My Review of Dexter's 7x06: "Do The Wrong Thing"

Written by Lauren Gussis
Directed by Alik Sakharov

Hannah (to Dexter): “Do what you gotta do.”

How do you make an inevitable moment in a show into a shocking event? Well, if you’re this show, it’ll involve setting Hannah McKay up to be killed but will end up in her being shagged by Dexter in the last five minutes of this rather interesting episode.

It was pretty inevitable that Dexter and Hannah were going to sleep together with each before he’d kill her off. I didn’t however expect them to go on a date which resulted in Hannah winding up on a kill table but actually surviving the damn thing by coercing Dexter into sleeping with her.

It’s not like Hannah was all that persuasive. She didn’t seem to emotionally blackmail Dexter into sparing her life, she didn’t overpower him or even make an attempt to escape. In fact the thing that seemed to save her for now was her giving Dexter permission to kill her. I guess the more interesting question was why did Dexter not go through with it?

Even as a gay man, I get that Yvonne Strahovski is gorgeous but this episode went quite the length to justify Dexter’s suspicions about Hannah being something of a serial killer off her own bat and it did seem like in this episode that she was targeting Dexter every bit as much as he was with her.

She might have accused Dexter of stalking her with the amount of visits he made to her but it didn’t stop her from pursuing him as well. Who else would show up to someone’s apartment in the middle of the night to give them a blood spatter flower? Hannah’s certainly no dumb blonde but it does seem like Dexter is letting her get under his skin and that can’t be good.

If Dexter’s evidence wasn’t enough to prove that Hannah wasn’t a baddie, then the arrival of Sal Price certainly seemed to confirm that Hannah isn’t be trusted. Worse still, for both Dexter and Hannah is that Sal managed to get to Deb and made sure that she realised that Hannah is far from the victim that she’s let Miami Metro believe for all these years.

The more interesting part of these strands then seemed to be Deb and Dexter coming to blows over the latter previously helping out Lumen with the barrel murders as well. I liked the continuity to that particular chain of past events but Dexter knows well that Hannah is no Lumen, so this who storyline cannot end well, especially for the rather nosy Sal, who’ll probably be dead within the next few episodes if not sooner.

Keeping with the danger, I’m not surprised that jail didn’t prove to be a deterrent for Isaak at all. Columbian prison mates couldn’t threaten him and the still pretty bland George managed to make sure that Quinn’s investment in Nadia’s safety got the bent detective into getting rid of evidence. Morally that’s bad but at the same time, I am looking forward to some more scenes with Isaak and Dexter over the next few weeks.

Also in “Do The Wrong Thing”

I found it rather interesting this week that Harry kept giving Hannah the benefit of the doubt. I guess Dexter really want to believe that he could be wrong about her.

Dexter: “Hannah.”
Hannah: “Great, you’re a stalker.”

Poison seems to be Hannah’s main method of killing her victims – her husband, her mentor in Beverly Grey (former owner of Hannah’s current business) and a counsellor as well who abused her.

Harry (re Hannah): “She poisons rabbits, Dexter, doesn’t mean she poisons people. Why are you so convinced she’s still a killer?”

Sal: “Are you always this defensive?”
Deb: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be defensive. I’m just not in a dating mode.”

Sal Price was played by Heroes/Merlin actor, Santiago Cabrera. I found Dexter pretending to be fan of his work kind of amusing.

Dexter: “How did you find me?”
Hannah: “Google.”
Dexter: “Now who’s the stalker?”

Deb (re Lumen/Rita): “You moved your girlfriend into the house where Trinity murdered your wife, so you could be together?”
Dexter: “It wasn’t like that. I felt guilty about what happened to Rita.”

Maria definitely is catching on big time with the Bay Harbour Butcher, given that she connected it to the Barrel girls incident and Jordan Chase. Plot wise, it’s better than Angel’s new found desire to retire and open a restaurant.

Hannah: “I’m just trying to do the right thing.”
Dexter: “Do the wrong thing.”

Chronology: Sometime in December, given that Dexter took Hannah to a Santa’s Adventure place.

This was an excellent episode. I know some fans didn’t like the ending but “Do The Wrong Thing” for me was a turning point moment. This season has been good, this episode however was similar to some of the bigger heights in the first few years. A new favourite of mine.

Rating: 9 out of 10.