Dexter is undergoing some major faith issues this season, and it continues into this episode. Deb is dealing with becoming Lieutenant at a young age, and breaking up with Quinn when he wants to get serious. Professor Gellar and Travis have trapped their next victim. True to Dexter storytelling, we have received a lot of build up with the “Big Bads” this season, with Professor Gellar and Travis, and not sure what to think of Brother Sam yet.
The episode starts out with a dead working girl washed up on shore. Her tooth is broken and Dexter is flashed back to his childhood obsession with the Tooth Fairy Killer. Harry mentions that he wished Dexter’s scrapbook would have been filled with porn rather than tracking serial killers, but the Tooth Fairy was Dexter’s favorite, because he was never caught. With Harry’s help, he thinks back and realizes that he would be in his 80’s, and visits a retirement home about a mile away from the crime scene. He muses that old age is supposed to be a second childhood, “there are primary colors, tricycles and ball chasing. I barely made it out of my childhood, but I guess no one makes it out of the second one.” After doing a little research into the facility, Dexter lands on Walter Kenny, an angry old man with a foul mouth and a bad back. Using his skill of being able to research people right under their noses, Dexter befriends Walter and becomes his source of transportation.
Quinn copes with his breakup with Deb the best way he knows how: a lot of random sex with random girls. Angel confronts him, but Quinn tells him about the breakup and he backs down. Angel also sees how LaGuerta is trying to work over Deb, and backs her up by telling her to not let LaGuerta bully her, and that she should take the advice of “Mrs. LaGuerta.” Later, Quinn and Deb fight, Quinn thinking that Deb took the job over him and Deb missing Quinn, but being treated unfairly because she didn’t want to get married.
Masuka continues to try and woo his pretty intern Ryann by showing her the evidence from the Ice Truck Killer case (which was the “Big Bad” case of Season One, if you remember!) Ryann’s fascination with him shows, and while Masuka’s back is turned, she steals the mannequin hand from the box.
Dexter is out carting Walter around, taking him to get his prescription filled, buy a case of beer and a stack of porn magazines. Walter asks to be dropped at a storage shed, and Dexter takes a lookout point across the street. About two hours later Walter emerges, and Dexter wonders what he could have done for two hours. Dexter goes into the storage shed and finds a box filled with teeth, and confirms that Walter Kenny is the Tooth Fairy Killer. Dexter decides to make him his next kill. While on the way to set up the kill room, Walter calls Dexter, saying he got on the wrong bus and needs to be picked up. Dexter does so, and Walter puts a gun to his head. He says that he looked up Dexter’s name while he was filling his prescription and found out he works for Miami Metro Homicide. He wants to know how Dexter figured out he was who he was. Dexter, quickly thinking, smashes his car into the fence, knocking Walter out.
Travis continues to wait for his newest victim to repent for his sins. Professor Gellar says that the victim is just saying what he thinks Travis wants to hear, and tells him to continue waiting for the real confessions. The victim manages to escape, breaking the chain on the floor that his hands are handcuffed to, and runs out into a stable, where 4 horses are irritated. Scared, he falls backwards onto Travis’ feet and expresses his true confession much to Professor Gellar’s approval.
Walter Kenny wakes up in his lounge chair, in Dexter fashion, being saran wrapped. Demanding to know what is going on, Dexter explains to him that he put him there using service elevators. Walter soon realizes that Dexter means to kill him, and asks that he gets told that he was the Tooth Fairy Killer, that it would make his good for nothing son think twice for ignoring him. Dexter, perplexed, says he doesn’t want his son to know who he is and what he’s done. Going against Walter’s wishes, he doesn’t kill him in his normal fashion, but suffocates him, making him an old man who just died of a heart attack, instead of one of his normal victims. He tosses the box of teeth into the ocean, instead of Walter’s body. When he goes to put Walter’s slide into his box, the box falls and breaks one of the slides, and all the slides fall out of place. Dexter doesn’t handle this well, as there are no labels, no order, just chaos.
That morning, the four horses parade down the street, with a mixture of mannequin body parts and the body of the victim mixed together and strapped on. The alpha and omega symbol is donned on their heads.
While this episode didn’t really move the overall storyline forward, it was still an interesting one in which we get to see how Dexter deals with his fallen idol, and the growing relationship of Travis and Professor Gellar. It will be interesting to see how the four horsemen are handled by the new Lieutenant Debra, and what Dexter will think of it. I especially enjoyed the closing sequence of Dexter dropping the box of slides, I thought it was incredibly interesting to see his reaction.
What did you think of this episode? Did you feel it was filler or interesting? Do you want to see more of Travis and Professor Gellar?
Did you miss last week’s episode? Check out my recap here: ‘Dexter: Once Upon A Time’ Episode 6.2 – Recap
