Episode 704: Run

Run is the fourth of twelve episodes in Season Seven of Showtime's series DEXTER, and the seventy-sixth overall episode of the series. Directed by John Dahl and written by Wendy West, it first aired 21 October 2012 on Showtime.

The estimated number of viewers for the episode during its original airing was 2.18 million.

After capturing a deadly killer, things go awry for Miami Metro, sending Debra into a tailspin. In an effort to help his sister, Dexter enters into a dangerous game of cat and mouse, while the Koshka Brotherhood continues to seek revenge.

Summary
Vince Maska and Dexter investigate the mausoleum, but they find no DNA, Dexter hints that something, perhaps a trophy, is missing from a stand. Masuka deduces that Ray Speltzer stopped by the mausoleum after he murdered Melanie Garrett and retrieved it. Dexter wonders if Deb will ever accept him for what he is (a serial killer).

As Deb relaxes in her bathtub, lying in Rita's position, she dozes off and dreams that blood is pouring from the faucet, turning the water red. Dexter, wearing a suit, appears in the doorway. He holds out his hand and asks, "Will you be mine?" The tub overflows as Dexter holds up a sword. Deb wakes up to find herself alone with just water in the tub.

Deb enters Dexter's office and orders him to take a coffee break. In the alley outside, she asks if Trinity really killed Rita because she didn't fit the pattern. Dexter insists that Trinity killed her and Deb asks why.

Dexter: "Because I was coming after him." Deb: "So while we were hunting Trinity, you were too." Dexter: "I figured out who he was before you did." Deb: "And didn't help us fucking get him?" Dexter: "He knew who I was, where I lived, that I had a family. I was trying to protect them." Deb: "You wanted to fucking kill him." Dexter: "And I did." Deb: "When?" Dexter: "He's dead. That's what matters." Deb: "But when?" Dexter: 'I took care of him." Deb: "Did you love her?" Dexter: "Why would you ask me that?" Deb: "Because I suddenly have no idea what's the truth and what's a fucking lie with you anymore." Dexter: "I loved her." Deb: "If you were so concerned about your family, then why were you going after Trinity? Is that what a loving husband does? Are you even capable of love?" Dexter: "I love you." Deb: "How? How can you love me and also love to--" Dexter: "It's how I've lived my whole life. Before the moment you walked into that church, did you ever question the way I felt about you? Why is it any different now?"

Deb is notified that Ray Speltzer has been arrested after a security guard spotted him at a scrapyard. He put up a fight and it took four officers to bring him in. Speltzer doesn't ask for a lawyer, which lets the cops interrogate him. Because Speltzer had worn a mask, Deb's I.D won't stick, plus his DNA wasn't at the crime scene. Maria LaGuerta stresses that a confession is needed or he will walk.

At The Fox Hole, Isaak Sirko looks deeper into Dexter Morgan. When he learns that Dexter and Louis Greene both worked for Miami Metro, he wonders if they killed Viktor Baskov as payback for killing Mike Anderson. When George Novikov says it's Viktor's fault that he’s dead, Isaak violently reacts, stating that Viktor was a good man, loyal, committed, and did a better job than George.

Miami Metro shuts down The Fox Hole again. Joey Quinn flirts with Nadia in front of Angie Miller, who asks if seeing a stripper is a good idea. George needs the daily raids to stop but Quinn says they’ll keep coming back until Mike Anderson's shooter is locked up. George attempts to bribe Quinn, but he refuses the money and cocaine. Isaak realizes the police don't know that Viktor is dead and he suspects that Dexter and Louis were working alone. George offers to kill Dexter, but Isaak wants to talk to him first. When George complains that the club is losing money, Isaak decides to give them a suspect in Mike's murder.

Speltzer won’t talk to Batista so he has an idea. He tells Speltzer that his boss is an annoying woman, adding, “To tell you the truth, I’ve been wanting to pop my lieutenant in that beak of hers for years. She's dying to get a shot at you. Should we let her? Could be fun.” Speltzer grins.

Deb then enters the interrogation room and begins by showing Speltzer a picture of his beautiful mother. He reacts in a strange way, and Deb suggests that he killed attractive, "easy" women because they mirrored his mother. When Deb begins insinuating that Speltzer had incestuous fantasies of his mother, he jumps out of his seat and roars, "I should have killed you like I killed the other bitch." Deb calmly says, "Go to hell" and leaves the room, having obtained his confession to Melanie’s murder.

