Dexter – “Run” Review [Warning: Spoilers]

“Everything is in my control.”

The seventh season of Dexter is off to a fantastic start. In fact, I would dare say that this is easily the best start since Dexter: Season 4. A lot happened in this week’s episode, “Run” – some of which was predictable, but was still executed gloriously – with the end result leaving me ecstatic for what’s to come.

First we have Deb’s bathtub scene. Here, Deb dreams that the bathwater turns into blood and that Dexter appears in the doorway with a very vague “proposal.” This scene can be taken numerous ways (her earlier interogation of Dext regarding Rita’s murder, last season’s odd incestual angle, her current feelings of disgust, or maybe a combination of these things), but it appears this was less a marriage storyline and more of a foreshadowing of a possible blood partnership with her brother. At the very least, Deb is finally starting to get into Dexter’s mind and, as we see by the episode’s end, she’s starting to accept him more and more for who he is.

I would also like to note that the writers finally made an attempt to fill the plot hole of Harrison’s status throughout this season by having him sent away to Orlando for a few weeks. It certainly doesn’t answer the question of whether we were supposed to believe that Jamie had been taking care of him 24/7, but at least it’s one last thing we have to wonder about from week to week.

We get another SAW-esque chase scene from Speltzer, but this one directly involved Dexter and is far more gripping. The emergence of Speltzer as a mini boss for Dex has served well as this season continues to develop Isaac as the main villain. Speaking of Isaac, we get fantastic scene from him as well. For the show’s standards, having Isaac force an innocent man to shoot himself in the head was a bit hard to watch, but Isaac’s expression (or lack thereof) as the trigger is pulled was a real statement for his character.

Dexter’s killing of Speltzer was the perfect way to round out this episode’s motif. Much like Harrison was having to part ways with the toys he’d outgrown, Dex says farewell to his blood slides in an attempt to embrace that his life has now been changed with Deb’s knowledge of his secret. Speltzer getting murdered also represented a bridge between Deb’s lifestyle and Dexter’s, and I’m starting to get the feeling that Deb is now becoming intertwined with Dexter to the point where we could possibly see them working as a team together (or at least Dexter finally earning Deb’s understanding).

“Run” was a fast-paced episode (no pun intended…well, maybe a little) with a number of thrills along the way. The lack of Hannah in this episode prevents me from completely painting this episode gold, but nevertheless, this was the peak of the season thus far and I don’t expect things to be slowing down anytime soon.

9.5 out of 10