'Dexter' recap: 'He's so much stronger than me'

Last week, I talked about enjoying the interplay between light and dark characters on "Dexter" and in Sunday night’s episode, Dexter started bringing that concept home, mulling over the theory of light and dark angels as he dissected the angel wings from the Doomsday Killer's most recent attack. In a what-could-have-been-awkward-hangout-that-turned-out-to-be-cool, he and Sam talk about the dual sides of a human being. Sam tells Dexter that he has more light in him than he knows (for instance, the way Dexter takes care of Harrison) and that "there's no darkness the light can't overcome."

Dexter tracks down his own angel of death by figuring out that Travis works for the Miami Art Museum. After confirming that the pages cut from Travis' Bible match those inserted into the Doomsday Killer victims, Dexter catches Travis in his car, kidnapping him and strangling him until Dexter infers that professor Gellar is the real killer. "God doesn't speak to me. He speaks through the professor. He's a prophet filled with truth and light," Travis says. Dexter lets him go in order to track down Gellar. I have a feeling Dexter is going to regret letting his prey loose.

Is it me or are more new characters than usual being rolled out this season? I’ve been on board with most of them so far: Gellar, Travis, Ryan the intern and Mike Anderson (I hope he and Debra don’t hook up. I like him, but is it possible for Debra to have a nice relationship with a colleague without sleeping with him?) I could take or leave Jamie the babysitter, and now we also meet Masuka's new (male) intern and professor Porter, a former colleague and paramour of Gellar's. She is the catalyst for both Quinn and Batista to behave badly: First, she and Quinn get drunk and sleep together (despite his awful gold chain), and then Batista finds clues to Gellar's religious inclinations by rifling through her stuff. Maybe those two guys should be split up.

My ongoing theory about Gellar being dead had one hole poked through it when Travis called his creepy mentor after being picked up by Dexter. Yet, isn't it strange how Gellar doesn't lift a finger to do any of the dirty work when Travis is being bad? Gellar pressed Travis' foot to the gas in order to strike the drunk couple (in the hunt for the "whore of Babylon") and then stayed in the car as Travis put the girl in the trunk. Maybe Travis was just using one of those fake candy phones they sell to kids in drug stores when he called Gellar. I am still trying to figure out whether there's more to Travis’ vision of Gellar's stigmata other than him seeing the professor as his own personal Jesus.

Based on the other reviews I've been reading, I feel like the odd man out, but thus far I'm enjoying guessing what happens in this season of "Dexter." The episode ended with a new twist: Sam enters his garage, bathed in sunlight, and he's shot by an unknown bad guy. At first I figured that Brother Sam had simply been murdered, but now I wonder if he'll hang on, and Dexter will somehow have to help him in a way that will be a serious sacrifice: the "whatever it is" he promised God two episodes ago.

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-- Claire Zulkey
Twitter.com/@Zulkey

Photo: Colin Hanks as Travis Marshall. Photo: Randy Tepper / Showtime