 | Season 4, Episode 8:
Road Kill
So I made a mistake – it could have happened to anyone. Well, any murderer. Not that murderers typically care if their victims are innocent or not. But why is it eating at me? Jonathan Farrow, S&M photographer, abuser of women, *******, but not a killer. Not up to Harry’s Code. Yet I killed him, now I’m … uncomfortable. It should have been Arthur Mitchell on my table. Trinity, shooter of my sister. I should have… No, no should haves – that’s not me. I just need to stop thinking about it.
Batista briefs the team on Farrow’s murder. Dexter is clearly uncomfortable.
Debra next takes the floor to brief the team on the Trinity case, showing a series of victim photos and showing the signature smudge of supposed ash within each crime scene photo. Scene changes to Arthur Mitchell’s garage workshop, where he crouches over the casket he built, seeming to be praying. Dexter drives up to the house. Arthur’s kids are out front, washing the car and watering the plants. Dexter says he’s there to check on Arthur after the disturbing situation with the dead dear – Arthur says he’s over it, “No need to dwell on it.” His wife comes out to tell him that his clothes are clean and ready to be packed. Arthur is heading to Tampa for a Four Walls build. Dexter assumes he’s doing an out-of-town kill, and determines to come up with some viable excuse for Rita and LaGuerta to get to Tampa. He comes up with a “Weather Happens” conference and drums up some BS explanation for why it is relevant.
Debra gets pulled from the Trinity case by LaGuerta because she is one of his victims.
Dexter packs his things for the trip, including a rather large knife and the framing hammer Trinity gave him. Trinity packs a glass bottle of his sister’s ashes. The next morning, Dexter/Kyle shows up as Arthur is leaving on his trip and asks to go along with him. Arthur is reluctant for him to come along, and seems very disquieted, but he lets Kyle come along.
Back at the office, Quinn, Masuka, LaGuerta, and Batista discuss the Trinity case; Debra is standing nearby and pantomimes to Quinn so that he recommends a random field swabbing for DNA to find the killer.
On the road with Arthur, Dexter pesters Arthur with his incessant questioning. Arthur testily cuts him off and says, “You told me you were troubled – why?” Dexter is slow to respond: “I did something. I made a mistake. A big one.” Arthur is irritated by his vagueness. They pull in at a rest stop, where Arthur keeps pushing to have Kyle divulge his secret. Dexter finally blurts out that he killed a man by mistake. “I thought he was an animal.” He tells him it was a hunting accident. Arthur shares his perspective about the difficulty of bearing guilt and remorse, emotions that “separate us from the animals.” “You’re conscience is eating away at you, but you’ll feel better.”
Back in his hotel, Dexter thumbs through the yellow pages to find a local hardware store, to get supplies for killing Trinity. Debra calls and asks him about crime scene photos he took in the jumper case, and razzes him about his geeky climatology convention. As he’s leaving his room to go to the hardware store, a very animated Arthur greets him at the door and tells him that there has been a change in plans – that they will not be going to the build site in the morning, as planned, but that instead his planned a surprise for Kyle that will make him feel better. Dexter wonders if Arthur has a “formula for remorse,” and decides that he’ll hold off on killing him until the next night so he can see what Arthur has in store for him.
Back at the station, Batista and LaGuerta huddle over the books to find funding for the DNA swabbing sweep. They are succumbing to their feelings for one another when Quinn comes in and says that he got some of his colleagues to donate vacation days to raise enough money for the field swab tactic. He leaves and LaGuerta and Batista give in to their desires in the briefing room!
Christine wakes Quinn up and tells him she’s in a desperate situation with regard to work, that if she doesn’t get a “lead that bleeds,” she’ll lose her job. Quinn rejects her advances, but is sympathetic to her situation. She looks over his shoulder into his apartment as he hugs her and sees a paper that has information about DNS swabbing.
The next morning, Dexter is heading out of his hotel room to go check in at the conference when he encounters Arthur in the parking lot. Arthur is beside himself with excitement. Yesterday he’s jumping down my throat, today he’s the happy dancing man. Is that mask of his crumbling? They pull out of the parking lot.
Back at the station, Debra influences Quinn to have Masuka give him access to Dexter’s discard files. Masuka is overseeing the planning and preparation of the field swabbing.
