I'm almost afraid to write this Dexter review, people. After making a wish list last week and watching the characters want the same things I do, an alternate title to this review could be "you can't always get what you want."

Unless maybe you're Dr. Vogel, perhaps. She revealed just what - or who, rather - turned her into the psychopath whisperer in "Make Your Own Kind of Music." 

It may not be clear to Dexter yet, but after tonight it's certainly clear to me how and why Dr. Vogel became so fascinated with psychopaths. And it's not because she's trying to cure them. Or even understand them.

She's been trying to replace one: her own son.

She went so far as to call herself Dexter's spiritual mother because something about him called out to her. She saw the most potential for a surrogate child in him and then in Zach Hamilton. She tried to build a family of serial killers with herself as the matriarch. But those children ceased to be important to her the minute her biological child reentered the family picture.

It was evident that Dr. Vogel was somehow involved with the Brain Surgeon in a more than professional capacity, or that the Brain Surgeon was involved with her, so the revelation that the Brain Surgeon was her long-dead son was both semi-shocking and also not shocking at all. From the minute she started talking about her sons, that one of them would be the serial killer of the season was practically transparent.

We're supposed to believe that she, a doctor, a woman of science (however soft), would believe that her super intelligent son actually burned up in a fire limited solely to the wing of his mental institution? Come on, writers. Dexter's viewership is smarter than that. 

Since the formula is typically that we would have seen the killer's face sometime this season, the only possible choice for this mystery man's identity was Cassie's boyfriend. So then we learn that he knows what he knows about Vogel and Dexter from spyware he installed on Vogel's computer. Seems mighty...convenient. Maybe smart as an actual tactic but sort of dumb and the easy way out as a plot device.

The Brain Surgeon is not nearly as interesting now as when I thought Dr. Vogel was the one holding the gun in the video having someone else do her dirty work. A serial killer by proxy, which she already was through Dexter and the code.

The best thing that can come from this is a swift death to both Dr. Vogel and her son. Dexter will have to kill them both now that she's welcomed home her prodigal child. And that will be the thing that comes between Dexter and Debra and brings about the end of the season. 

And now I'm going to speculate a little.

Dexter and Hannah want to ride off into the Argentinian sunset with Harrison as a ready-made family of three. YES! Because I want that, too. But now that they've made that their plan, it is most decidedly not what will happen because that's how this works. 

Debra and Hannah formed the most tenuous of bonds over their shared meal. It's shaky, but it's there. But Debra's desire to get her life back will come with her officially rejoining the police force and then having to make sacrifices. I'm not confident that Debra will sacrifice herself for her brother again. The next time she has to make a choice, she'll choose herself and her own career. 

And the Brain Surgeon will be that fork in her proverbial road. 

Dexter wants him dead. Debra will want him behind bars. And the siblings will squabble. And the series will end.

I'm not quite sure I'm ready for this.

What did you think of tonight's episode of Dexter? Are you disappointed by the Brain Surgeon or do you see potential in that story? What are your predictions for how the series will conclude?

Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.