Warning: If you read this, you’re going to know what happened last night last night on the sixth episode of the final season of Dexter. If you don’t want to know what happened, you should probably check out one of our other stories instead.

Remember how after last week I was all, “Ugh – they better pick things up or else they’re going to lose me?”

Scratch that. I’m hooked again. All it took was one terrific episode.

Without further ado…

From Victim to Protégé

Last week, Zach Hamilton looked like he was bound to be Dexter’s next victim – the next killer erased from the population and dumped into the sea by our titular antihero.

This week starts with a surprise twist – Zach is Dr. Vogel’s newest patient. When Dexter asked his close confidant about him, Dr. Vogel asks Dexter to spare Zach, requesting he come to her with evidence that he is in fact a killer before wrapping him in plastic on his table.

In order to get closer to him to make sure his suspicions were correct, Dexter offers Zach a closer look at the world he’s interested in, bringing him inside the yellow tape at a crime scene to take pictures, picking up on all the “Young Serial Killer” tells he sees as he tries to hide his excitement and curiosity.

They bond, and Dexter stops by his photo studio to check out some of the pictures he took, and catches a glimpse of a pretty girl in a picture. Zach dismisses it as a lens test, but Dexter assumes it’s his next victim. His suspicion is confirmed when he joins Quinn on a “Zach Hamilton Stakeout” and our little would-be killer is stalking the girl from the photo at her outdoor yoga class.

After finding photos that confirm Zach killed Norma Rivera, the maid who was also his father’s mistress, Dexter goes to Vogel, and she suggests that Zach be spared. Better yet, she thinks, maybe he could be taught “The Code of Harry” and turn into Dexter v2.0?

Unconvinced, Dexter sets out to foil Zach’s next kill, tracking him to the yacht club where the girl from the picture works. Turns out, she’s sleeping with his father, as the two share a kiss and go their separate ways.

Dexter gets Jamie to call Quinn for a cuddle session to remove him from the equation, and just when he thinks Zach is ready to go after the girl, his latest target throws him a curveball. Rather than going after the girl, Zach is going after his father instead.

One needle to the neck later, Zach’s plan is foiled, and Dexter has him on his table, wrapped in plastic, moments away from death.

But then they get to talking, and it turns out Zach’s motives stem from concerns for his mother – she’s drinking herself to death as his father has affair after affair right out in the open. Killing the maid was an attempt to get him to stop, but when that didn’t work, he figured the only thing that could save his mother more agony was eliminating his father.

Zach acknowledges his own “Dark Passenger,” and says he felt a great weight lift from his shoulder when he killed Norma Rivera, suggesting Dexter just kill him because he knows he’ll kill again. Rather than drive his blade through his chest like he’s done some many times before, Dexter cuts the cling-wrap holding him to the table.

This idea of taking on an understudy and passing along Harry’s teachings to another generation is taking root with Dexter. He’s got Vogel to help him, and Zach seems eager.

Maybe it’s not a bad idea after all.

Elway’s Got a Thing for Deb

Anyone paying attention this season saw this one coming a mile away. Deb’s new boss, Elway, is completely into her. It’s been building for a couple weeks now, and hit a new high this weekend.

After enlisting Deb’s help to catch his sister’s scummy boyfriend in the act of cheating, he got all jittery and flustered when Deb turned up looking all foxy, blushing as she hide various pieces of surveillance equipment on her body.

When Handsy McGee started getting to touchy feely with Deb as they waited for an elevator, Elway clocked him one, and then mumbled an apology to Deb.

Every time she makes any kind of comment that might remotely be construed as showing interest, he presses in for more, and she rebuffs him with something about signing her paychecks. As of right now, he’s in kind of a puppy love position, and it’s weird because very seldom do we have just plain good guys on Dexter. Expect more to happen here in the coming weeks.

NEXT: Dexter and Deb, Hannah’s back, quick hitters and Spencer’s two cents…