Dexter Season 7 Episode 6 Recap and Review: A Little Reflection Reveals a Big Monster; A Familiar Face Returns

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
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What would have become of Dexter Morgan if not for finding the perfect foster father in Harry Morgan? What would have happened if Harry had never consulted the services of Dr. Evelyn Vogel?

While we can theorize and contemplate those questions for eons, the reality of those two issues hit Dexter head on in this week’s episode titled “A Little Reflection” when he began finding out more and more about young Zach Hamilton—the suspected killer who finished off Norma Rivera just a couple of episodes.

Dexter and Deb are also spending more time together this week with old habits starting to come back to life, while Quinn tries to readjust his own career expectations after being blindsided with some news from his best friend Angel Batista.

Dexter Junior

It’s quite safe to say that when Dexter Morgan was growing up the last thing he imagined his life would look like would involve toys around the house, and raising a son as a single parent but that’s exactly what it’s evolved into over the past few years. At one time, Dexter kept a damaged girlfriend next to his side to give the appearance of normalcy, while his bloodlust and need to kill filled his every waking moment. The duality of his life was such that the days spent with Rita were the real mask he was wearing, and the stalking and killing of his prey was the real Dexter unleashed.

To maintain his secrecy, Dexter will always be forced to live two lives especially now with his son growing up more and more each day. He even has to deal with teaching his son not to lie despite his own morally challenged issues with that subject. Every time that Dexter has let someone into his world, it’s all gone wrong.

From Lila in season 2 to Miguel Prado to Hannah McKay, Dexter is meant to live a life of solitude, but he keeps reaching out to feel someone close to him. Someone that can understand how he is built. Someone that knows what he feels when he does the things he does.

In this latest episode, Dexter finds another kindred spirit in a wealthy adolescent named Zach Hamilton, who he believes not only killed his father’s mistress, but he’s about to kill again. Dexter witnesses Zach nearby at two different murder scenes snapping pictures, as he’s drawn to the blood and violence.

Dexter begins trailing Zach, which leads him directly to Dr. Vogel’s house where she is serving as his new psychiatrist. She was referred to him by Hamilton’s father, who is worried about his son’s outbursts and propensity for violent behavior. Dexter questions Vogel about Zach’s true nature, but she instead gives him the cold shoulder saying she can’t reveal anything without betraying patient/doctor confidentiality.

Dexter decides to trail Zach and finds that he’s already stalking and seeking out his next victim, but when he brings this to Vogel he’s met with an interesting proposal—what if Zach could be taught the code the same way Harry instructed them to Dexter?

He’s hesitant to hear any of this, and eventually tracks down Zach as he is about to bludgeon his own father to death after catching him with yet another young woman he was tracking earlier in the episode. Once Dexter has Zach on his table, the young psychopath explains that he was going after the girls because his father is slowly killing his mother by cheating on her constantly. He figured out that his father wasn’t going to stop, so instead of taking another innocent life Zach targeted him instead.

Dexter begins to unravel young Zach by suggesting the exact things that he used to feel before, during and after a murder—the sense of a weight being lifted when it was done, the feeling of being in control even if just for a few minutes, the sheer pleasure in knowing what it was to take another life. Dexter quickly realizes as Zach pleads with him to just end it knowing that he will surely kill again, he opts to cut the tape loose, free him from the table and do for Zach what Harry did for him all those years ago.

There’s no chance that could go wrong…

Dexter and Deb Are Back on Track

For the first half of this season, Dexter and his sister Deb are literally polar opposites in terms of their feelings for each other after the circumstances that happened last year when LaGuerta was murdered in a shipping container in cold blood. Deb fell down a black hole after firing that guy and her behavior not only saw her leave the police force, but develop a nasty drinking habit, begin shacking up with suspects she was supposed to be investigating, and culminating in her attempted suicide attempt that was also meant to kill her brother in the process.

Call it cathartic process that Deb had to go through, but now she’s back from the bottom and trying to climb back to the life she led just a few months ago. She’s curbed her drinking, she’s now having steak dinners with her brother again, all while still seeing Dr. Vogel for regular therapy sessions.

Dexter’s role in her life is back to being brother, and the siblings seem to be in perfect harmony with one another. Deb is back to work for Elway, who is now having her participate in a sting operation to go after his lying, cheating brother-in-law. She helps to bust him, but after it’s over Deb quickly realizes that Elway has feelings for her and that can only end badly.

One other juicy revelation that was also brought up during this episode while Deb and Dexter discussed her continued therapy with Dr. Vogel was the existence of her husband that had never been brought up before. Rich Vogel was his name, and his wife has brought him up to Deb during their shared sessions, but hasn’t said anything about him to Dexter. It seems this story will come back to play at some point this season before it’s all over.

Calling All Sergeants

Pressured to further his own career, Detective Joey Quinn decided at the behest of Batista and his girlfriend Jamie that he needed to try out for the recently vacated position of sergeant. Quinn studies hard and takes the sergeant’s exam, passing with flying colors. The only problem is so did Detective Miller, who has just as many career accolades with far fewer entanglements. Batista is pressured by Deputy Chief Matthews to make a decision within a day’s time so he opts to promote Miller instead of his good friend Quinn.

Obviously, Quinn is rattled by the move after he was encouraged to go for the promotion by Batista, and the news also angers his little sister who was standing by her man the entire time hoping he would land this better job. Instead of self-destructing, Quinn decides to work that much harder into solving the Norma Rivera murder case so he starts trailing Zach Hamilton.

The only problem is Dexter is also on the case, and he doesn’t miss his mark very often. Dexter is able to throw Quinn off the trail after a carefully placed call to Jamie, and he was back in predator/prey mode.

In other parts of the world, Masuka gets the report from Deb about his daughter and he finds out she’s in pretty hefty financial debt. He’s convinced now, more than ever, that she’s after his money so he just goes ahead and cuts her a check for $5000 to help her out hoping to form a bond with his new daughter. Nikki doesn’t appreciate the gesture, seeing right through Masuka’s offer for money and she turns around and walks away from her new father without stopping.

The Big Reveal

Dexter and Deb are back in each other’s lives, maybe to their own detriment, but it’s a pattern they seem doomed to duplicate no matter what happens. The brother and sister are enjoying a little morning coffee the day after Dexter finds his own progeny, but something’s wrong. Deb is feeling a little off, and in a dizzy state she passes out on the couch.

It doesn’t take long for Dexter to start feeling the same ill effects and as he crashes against the couch just moments from darkness, a shadow is revealed from the light walking towards him.

“Hello, Dexter,” a voice says.

When the background light fades, the figure standing in front of Dexter is none other than his ex-girlfriend Hannah McKay.

What is Hannah doing back in town and how long is she staying? Is this trip about revenge or something else. Can Dexter mold another killer to live by The Code? Is Deb just too scared to get involved with Elway or is she still harboring feelings for another? And what will Dr. Vogel’s influence be on Dexter’s new project while we still start to wonder about the skeletons that are lurking around her closet?

Tune in next week for another episode of Dexter and leave your comments about this week’s episode below!