“Horse of Different Color.”

Dexter, Harrison and a few dozen ex-cons attend Brother Sam’s baptism of a reformed gang member. While at this “family event” Dexter shares with Sam the importance of his father’s role in his development. This early scene nicely sets up the episodes theme of father son relationships. Harry and Dexter, Dexter and Harrison, Sam and his father, Taylor and Gellar are written in this focus. Even Deb’s relationship with Mathews has these tones.

The gruesome crime scene teased in last weeks’ episode is delivered on here big time. The kidnapped jogger from last week has had his appendages sewn onto to four different mannequins tied to horses and set loose in broad daylight. New transfer detective Mike Anderson correctly identifies the scene as a recreation of the four horsemen of the apocalypse from the book of revelations. And with that our big bad duo has a name, The Doomsday Killer.

Lording over the reconstructed pieces of the jogger in a lab, Dexter discovers a piece of paper hidden under the eyelid. Re-examining the disemboweled fruit vendor’s intestines (ep 6.1), Dexter finds another coded numerical message. By looking at the brutish way the body was cut contrasted with the complexity of the crimes, he deduces there are two killers at work.

Masuka continues his path of career suicide by fraternizing with his hot evidence-stealing intern. When stolen evidence appears in an online auction Masuka dismisses her even as she admits feelings for him. A surprising moment of professionalism for the gutter minded forensic scientist.

Mike Anderson uses vocabulary puzzling to Quinn and gives unsolicited career advice to Deb. Much to LaGeurta pleasure Deb flubs her first press conference by cursing like a long shore man on television. But much to everyone’s surprise, her candid style wins over the public and she’s even commended by Mathews.

After getting stoned with Quinn in his vintage Camaro, Batista follows a lead that gives them the name of their Doomsday killer. James Gellar is revealed to be a deranged Theology expert who went underground after stealing the sword of John the Revelator. The partnership of the duo is strained (again) when Travis wants to go on a date with a waitress. Travis promises to be home by ten” but doesn’t come home alone. The waitress climbs into bed with him for a little pre-marital, pre-apocalyptic fornication while Gellar secretly watches.

Harrison is rushed to the hospital with a burst appendix, where he’s joined by Jaime the babysitter, Deb his sister and to her surprise, his new friend, Brother Sam. After trying out some religious “B.S.” on Dex, Sam opens up about his own father. The mirror image of Dex and Harry, Sam’s father ushered him into a life of crime as a boy by making him an accomplice to murder.

In a quiet moment of bargaining with a god he doesn’t believe in, Dex has a religious experience with a coffee machine. And with that good omen Harrison survives his operation. In the morning Taylor awakes to find his waitress missing. She’s bound and gagged in the kitchen with Gellar, who admonishes Taylor for “defiling her.”

Dexter deduces the killers’ numerical code as a countdown. The team is soon called to investigate a puddle of blood in the shape of the omega symbol. Dexter follows the trail and finds the waitress hanging in a death trap in a green house. When the mousetrap style trap is sprung the woman is killed in front of the helpless detectives and Dex. And then, for effect, thousands of locusts are unleashed on the scene.

Escaping outside Dexter can’t help but notice one person in the crowd of onlookers who doesn’t look alarmed. Taylor.

On The Table.
This Big Bad isn’t reinventing the wheel with their style, similar hidden messages were inserted into bodies on Twin Peaks and Silence of the Lambs. And their death trap is descendant of the SAW movies.

However, the tension between the duo, their dramatic flair and the brisk pace of the investigation is keeping this storyline immediate and engaging.

To solidify her status as Lieutenant, Deb will need to bring the Doomsday Killer to justice. Will the ‘bargain’ Dexter struck with the celestial coffee machine necessitate him sparing one or more of the Doomsday Killers for her benefit? Will he split the difference and kill just one?

And is it me, or is Dexter out detecting the detectives in that department? He’s taken a greater public role in sleuthing out the big bad. Although he kept the existence of the second killer to himself. I’m enjoying the friendship between Brother Sam and Dexter, curious how close these two can become before Sam recognizes certain qualities in his new friend.

Loving the conflict between Quinn and Anderson, “It’s Miami genius.” Please don’t let Anderson become another love interest for Deb. I’m actually enjoying her story arc for a change.

An episode so good, I didn’t notice Dexter didn’t have a kill of the week until I sat down to write this.