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“Si se puede”
The episode opens with Dexter and Miguel fishing. “I could get used to the simple joys of male bonding,” Dexter thinks. But then Miguel asks what it was like, meaning killing Ethan Turner. “What did it feel like to take him out?” So much for simplicity.
Dexter reminds Miguel that he should know what it’s like, since he puts people on death row all the time. But Miguel says there’s an ocean of red tape between him and those guys. Dexter tells him killing Turner felt right. “It felt like justice.” Miguel perks up at this, telling Dexter “we’re like minded. together we can make a difference.”
Dex starts to warm to the idea of having a partner in crime, but then Harry pops into his head, saying “who are you kidding — he’d run as soon as he saw your kill rituals.” Harry suggests putting Miguel’s loyalty to the test, reminding Dex that when he gets close to people it tends to end badly.
Next we’re at a new crime scene. The skinner has struck again. The victim is Wendell Owens, the 15-year-old Deb interviewed last episode. Deb is shaken. Wendell’s body has a lot more skin removed. He died from the skinning process, unlike the other victims. At the office, Deb comes to see Dex. She points out that another victim, Javier, was killed after she interviewed him and asks whether Dex thinks the killer is tracking the Freebo investigation through her. They bat around the idea that Ramon might be behind it.
Maria stops by to see Ellen Wolf, the defense attorney from the Chickie Hinds case. She hears a phone message about Miguel, about prosecutorial misconduct , and bails on the dinner plans with Ellen, angry to see that the tip she’s given is going to be used to hurt Miguel.
Deb goes to Anton’s house to ask if he mentioned to anyone that she interviewed Wendell. She breaks down over it. Anton grabs her hand and gently comforts her. She’s crying. The chemistry heats up but Deb says she should leave. As she does, Anton says the girl from the other night, when Deb stopped by, isn’t serious. It’s none of her business, Deb says. that’s true, Anton says.
Dex shows Miguel a photo of Jenna Kendrickson, one of the first crime scenes he worked. Clemson Gault took a claw hammer to her for getting pregnant. Dexter shows Miguel photos of another crime scene where the wife and children were killed with a claw hammer. The guy is in a supermax prison upstate. Dexter’s testing Miguel to see if he’ll go along or get turned off by the risk. Miguel ends up giving him a maybe.
At the office the next morning, Maria gives Dexter a card to sign for Camilla, the woman from records who helped Dex find out about his mother and brother. She has terminal lung cancer. Dex looks shaken; she’s a good friend, he says.
Batista calls Barbara, his crush from the vice squad, and asks her out. I don’t date — ever — she says. “Do you eat ever?” Angel asks. “Tell you what sergeant, I get hungry enough and I’ll call you.” Deb comes by and talks to Angel, asking if he likes Ramon for the skinner killings. Quinn supports the idea. Angel says it’s crazy and he can’t go to LaGuerta with it. But if Deb wants to look into it “off the grid” she can.
Dex is at the hospital visiting Camilla. She tells him her whole life she’s been searching for … the perfect key lime pie. And what does she get on her deathbed? Pie crust, Cool Whip and lime Jell-o. Dying I can do, she said. The pain is too much, she says, as is losing her dignity.
At the Prados, Sil and Rita wash dishes after they all eat the fish Dex and Miguel caught. Rita wants to know if Sil likes selling real estate. Sil offers Rita a job as her assistant. Dex, meanwhile, lays out his plan to get Clemson Gault. He suggests going out to the prison to interview Gault as an informer. Miguel has his own plan: subpoena Gault as an expert witness in a money-laundering trial, bring him down to Miami and have him go missing before he ever testifies. Miguel says he’s already issued the subpoena. Dexter realizes Miguel has more aptitude for this than he thought.
Later that night Deb calls Dex while she’s trailing Ramon. He’s eating dinner out, while his wife and kids are at home. Deb finds that odd, but doesn’t have anything to back up her suspicions.
The next day, Deb parks her car after 12 hours on stakeout and finds Yuki Amado there, asking her again for info about Quinn. Yuki’s bosses have told Yuki she either needs to step up her investigation or close it. Yuki says she wants Deb to wear a wire. If Deb doesn’t, Yuki threatens, she’ll spread a rumor that Deb has cooperated with her investigation all along.
At the courthouse, Dex and Miguel check out possible “escape routes” for Gault. Most escapes happen at the courthouse, Miguel says, because security isn’t as tight and the defendant is wearing a suit, making him less easy to find in a crowd.
In the lobby, they spot Ellen Wolf, the defense lawyer for Chickie Hinds. Miguel goes off about how she lets scumbags go free and how upset he is that Maria’s cooperating with her. Then the defense lawyer walks over to Maria and thanks her for sitting for a deposition. Maria says she’s happy to tell the truth, but hopes her words won’t be used in a smear campaign against Miguel. Ellen tells Maria to let her know if she ever wants the unexpurgated truth about Miguel.
