he\u2019s lost his only way of keeping tabs on Dexter.<\/p>\n But wait, there\u2019s a kill room in the wig shop! This is exactly the proof Batista has been looking for to show that the Bay Harbor Butcher is still active, as he excitedly shares on a call to Wallace. When she and Oliva arrive on the scene, though, they\u2019re not quite so convinced by the plastic-wrapped table and display cases. There\u2019s no body and no Dexter. Besides, the Bay Harbor Butcher didn\u2019t make a habit of letting his victims go free. Batista \u2014 who has already fessed up to tracking Dexter without a warrant \u2014\u00a0makes the added mistake of asking if the detectives think he put up all the plastic himself. \u201cStrange that you should say that, is it not, Captain Batista?\u201d Wallace replies. Perhaps Dex\u2019s heavy implication that his former colleague was too unstable to be taken seriously actually worked. It certainly doesn\u2019t help matters that Wallace\u2019s investigation into the Bay Harbor Butcher leads her to Joey Quinn, who shares some startling information: Batista abruptly retired as captain, which means he\u2019s no longer active law enforcement at all. Last week, I chastised Dexter for underestimating the Batista threat, but the ex-cop is now at a distinct disadvantage.<\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s another significant threat to worry about. Early in the episode, we see that the tension between Prater and Charley has not abated \u2014\u00a0he trusts \u201cRed\u201d completely, while Charley smells a rat. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that everything went sideways when Red joined,\u201d she explains. \u201cI don\u2019t have a good feeling.\u201d Her employer snaps back, \u201cI don\u2019t fucking care about your feelings, Charley.\u201d What could her theory possibly be, Prater demands? That Red somehow infiltrated the group<\/a> he was invited to, murdered Lowell, got Mia arrested, and orchestrated a fight with Gareth? Well, yes, exactly, but Charley admits the real problem is she doesn\u2019t know enough about Red and might have missed something. Her job is to keep Prater safe, and he coldly suggests that she do so. I\u2019d almost forgotten about those two as the episode wrapped up with something close to a happy ending. Dexter and Harrison enjoy a steakhouse meal (a step up from Applebee\u2019s), and Harrison reveals that Vinny had a change of heart and is making all the needed repairs to Elsa\u2019s apartment. Dexter\u2019s scared-straight program is more effective than I\u2019d imagined! Just then, Prater approaches the table. \u201cRed, I didn\u2019t know you have a son,\u201d he says to Dexter, who is stunned into silence. Outside, Charley looks pleased with herself. She\u2019s very good at her job.<\/p>\n \u2022 It\u2019s almost hard to express just how careless Dexter has been. I don\u2019t even mean the Vinny situation, though I still think that was misguided. I\u2019m talking about pretending to be Red while also living a public life and working in New York under his real name, as if a billionaire and his terrifying right-hand woman wouldn\u2019t be able to put the pieces together easily.<\/p>\n \u2022 If we\u2019re calling out carelessness, I\u2019m also going to shake my finger at Blessing for sharing his deepest, darkest secret with someone he\u2019s known for all of two weeks. \u201cYou betrayed me,\u201d he tells Dexter, but I have to believe he\u2019s mad at himself, too.<\/p>\n \u2022 Harrison and Gigi go on their first date and have sex, which would be cute if I could bring myself to trust a character who showed up in the seventh episode with a mysterious arm injury. I\u2019m not sure what to make of Gigi yet, but I like this commenter theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n Photo: Zach Dilgard\/Paramount+ with SHO\n <\/p>\n