Darkness.
That's all we see as episode three, "What's Eating Dexter Morgan," starts up -- darkness, and baby Harrison calling out "daddy, daddy." Dexter gets worried as he follows what looks like a blood trail to the bathroom, only to find Harrison has eaten an entire box of cherry popsicles - that was a close one. As he cleans up his son and realizes how easy it is to fix this mess, his thoughts wander to Deb.
See also:
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As expected, Debra continues to be a walking -- and driving -- wreck. She crashed her car into a parking meter (haven't we all had that urge?) and gets taken in for driving while intoxicated and property damage. Quinn comes to her rescue, risking his newfound relationship with Jamie (Angel's little sister). Alcohol abuse is something Quinn is familiar with -- i.e. when Deb turned down his proposal last season -- so he tries to give Deb some advice, but she's not having it. Later she'll continue to attempt to drown her problems with booze, and stumble into the police station slurring her words, "I want to make an official statement... I want to confess."
That doesn't work out too well for her, because as Dr. Vogel likes to point out, Dexter is always looking out for himself and he won't risk getting caught. After all, rule number one of Harry's code: Don't get caught.
The Brain Surgeon is a smart guy -- I'd say, if he's strategically cutting out pieces of people's brains -- and he doesn't want the police catching him, so he gives them the perfect suspect: Sussman. Dexter already figured out last episode that Sussman is not our guy, but the police walk into a crime scene that looks like the perfect suicide. Like Dexter made the mistake of thinking Sussman was the Brain Surgeon, Miami Metro too made the same mistake - except, the latter was official. Batista closes the case on the Brain Surgeon, ruling it as a suicide.
Sussman's death draws similarities to season one when a victim of the Ice Truck Killer was wrongly accused of being the actual killer; except back then, Tony Tucci got away, and this time Sussman wasn't so lucky.
Now the only ones after this guy are Dexter and Vogel -- isn't this a situation too perfect for Dexter?
Not when the killer is on to him. Vogel receives another brain-tastic package, only this time, it's gift wrapped in a black box with a red bow with a "his and hers" tag. The part of the brain in the glass jar is the occipital lobe, responsible for vision, and as Dexter surmises, "He's sending us a message. He's watching us; that and the 'his and hers' boxes, he's aware of me now, not just you."
Working like a happy little team, Dexter and Vogel narrow down a few suspects and Dex starts snooping. He goes to the mall to investigate a former patient of Vogel, Galuzzo, a fitness buff who sells workout equipment at the mall. Clearly he's not the killer, because exercise gives you endorphins, and endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't cut out other people's brains.
However, in Galuzzo's case, he doesn't just cut out people's brains, he cuts out their liver, intestine, heart, and all that other juicy goodness. He's not our Brain Surgeon, but what he is is Hannibal Lecter reincarnated - and Dexter's first real kill of the season! It's only fitting that it's a fellow psychopath who was also a patient of his new bestie, Vogel.
Speaking of Vogel, she is a total beyotch. She spends the entire episode telling Dexter how it's impossible for him to really love someone, and he's incapable of selfless love, and then she has the nerve to ask him why he didn't kill Deb when she found out his secret. She seems to be drilling into him the fact that he's "perfect as a psychopath," and thus he need be nothing more.
Vogel has finally penetrated Dexter's thoughts. He says "You were right" to her too many times for comfort, and he even compares himself to a cannibal! As he leaves Deb alone with Vogel, he thinks, "Vogel was right, I am perfect." And with that, he's killing again. With Galuzzo on his table, Dexter tells him how he's just like him, "I consume everyone I love."
When we finally get a kill-room kill scene, it fails to deliver that spatter we all crave. Instead of the usual frame of Dexter happily driving the knife into the victim's chest, all we see is him taking the knife from his collection, we hear muffled screams, then he sound of the stab, and then darkness.
Just darkness.
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