At the station, Deb tries to slip out without Amado seeing her. She tells Angel unofficially that she’s tailing Ramon again tonight. Angel unofficially tells her to be smart and safe about it. After Deb leaves, an arrested and just released hooker comes over to Angel and asks for a ride home, dropping hints that she’ll have sex with him in return. Angel gives her cab fare instead. As he gets in his car to leave, the phone rings. It’s Barbara, saying she’s hungry. Hungry enough to see if he’s hungry, too.
Back at the hospital, Dexter brings Camilla a key lime pie sent in from Key Largo. It’s supposed to be the best, but Camilla dismisses it immediately. It’s made with food coloring and not with condensed milk, she points out. Dexter can do better.
At home (or rather, Rita’s place), Dexter thinks about the coming night and the deed he’s preparing for. It feels different, he thinks, because he’s not alone. It’s exhilarating. Rita asks Dex what he thinks about Sil’s job offer. Dexter says if she wants to try real estate she should go for it. But Rita hesitates for a second. Going into partnership with someone can change the friendship, she says. Then she shakes it off, saying she’ll jump in with both feet and see how it goes.
When Rita asks Dex if he wants to spend the night, he says no. He and Miguel have an early morning and he’ll be able to sleep longer if he stays at his place. Rita says not to be surprised if Miguel bails on their plans. He hasn’t been sleeping and has been really moody, she says. Dex replies that Miguel has seemed fine to him. But he’s not Miguel’s wife, Rita says. Sil thinks there’s something really bothering him. “You can’t hide anything from your partner,” Rita says. Dex smiles. “And why would you want to?” he asks.
Later, as he sharpens the tools in his kill kit, Dex imagines another conversation with Harry in which Harry warns him that this is his last chance to call the whole thing off. “Mark my words, Dexter, he’ll give you up in a heart beat. This is not a guy who wants to spend his whole life in a cave.” Harry points out that Dexter and Miguel don’t know each other that well. All they know of each other is what they’ve chosen to show each other.
Miguel is in the interview room with Gault, who insults him as you’d expect a neo-Nazi to. Miguel sets the key to Gault’s handcuffs on the table and tells him he’ll have an Aryan brother meet Gault in the parking lot — but now the threats to Miguel’s family must stop. A few minutes later, Miguel checks with the court guards to make sure there’s a bed for Gault in a Miami jail that night. Yes, one of the guards says, he just has to give Gault a county wristband for ID purposes. Miguel starts sweating as the guard goes back to the interview room.
In the parking garage, Dex passes himself off as Gault’s ride. As they’re headed to the car an alarm sounds. There’s Miguel, in the center of a ring of guards, ordering them to seal the area and saying Gault must have had an accomplice. Dexter gets tense, sticks Gault with a tranquilizer, and hears Harry’s voice in his head saying Miguel is double-crossing him. This is not the time, Dex says, as Harry hounds him. Soon enough, Miguel pulls up and stashes Dex and the body in his huge SUV and takes them out of the building. “That’s what friends are for,” Miguel says.
Following Ramon, Deb sees him kidnap a guy — someone with ties to Freebo — take him to a warehouse and torture him by shaking a soda bottle and foaming it up the guy’s nose. Ramon’s looking for info on Freebo’s whereabouts. When he finds out the guy doesn’t know anything, he lets him go. Deb, with Quin as backup, realizes Ramon isn’t the skinner.
They arrest Ramon anyway, charging him with kidnapping, torture and misuse of his police power. When they tell Maria, she’s initially upset but then thanks Angel and Deb for handling a difficult situation with sensitivity, since they did all this without making a big media production out of respect for the Prado family. Quinn says Deb had a lot to do with that.
When Deb and Quinn are in the elevator, she blurts out that internal affairs is investigating Quinn. He gets upset that she’s only now telling him; she counters by wanting to know why the IA chick is so hot to find dirt on him. Quinn asks if the IA chick is Yuki Amado. Deb says yes. Quinn tells her it’s totally a personal vendetta and that he’ll handle it.
Meanwhile, Dexter’s waiting for Gault to wake up so he can commence his ritual. Gault wakes up in the house where he killed Jenna Kendrickson. As Dexter is going through his script, telling Gault how Miguel came through for him tonight, we see Miguel outside the house. Dexter’s thinking how nice it is to have a partner, while Miguel enters the house. Having a friend is great, Dex thinks, but the killing ritual and it’s certainty are his alone.
Miguel stands in a front room while Dex makes plans to dismember the body. He’ll tell Miguel he dumped it in the cemetery, like he did Freebo. “I’m not ready to share this part” he thinks. “I’m not sure I ever will be. Even if Miguel senses my deception he’ll grant me this one small untruth.” Dexter’s sure, he says, because after tonight he knows what Miguel Prado is made of. Miguel is his first true friend, “and those are in short supply these days.”
