 | Season 4, Episode 7:
Slack Tide
There’s a moment sailors call slack tide. When the tide is neither coming in nor going out, but perfectly still. It’s a moment frozen in time, when all is calm and peaceful. The only downside to it is that it passes so quickly. As much as we might like things to be suspended in time, they never do.
***
Dexter is out on Slice of Life with Debra and the family when he is called back on a case. An alligator is killed by a local man and once cut open found to contain the severed arm of a woman. The wrist shows ligature marks. The team heads back out to look for the rest of the victim. Following his evidence collection at the scene, Dexter returns home where his family greets him with a laundry list of “Honey, Dos.”
Dear Abby, I am a serial killer and need advice for how to keep my kids from taking over my life. No, there’s only one person who can help me.
Dexter, as Kyle, helps Arthur load up his car with supplies for the next Four Walls, One Heart build. Arthur counsels Dexter about being a father and encouraging his kids’ outside interests, even though it makes them so busy he barely ever sees him. Dexter admits that he’s lonely and knows no one; Arthur rises to the bait and asks him to meet him at his house the next morning at 6:30 a.m.
***
Debra and Dexter chat outside the “roach coach” lunch wagon, where she receives a hero’s welcome and treatment from her fellow colleagues. He intercepts Christine, who is there to interview Debra for a profile. Quinn and Dexter have a tense exchange about the fact that Christine is just doing her job; as far as Dexter is concerned, the last thing he wants is a nosy reporter sniffing around him and his family.
Inside the station, the homicide team huddles to discuss the case of the dismembered arm. LaGuerta and Batista introduce what they know about the case so far, which includes fingerprint evidence that IDs the victim as a 19-year-old Nicaraguan woman named Estrella Carazo, a cocktail waitress and sometime model, who had a job scheduled with a photographer named Johnathan Farrow. Farrow specializes in disturbing imagery and has previously been investigated, but not charged, with rape. Following the briefing Debra asks Quinn what’s up with LaGuerta and Batista, concluding that they are “doing it.”
***
Scene changes to Dexter, who is mulling what extracurricular hobbies Astor should take up. I’ll need to find the right activity for Astor… What did I like to do when I was 12…? Okay, then, moving on… Dexter looks up and sees Johnathan Farrow stepping into interrogation. Harry perches on his psychic shoulder, asking him why he’s losing focus on Trinity in favor of the twisted photog. Dexter defends his focus, saying that Trinity is not an imminent threat because he’s completed his kill cycle.
In interrogation, Farrow denies knowing anything about Estrella, until he is shown a picture of her. He allows that the shoot happened and that her nice booty was the feature of his Jamaican rum campaign. He says the events of the shoot can be corroborated by his assistant and about 20 other people. Harry again intrudes, asking Dexter why he’s stalling on Trinity. Dexter says he still has things to learn from him. Harry says he spent his life trying to teach Dexter not to be like Trinity. Dexter replies that Harry also taught him that he couldn’t be with people, get married, etc.
Batista asks Farrow if he knows of anyone who would have cause to hurt Estrella, and Farrow replies that she was gorgeous but “FOJJ,” i.e. fresh off the jumbo jet. He then hones in on Debra and tells her that he could make her a star if she comes to his studio, where he will “rough [her] up a bit.” Dexter, looking on, moves Farrow up to the top of his list.
***
Quinn helps Debra move some of her things into Dexter’s old apartment that same night. Quinn remarks on the fact that Dexter kept the apartment after marrying Rita and on his way out, bumps into Dexter, who is also helping her move her things in. Debra shares with him her intention to take all of Lundy’s findings on Trinity to LaGuerta, including her belief that Trinity was the person who shot her and killed Lundy. Dexter also notices she has Harry’s old CI files, and she shares with him the news that she is planning to meet up with a woman for coffee who may have been involved with Harry, a woman named Valerie Hodges. Debra’s headed in the wrong direction, but when she realizes that and gets headed the right way, Laura Moser leads to Brian Moser leads to the Ice Truck Killer leads to Harry Morgan. So many little stepping stones that lay a path to the real me.
***
Back at home, Dexter shares all his good dad ideas for the kids' activities, including a sailing club for Cody and a handful of ideas for Astor that she rejects: soccer, ballet, and the little scientist association. Rita is extremely pleased at Dexter’s parenting involvement.
