Dexter Episode 32: The Damage a Man Can Do

Miguel Prado asks Dexter to help him kill a man, but insists on doing the actual killing himself, which pushes Dexter into teaching him Harry’s code and how to control the process. Meanwhile, Debra gets closer to identifying the Skinner while Anton goes missing, and Rita’s pregnancy leaves her unusually irritable.

Dexter and Miguel begin by discussing the target, Billy Fleeter, a former football player who now acts as a debt collector and has killed people over gambling debts. Dexter is uneasy about Miguel’s desire to participate directly, but he agrees to guide him and takes him through the usual steps of evaluating a victim through Harry’s code. They go to a casino and then to Fleeter’s house, where they look for proof that he is likely to kill again; they find the murder weapon, but Dexter says that is not enough on its own. Dexter then finds Fleeter’s betting ledger, which gives them the evidence they need to justify the kill within his code.

With that evidence, Dexter and Miguel return to the casino and prepare an unused storeroom as a killing site. Before they can complete the plan, someone recognizes Miguel, forcing Dexter to cancel the murder attempt for the moment. Miguel reacts badly to Dexter’s insistence on the code and criticizes it, but Dexter relents after Miguel confesses that he once severely beat his abusive father and found it deeply satisfying. Dexter takes that as proof that Miguel understands the impulse he is trying to manage, and he agrees to go through with the kill. The two drug Fleeter, bring him to the storeroom, and Miguel stabs him to death himself. While Dexter cleans up afterward, he has a vision of Harry warning him that sharing the code was a mistake and that Dexter is now responsible for Miguel’s actions.

Debra continues working the Skinner case and gets closer to the truth after Anton disappears. In her side investigation, she learns Anton was never a confidential informant in the formal sense, and the situation around his relationship with Quinn becomes more complicated. Rita, meanwhile, is moody and taking her pregnancy frustrations out on the people around her.