After work, Deb and Dexter talk in the parking lot and she brings up her concerns about Harrison being raised by a serial killer.

Deb: "I've been thinking a lot about Rita-- about how she died. She died because of you. Because you were selfish. You have a son. Harrison is three years old. Someone needs to protect him." Dexter: "I do." Deb: "Someone needs to protect him from you. He could go live with Astor and Cody, with their grandparents in Orlando." Dexter: "I am a good father. I am the right person-- the only person who can and should raise my son. Who, like me, lost his mother." Deb: "It is not fair of you to expose a child to your life... choices. You have to decide! Your desires or --" Dexter: "No, I don't." Deb: "You said it yourself, Dexter, that you can't stop, that you don't want to stop. And if you keep doing this, you're like a fucking magnet. Bad shit is gonna find you." Dexter: "And if that happens, I'll handle it." Deb: [Scoffs] "What if you had been three minutes later to Speltzer's fucking maze?" Dexter: "But I wasn't." Deb: "You were too late for Rita." Dexter: "I should have killed Trinity the first time I saw him. That's the mistake I made." Deb: "That's the mistake that you made?" Dexter: "Yes! And I will never, from this moment on-- Do you hear me? I will never ever make that mistake again." Deb: "It is not in your control." Dexter: (insistently) "Everything is in my control. I am not giving up my son."

Bartender Alex Dubrozny is surprised when Isaak, George, and Jurg show up at his door. After some polite conversation, Sirko promises Alex that, if he kills himself, his children's futures will be secured by the Koshka Brotherhood. If he doesn't, they will kill his family. Coerced, Alex's writes a suicide note confessing to Mike Anderson's murder. Terrified, he shoots himself in the head with the gun that Viktor Baskov used to kill Anderson.

Hannah McKay enters the homicide department and walks over to Dexter. She explains that she's there because her lawyer advised her to help find more of Wayne Randall's victims. She reveals more of her history with Wayne and Dexter mentions that his last words were about her:  "Every day was like an unwrapped present." Amused, Hannah replies, "I remember when he got that fortune from a cookie."

Maria LaGuerta shows the team a cop cam video of four officers beating up Speltzer while apprehending him. She says an argument was made in court that Speltzer was unconscious and did not understand his rights, so the judge let him walk. Speltzer is also planning to file a lawsuit against the department for excessive use of force. Debra is infuriated.

Isaak and Jurg sit in a car outside Alex’s house as the police arrive. Isaak grumbles that it's disrespectful when cops don’t wear uniforms. As soon as Dexter arrives on scene, they leave.

Inside the house, it's determined that Alex was killed by a single gunshot to the right temple. Despite the suicide note and the GSR on his hand, Batista finds it hard to believe that Alex killed Kaja Soroka, Viktor Baskov, and Mike Anderson.

Dexter finds Jamie going through Harrison's toys, deciding what he's outgrown. Jamie wants to throw out "Lamby" because it stinks and Harrison hasn't slept with it in more than a year. Dexter, however, wants to keep it since it was a gift from Rita's mother.

At Briar Cemetery, Dexter sneaks into Speltzer's dimly lit, unkempt RV. Looking around, he finds steroids and several earrings (trophies). He is taken by surprise when Speltzer suddenly returns. Enraged, Speltzer immediately attacks Dexter. Although Speltzer initially overpowers Dexter and tosses him around, Dexter is able to throw Speltzer down twice. The fight ends when Speltzer knocks Dexter out with a broken table leg.

Dexter wakes up in an abandoned warehouse. Nearby is a note with one word - RUN. He refuses to run, but quickly changes his mind when Speltzer approaches, wearing a bullhorn helmet and carrying a large ax. Speltzer chases Dexter to lower floors. After they scuffle in a room filled with mannequins, Dexter gains entry to a stairwell. He makes it out onto the roof, with Speltzer close behind. By jumping down to a lower roof and then to the street, Dexter escapes on the back of a truck.

In case Speltzer should track him down, Dexter sends Harrison away to Orlando to stay with Astor and Cody until he deals with the issue.

