Dexter’ season eight slices up the second episode of its final year with “Every Silver Lining,” as Dexter learns the truth of his connection to Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling), while Deb tangles with a hitman ('The Walking Dead''s Nick Gomez) in search of the jewels from last week's case.

Last week’s ‘Dexter’ premiere, “A Beautiful Day,” saw Deb spiraling out of control in the wake of LaGuerta’s murder, while a mysterious new neuropsychiatrist revealed a shocking secret to Dexter. So how does “Every Silver Lining” continue the eighth and final season?

Read on for your in-depth recap of everything you need to know about ‘Dexter’ season eight, episode two, “Every Silver Lining”!

Vogel shows Dexter an old recorded session with Harry, in which Harry relayed how fascinated Dexter was by the sight of a bloody crime scene. The past Vogel confirms Harry’s suspicions about the boy, as the present woman explains to Dexter she helped to create the code he follows. She has come forward now in need of a favor, as the so-called “Brain Surgeon” killer may be one of her former patients, and has been leaving extracted brain tissue from the killings on her doorstep as a warning.

Uncertain what to make of Vogel, Dexter watches another of her old recordings from his apartment, wherein Harry revealed Dexter’s newfound habit of showing killers photos of their victims. Ghost Harry suggests that Dexter owes Vogel after all, and the woman could even help mend his relationship with Deb. Meanwhile, Deb once again relays her failed undercover operation to Jacob Elway ('The Boondock Saints'' Sean Patrick Flanery), before revealing the key to a storage locker that may contain the missing jewels.

Miami Metro uncovers yet another victim of the Brain Surgeon, for which Vogel accordingly reveals to Dexter she received another piece of brain tissue. Dexter agrees to help find the killer before Miami Metro can, but without fully trusting the woman just yet. Meanwhile, Deb and Elway enter Briggs’ cordoned-off apartment and find further evidence of the storage locker, unaware they’re being watched by the hitman El Sapo. Deb heads off on her own to the facility, the killer in pursuit.

Searching for prints off a recovered plastic bag from the crime scene, Dexter wonders why he has no memory of Vogel from his youth, to which the woman explains Harry specifically kept them separate. The prints come up positive for a man named Lyle Sussman, though he seems to share no connection with Vogel. Dexter later examines Sussman’s empty apartment, noting how unremarkable it seems, and finding only evidence of a hunting cabin before Miami Metro arrives to the scene as well.

Deb enters the storage locker and seemingly finds the jewels, but El Sapo follows and quickly disarms her. The two fight for the upper hand, Sapo eventually emerging to trap Deb in the storage locker behind him as he leaves. Meanwhile, Quinn and Batista visit with Sussman’s mother to learn the existence of his hunting cabin, all the while Batista urges Quinn to take the Sergeant’s Exam, knowing full well of Quinn’s relationship with Jamie.

Dexter shows up to another crime scene at the storage locker, where El Sapo has been shot dead in his car. Quinn and Dexter share their alarm at Deb’s involvement with the man, Dexter swiping a bloody shard from the car window that would belong to Sapo’s killer. Dexter visits Deb to find her asleep at home, and unafraid El Sapo’s killer would come after her. Dexter questions the bruising on her side, but Deb once again orders him out of her life.

Paying a visit to Sussman’s cabin before Miami Metro, Dexter finds Lyle Sussman hanging nearby, suggesting he couldn’t be the killer. In debating the matter with Vogel, the woman explains that she sees psychopaths as a gift of nature, rather than a mistake. Meanwhile, Quinn picks Jamie up for a date, but his continued focus on Deb and irritation that both Jamie and Batista nag him sends the girl storming out in a huff.

The next day in the office, Dexter examines the car window fragment to find the blood belongs to Deb, as the woman herself shows up to aid Quinn with his report. Dexter watches Deb’s discomfort at photos from El Sapo’s murder scene, and drags her out into the alley to reveal he knows the truth. Deb admits she remains fuzzy on the shooting, and may have left her gun in El Sapo’s glove box, blaming Dexter for the hell her life has descended into. Afterward, Dexter wearily enters the evidence locker to swap out the gun for his sister.

That night, Deb can’t bring herself to attend a celebration for Miami Metro, while Vogel calls Dexter afraid of someone in her house. Dexter arrives and the pair enter her home, finding only a DVD left on the laptop. The footage reveals that Lyle Sussman had been forced to kill the latest victim at gunpoint, and couldn’t be the Brain Surgeon after all. Dexter laments that he hadn’t realized the deception earlier, and worries about his relationship with Deb, while Vogel offers a motherly embrace, and assures him he’s "perfect."

Not that Showtime's publicity had been shy about the fact in the weeks leading up to last week's premiere, but it bears repeating how much we appreciate the final season's narrative decision to expand upon Dexter's origins with the introduction of Dr. Vogel. Whether or not fans of the series could buy into Harry Morgan's decision to channel his son's urges into serial killing, Vogel's role within the story not only helps shed light on Harry's turmoil with the matter, but also lends a strong degree of plausibility to how the code has kept Dexter so successful over the years.

Of course, Vogel's introduction into the story necessitates a bit of clumsy footwork in explaining why Dexter had never heard of her before, or why she might choose the current moment to make herself known, but the unique motherly overtones she provides to Dexter open up new angles of the character that give even 'Dexter''s stronger seasons of late something they'd been lacking: a freshness of exploration.

Meanwhile, Deb seems a bit more like herself without the drugs and debauchery, but still remains shattered enough to have committed her second murder, and blithely ask Dexter to cover the evidence. "Every Silver Lining" treats this development somewhat weakly as a moment of surprise, given that most viewers would have suspected Deb to be El Sapo's killer based on proximity alone, but regardless of the unsurprising reveal, we're still seeing a much more dangerous side to Deb than ever before.

On the supporting side, we can't say we're enjoying the increased focus on Quinn and Batista any more than we were last week, but it was nice to see that Batista had already deduced the relationship between Quinn and his sister, and had no intent to cause any trouble over it. Then again, we suspect Angel won't be too happy if Quinn starts falling for Deb again, as Jamie predicts. Overall, perhaps not the most tightly-plotted or thrilling of 'Dexter' episodes, but one which still has plenty of character dynamics and meaty mythology to keep things moving.

What say you? Did you get your fill of darkly dangerous ‘Dexter’ drama? What did you think the latest episode of the final season? Stay tuned for the latest from ‘Dexter' season eight, and join us next week for the a new episode recap of “What's Eating Dexter Morgan” on Showtime!

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