  Santiago Cabrera (left) as Sal Price and Yvonne Strahovski as Hannah McKay in episode seven of the seventh season of Dexter. (Handout)
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Talk about the pen being mightier than the sword. Dexter - the series, not the guy - has reiterated that point with deadly accuracy.
It's difficult to remember a time when the life of Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall) has been more complicated than it is right now. Yes, Dexter may have been in more imminent and immediate danger at various times in the past. But just think of all the people Dexter knows who are aware of what he is, and how their stories are intertwining.
SPOILER ALERT: This is a review and discussion of the Dexter episode titled Chemistry - the seventh episode of the seventh season - which aired Sunday, Nov. 11 on Showtime in the United States and on The Movie Network and Movie Central in Canada. If you're keen on remaining in the dark about what occurred, now's the time to click away.
Okay, as for that bit about the pen being mightier than the sword? Damn it, the pen! The pen! The pen! I should have seen it coming!
This is 100% true: Early in this very episode, when true-crime author Sal Price (Santiago Cabrera) was chewing on a pen or a swizzle stick or whatever it was, I thought to myself, "That is a really annoying affectation. Why the hell did they make that part of his character?"
In an earlier episode, Sal had explained that the oral fixation was a holdover from his smoking days. But still, I thought, it's driving me a little bit crazy.
So why didn't I make the leap of logic? I should have thought, "The writers on this show would not have bothered to add that affectation for no reason."
God, I'm stupid sometimes.
Anyway, Sal is dead, thanks to Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) and her expertise in the field of poison (what is this, The Borgias?). The poison Hannah used to kill Sal, via his chewable pen, is "undetectable," according to Hannah.
Is there really any such thing as an undetectable poison? If there are any chemists out there, perhaps you can drop me an email. And maybe this will develop into a plot point later this season, who knows?
For now, Dexter and Hannah are watching each other's backs, literally and figuratively.
Hannah killed Sal before Dexter could ruin Sal's reputation. But Dexter still managed to delete the incriminating evidence and research about Hannah that Sal had stored on his computer (don't you think Sal would have backed that up somewhere? Oh well, suspension of disbelief and all that).
As Hannah told Dexter, "Do you realize what happened? We were looking out for each other. This is big for people like us. Maybe even historic."
Meanwhile, the episode ended with a new twist: Dexter Morgan, killer for hire?
Dexter's foster sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) knows that Hannah killed Sal, and that she has killed before. But Deb can't prove it. So Deb finally goes "all in" with what she knows about Dexter. She calls him on the phone and says, "She (Hannah) deserves it. I want you to make it right. Do what you do."
What Deb didn't know, of course, was that Dexter was in bed with Hannah as he took the call.
So Deb finally fully accepts Dexter by actually giving him a licence to kill. But the person Deb wants dead already was on Dexter's killing table, but he let her go so he could boink her.
Someone really should write a book about all this. Oh wait, sorry Sal, rest in peace.
bill.harris@sunmedia.ca
@billharris_tv
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