Isaak Sirko uses his key to Viktor's apartment, which still has a police seal on the door. The place is a mess, having been ransacked by the cops. Isaak sits on the sofa and looks tearfully at a photo of himself and Viktor together. He tenderly touches it and vows that he will avenge his death.

Deb and Batista attend Melanie Garrett's funeral. As she's leaving. Deb spots Speltzer standing at a distance, looking smug. Enraged, she charges at him as he taunts her. Batista hurries over and pulls Deb away.

Dexter visits Deb, having heard about her confrontation with Speltzer. She's upset that she felt like killing him and doesn't want to be like Dexter. Deb tells Dexter that she now views him as a completely different person. He insists that he's still the same as before, but she just knows more about him now. He promises to always be there for her, but Deb can't commit to feeling the same way.

At Miami Metro, Batista tells Quinn that Alex's suicide was "too neat and easy" and he thinks it was a setup. Quinn doubts this, but agrees to go back to the club the next day to make sure Alex wasn't a mob patsy.

After dark, Speltzer catches a glimpse of someone moving through the cemetery and looks around. As he's reading a one-word note that says STAY left on a pile of dirt, Dexter creeps up from behind and knocks him out with a shovel.

Spelzer wakes up on a table inside the crematorium. He struggles against his bonds, yells "Fuck! Fuck!" and angrily demands to be released. Dexter mockingly yells back in his face.

Then Dexter discloses, "Normally now is when I'd slice your cheek with my scalpel and get a drop of blood to remember you by, but I can't risk anyone finding a blood slide ever again. I do things different now. The memory of killing you will have to be enough. Speltzer calls Dexter a "fucking freak" and threatens to kill him. Dexter replies sarcastically, "That would be a twist -- and not one that's gonna happen tonight." He picks up the broken shovel handle and turns on the chamber's flames, causing Speltzer to protest and scream with terror. Dexter stabs Spletzer in the heart and cremates his body with his second blood slide box.

Dexter calls Deb and waits outside until she arrives. He tells her that the smoke rising from the crematorium chimney is Speltzer. She stares at it, asking, "Did you do this for me?" He pauses and answers, "No." Dexter inquires how she feels and she admits that she’s "glad" but asks, "What does that make me?" He simply replies, "Human.'

Quotes

 * "Hey, hats off to any killer good enough not to leave any DNA behind at a murder scene." - Masuka to Dexter about Speltzer
 * "Or you could say a number, and it'll be just like old times. You know, leave your car unlocked, you'll find some cash, maybe some blow." -George Novikov to Joey Quinn
 * "I have to fucking answer to her skinny ass every day. And she's always squawking at me, you know. Her beak goes, 'squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk, squawk.' To tell you the truth, I envy you. I've been wanting to pop my lieutenant in that beak of hers for years." - Batista to Speltzer about Debra
 * "Yeah, a lot of kids sleep with security blankets when they're little, but once they start socializing, you know, learning how to be part of a group, they don't need it. And Harrison, because he's a genius, hit this milestone early." - Jamie Batista to Dexter
 * "I don't run. I make people run. However, I do run if there's a bull coming after me with an ax." - Dexter about Speltzer
 * "I'm a twice-divorced detective staring down the barrel of retirement. I'm already a cliché." - Batista to Quinn
 * Fight or flight. That's a part of everyone's lizard brain. Speltzer may have a lizard brain like me, but his shortcoming is he doesn't have much of a human brain. - Dexter to himself, while stalking Speltzer
 * "You were supposed to be a way out of the tangle I was in with my sister, a thread she could follow to understand me better, to accept me, even. But she and I lost each other. She almost lost herself, going after you. She wanted to catch you just as much as I did. Who knows, maybe our relationship can rise from your ashes." - Dexter to Speltzer
 * It's time for everyone to move on. Good-bye, friends. - Dexter as he incinerates his second blood slide box
 * Speltzer: "I'm gonna kill you." Dexter (nods, mockingly): "That...would be a twist."

Related Pages

 * Blood Slide Boxes
 * Briar Cemetery
 * The Fox Hole
 * Itasca Sunflyer RV
 * Koshka Brotherhood
 * Mike Anderson Murder Case
 * Red Brick Warehouse
 * Viktor Baskov's Apartment