Dexter Episode 84: Surprise, Motherfucker!

Dexter is arrested by LaGuerta for Hector Estrada’s murder, but the arrest quickly becomes a much bigger public humiliation as she brings him into the station in front of his shocked coworkers. He is questioned as LaGuerta pushes the idea that he is the Bay Harbor Butcher, but he stays controlled and refuses to give her what she wants.

Before that confrontation, Dexter visits Hannah in jail. Hannah admits that she poisoned Debra to keep her from separating them, and Dexter tells her that he chose Debra because he could not trust Hannah to stop hurting her. Hannah is hurt by his decision, but she does not reveal his secret; after Dexter leaves, she makes a phone call to arrange help for her escape.

With Hannah’s case still hanging over him, Dexter returns home and spends time with Harrison while Jamie is there as well. That brief domestic moment is cut short when LaGuerta arrives with officers and arrests him.

Once at the station, LaGuerta continues pressing her case, but the evidence against Dexter does not hold up the way she expects. Her attempt to frame him backfires enough that others begin to see her as unstable, and Dexter is ultimately released.

Afterward, Dexter keeps moving toward the confrontation with Estrada, who remains a threat because he can identify him. Dexter tracks Estrada down and forces him to help lure LaGuerta to a shipping container at the docks, where Dexter has set up a kill room.

At the container, Dexter kills Estrada and then ambushes LaGuerta from behind, sedating her before she can understand what is happening. Debra arrives just as Dexter is about to finish the job. She points a gun at him and tells him she will not let him kill LaGuerta.

Debra is horrified as the situation spirals out of control. LaGuerta wakes enough to plead with Debra and urge her to shoot Dexter instead. Dexter drops his knife and tells Debra to do what she has to do, and Debra, shaking and crying, shoots LaGuerta and kills her.

The episode ends with Debra devastated by what she has done, holding the dying or dead LaGuerta while Dexter is left facing the consequences of the choice that saved him but shattered Debra.