Dexter Season 5, Episode 7: "Circle Us" Recap

The previous episode ended with Dexter agreeing to help the very damaged Lumen find and kill the men who tortured, raped and intended to kill her. Dexter allows Lumen to take up residence in the house that he and Rita had shared while Dexter himself continues to live in his apartment with Harrison. Dexter checks on Lumen regularly but all the two of them ever have to do is continue their plans to find the men she wants dead. Lumen describes two of her assailants, one of whom she didn't see due to being blind folded but he would always make her listen to his watch. The other however would remove her blindfold before having his way with her, and he would always carefully fold his suit jacket and place it aside before starting. Dexter notes Lumen's level of obsession with her quest, attributing it partly to her lack of anything else to cling to (whereas Dexter has Harrison in his life to help ground him somewhat.)

Immediately following Lumen's discussion of "Suit Guy" the audience gets their first look at him as he arrives at the site where Boyd Fowler had been dumping the bodies of the young women. "Suit Guy" pays a number of migrant workers to load up five barrels (all containing a corpse) from the muck into the back of his truck. He then drives off with them, presumably to dump them at a more secure location. However that plan is severely derailed when he is side-swiped by a drunk driver.

The following morning Debra is with Quinn after a night together. She gets the call about the traffic accident and the bodies now littering the street. She heads out but insists on going separately from Quinn, making it clear that she does not yet want any of their co-workers to be aware of their relationship. Once Debra has left Quinn gets a call from Liddy (the narcotics officer who Quinn has hired to track Dexter.) Liddy informs Quinn that Dexter is keeping a young blond woman at his old house. Quinn starts to have reservations about having Dexter tracked due to his relationship with Debra. Liddy is quick to try to shut this down and keep Quinn on track. This seems to indicate that Liddy will likely want to continue (and get paid for his work) beyond the point that Quinn is interested in. This could potentially be a big point of conflict between the two and ultimately put Dexter into even more jeopardy, as he isn't even aware that he's being watched.

When Miami Metro homicide department arrives at the scene of the crash they find the barrels and bodies strew across the road and the driver nowhere to be found. Dexter recognizes that somebody had been trying to move Boyd's handy-work and becomes concerned that he'll now have to race against his co-workers in order to reach those responsible first. Lumen also arrives on the scene (as it is all over the news) but Dexter is quick to point out that it's not safe for her to leave the house and tells her to go back. However before she leaves Quinn notices Dexter talking to her and deduces that she is the mystery woman Liddy spotted.

When the homicide team get the evidence from the car crash back to their offices it's discovered that the truck is a company vehicle belonging to Jordan Chase (played by Johnny Lee Miller.) Chase is a motivational speaker, one whom Boyd had been quite a fan of, whose motto is "Take it!" Somewhat surprisingly Chase and Cole, his head of security, arrive at the precinct shortly after the investigation begins. Cole admits that the truck is his but says that the truck had been stole from the lot. After taking the statement Batista and Laguerta (who's relationship issues were mercifully absent this episode) consider Cole to be their prime suspect. They see his excuses as rather flimsy and Masuka confirms Cole's fingerprints and hair in the truck but no prints or DNA belonging to anybody else. Before Chase and Cole leave the precinct Dexter snaps a few pictures of each of them with his digital camera.

Dexter takes the pictures back to show Lumen. Though she does not recognize Chase she instantly identifies Cole as the "suit guy." It's as Dexter had suspected and he explains to Lumen that the police already suspect him. Dexter points out that he would likely turn in his accomplices, and that Florida has the death penalty. If she wanted Lumen could simply leave it to the police and justice would almost certainly be done. Lumen however says that is not enough, and that she has to be directly involved in their deaths. Dexter continues to recognize aspects of his own "dark passenger" arising in Lumen and he agrees to continue to help her. However he knows that his first priority has to be throwing the police off the trail of Cole before they take him into custody. Dexter determines that he already has the perfect fall guy: the late Boyd Fowler.

