Dexter Review: “A Little Reflection” (Season 8, Episode 6)

We’re at the official halfway point of Dexter‘s final season, and I’m a bit lost. Not that the plots are confusing, but mostly because there’s so many of them now. I understand that there’s only six episodes left to wrap up a whole series’ worth of plots, but what about the past three seasons? We’ve had enough time to tie off more than a few of these threads, and they decided to wait until this season shoo them in.

Of course, much of the focus this episode was on the relationship between Zach and Dexter, the young killer and his soon-to-be mentor. It was a bit obvious that Zach would end up on Dexter’s table eventually, and once Vogel asked Dexter to not kill him it was apparent he wouldn’t. The parallels between the two are far too easy to spot, and Dexter still has yet to learn any lessons about the consequences of letting anybody in on his secret. If it’s another killer especially, that person will threaten and/or kill someone he loves. We’ll have to see if Zach leaves Harrison’s head on a stick for Dexter in the next few episodes.

This twist actually adds to the amounts of ways this season could end, even if a few of them feel more like business deals than true options. Of course, Zach could carry on the torch, leading to a spinoff series that would probably be disappointing, or Zach could kill Dexter. Maybe he’ll even kill Deb, Quinn, Cassie, or anybody that would complicate Dexter’s life. Worse, maybe he’s the one to kill Dexter. Who knows? His new role as Dexter’s “intern” throws a wrench into everybody’s plans, but I’ve got to say, at least it’s interesting. Zach was written much better this week, meaning he’s now an actual character and not a caricature of teenage serial killers. Props to Dexter for making him at least sympathetic.

Much of that comes from the revelation that rather than killing his father’s mistresses, Zach was actually after his father, whose infidelities are slowly killing his mother. It’s nice to know that Zach isn’t killing totally innocent people, but maybe Dexter’s guidance can help him.

More attention was given to the sergeant storyline this week too, but all it really served to do was rile up Quinn after Miller won. Bad news for Dexter though, because Quinn is tracking Zach’s every move in hopes of solving last week’s murder. Maybe Quinn will have a bigger role in the finale than we’ve been led to believe?

I’ve honestly never really had a problem with Quinn (other than the ridiculously stupid Nadia storyline), so it would be great to see him redeem himself by being useful. Dexter tagging along with Quinn on his stakeout was a nice touch as well, meaning the two will be more entangled than usual.

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