Dexter Review: “Dress Code” (Season 8, Episode 7)

Despite the reintroduction of Hannah to the grand scheme of things, Dress Code comes off as somewhat of a midseason slump for Dexter. The plot doesn’t seem to go anywhere terribly fast, and everything that’s being put on the table isn’t exactly appealing when remembering that the series finale is only a handful of weeks away.

So far, this season has covered about three different plots that don’t seem to mesh too well together. I actually forgot about the Brain Surgeon and Dr. Vogel until she reappeared and mentioned him. She was such an exciting, mysterious addition, and now she’s been relegated to a live version of Harry, guiding the Morgans when they’ve lost their way. If the Brain Surgeon plot resurfaces by the end of the season, I would be pleased as punch.

Hannah’s re-emergence was quite the surprise, I’ll admit, but I’m not totally sold on why she needed to return. After escaping the situation Dexter left her in, she ran off and found a rich benefactor who was crushing on her, meaning now she has somebody to protect her from Dexter. This begs the question of why she even came back to Miami, then, which she answers by asking Dexter to kill her “husband” for her. During the same conversation, she changes her mind and decides not to have him do it. Fickle, no?

This brings up an annoying staple of Dress Code: nobody knows how to talk to anybody anymore. Whenever Dexter and Hannah are together, you could interchange their dialogue with two high schoolers. If they didn’t keep talking about murder, there would hardly be a difference. Elway and Deb get into a little tiff, but that’s quickly resolved. Masuka is conflicted about his daughter working at a topless sports bar, Cassie is snippy with Zach when he’s knocking excessively at Dexter’s door, Zach is at Dexter’s throat when he misses a training session. Seriously, take away the murder and this turns into an episode of “As Miami Turns.”

To be fair, Zach has become immensely more likable, especially now that he’s working with Dexter in different ways. His desire to murder is becoming overwhelming, and it’s almost like watching Dexter’s formative years unfold in a new generation. Dexter is a terrible teacher thus far, and his obsession with Hannah leads to Zach’s patience reaching an end. That’s right, Cassie is now a corpse, and Zach is the man to thank for that. Not that she was an awful character, she just wasn’t interesting. Now that she’s dead, I guess that means she isn’t any sort of villain or person of interest. It’s gonna be hard to rent her apartment out in the future, though.

But back to Hannah. Her husband, who knows her true identity and all of the things she’s done, still attempts to rape her. Care to guess how it ends? If you guessed “trash bags at the bottom of the sea,” than you’ve watched more than a few episodes before. Now that Dexter and Hannah are working together again, it’s hard to say where the rest of the season could go. Hannah is planning on leaving Miami while she still can, but there’s too much between the two for it to go the way of Lumen. If she shows up this season, I will find a way to physically throw this show out of a window.

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