***
The next morning, Dexter goes with Arthur deep into the woods. Arthur opens up the back of his van to reveal a number of tools, including a chainsaw, saw, and an ax. He tells Dexter they are going to cut down a tree. Arthur has trouble firing up the chainsaw, and loses his cool a bit. Dexter powers it up on the first attempt, and sinks the blade into a nearby tree, felling it easily. Dexter asks why they didn’t just go get wood at the lumber yard, and Arthur testily says he doesn’t want wood from the lumber yard. After sectioning the tree and loading it up in the van, they drive off. A deer leaps in front of the vehicle and is hit. Arthur is extremely agitated by the event and wants to leave the scene, but Dexter tells him that the animal is injured and needs to be put out of its misery. He collects the ax from the back and hands it to Arthur: “You need to kill it.” Harry sneers at this, saying that Trinity has spent his whole life killing and can’t bring himself to kill Bambie. “This is your new role model, Dex? Get that ax and kill him now.” Dexter asks Arthur if he’d like him to kill the deer and does so.
***
Back at the station, Batista shares the bad news that the judge will not issue a search warrant for Farrow’s studio, due to lack of probable cause. “I’m still sure he’s our guy,” he says, and shares the names and pictures of three other Central and South American women who were also in the States illegally and have gone missing, and there is evidence they may have also been involved with Farrow. Batista’s theory is that Farrow targets them, knowing that their families are in a poor position to do anything about influencing an investigation into their disappearance.
Fortunately, unlike Batista, I don’t need a search warrant…
Dexter begins stalking Farrow that night, arriving at his studio after dark, as the photographer’s assistant is locking up. He breaks in and starts scoping the place out, including reviewing images on Farrow's computer of Estrella. He sprays for blood evidence and finds many indications of blood on the floor and wall. He finds a fingernail stuck in the wall and takes it back to the lab where he confirms that the nail fragment fits a broken nail on Estrella’s severed arm. Not exactly Cinderella’s glass slipper, but it’s a fit.
***
Scene changes to Arthur’s garage workshop where he is planing a board…
***
Next morning, Debra meets Valerie Hodges for coffee. She is a pretty middle-aged woman with a nice manner, short hair. She allows that she used to work for Harry. Debra asks her directly if the two of them ever had a romantic relationship. “I was one of his girlfriends, if that’s what you’re asking. … I think he picked his CIs based on how good we were in the sack.” Valerie starts to go into TMI terrain, and Debra bugs out. She goes straight to Dexter and shares the news with him. Dexter advises her to let sleeping dogs lie, and offers to return Harry's files. He puts the report about his mother’s death through the paper shredder, but can’t bring himself to destroy her picture. He puts it in his desk drawer.
***
Dexter brings home an acoustic guitar for Astor, who receives it with very little enthusiasm. Rita reminds him that he’s on the hook to take four boys from Cody’s young sailor club on a weekend camping trip. Using the event as an excuse, he tells her he has to prep the boat and buy supplies for the outing. His real aim is to kill Farrow. He goes to a club where Farrow is partying and is in the process of trying to lure him outside (by having a server tell Farrow that a homeless person has thrown up in the backseat of his car!), when he sees Quinn is also at the club. The plan has become too risky, he decides, and proceeds to get a woman standing next to him at the bar to go over and hit on Quinn, so he can sneak out unseen.
***
Dexter takes Cody and three of his friends on their club outing, and tries to bond with Cody by teaching him to tie some knots.
Meanwhile Debra seeks and receives LaGuerta’s permission to start a limited Trinity killer investigation. She calls Dexter to share the news, as well as her intention to avenge Lundy’s death.
On the campout, after dark, one of the dads is telling a really lame scary story. When he’s done, Dexter starts to tell his own scary story, using the general framework of Trinity’s actual story. When he starts to get too scary, the other father cuts him off by providing a slapstick ending to the story that cuts the tension and makes the kids laugh. After putting Cody to bed in the tent, Dexter hops into his boat to head back to get Farrow.
***
In Farrow’s studio/apartment, Dexter assails Farrow, subduing him on a light table before a projected slideshow of his model victims. Farrow vehemently denies that he has killed the women. “Because of my pictures, those women will live on forever!” he screams. Dexter replies, “Nothing lasts forever,” as he deals the death blow with a cleaver. He takes Farrow’s bagged body out on Slice of Life and dumps it overboard.
***
Man has always been drawn to the sea. But it’s an unnatural setting for us, a place of great danger. Tides, currents, waves, wind – each presenting their own hazards, none of which can be ignored. The slightest lapse of judgment can be a mistake you might never recover from. But a good sailor doesn’t fight against these elements. A good sailor works with them, using them to his advantage. While others less fortunate might be forever be cast adrift – often in several pieces – he always comes home safely.
During Dexter’s monologue, we see what Trinity/Arthur has been working on in his workshop: a casket. We see Debra, in her apartment, surrounded by all of Lundy’s research files. And we see Dexter making pancakes for Cody on his camp stove. When Dexter returns to the office, he sees Batista and Quinn taking Farrow’s assistant into custody for the murder of Estrella. Batista tells Dexter that they have an airtight case against him, including tollbooth video of him driving into Alligator Alley, DNA evidence, everything. Has Dexter killed an innocent man?
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