Tonight on Showtime our favorite serial killer DEXTER returns with its season 8 premiere and sadly this is the last season for the show so we are in the countdown to the end. Tonight’s season premiere is called, “A Beautiful Day.” If you want to refresh your memory of where we left off last season, you can read our full and detailed recap of the season finale, right here.
At the end of last season La Guerta was hot on the pursuit of Dexter and finally found him with a dead Hector. Dex gave her the paralytic shot to the neck. Harry was there and asked him what the plan is. He was not going to kill her – he was going to set her up. Deb showed, La Guerta cames to and told Deb to kill Dexter. La Guerta said, this is not who you are. Dexter told her that everything La Guerta said is true. He dropped the knife and spread his arms and told her to do what you’ve got to do. Deb is crying and calling his name. She shoots. Holy crap she shot La Guerta. Then she takes her in her arms and sobs as she holds her body. Dexter is stunned.
On tonight’s show we rewind ahead six months since LaGuerta’s murder – and Dexter is still managing life as a dad, brother, and serial killer. Debra now works as a PI for a private firm and Batista has replaced her as Lieutenant, she clearly has not turned herself in. Rumor has it she is going to turn to drugs to help her conscious. Meanwhile, Miami Metro investigates the murder of a man who has had pieces of his brain removed.
Tonight’s episode is going to be another action packed one, which you won’t want to miss, we are down to the last episodes. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of Showtimes’s Dexter Season 8 premiere — tonight at 9PM EST! While you wait for our recap check out the sneak peek video below of tonight’s episode!
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
We start out six months after the season finale. If you remember, LaGuerta had figured out Dexter was the Bay Harbor butcher she’d been searching for and had him cornered. When Debra showed up, LaGuerta ordered her to shoot her brother. In a shocking move, Debra shot LaGuerta instead and then broke down crying and held her while she died.
So here we are half a year later and Dexter is back at work doing splatter analysis. Dexter’s inner monologue explains that LaGuerta’s life has made his life better. He’s a soccer coach for Harrison and got the department bowling team back together.
Batista is speaking at a memorial for LaGuerta when Dexter and Harrison join the assembled group. They unveil a bench dedicated to her memory. Afterward, Batista complained that the bench was not enough. Vince cracks that you buy benches like that at Home Depot. The guys ask Dexter about how Deb is doing and he gives assurances. Quinn said Deb was calling him every couple of days asking him for favors, but said she’s out of town. Dexter had no idea.
Batista says Maria’s death has recommitted him to law enforcement. Dexter tries to call Deb and gets her full mailbox. He speculates to himself that she has to work through it in her own way. Switch to Deb and she’s snorting coke and making out with a dope dealer. She listens to his conversation and then offers to be his backup. She tells him she wants to rent a boat and go fast. He tells her that he was lucky that she walked in the bar right before he left. They get down to doing the nasty…
Dexter is at his sister’s house peeking in the windows. He finds her mailbox overflowing and a stack of mail piled up. Harry shows up and warns him to go away. Dexter goes in and searches the house for her, but she’s not there. Harry confirms she’s gone and tells him he needs to leave her alone – that not seeing him was her choice.
Dex finds a handful of prescription bottles for Xanax, Adderall and Deb’s pot stash. He’s upset that she’s mixing substances. He tells his Dad he has to find her because he’s the only one who knows what she went through. Dexter comes to the company where Deb is working as a private investigator. Her boss – a former cop himself – says that Deb hasn’t checked in with him for a couple of weeks and that’s just how she rolls.
He tells Dexter she’s working a smash and grab skip trace. Dexter wants to know why she’s getting the lower cases and he says Deb has turned down higher profile work – he tells him she’s a thrill seeker.
Dex is at a homicide scene and tells Batista the victim was killed elsewhere. He moves the victim’s head and finds the back of his head comes off and part of the brain has been taken out by what looks like a melon baller. Dex said it’s a body dump. Angie finds a gun.
Watching video of Deb’s skip trace on her computer, he figures out that the guy she’s chasing is dangerous and he worries that she’s in over her head. Dex tries to log onto Deb’s computer – he figured out her password is f-ing password and finds bank activity that shows she’s in Fort Lauderdale. Dex scoots to Lauderdale and sees her cozy with her skip trace Andrew. He demands to know why she hasn’t brought him in since she find him.
He asks her to clear her messages. She tells him to get the f- away from her and that her life is none of his business. He asks if she’s having sex with her skip. Deb tells him she doesn’t want to talk to him and doesn’t want to see him. He asks why. She says he made her compromise everything she liked about herself and she hates him for it. He tells her she doesn’t hate him. Deb tells him she shot the wrong person in the trailer! Ouch!
Dex tells Harry that Deb doesn’t really hate him. He tells Harry she’s lost. Harry says it’s her fault. A driver cuts him off and Dexter swerves in front of him, forcing him to stop and then starts choking him out until he sees there’s a young boy in the backseat.
Quinn and Jamie are getting busy when Batista comes home and Quinn stops dead and tells her he cannot have sex with her with his boss there. He throws clothes on and tells her to distract her brother while he sneaks out. Batista asks her why she’s sweaty and assumes she’s been working out.
