Hello, Bandit - Recap

Dexter knows there are seven stages of grief. He's only had time for the
anger one, which he worked through by killing a stranger with his bare
hands. He thinks everything will be okay once he and the kids are together.

He arrives at Debra's apartment with the two older ones. She hands off
the baby, telling Dexter he needs to be "hosed off or something". Cody
seems comfortable, but Astor doesn't think they're all going to be able
to fit. Dexter says they have to get to bed soon. It's going to be a
tight fit, what with Astor in Debra's bed, Cody on a cot and Dexter on
the couch. Astor says she can't go to school because she doesn't have
any of her things. He tells her to make a list, and he'll pick them up
tomorrow. Astor wants to go along but Dexter tells her no; her mother
was murdered there. She says she knows her mother was murdered, and
turns to leave. Debra reminds Dexter he has a 9:00 a.m. FBI interview in
the morning.

They ask where he was when Rita was killed, and he tells them, again,
that he was on his boat. He reacts in anger when they tell him Rita was
murdered several hours before he got on the boat. The woman agent says
they know he was at Arthur Mitchell's house. He looks like he's waiting
for the other shoe to drop, but she says they know he was part of the
team that raided Arthur Mitchell's house. They know Dexter didn't kill
Rita, but they wonder if there's a reason Arthur Mitchell may have
targeted her. Dexter says "Because he's a serial killer?" Debra meets
him in the waiting area, baby and baby bag in hand. Masuka tells him he
will be missed. Maria asks him how much time he wants, but promptly
tells him he should take at least a week so he can spend time with his
family.

The feds talk to Maria. They tell her Dexter's alibi is air tight, and
they don't have anything. Arthur Mitchell disappeared, and their only
lead is Kyle Butler. Maria tells them they had a victim by that name a
couple of weeks ago. Their guy is still alive, but he has disappeared as
well. They're going to get a sketch artist to meet with the family. As
they are leaving, Maria drops her mail. Angel picks it up and discovers
she has over $250k in savings.

As Dexter is looking over moving vans, he sees blood in the back of one.
That's the vehicle he takes.

Dexter is at the house, loading things up. The neighbor brings in his
mail, and tells him how sorry he is about everything, and asks if
they've found the killer yet. He tells him if he needs anything - Dexter
turns him down. The neighbor continues talking about how much you have
to be there, 24/7/365, giving up your life for the kids. Dexter tells
himself he'll be a good father. Everyone makes sacrifices, and he can
too. He touches the blood in the back of the moving van, and has a
visible reaction to it. He walks away, reminding himself to focus on the
kids.

Rita's parents help him move in with Debra. Astor tells him he brought
all her reject stuff, she can't wear any of it. He tries to make her
feel better by telling her nobody is even going to notice her. She is
hurt, and leaves the room. Grandma asks Cody to help bring in the last
load. He tells Dexter he likes it here, as it is like camping. Dexter
comes to the conclusion that boys are easier.

Harrison starts fussing, and Dexter goes to him. Neither of them can
sleep, so Dexter packs him in his car seat and takes him out to the
moving van. He closes them both in, and turns on a light that will show
blood. Whoever cleaned up forgot the door and there's a pretty large
amount there. He tells Harrison a story. "Once upon a time, an evil
green ogre left a circular spatter at three feet high, consistent with
blunt force trauma, which seems to indicate that the handsome young
Prince was hit while on his knees (at least two or three times). Or the
Princess was on her knees. Small hands. Female." When he opens the van
door, his dad has joined him in the van. He thought the kids were
Dexter's number one responsibility. Dexter says they are, but it's not
that easy. Harry responds that it never is. He says that the kids aren't
only his responsibility, but his salvation.

The van rental site doesn't have much in the way of protection, so
Dexter discovers that the last person to rent his van was one Boyd
Fowler. Boyd gave his address as the department of sanitation. Turns out
he works in dead animal pickup. Dexter thinks maybe it was animal blood
at first, but then he remembers the little hand prints. So he tests a
sample. Human.

Dexter sticks a dead raccoon in the road and calls for pickup. When Boyd
arrives, he sees the raccoon and says "Hello, Bandit." Dexter tells him
moving is a hassle, and Boyd says he wouldn't know, he's lived in the
same place for 20 years. Dexter wonders why he rented a moving van then.
Boyd says the raccoon was killed elsewhere and dropped here. Dexter
thinks "He's CSIing me." Boyd notes that there are defensive wounds on
the raccoon's paws, he put up a struggle. He then grabs the raccoon by
his hind legs and tosses him in the van.

Angel shows up at a crime scene, asking what they got. Part of a female
victim. Just the head. Angel asks Quinn, hypothetically. Say you're
newlywed, and you find out your spouse has a lot of money. A LOT of
money. Is that the kind of information you share. Quinn says no. That's
your money, tell her to keep her hands off of it.

The victim was still alive when they cut her head off. Excision of eyes
and tongue was done postmortem. Quinn touches Debra's back, and she
pulls away. Says she's on edge, hasn't slept; Astor kicked her all
night. He tells her she's welcome to crash at his place.

An officer tells Debra it looks like Santa Muerte, a local cult, is to
blame. The body is meant to send a message. "You didn't see anything,
you're not going to say anything." She thinks the woman was probably
killed with a machete. Debra tells her they will follow her lead, but
this park is a local drug hangout, and drug cartels like to cut people's
heads off. They found the body at the other end of the park, under some
bushes.

Dexter looks online for grief-coping help with children. There's nothing
to help with "Mommy bled out in the bathtub." He shifts gears and starts
investigating Boyd Fowler, who has a prison record for assault with a
deadly weapon. There are no mortgage records in his name. His house was
inherited.

