TV Review: Dexter 7.7, "Chemistry"
Hannah doesn’t enjoy killing or seek it out the way Dexter does, but she’s too familiar with how it feels and is an extremely pragmatic survivalist so essentially if you get in her way, you get cut down.
rating: 3.5
Chemistry continued the pace and tone of the previous episode in that it was largely concerned with Hannah McKay and only featured a minimal amount of the other elements floating around season seven. Its a little difficult to know how to feel about this episode. Sure it was a tad slow, but I appreciate the show taking the time to really embrace the new addition of Hannah and explore her and her budding relationship with Dexter as opposed to merely having her around because shes hot and talented. Plus, I think we can all be glad to be rid of that Sal Price, am I right? And despite the Hannah/Dex relationship suffering a bit from some slight ambiguity, weve finally arrived at what looks to be the writers goal of firmly placing Dexter in a position where he must choose between Debra and Hannah. Admittedly I cant tell if I should be slightly disappointed in the show because despite spending a lot of time with Hannah this episode and the last, I cant exactly get a solid read on the character, or if I should be disappointed in myself for simply being super distracted whenever Yvonne Strahovski is on screen because god damn. Looking back, I think there are two main things that have thrown me off with Hannah. The first thing is I think were supposed to understand Hannah as a kind of sociopath-light and thats not necessarily an easy characterization to develop, especially in a supporting character thats only been around a few episodes. In the episodes opening scene where we find Hannah and Dex naked, sweaty, and lying next to each other on the kill table, we got some nice internal musing from Dex on the nature of social/sexual chemistry (a metaphor which provided some solid thematic unity throughout the episode) in which he characterizes the phenomenon as an attraction that cant be quantified or explained, a description which aptly describes not only Dexters relationship with Hannah, but the audiences as well. This scene also gave us the bare bones (no pun intended) of what is explored further in the couples next scene in Dexters car driving home the next morning. Heres where the whole, Oh, hey, you totally just knocked me out, stripped me naked, tied me down, and held a knife to my throat, but I would totally love to hook up anyway before turning the knife on you briefly before going for round two, thing takes a backseat to a more restrained and less naked discussion. I love that after going through the requisite, This cant happen again, stuff, Dexter just calls Hannah out for not being freaked out and scared shitless of him. Hannahs responses here are a little too vague and cutesy for me because despite being cool, theyre just not realistic or revelatory. But the bottom line is that apparently Hannah simply didnt believe Dexter was going to go through with killing her and totally understands needing to murder people on the reg. How and why does she believe this? Thankfully we get a little more on that in the couples scene later in the episode at Hannahs home when Dex goes to update Hannah on Prices machinations. So Price, the crime writer looking for a new bestseller in the theory that Hannah is much guiltier than previously thought, witnessed Dex dropping her off the morning after and used this information to convince Hannah to meet with him for an interview in exchange to keep Dexters career free from scandal. Price also met with Dexter and agreed to keep quiet until he could decide whether hearing Wayne Randalls last words was worth not dragging Dexters name into the matter. So boy meets girl and the two exchange reports on this annoying little man. The fact that both Dexter and Hannah each had their own separate run-ins with Price was a great way to contrast their respective approaches on resolving the matter. This is where we get to see a little more into Hannah. Whereas Dex says, Price doesnt have to die, (because a mans got to have a code and he plans on eloquently framing Price for some unsolved murders on which he wrote something Dexter cant just come out and tell Hannah because thats not how television characters operate) Hannah is someone who believes, Sometimes life just has to be taken; theres no need to dress it up. Hannah doesnt enjoy killing or seek it out the way Dexter does, but shes too familiar with how it feels and is an extremely pragmatic survivalist so essentially if you get in her way, you get cut down. After seeing the woman barely even register any obvious emotions on several occasions itd be easy to write her off as a sociopath-in-full, but then we learn she actually once wanted a