They discuss that charity workers are coming to pick up all of Maria’s stuff the next day and he’s depressed about it. She tells him to pick out a couple of things to keep. Batista looks in her stuff and finds the warrants she wanted for Deb and Dexter’s phones. He muses that she shouldn’t have gone after the killer alone.
Batista brings in Dr. Evelyn Vogel – an expert – to discuss the brain case. She tells the assembled cops that the section of brain he took is associated with empathy and that’s the emotion serial killer’s lack. Dexter reminds her there’s only one body and she says it’s likely there are more bodies – or will be. She says he’s mid-30s, white and likely would be pleased to know they’re all talking about him. She says it’s a very elaborate kill plan. Vince says they call her the Psychopath Whisperer. Dex isn’t happy she’s there poking around.
Batista comes in with an ugly vase that was Maria’s and says he wants him to have it. Batista asks if he’s forgiven Maria and he says it will take time. Dexter snaps and tells him that she dies because she couldn’t leave things alone. Vince comes in and tells him Dr. Vogel wants him in the morgue.
Andrew is sniffing coke while Debra lays in bed watching. The fence for the jewelry showed up and he tells Deb he doesn’t have it on him but has a sample and showed her a bracelet. He leaves to talk to the guy outside and she calls Quinn on the sly and asks him to look up a fence named El Sapo.
Dex comes into the morgue and Vogel asks if he’s had any luck with DNA. He tells her no. She asks if Quinn and Batista are having any luck and he says no. He starts to leave and Vogel says she wants his take on the case. He asks why – he’s just the blood guy. She asks how he ended up there and he tells her his Dad was a cop, but he didn’t want Dex to go that route. She tells him she chose forensics and that both of them ended up working murders. She muses that maybe both of them are psychopaths.
asks him what the Bay Harbor Butcher – Doakes – was like. Dex tells her he was angry and had a quick temper. She said that doesn’t sound right – she said psychopaths are dispassionate. Vogel said the way he picked his victims – that he chose only criminal victims – indicated that he operated within a set of guidelines. Dexter repeats the word and she says it couldn’t have been because of sympathy or outrage because he would have lacked the emotions by nature. She tells Dexter she’s looking forward to working with him.
Dexter comes to see Tom Matthews about Vogel. Tom tells him she had moved back to Miami from England and they had lunch and he told her about the case and she volunteered her services. Dexter asks why he thinks Vogel called him out of the blue and Tom says he doesn’t know – maybe the stars aligned. He orders Dexter to keep her in the loop. Dex worries she’s there about him.
Quinn find Dex and tells him about El Sapo. He said he’s the only fence willing to buy what Briggs stole because he robbed a mob guy. Deb and Briggs are in bed when he gets a call from El Sapo. He tells her to hide while he’s there and says he’ll meet the guy outside. He says he doesn’t want her hurt.
Harrison is spinning on a squeaky stool in Dexter’s lab as he looks up El Sapo. He realizes El Sapo is a hit man and Deb may be in danger. Harrison bumps the ugly vase and it shatter. Dexter snaps and screams at Harrison then immediately apologizes. He tries to call Deb and gets her full mailbox again. Dex worries Deb will be in danger if El Sapo comes to kill Andrew.
Quinn’s getting busy with Jamie when Dexter pounds on the door. Quinn tells him where she’s staying and Dex rushes off. He tries to call Jamie but gets her voice mail because she’s fooling around with Quinn. He tells Harrison they’re going for a ride and Harrison says sweetly – Okay Daddy. They pull up at the shady motel where Deb is staying and Dex starts hunting Deb. He finds the room and gets Deb outside. He tells her El Sapo is a hit man not a fence. He begs her to come with him and she says she doesn’t f-ing care. She reminds him that he thinks bad people deserve to die. He tells her she’s not bad.
He tells her that she can’t stay away from him forever. She tells him she wakes up every day thinking about all the bad decisions she made because of him. She says she can’t stand it. Deb tells him she’s not like him – that she can’t not care. Andrew comes out and starts a fight with Dexter. He goes for a knife and Dexter gets it first and takes him out.
He begs her to leave with him – he says she’s lost. She says she’s not lost – that she’s in hell and that’s where she deserved to be. She tells him he’s the one who’s lost. Deb says her whole life she thought she needed Dexter and couldn’t live without him but she realizes it was the other way around. Dexter is shocked because he knows it’s true. She commands him to leave and calls the cops about the murder.
Dexter comes back to his van and finds it empty. He goes running and calling him and Harrison finds him. He asks Dexter where they are and he says lost. The cops are interviewing Deb. She told them she went out for a sandwich and came back to find him dead. They ask if she knows who killed him and she says no. She calls her boss Jacob and leaves a message saying she may know where the jewelry is. El Sapo is watching her!
At his place, Dexter washes some blood off Harrison’s toy and is in anguish because he admits to himself that he is lost without her. Vogel finds Dexter on LaGuerta’s memorial bench. He tells her he’s not in the mood. She asks if she can leave something with him. He looks through the envelope and finds a series of child’s drawings of murder and mayhem. They’ve got Dexter’s name on them. He chases her down and confronts her angrily. She tells him he can’t kill her and he asks why – she says she doesn’t meet Harry’s code!!! OMG –Vogel knows about the code!
THE END!