Dexter Season 8, Episode 9 Recap: ‘Make Your Own Kind of Music’

Dexter finds his killer but he’s being torn in two directions as he hunts for The Brain Surgeon while trying to protect Hannah from a new threat…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
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Two for two

I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong, especially when making predictions. In my other writing occupation, I’m routinely asked to make picks for sporting events, and like any expert, I’m right more than I’m wrong, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get a fair amount of guesses incorrect. That’s what guessing is all about.

I can proudly say, however, for last week’s episode of Dexter I went a solid two for two in my predictions about who really was the Brain Surgeon, and his relation to the mysterious Dr. Vogel.

Read ahead for this week’s recap so I can high five myself a bit more before throwing the biggest air ball ever in the last few episodes ahead as I’m sure that’s what I’ll get for bragging this time around.

Hannah’s Not Headed to Montana

Dexter can’t live without Hannah, and it’s apparent after her getaway from a murder charge but soon returning to the scene of the crime that Hannah can’t much live without Dexter either. The problem with these two kids being so crazy in love is that the collateral damage they leave behind is like a hurricane that leaves their house alone, but manages to mangle the neighbors on each side of them. Dexter and Hannah profess their love for one another, but they decide the only way to truly be together is to hide away somewhere like Argentina along with Harrison so they can be one big happy family.

Little does Dexter know that Deb’s grudge against Hannah has already spread to her boss Elway, who has now called in the help of a Deputy U.S. Marshall named Clayton (played by The Shield and Sons of Anarchy actor Kenny Johnson) and he’s going to lead the charge to find Ms. McKay and see if she’s really back in Miami. Clayton quickly pays a visit to Dexter to inform him that he’s on the case, and that Hannah may be back in Miami. He puts a security force on Dexter’s apartment and on his son Harrison, just in case Hannah gets too close.

Clayton’s good at his job (unlike the entire Miami Metro Homicide Department), and he tracks down Hannah’s old friend Arlene—who has secretly been stashing away over half a million dollars for Hannah in safe keeping in case she ever needed to get away. Dexter and Hannah just so happen to be at her house when Clayton arrives asking questions. The only solution? Dexter and Arlene pretend to be together, and it’s a little obvious that Clayton isn’t buying this new couple.

A little later in the episode, Clayton pays another visit to Dexter’s apartment to let him know that he believes the Hannah threat is over and he’s pulling off the cops watching his house. As Harrison sits in the floor drawing a family picture, Clayton wisely asks who the little boy is sketching with his crayons. Daddy, Harrison and….mommy. Luckily for Dexter earlier in the hour, Harrison reveals that he would like Hannah to be his mommy, and they all dodge a federal bullet when he says the ‘M’ word instead of Hannah. Clayton’s tactics are pretty smart, however, because by telling Dexter the search is over, he’s hoping his guard goes down enough that he can trap him helping Hannah out of Miami.

The Odd Couple

With Hannah now on the news with her photo all over town as a wanted fugitive, Dexter has to stash her in the one place she will be safe at and nobody will be looking for her at—Deb’s apartment of course.

Deb and Hannah are now roommates while Dexter devises a plan to get her out of town. It was a pretty brilliant scene executed by Jennifer Carpenter and Yvonne Strahovski as they share a salad for dinner as Deb marvels that she’s actually eating something Hannah made for her giving the poisonous past they have together.

The Brain Surgeon Revealed (For Real This Time)

So I was bragging about being right last week with my guesses about who was really behind Zach Hamilton’s murder, thus revealing that The Brain Surgeon was still very much alive.

In a search of Zach’s studio where he was killed before being dumped off at Dexter’s, he finds a small smattering of blood and a few hairs. Once the analysis is run, Dexter finds that there is a matching DNA sample—it’s a related DNA to none other than Dr. Vogel.

Remember in last week’s episode, Dr. Vogel teased about a husband and family she used to have, but how “an incident” changed it all in a moment’s notice and she’s never been the same sense, but had no desire to disclose what exactly happened. It turns out, once upon a time Dr. Vogel was a married women with a husband and two children. The sad part is upon returning home one day, Vogel found her youngest son drowned at the bottom of their family pool. At first they believed he was just a poor swimmer, and had fallen victim of nobody being around to save him. That is until Vogel discovered her elder son Daniel was actually the one that committed the murder.

Daniel was the entire reason Vogel devoted her life to understanding psychopaths because she bred one from birth. Daniel was always an intelligent boy according to Vogel, but after she and her husband covered up the murder they realized the only course of action was to put their oldest son into a mental institution for rehabilitation.