Dexter and Lumen break into Boyd's house where they go about making sure that everything is in place for the police to correctly identify him as the actual killer of the women. It's difficult for Lumen to move about the house, especially up in the attic where she had been kept hostage before Dexter killed Boyd and set her free. However she soldiers through the flashes and emotional pain, determined to see this done and to not be an idle bystander while Dexter does all the work. After feeling satisfied that the police will have all they need to link Boyd to the killings Dexter only needs to make sure they investigate the house. To accomplish this he swipes Boyd's wallet and plants it under the seat of the truck. As expected Masuka finds the wallet and the team goes to Boyd's house to find more than enough evidence to make him their prime suspect and lose any interest in Cole.

Laguerta and Batista call Chase and Cole back into their office to see if either can draw a connection to Boyd. Chase denies knowing him and Cole thinks quickly to identify him as a low level stalker of Chase. Once they're out of the car Chase says that it was Cole's first good idea to throw Boyd under the bus (making it clear that Chase was one of Lumen's tormentors.) Cole points out that he didn't lead the police to Boyd, which seems to arouse a distinct suspicion amongst the men that somebody is onto them.

Back at home Dexter has a minor bit of awkwardness with the nanny. She places a small statue of Saint Brigid over Harrison and says a prayer before tucking him in. This is something that is simply bewildering to Dexter and he dismisses it somewhat tactlessly. Later in the episode Dexter comes to see the value to accepting the things about important people in his life, even if he himself can't understand them. This seems to resolve the brief tension between himself and his nanny. It's unclear as to whether this is meant to point to further issues down the road. However it's so nicely resolved that seems unlikely at this point, which makes it somewhat odd that it was even brought up.

Thanks to Yasmin, the woman that Batista brought in at the end of the previous episode, Laguerta gives the go ahead for one final stake out of the club that the murderous Fuentes Brothers frequent. Thanks to being cracked down on by her superior Laguerta is not able to have a full team at the club but hopes that a minimal force will suffice. It's her hope to arrest the brothers before they even enter the club. However once the police are inside at their assigned positions it's realized that the Fuentes' are already there. Yasmin mentions a rumored secret entrance from the building next door. Laguerta has Yasmin approach the brothers and makes it the new objective to arrest them as they leave. One of the brothers spots Officer Manzon, the Hispanic officer who has been assisting Debra in the case, and calls her over to the VIP area. Debra thinks it is a bad idea for her to approach them but Laguerta orders her to do so anyways. One of the brothers, in feeling Manzon up, notices her gun and realizes that she is a cop. A shoot out ensues resulting in the death of Yasmin and an innocent bystander. Debra pulls a gun on Carlos Fuentes, who immediately takes a hostage, thus recreating the scenario where Debra failed to stop him before. This time however Debra shoots Carlos with one precise shot to the head.

While all of this goes on Dexter and Lumen prepare to investigate Cole's house, believing him to be with Chase at a conference out of town. Dexter instructs Lumen to serve as lookout and to remain in the car. Once Dexter is inside he is jumped by Cole, who had been laying in wait for whoever might arrive. Things are looking bad for Dexter until Lumen arrives and beats Cole with a blunt object. It's not sufficient to kill Cole but it does allow the two to escape without Cole having seen their faces. Once out Dexter shows Lumen a photograph that he found in the house which shows Cole, Boyd and the man who Lumen shot altogether along with two other men. They believe this is the full line up of all the men who hurt Lumen. Dexter once again questions Lumen's impulsiveness at coming into the house after him just because she "saw a shadow." Her tendency to act on instinct has come up before, and thus far has worked in their favor. It seems likely though that down the road it's going to get them into trouble.

As the episode closes Batista tries to console Laguerta, who rather stubbornly refuses to admit to any lapse in judgment at the club. Dexter is also clearly bonding more and more closely with Lumen, he starts to talking about what "we" will do to the men rather than "I," something that Lumen takes special notice of. Dexter even goes so far as to bring Harrison to meet Lumen for the first time and this allows her to show a tender side that has been rather repressed up to this point. A very strong episode overall, although the pursuit of the Fuentes Brothers (though only one now remains) continues to be tangential to Dexter. It feels as though the writers may be trying to make the show more of an ensemble piece, but ultimately anything that doesn't tie directly to Dexter feels a bit like filler. Very well done filler, but filler none the less.