Waking up unharmed, Dexter and Debra believe that Hannah has sent them a message. Dexter finds Hannah's current alias and address, and learns that she is married to multimillionaire Miles Castner. Masuka learns that Niki works at a topless sports bar, so he secures her a part-time job in his lab. Zach visits the precinct with his lawyer and demands that Quinn stop following him. Quinn and Jamie decide to move in together. Hannah confesses to Dexter that she hoped he would kill Miles. Debra borrows Elway's GPS and tracks Dexter. Miles violently confronts Hannah about her meeting with Dexter, and she kills him herself. Dexter and Hannah dump the body, but Debra sees them together. Dexter is called to a crime scene in his building: Cassie has been bludgeoned, in the same fashion as Norma, and Dexter suspects Zach.
Dexter must deal with Rita's menacing husband. Debra goes on a date with the prosthetics expert who made prosthetic legs for an Ice Truck Killer survivor. Debra and Angel are investigating the Ice Truck Killer and discover a familiar name with speeding violations near the scene of the Ice Truck Killer's third murder. Dexter investigates Sergeant Doakes's knife victim; he already knows the killer's identity but needs time to locate him. The Ice Truck Killer is finally apprehended, but Dexter doubts that they have caught the correct man.
Under constant surveillance by federal agents, Dexter is unable to dispose of his latest victim's remains. He apologizes to Rita, admitting that his affair with Lila was a mistake, but she is still hesitant to forgive him, as Lila retaliates by pursuing Angel. After finding Dexter's collection of blood slides, Doakes seeks the advice of an old friend in Haiti to analyze them. The department begins to suspect Doakes' involvement in the Bay Harbor Butcher case, but cannot find him for questions. Debra and Lundy spend the night together and contemplate making their relationship public.
Vogel reveals to Dexter that she helped Harry create his Code, harboring a perverse interest and admiration for psychopaths. She asks Dexter to track down the Brain Surgeon, whom she believes to be one of her former patients and a grave hazard to her life. While tracking down the stolen jewels, Debra is beaten by El Sapo, but later murders him; Dexter finds traces of her blood at the crime scene, but hides it from the police. Quinn and Jamie argue over Quinn's future and Batista's involvement in their relationship. Dexter tracks down one of Vogel's patients, Lyle Sussman, who he believes is the Brain Surgeon, but discovers he has been murdered. Vogel and Dexter find a DVD from the Brain Surgeon, showing the killer forcing Sussman at gunpoint to do his bidding. Dexter agrees to track down the killer from Vogel's list of suspects.
Doakes and LaGuerta begin to suspect that Rudy is the Ice Truck Killer, while Dexter finds a suspicious picture of the shipping container where his mother was killed. Doakes begins tailing Dexter, convinced that he is somehow connected to the Ice Truck Killer. A call from her ex-husband makes Rita suspicious of Dexter and his behavior. LaGuerta's replacement, Lt. Esme Pascal (Judith Scott) arrives and takes over the Ice Truck Killer investigation. Dexter recalls that Rudy is in fact his biological brother, whose real name is Brian Moser. Brian intends to kill Debra with Dexter in a reunion with his true family, but Dexter stops him. As the police close in, Brian escapes and Dexter is left with Debra, appearing to have saved her. The same night, Brian breaks into Dexter's apartment and attempts to stab Debra, but Dexter captures him. After an emotionally charged conversation, Dexter slices his brother's throat and leaves him upside down to drain, staging it as a suicide, while wondering what would happen if everyone knew the truth about him.
Dexter removes all of the evidence pointing to his relationship with Vogel before calling the police. Elway and Clayton suspect that Debra is harboring Hannah. Saxon offers Dexter a deal that the two will leave each other alone; Dexter agrees, but secretly plans to kill him before leaving. With a hurricane approaching Miami, Hannah goes to the airport to wait for Dexter, but she is followed by Elway. Meanwhile, Dexter captures Saxon, but realizes that he no longer has murderous urges in response to his relationship with Hannah. Instead of killing Saxon, Dexter calls Debra to arrest him, but Clayton tails Debra and unknowingly interferes. Saxon kills Clayton and escapes after shooting Debra.
When the flash of a secret nuclear detonation is detected over the Indian Ocean, President Bartlet calls upon his people to investigate which nation now has the atomic bomb. As conventional thinking favors Iran, the President orders bombers into the air to destroy that nation's most likely uranium-enriched targets. Meanwhile, Josh chides NASA personnel on the future of space exploration — until he is introduced to an attractive female administrator. C.J. fumes when a combative television talk-show host, Taylor Reid, denigrates her on the air, and Will discloses to Vice President Russell that Russell is considered a buffoon by the White House staff. However, it is Russell who manages to dissuade the President from bombing Iran.
House treats a U.S. Marine (Marc Blucas) returning from Iraq, who has symptoms consistent with Gulf War Syndrome. However, after House has a dream about the Marine despite having never met him before, the case becomes more complicated, alongside a physical problem that House has to overcome.
A college student named Brandon (Kevin Zegers) collapses after having sex with his fiancée. His symptoms seem too numerous to be explained by just one disease. Foreman and House each suggest different diagnoses and argue that his own respective theory better conforms to Occam's Razor. But then Brandon's white blood cell count drops, proving both doctors wrong. At the clinic pharmacy, House theorizes that the pharmacist accidentally gave Brandon colchicine instead of cough medicine, which explains all of his symptoms aside from his cough. House gives Brandon the cure, and he immediately begins to recover, though nobody believes the pharmacist made a mistake. However, when Brandon comments that his old cough medicine did not have letters on it like his current pills, House discovers colchicine pills that look similar to cough medicine, revealing the source and confirming House's diagnosis.
By aiding Lumen who has shot one of her attackers in an old warehouse, Dexter puts himself on a collision course with Debra and the homicide division, and things get worse when he is brought in to work a horrific crime scene. Meanwhile, Debra's investigation into the Santa Muerte killings leads her into a deadly confrontation with the killers. Also, Quinn begins to question Liddy in his investigation of Dexter.