“What’s Eating Dexter Morgan?”, the third episode of the final season, aired last night and we saw Deb hit rock bottom. Viewers have been split on whether they find Deb’s behavior this season believable, but so far I like what the show has done with her.

A quick review from the episode coming up…

I believe that Deb would be consumed with guilt over committing murder – murdering a cop, of all things – and I’ve been OK with the severe downward spiral we saw her in when this season began. Six months felt like the right time frame for that behavior, and when she drunkenly showed up at the station to confess to her crime, I felt that it was true to the character of Deborah Morgan.

Some of you commented last week that it looked like Quinn was about to become integral to the plot, and you guys were right. As much as I don’t care for Quinn, he’s a key player in all this now. Deb confessed and he didn’t believe her. He’s too in love with her and, frankly to stupid, to believe it could be true. That made it easy for Dexter and Dr. Vogel to convince him that her confession was just the words of a troubled alcoholic with survivor’s guilt.

What’s really interesting now is the idea of Dr. Vogel treating Deb. I can’t wait to see what comes of that. I don’t think she’s “The Brain Surgeon” anymore – after all, we saw her receive the text message when the brains were left on her doorstep – but she’s got to be more villainous than we’ve seen so far.

Dr. Vogel wondered why Dexter didn’t kill Deb, when the first rule of Harry’s Code is “Don’t get caught”. Even if his love for her is selfish, Dexter cares enough about Deb to risk his own life. Does Vogel also think that Dexter should have killed Deb? I wonder.

Stray thoughts:

• I still don’t love the dynamic among Quinn, Jamie and Batista. I hope it becomes important to the Deborah stuff, but yawn.
• I really loved the scene in the interrogation room, and how Deb totally broke down when Quinn mentioned Dexter. Turning herself in means turning him in, but it didn’t seem as though she’d thought that through.
• So far, the show seems to be touching on the idea that maybe Dexter wouldn’t have become a serial killer without Harry’s Code and Vogel. I like the idea of looking at why Dexter has more capacity for emotion than other psychopaths, but I don’t want this to be pinned entirely on Vogel either – it will feel like a cop-out.

What did you guys think?