Debra gets home, and Dexter fills her in on the day, including the fact
that Cody and Astor are both asleep in her bed. She talks about how
difficult it will be for him to be a single dad raising three kids. He
says all he can do is try. She tells him she'll be there, and he can
count on her. Glancing at the computer, she sees that one of the places
he's looking at is near the station. She volunteers to check it out
tomorrow, when they have an open house. He offers the couch, but she
tells him to take it. She calls, and then goes over to Quinn's. He tries
to kiss her but she rebuffs him and heads for the couch. He gracefully
accepts the rebuff, and they discuss the case for a bit before she goes
to sleep.

Dexter is making pancakes for breakfast. Astor sounds like she might
finally be coming out of her grief. She goes to set the table but takes
too many plates because she counted mom. Things escalate, and Cody tells
them to stop fighting and runs out. Astor shoots Dexter a look and goes
the other way. Dexter decides that while they are at grief counseling,
he'll do his own kind of therapy.

Quinn and Debra are talking. She declares they never had sex, she never
would, they never will. He says that's weird, and she agrees. He starts
to tell her he remembers, and she leaves.

Masuka is doing Dexter's job, and he hates it. He hates blood. He's
wearing a haz-mat suit, and he can't figure out what the murder weapon
is. He can't replicate the wounds. She tells him to try the machete -
yeah. That works.

Angel asks Debra how Masuka is doing. She tells him he loves working
with blood and she can see him doing more assignments like this one. He
says he'll keep that in mind. He asks her about the secret account, but
unlike Quinn, she sees right through him. She tells him that just
because he married her, he doesn't own her; leave the money alone.

Masuka arrives at a suicide and asks why the man couldn't just hang
himself or stick his head in the oven rather than leaving blood all over
the place. Seriously; how rude. The officer from the park is there, and
Debra tells her she was right about the machete. Quinn id's the woman
from the park as the spouse of the suicide victim. He thinks this is a
murder suicide case, but Debra thinks it's Santa Muerte. She asks the
female officer, who concurs.

Dexter drives to Boyd Fowler's, knowing he works the 7-4 shift. He's
going to check things out. Harry confronts him, but Dexter says being on
the hunt keeps him sharp and focused. He takes the lid off a bin and
finds some ripe dead animals. Going inside, he discovers that it looks
like his grandmother's house. There's a loaded handgun in the desk. As a
convicted felon, Boyd shouldn't have one but it's still nothing to go
on. Boyd comes home in the middle of the day. Dexter thinks he'll go out
the front door, but it's barred and locked. Boyd turns on an empowering
tape and talks along with it. As he goes to get more soup, Dexter gets
to the door. He doesn't leave because he sees a numbered lock of hair on
the ground. He escapes undetected.

Quinn and Debra are walking together. He understands how being pissed
enough at a woman would be enough to cause a man to want to cut her head
off. He says he'd never do it, but he can understand it. When they
arrive at the open house, the real estate lady assumes they are a couple
and promotes the house based on that misconception. Quinn plays it up,
making Debra pretty uncomfortable. He tries to be playful with her, but
she is having none of it. She tells him she has to drop him off at the
station and pick up Dexter's kids.

Dexter follows Boyd to the middle of nowhere, down a dirt road. Boyd
tosses another bin off the truck and leaves. Dexter figures it for more
dead animals, but is interrupted by Deb's phone call. The kids aren't at
school. They never showed up for school. She doesn't know where they
are. Dexter figures they are where Astor keeps saying she wants to go: Home.

He finds them next to the bathtub, the last place they knew Rita was
alive. He apologizes to Astor for not listening to her. He tells her
that if they want to live here, he'll find a way to make it work. Astor
says no, they won't. Astor blames him for making them thing they'd live
happily ever after. Cody says it's not Dexter's fault, but she doesn't
answer him. Astor thought coming here would help, but that was stupid.
She notes that the tub looks exactly the same as before. You can't even
tell what happened. Cody says he misses her so much, and Dexter says
they all do. Astor says she wants to live with Grandma and Grandpa, and
walks out.

Quinn asks Debra if she wants to grab a bite to eat. She turns him down
and walks away. He asks Maria for copies of the images the sketch artist
made and she says sure. Maria finds Angel waiting in her office, and he
confronts her about the savings account. She tells him she's more
practical than he is. She saved all that money so she would live well
for her entire life, but he's pretty carefree. She notices that she hurt
his feelings, and he says no. He's fine. He's just irresponsible,
everyone knows that. He walks out of her office and tells everybody that
drinks are on him.

Dexter tells Debra that Astor and Cody are going to live in Orlando with
Rita's parents. Cody doesn't want to go, but Dexter told him that he and
Astor are brother and sister, just like Dexter and Debra, and they need
to stay together. Debra says she never would have gotten through
everything she's been through, without him.

Debra calls Quinn and tells him they had sex. They banter a bit, and she
ends the call. He's using the three sketches to try to create a
composite of Kyle Butler.

Angel is drinking with Masuka, feeling sorry for himself. A guy in the
bar insinuates that Maria came up with that kind of money in the world's
oldest profession. Angel punches him, and a fight breaks out. Angel is
doing a lot of damage, and it takes three guys to peel him off the man.

Cody walks sobbing into Dexter's arms. Dexter promises they'll still see
each other. Astor takes him and walks away. Dexter tells Astor her
mother loved her more than she could ever imagine, and he did too. She
gives him a quick one-armed hug and gets into her grandparents' vehicle.

He drives back out to Boyd's dump site and finds the barrel floating in
the pond. He opens it and finds a woman. Boyd kills another. Harry asks
Dexter if they should go home, and he says he needs a minute.

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