The penultimate episode of this season of "Dexter" sees the eponymous serial killer give up the love of his life and reveal himself to the wrong victim.
With Maria LaGuerta convinced that her old beau James Doakes couldn't have been the Bay Harbor Butcher, she tries to convince her old captain and new enemy Tom Matthews to join her in her search for the owner of the blood slide she found at Travis Marshall's "suicide."
Matthews tips off Dexter, who informs Deb, and in a decided case of "getting involved," she plants enough evidence to convince even the most obstinate officer that Doakes really was a mass-murdering psychopath. More on that later.
In the meantime, Hannah McKay and Dexter are settling into their new relationship, happy that they can be themselves around each other-serial killers without conscience or remorse.
Of course, Hannah doesn't know that Dexter has already killed her horrible, abusive, shiftless father, in the first ever premeditated violation of his code.
Or perhaps she does, but doesn't need to pry to deeply into a good thing.
In any case, Deb is having none of it. She pays a visit to Arlene Shram, who was roommates with Hannah in a halfway house after juvenile detention. Arlene is the one person who say Hannah poison their counselor. Deb threatens to charge Arlene as an accessory if she doesn't rat on Hannah, but Arlene's loyalty is too strong.
She fills Hannah in, and it's revealed that Hannah was once again righting an injustice--the counselor was molesting the girls under his care.
Hannah tries to reason with Deb, saying her relationship with Dexter is good for him, but Deb rejects her entreaties. The next day, Deb passes out while driving, wrecking her car and ending up in the hospital. Dexter suspects Hannah, and tests Deb water bottle, which comes back positive for massive amounts of antidepressants.
Dexter confronts Hannah, who denies poisoning Deb and seems genuinely hurt by his accusations. Dexter gives up on his dreams of happiness, and gives Deb the evidence she needs to finally arrest Hannah for the murder of Sal Price.
In the meantime, Hector Estrada, the man who ordered Dexter's mother's murder all those years ago is up for parole, and Dexter needs a kill to calm his nerves, so he sets up a kill room, and, as usual, reveals himself to his victim at the last moment.
But the kill is a setup. Dexter realizes LaGuerta pulled strings to get Estrada released early as bait, and escapes, holding Estrada at knifepoint. But Estrada gets away from him and LaGuerta finds his kill room.
Will she be able to glean any DNA from the scene? Will she locate Estrada and get his testimony before Dexter can?
The potential end to the Hannah-Dexter love story is a bit of a letdown. As usual, the writers need to find a way to get guest stars out of the picture before the end of the season. Hopefully Hannah makes an appearance in next week's season finale, because just sending her to prison feels very unfinished. We still don't know if she actually poisoned Debra. Perhaps, though unlikely, Deb drugged herself to frame Hannah.
Either way, after the sudden loss of Isaac Sirko, an excellent and deep character and worthy foe, it would be a shame to lose Hannah so quickly, too.
But the next season is the final one for "Dexter," so plot lines need to start to wrap up. Only 13 episodes remain until the entire show is complete. Is next week the end for Maria LaGuerta?