written by Tim Schlattmann | directed by Stefan Schwartz
This episode covered two important bases very well: Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) undergoing therapy at the hand of Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), who's determined to make her see her serial-killing brother as a positive force; and Dexter (Michael C. Hall) continuing his search for the elusive Brain Surgeon and finding cable guy A.J Yates (Aaron McCusker), a former patient of Vogel's who underwent a lobotomy at her insistence. While I'm a little jaded when it comes to Dex's almost weekly stalking of villains, Yates had a few quirks that made him more interesting than most—like being the first person to detect Dexter during his reconnaissance with the help of a secret room equipped with CCTV, and avoiding capture by threatening the life of his own ailing father in a hospital. I'm not convinced Yates is the Brain Surgeon just yet, however; mainly because it feels too early in the season to settle on someone.
So it turns out, not unexpectedly, that Vogel's using Dexter to clean up a mess of her own creation. Her medical journal details her true feeling about Dexter and his relationship with his sister, and in a later scene Deb played her father Harry's (James Remar) last session with Vogel before he died—which revealed it was a likely suicide, having realised he's helped turn Dexter into a monster. That news isn't anything new to long-term viewers (as Dex made the same discovery back in season 2), but I don't recall it being mentioned since, so you can be excused if it had slipped your mind.
What was exciting about this episode as a whole is how it's changed Deb's perception of her brother, undoing a lot of Vogel's work. She now has to live with the knowledge her father (a) committed suicide and (b) as a direct result of her adopted brother. Understandably, this episode ended with Deb attempting to kill herself, burdened with this deeper understanding, but going one better by attempting to kill Dexter in the process by involving them both in a car accident. It was a genuine shock, although I certainly didn't buy into Deb seemingly having an epiphany and coming to accept her brother, but it was a shame the episode didn't end when their car splashed into a lake. The unnecessary final moments of Deb being rescued by a fisherman and deciding to go back to save her drowning brother confirm she still has feelings, and this will likely be the event that makes her realise suicide and murder aren't an option. She really will have to live with this and try to make the most of a bad situation.
Overall, "Scar Tissue" was a strong hour of Dexter that significantly altered some of season 8's big relationships (Dexter-Debra and Dexter-Vogel), and proved to be very entertaining in most other respects. I'm not feeling as swept up in the story as I'd have liked, mostly because a part of me dislikes the Morgan's being at loggerheads, and the Brain Surgeon storyline is running on autopilot, but it's certainly been a decent start to the final season. But this is the last ever season, and I really hope the tension and drama begins to spike soon, because I'd hate for Dexter to only get down to the serious business of bringing Dexter Morgan's story to a compelling end in a crazy four-episode rush.
21 July 2013 | Showtime
