TV Review: DEXTER: Season 8, Episode 2: Every Silver Lining

Dexter Every Silver Lining Review. Dexter: Season 8, Episode 2: Every Silver Lining was a turning point episode for the series even though on the surface it was just business as usual.

Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) fighting a criminal was standard fare. Viewers of Dexter have seen it before, even though this time it was more brutal à la Jennifer Garner‘s fight scene in Peter Berg‘s The Kingdom. Debra is a light girl and Javier “El Sapo” Guzman (Nick Gomez) took advantage of that.

Debra Morgan’s mortal action later in the episode signified how easy it had become for her to make that kind of decision. It also showed that she had the gumption to carry it out without relying on Dexter and assigning him the task (like she did with Hannah McKay last season). It was a pivotal flashback: no code, no investigation, just raw emotion.

Debra Morgan is becoming one of the types of people she once swore to protect society from while in the Miami-Dade Police Department. She has also become sloppy (e.g. leaving her firearm behind) and the type of person her twisted brother targets for death. Debra Morgan is in a cocoon of guilt and depression and because of it she is more interesting that every other aspect of this season so far.

Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling) and Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall)’s relationship became one of shadow architect and construct. It was intriguing to hear and see how Harry Morgan and Dr. Vogel interacted in the past for Dexter’s benefit. It’s high point was that Dexter recognized that she was trying to manipulate him (somewhat analogous to what she had done in the past) and that he was not going to let that happen. What was tiring about their situation was that Dexter Morgan allowed himself to be drawn into fixing someone else’s problem the same way he did with Isaak Sirko towards the middle of last season.

What was troubling (yet oh so convenient) about Every Silver Lining was when Dexter got to a certain crime scene last (after police detectives and other CSI personnel) yet was the only one to spot pivotal evidence where the widow of a car used to be. It was laughable how it was right there out in the open, like the string plastic bag before it, yet no one else spotted it. These are veteran police officers yet blood evidence with a cartoon sign pointing to it (evidence here stupid!) escaped their notice, evidence that was between them and the murder victim. Do you buy that contrivance (even keeping in mind that Dexter usually finds evidence first)? I bought it (coughing fit ensues).

Dexter being told that some of the most successful people in the world had psychopathic tendencies (CEOs, Dr. House, etc.) was good (and true) but the enfolding scene at the end of Every Silver Lining was even better. “You’re perfect” then the hug was like Dexter being told a truth he had never been told before by a proxy mother figure. It was something that Hannah McKay would have said to him with love and affection in her eyes.

Dexter’s emotional reaction to those words and the hug showed that he was not totally cold-blooded (his long-standing relationship with her sister and son prove that point). Perhaps what was always needed was the right thawing agent.

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