Watching Showtime

Dexter’s whole world is slowly unraveling around him, what with new revelations in the Bay Harbor Butcher case, an unruly sponsor, and visits with Rita’s mother! At least Deb’s getting some action! For the full recap, keep reading.

Rita’s cleaning sort of manically because her mother is coming to visit for the first time in a few years. She hasn’t been around because of Paul, but now that he’s dead she wants to be back in Rita’s life. Cody’s been having nightmares about the Bay Harbor Butcher, and it brings out the violent mom in Rita, much to Dexter’s dismay.

At the office, they’ve identified 18 of the bodies, 13 of which have been identified as “bad guys”. The Leiutenant wants to let the public know as fast as possible so the city can calm down. Just as they’re about to announce it, Masuka announces he’s gotten a big break in the case, freaking Dexter out to the point of needing a sponsor visit. When he gets there, he sees she’s an artist, currently working on sculptures with mannequins. Her art is about as creepy as Dexter’s killing compulsion, which makes him feel much calmer about his demons. They head out to “pick up art supplies” which really means stealing metal objects that she calls “found objects”.

While meeting with his sponsor, Dexter has to run off as there’s a dead body and he’s got to head off to examine the blood spatter. While there, they discover the victim has been “Mozambiqued” … two in the chest, one in the head. It’s a special forces tactic, so Doakes takes lead on the case as that’s his world. He’s able to find the suspect just a little to easily, and heads off for a meet with an old army buddy to discuss the shooting.

The cops on the Bay Harbor Butcher case are examining the 5 bodies that aren’t known “bad guys”, trying to figure out why they’re in the burial ground with all the other bodies.

Esme, through all of this, is still panicked about her fiance’s possible cheating. She asks the lab guys to see if they can identify a smell on his shirt, and Dexter points her to Masuka in an attempt to overburden him and keep him from working on the Bay Harbor Butcher case.

Rita’s mom is in town, and she’s a total bitch! She doesn’t like to have blame assigned to her, but is more than willing to do so with others. Dexter meets her and the two seem to hit it off wonderfully. He finds out she’s all for leaving the Butcher out in the public, saying he’s actually doing the community a service by killing the bad guys.

Deb’s putting in overtime with the FBI agent, and he suggests she get some social time in, help her keep balanced. So what does she do? Heads to the gym, where she runs into the boxing dude from before. His name’s Gabriel, and with the brief introductions she invites him out to grab a drink with her, which very quickly turns into dirty dirty (handcuffs and everything) sex on Dexter’s bed. Best part? When Dexter comes home early from Rita’s and walks in on them!

At the meeting Doakes sets up about the murder, he finds out he’s not meeting a friend, but the actual killer. Seems they have a lot in common, being they both get nightmares and have violent outbursts. He asks Doakes to stall the investigation long enough to help him out, as he’s trying to get to Cuba to escape extradition. He admits he’s killed his wife, and the pair get into a gun-war, with Doakes willing eventually by shooting first.

Dexter tries to break up with his sponsor, but she doesn’t take it so well. Having her as a sponsor reminds him too much of being a kid and having to go to therapists. When she shows up at his work, she tells him it’s sad and pathetic he uses the excuse “I’m a monster” to keep from getting over himself. He takes her to the temporary morgue to show her there are actual monsters in the world, but it doesn’t work. Instead of being freaked out, she thinks it’s incredible, and the person who did it is still a person both good and evil, just like everyone else. Because of this, her ability to see him for who he is and help him feel okay about it, he decides to keep her as a sponsor, something Rita’s not going to be very happy about.

Scared of the algae breakthrough bringing the cops closer to him, he sneaks back to the station that night and breaks the air conditioning unit connected to the temporary morgue. The bodies all start to decompose at a faster rate, and he thinks he’s in the clear. Turns out the algae wasn’t on the bodies, but instead on the rocks he’d used to weigh down the bags, which he got from the dock where his boat is stored. So much for thinking he’ll be in the clear, as the rocks are on their way to the marine biologist and will soon be identified! Within a week they should be able to narrow down the marinas to one closer to Dexter.

Back at the station, Maria finds out they’ve fired Esme and she’s back in charge. In the shock of the episode, it turns out Maria was the other woman in Esme’s life!!! She was using him to get to Esme, and get her job back. When he thinks it means the pair can be out in the open, she tells him to leave her alone, to go back to Esme. Holy Shit! Who knew she had that in her?

To catch up on old episodes:
season one recaps
it’s alive!
waiting to exhale
an inconvenient lie

Dexter, Showtime, Dexter Morgan, Michael C. Hall, Rita Bennett, Julie Benz, Debra Morgan, Jennifer Carpenter, James Doakes, Erik King, Maria LaGuerta, Lauren Velez, Angel Batista, David Zayas, Harry Morgan, James Remar, Vincent Masuka, C.S. Lee