The source of Arthur’s agitation and excitement becomes clear to Dexter when the two of them arrive at an unassuming house. Arthur pushes his way inside past the very confused Asian couple that lives there, explaining that this is the house he grew up in. He charges up the stairs, with Dexter following behind him. He pauses outside of the bathroom. “This is where it all started,” Arthur says, looking like he’s seen a ghost. He proceeds to tell Dexter that he was watching his sister take a shower, as a ten-year-old boy. It was innocent, but his sister saw him watching and slipped, shattering the glass shower door and slicing her leg. “She was dead by the time the ambulance came. So much blood.”
Born in blood, both of us.
Arthur continues with his story, recounting that his parents blamed him and that his sister’s death turned his mother into a shell of a person, that she eventually committed suicide, leaving him alone with his abusive, alcoholic father, who viciously berated him for killing his sister and mother. “What happened to him?” asks Dexter. “He died. I’ve never told anyone any of this,” Arthur says. Dexter asks him why he’s told him, and he says, “So you’d know you’re not alone. You’re like me. We’re both responsible for the death of an innocent. We share that.” He hugs him, “Do you feel better.” The frightened couple who lives in the house kick ask them to leave.
Back in Miami, Christine confronts Debra with the knowledge about the DNA roadblocks. Debra tries to throw her off the scent and says she’ll consent to do the “hero interview” Christine has been after her to do.
Kyle and Arthur sit down to lunch at the greasy spoon restaurant at the hotel where the weather conference is happening. He excuses himself to go to the bathroom so he can finally check himself in. To further cement his alibi, he takes a picture with Sonny Skies, a cheesy weatherman celebrity who is at the conference, and sends it to Rita at home. Rita is having probably a bit too much fun with her neighbor, who has taken the kids out fishing and is now hanging out with them for dinner.
When Dexter returns to the restaurant, he discovers that a seriously manic Arthur has camped out with a family at another table and has apparently told them about their trip to his childhood home and all the awful events of his youth. The family – mom, dad, and two children – are clearly very upset by this recitation. Arthur is reveling in the need for unburdening yourself, lightening your spiritual load. Dexter succeeds in getting him away from the freaked-out family and asks that they go by a hardware store so he can buy some supplies to donate to the Four Walls effort.
Back at Miami Metro, Debra is camped out in the women’s bathroom reviewing Dexter’s crime scene photos. She looks at her bullet wounds and something clicks. She goes into Masuka’s lab and they sort out pretty quickly that the shooter couldn’t have been as tall as Trinity, due to the trajectory required to match her wound pattern. They conclude the shooter would be closer to Masuka’s height.
Back in Tampa, Dexter and Arthur return from their shopping errand. Dexter prepares for the kill.
Back in Miami, chez Morgan, Rita is enjoying her wine with the neighbor, and begins to share details of her “dress over the head party girl” past. Neighbor is absolutely vibing on her. Rita gets uncomfortable and suggests they call it a night.
Dexter finishes prepping the bathroom with the plastic sheeting and breaks into Arthur’s room to set the kill in motion. But Arthur isn’t in the room! It’s 4:45 in the morning, and he’s not in his room. Dexter runs out to the parking lot and sees that Arthur’s van is still in the parking lot. He’s on the move on foot, with his tools. Dexter heads over to the Four Walls build and witnesses Arthur standing at the edge of an upper roof, where he spills his sister’s ashes over the side, clearly preparing to jump to his death. Dexter grabs him as he plunges over the side, holding him by one arm. “This isn’t how you die,” says Dexter. He starts to let go of him when other volunteers help hoist him back to safety. This is his solution to remorse – suicide. That’s why he could unburden himself. He knew this was next. Will it be my only solution someday?
“I thought God sent you so I could save you. But God had another plan. He sent you to save me.” Not exactly.
Back at Miami Metro, Debra updates Batista, LaGuerta, and Quinn about the discovery that it couldn’t have been Trinity who shot her and killed Lundy. LaGuerta tells her this finding removes the conflict of interest, and that she is restored to the case as lead.
Back on the road to return to Miami, Dexter muses, I’ve killed an innocent man and I’ve saved a guilty one. I won’t make that mistake again. Is that the purpose of remorse, to prevent you from repeating mistakes?
Dexter admits he’s concerned about Arthur. They agree to treat the events of the weekend as an accident. They come upon one of the DNA swabbing roadblocks. Dexter shares with Arthur that he heard on the radio that the police are looking for a serial killer and they have his DNA. Arthur pulls a U-turn to take the “scenic route.”
A changed man at peace with himself. Maybe only monsters feel no regret. If erring is human, than remorse must be too. Wait – does that make me human? Huh!
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