‘Dexter: Resurrection’ Episode 7 Recap – Show and Tell On Steroids

Part of the fun of any Dexter show is wondering how he’s going to keep getting away with it, but even by franchise standards, Episode 7 of Dexter: Resurrection finds the net squeezing impossibly tightly around him. With so much going wrong from so many different angles, it seems inconceivable that the outcome of this season isn’t going to be Dexter getting caught, killed, or forced to do the one thing he hasn’t been willing or able to do in many years — get rid of Angel Batista. Permanently.

I’m not sure how I feel about that. Batista’s presence is almost reassuring; like the glimpse of James Doakes we got in the premiere, it’s a reminder that this spin-off has respect for the show’s past as well as new ideas for its future. It’s a nice balance to strike, one that until this point, Resurrection has achieved admirably. Killing off Batista feels like closing a long chapter with too much finality.

But what choice is there? Batista isn’t going to let his dogged pursuit of the Bay Harbor Butcher go, and New York is a small place when you live in the basement of the only person you know. Luckily for Dexter, he spends most of “Course Correction” on another of Leon’s demented retreats, so he doesn’t run into Batista until he returns home and finds him teaching Blessing how to salsa. But their loaded conversation is pretty obvious in its implications. The fact that Batista leaves his AirPods in Dex’s car so he can track it ensures us that wherever Dexter is going next, Batista won’t be far behind.

As mentioned, though, Dexter is occupied for most of the episode. After being picked up in Leon’s swanky helicopter at the end of the previous episode, fresh from murdering one half of the Gemini Killers, he’s whisked away to a literal castle for an impromptu Lady Vengeance memorial and another round of show and tell. The Lady Vengeance thing takes a lot of gall, since Leon’s performative reverence is a bit rich considering he arranged her “suicide”. In case it wasn’t obvious, this guy isn’t any more morally sound than the serial killers he so obsessively admires.

The serial killers are quite a bunch, though, which Dexter: Resurrection reminds us of in Episode 7. With Lowell, Mia, and Gareth’s secret twin brother now dead, attention — ours and Dexter’s — turns to Al and Gareth, both of whom are top targets on Dex’s list. Since it’s Al’s turn to show and tell, he entertains the group with GoPro footage of him strangling a jogging woman and snipping off her ponytail, a home movie that drives Dexter to distraction. It’s in this state of mind, with a bit of a pep talk from Harry, that Dexter delivers his own monologue for the group, describing being a puppet on the strings of his Dark Passenger, and the endless struggle to maintain the mask of normality when he isn’t looming over his kill table. It’s a startling bit of introspection and honesty from Dexter, who isn’t prone to either. Leon loves it.

Leon loves it so much, in fact, that it compels him to open up about his own circumstances; the death of his parents, his initial, tentative contact with their killer, and the connection he formed with him during their subsequent correspondance, which we can assume is where he got the fascination with collecting not just the trophies of serial killers but in many ways the killers themselves. It’s illuminating but not surprising. After all, what do you get the man who has everything?

It at least cracks a window into how Leon might take the idea of his collection becoming rapidly reduced. It’s vitally important that Dexter take Gareth off the board, but he can’t do so in a way that draws more suspicion, so what he decides to do in “Course Correction” is antagonize him by confessing to killing his brother. It’s a private exchange, and Gareth falls for it hook, line, and sinker, attacking Dexter with his wine glass. Dex capably introduces its stem to Gareth’s jugular, and just like that, another killer is down. With a bit of play-acting implying that Gareth’s ego had compelled him to treat Leon’s guests as his latest masterpiece, putting him on the hook for Lowell’s murder, too, Dexter reckons he has killed multiple birds with a single stone. Based on Charley’s reaction, I wouldn’t be so sure.

Dexter is able to wriggle away from the retreat in just enough time to meet Harrison at a tour of a criminology college, where he’s forced into attending a lecture given by none other than Claudette Wallace. Dexter arrives late and Claudette recognises him immediately, which isn’t ideal. The Morgans do their best to finesse their way out of it — Harrison claims he wants to be a cop; Dexter gives some blood spatter pattern analysis on the cold case Claudette is giving a presentation on — but it’s clear that Claudette isn’t buying it.

Between this, Batista showing up at Dexter’s home, and Charley becoming visibly suspicious of Dexter, there are so many ways it could all go wrong for Dex that it’s hard to imagine him getting out of this one. Still, at least Harrison seems to have a new lady friend.

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