family and even became pregnant before miscarrying and we see her interview with Price in which she not only confesses to killing, but breaks down in doing so, hard. Its a great performance from Strahovski, but I dont fully understand where its coming from. This is the second thing that has thrown me off with reading into Hannah. Whereas when first going over the evidence from her and Randalls murders Dexter immediately notices her lack of remorse or PTSD or anything other than nostalgia, here we see the same woman overwhelming with the weight of having carried the burden of a deep secret for many years. Is she suddenly so emotional because of her experience with Dexter? Is it because she knows shes poisoned Price and doesnt anticipate any actual consequences from her confession? Is she merely performing for Price to get him off her back for the time being until her poison takes effect? These are the questions which keep me from fully understanding and accepting Hannah. Still, Im not saying I necessarily dislike the character or even how shes affecting the seasons trajectory. In my last review I mentioned how its difficult to see Hannah in a fresh light after already having dealt with Rita, Lila, Miguel, and Lumen. In Chemistry Dexter just comes right out and explicitly and succinctly says how Hannah is different from the aforementioned women (no love for Miguel Prado) and I cannot express how awesome I think it is that the writers anticipated my criticism. Even better, what Dexter says is true Hannah isnt drawn to his Dark Passenger like Lila was, she isnt blind to it like Rita was, and she doesnt need it like Lumen did. Hannah liked Dexter before she learned anything about his homicidal needs and continues to like him despite this revelation. The two even protected each other from Price, something Hannah very poignantly notes may be historic for people like them. This is unique and worth exploring, but so far the writers have only really established Hannah and her relationship with Dexter; I dont think theyve clearly indicated where it will go. With five episodes left in the season, which ought to set things up for the final season next year, anyones guess is as good as the next persons, but I can only suppose the two may run away together or shell be killed by Isaak Sirco. Speaking of the mad Ukrainian, we only got two scenes with him with the former serving as a brief preamble to the latter. Since Quinn is a terrible cop and a worse human being (albeit well intentioned) he got rid of the key evidence to be used against Isaak Sirco in exchange for his stripper girlfriends freedom, which he never got because WOMP, WOMP you cant trust sleazy strip club managers/crime cartel leaders. So Isaaks back on the loose although Deb has made sure a couple police officers are always tailing him so hes still mostly sidelined (as is Dexter since Deb expressly instructed him not get any more involved) except for one friendly, impromptu lunch date. Nothing happened during the characters exchange in terms of plot development or even much in the way of characterization, however, we saw a bit more of Isaaks suspicions that Dexter didnt kill Viktor out of vengeance for Mike Anderson and we saw Dexter show a little backbone in response. This was a really well written scene. I loved the way in which Isaak inquired as to what kind of animal Dexter is and Dexters response was utterly badass, a marked improvement from the apparent fear Dex has expressed in past encounters with Isaak. And that was about it. Deb continued to push LaGuerta off pursuing the Bay Harbor Butcher thing, but LaGuerta has apparently remembered some of her colleagues own boats and I guess thats a big deal so well see where that takes her hopefully somewhere soon because Im getting pretty tired of seeing LaGuerta in a perpetual state of Maybe? I dont know Quinn gave Angel a check for $10,000 to help get his restaurant off the ground and to alleviate his own guilt from being the worst cop ever. And Deb now wants Dex to kill Hannah. This is obviously the biggest consequence of Chemistry and although I understand why it was saved for the final scene, I hope the show isnt about to reduce Debs learning of Dexters true self to a bickering match between the characters. This was such an exciting prospect at the beginning of the season because we want to watch these two characters navigate the murky moral, ethical, and legal waters of vigilante killings; not so they could fight over a woman. Theres no reason to think this is necessarily the case and the next episode could always be the series best so lets take the advice of Hannahs grandma, whom was never wrong, and trust the writers as Truth-seekers and doubt anyone who says theyve found Truth because the best way to hear God laugh is to tell him your plans.