Three years later a fire broke out in the facility and Daniel died along with six other boys. The bodies were so badly charred that there was no way to make a positive identification, and once Dexter does a little digging he realizes that Daniel did escape and he’s now living back in Miami under a different name—Oliver Saxon.

Saxon was Cassie’s boyfriend at the time when she was murdered and who I guessed last week was not only the Brain Surgeon, but somehow related to Vogel and a psychopath she dealt with many years ago. Turns out Daniel survived, escaped the mental institution and has been back in Miami sending Vogel some belated Mother’s Day gifts, and he’s still on the hunt for a bit more revenge.

Dexter discovers that Saxon/Daniel hacked into Vogel’s computer, and has been reading her journal entries this entire time. That’s how he knew about Dexter and Zach Hamilton, which led him to murdering the latter and leaving him at Dexter’s home gift wrapped with his skull sawed off. Dexter has Vogel plant a message saying that she will be at a certain café the next day so they can trap him. Dexter wants Daniel on his table, but Vogel insists that they bring him back to a mental institution so he can receive the help he needs.

Dexter knows that if Daniel survives he’s only going to be another living threat out there in the world that knows his dark secret, so to ensure that he gets some alone time with The Brain Surgeon he doses Vogel’s tea leaving her incapacitated at home while he goes on the hunt. Dexter tracks Daniel to the café, but when he goes to follow him back somewhere private where he can administer his tranquilizer and put him in a kill room, he discovers that this killer is smarter than some past foes he may have faced.

Daniel has slashed Dexter’s tires, obviously spotting him while they were waiting at the café, and he gets away clean. Dexter rushes to Vogel’s house to warn her that Daniel got away, and will likely be gunning for her more than ever know because he has to believes that she sent Dexter after him.

Vogel is clearly upset that Dexter drugged her and their trust is broken now. He isn’t about to give up on his hunt for Daniel, however, and whether she likes it or not—he has to go. The only problem is Vogel isn’t giving up on her son that easily and a moment after Dexter steps out of the house, Daniel steps out of the shadows.

Vogel convinced Daniel that she didn’t send Dexter after him, and the newly reunited mother and son sit down for a little breakfast as she clasps his hands for the first time in decades after believing him to be dead.

Falling Back Into Old Patterns

Quinn is still hunting for Zach Hamilton, believing he was the one that bashed Cassie’s head in and he’s calling on Deb to help with the hunt. Meanwhile, Deb is at a crossroads because she’s bored playing detective for Elway, but isn’t quite sure she’s ready to put the badge back on and be a police officer again.

Quinn and Deb end up taking a look at Cassie’s boyfriend Oliver Saxon after Jamie gives her the tip that after only being together for a few weeks, he was pushing for the pair to take an impromptu trip to the Bahamas. Jamie was convinced that Cassie was about to break up with Oliver, but he wasn’t about to have that happen. When Quinn and Deb show up to question Oliver, he insists that it was Cassie that wanted to take the trip even though he was swamped with work. Deb knows he’s lying, and let’s Quinn know that something is off about this guy.

It’s in that moment that Quinn decides to further complicate his life by kissing Deb. The two brush it off quickly, but it’s apparent neither one is really ready to let this moment go any time soon.

Deb’s personal crisis comes to an even bigger moment when she visits Batista at the station and he hands her a badge and says welcome back detective. She’s unsure how to take the move, but he insists on handing her the badge and telling Deb she can take all the time she needs to decide if she’s ready to return to the force.

Back at the detective agency, Elway loses his mind when he realizes that Deb not only knew that Hannah was in town (as she first advised him about last week), but she let her go after finding her location. Elway is pissed, and lashes out at Deb telling her to make up her mind if she really wants to be there or not. I complained a few weeks ago that Sean Patrick Flanery was being somewhat wasted this season, but it’s good to know with only three more episodes left that he’s being given some meaty parts before it’s all over.

3 More Left to Go

There are only three hours of Dexter left to go before it’s all over, and judging by the previews for the final episodes, things are about to get very sticky for Dexter as he tries to close out the Brain Surgeon once and for all while picking up his entire life to start anew with Hannah in Argentina.

There’s no way this story has a happy ending with smiles all around.

At least short term looking ahead, Dr. Vogel seems happy to have her son back, but will Daniel turn out to be the psychopath he’s been all his life and turn on mother once again? The big reveal this week about Daniel being Vogel’s son wasn’t really hard to figure out, and once she started telling the story it sounded more like a concept behind the latest Halloween movie instead of Dexter. In other words it was a little convoluted and contrived, and not as smart as many past seasons of Dexter have been with a turning point in the show.

Hopefully with just a few episodes left, there will be another major twist to this story before it all ends.

What did you think of the latest episode of Dexter? Leave your comments below and let us know what you thought!