“Finding Freebo”
Oh my goodness! Another killer episode from the Dexter writers and cast. We’re moving along at a lightening pace, with Dex and Rita contemplating parenthood, Deb finding a link between her dead Jane Doe and Freebo, and Miguel Prado stoking the fires of revenge for his brother’s murder.
The show opens with Dex in the doctor’s office, waiting for Rita to return from her pregnancy check up. He looks at all the kids in the waiting room and wonders whether his own would turn out to be a great little person — or a murderer like his father. Rita comes out and says the doctor confirmed it: They’re pregnant. Dex looks totally confused/conflicted. Rita wants to talk but he says he needs to get to work.
At the station, Angel’s team is deep into the investigation of Oscar Prado’s murder. It doesn’t look good ’cause they haven’t found Freebo yet. Meanwhile, Deb’s working on her Jane Doe case and getting fed up with her lack of leads. All she has is that the girl had drugs in her system and the patch of skin cut off on her shoulder wasn’t a tattoo. Angel and Deb both asks for Dexter’s help.
Miguel Prado and Maria meet in her office, where Prado lobbies for more involvement in the investigation of his brother’s murder. Maria tells him she has her best people on the case — and Miguel can’t keep from muttering that they’re the same people who bungled the Bay Harbor Butcher case. Maria keeps it together, takes a deep breath, and says she was a little too close to that case to see the signs about Doakes. Now she knows from experience that keeping a professional distance in situations like this can help.
Later, Deb heads to the streets to dig up information on her case. She’s interviewing a bunch of transvestite hookers — but striking out — when Internal Affairs agent Yuki Amado shows up again, taunting Deb with the idea that she could make detective tomorrow if she snitched on Quinn. Deb spends too much time obsessed with work and with her treadmill, Amado says. She should try a hobby, like scrapbooking. Deb, infuriated, turns down Amado’s offer.
In the lab, Dexter looks up Freebo’s girlfriend, Teegan, in the system, using her first name and the model of her car to get a hit on her license. The address is a sorority house. That gets Dex thinking about Teegan’s parents, which in turn leads him to daydream about what his son would be like and how the kid would interact with Astor and Cody. He dreams of Harry saying his family seems really happy, then imagines his boy pulling out piano wire to strangle someone. To escape his thoughts, he heads out to learn more about Teegan and Freebo. As he’s leaving, Prado calls Dex over and invites him and Rita over for dinner.
Deb — working an excessively long shift — swings by a salsa club that night and begs Quinn’s informant to help her with her case. He’s reluctant, but somehow her potty-mouthed plea gets through to him and he looks at Teegan’s photo. He doesn’t recognize her but says he’ll see what he can learn about who her john might have been.
At the Prados, Rita tells Miguel’s wife she’s pregnant and it looks like she’s not sure if she wants to have the baby. Dexter, in a separate conversation with Miguel, learns all about the Prado men and continues his internal monologue about his fears regarding fatherhood. Miguel pumpsDexter for more details on the investigation and reveals that he and his sheriff’s lieutenant brother, Ramon, took Freebo’s mom’s cell phone, so when Freebo calls her they’ll know where to find him. Dex gets nervous that the Prados will find Freebo before he has a chance to kill the drug dealer.
After dinner, Dex again puts off any conversation with Rita about the pregnancy (though we all know they’re gonna keep the baby) and heads to the sorority. A party is in full swing, leading Dex again to ruminate on parenthood. But he stays focused and by promising her sorority sisters some party drugs, he learns that Teegan doesn’t live there any more and manages to get the address of her apartment.
As their Freebo investigation continues, Angel and Quinn interview one of Freebo’s former associates. They find him selling pills to some chick and are ready to send him back to jail when he offers up info that proves a guy who Prado recently convicted is most likely innocent.
Angel dreads giving Maria — and Prado — this new info. But his mood turns around when he runs into Dexter who confesses about Rita’s pregnancy. Angel lights up at the news, saying his daughter is the one thing in the world he knows he did right. But Dex still seems freaked out about the possibility of passing on his killing gene to the next generation.
Anton, the informant, gives Deb a lead — setting her up with a drug dealer who likes to trade his product for sex with young white chicks. The guy comes on to Deb to the point where she gets pissed and twists his arm. Then he admits he slept with Teegan and introduced her to Freebo when he couldn’t get her to turn tricks.
Miguel and Ramon Prado meet at a beachside restaurant. They have a location from Freebo’s mom’s phone. Now they’re arguing about what to do with the information. Ramon wants to go all vigilante right away. Miguel tries to calm him, but he storms off. Maria shows up and tells Miguel about the wrongful conviction. He’s crushed, but thanks her for giving it to him straight.
At the station, Deb reveals what she found out about Teegan and the PD now can officially connect the cases. Deb’s glowing with her success and Angel tells her that this sort of police work is how she’ll earn her detective shield.
Dexter, finally free of nighttime obligations, goes to Teegan’s apartment looking for clues. Instead, he stumbles upon Freebo, surfing online in the nude (ew). Dex escapes without Freebo seeing him and runs home for his kill kit. He’s packing knives and other assorted weapons when someone knocks on the door. It’s Rita. She tells Dex she’s a good mom — and a good single mom — so she’s decided to keep the baby. Dexter can be as much or as little a part of its life as he chooses, she says.
That settled, Dexter returns to Teegan’s. He grabs Freebo and takes him to the garage which is ready with all of Dex’s killing materials. He starts his ritual — showing Freebo the photos of his victims, getting his token blood smear — and outside we see Miguel Prado arrive at the apartment with a gun. Dex has just delivered the killing blow to Freebo’s jugular when he hears Prado outside.
Thinking quickly, Dex takes off his bloody gloves and apron and walks out with the blood-smeared knife. He sounds totally in shock when he tells Prado he was following up on a forensics lead and just killed Freebo in self defense. Prado recognizes the knife in Dex’s hand as a vintage piece that was once his father’s. He grasps Dex in a hug and says he’s not sure he would’ve been able to actually go through with killing Freebo, but Dex has saved him from that task. Prado’s about to go into the garage but Dexter warns him off, saying the DA will need “plausible deniability.”
Prado thanks Dex and prepares to leave. In the final shot, the camera pans to Prado’s dress shirt, where some of Freebo’s blood has stained the fabric.