Dexter Episode 37: Living the Dream

Dexter is exhausted from caring for baby Harrison at night, to the point that his opening drive turns out to be him trying to stay awake rather than hunting someone. At the same time, a new killer breaks into Lisa Bell’s home, waits for her in the bathroom, attacks her in the bathtub, strangles her, and cuts her femoral artery while forcing her to look into a mirror.

Dexter’s sleep deprivation starts affecting his work when he gives the wrong blood-analysis testimony in court, which helps get Benito Gomez released and frustrates Quinn. As the Bell murder is investigated, Quinn meets reporter Christine Hill, gives her his number, and the case also brings Frank Lundy back into the story because he recognizes a pattern in the victim’s wound. Miami Metro later finds old blood hidden under the floor, suggesting there was an earlier murder connected to the same location.

Lundy tells Dexter that he is retired from the FBI, but he returned after realizing the case involves a serial killer he has pursued for years, known as the Trinity Killer. Dexter then focuses on Gomez as a target of his own, goes out to kill him, and ends up knocking him unconscious outside his home instead of at a bar. Before he can finish, Rita calls and asks him to get medicine for Harrison, forcing Dexter to rush through the killing, cut up the body, and drive off.

On the way, Dexter falls asleep at the wheel and crashes, ending the episode with the consequences of his exhaustion becoming immediately physical.