Dexter injures Sylvie during the Moriarty game

Dexter injures Sylvie Mayhew during the Moriarty game when a blindfolded swing meant for Sam hits her instead. A parlour game staged as harmless family entertainment becomes a test of Dexter’s need to impress the Copes, then abruptly exposes his drunkenness and isolates him from the family he hoped to win over.

Setting and Stakes

The game begins during Dexter’s visit to the Copes, whose self-sufficient, self-satisfied confidence makes him defensive. He does not attribute his unease to class: his own background is privileged, though more liberal and bohemian than theirs. What unsettles him is the sense that he must prove himself a winner. The family’s habits—early rising, walking in the mountains and swimming in lakes—stand for a robust superiority against which he resolves not to be measured, even as he becomes preoccupied with their judgment.

The Game

Murray proposes Are You There, Moriarty?, a parlour game the family has played for years. Helen explains that one player is blindfolded and holds a rolled newspaper while kneeling opposite another player. The blindfolded player has three attempts; after three misses, they remain in place for the next player, while a successful hit earns the player the right to choose the next contestant. Murray taps his newspaper baton against his palm and presents the activity as extreme sport, giving its familiar household ritual a mock-combative edge.

Sam is chosen to face Dexter and, to Dexter’s surprise, Sam receives the baton. On the faded rug in the centre of the room, Sylvie Mayhew leads Dexter into position and ties a large white napkin over his eyes. He catches a last glimpse of Sam smirking and tapping the rolled newspaper against his palm. The blindfold removes Dexter’s view of his opponent but sharpens his resolve to win and show the family what he is made of. Sylvie encourages him and helps him kneel; as she takes his elbow, Dexter recalls an earlier intimate moment with her in the kitchen. The recollection places private sexual intimacy beside the public performance of winning approval, without changing the game’s immediate stakes.

The Blow and Its Discovery

When Dexter swings, he imagines the motion of a baseball player on a mound and brings the baton diagonally across in a forceful uppercut. From behind the blindfold, the impact seems satisfying: he feels the blow travel through his arms and into his chest, and initially takes the awed silence to mean he has succeeded. Instead, a crash and the family’s collective cry reveal that he has hit Sylvie Mayhew.

Dexter tears off the blindfold and sees her slumped by the fireplace, blinking, one hand cupped to her face. Blood is already running beneath her nose, and she is moaning quietly. He is horrified and immediately moves towards her, but the family closes around Sylvie Mayhew. Their alarm leaves no space for Dexter’s intended triumph; the image of the successful hit is replaced by the sight of the person he has hurt.

Aftermath and Significance

As the family tends to Sylvie Mayhew, Sam identifies Dexter’s drunkenness as the cause of the danger, and the accusation hangs over the room. Dexter insists that the injury was an accident and that he caught her face at an odd angle. Sylvie Mayhew calls it a freak accident as her mother supports her, but she keeps her eyes fixed ahead while being escorted upstairs to the bathroom. Dexter asks whether he should come with her; she does not answer. Her effort to excuse the incident does not restore their earlier intimacy or reassure him.

Left with the men of the Cope family, Dexter stands amid their glaring disapproval, still holding the rolled newspaper. Asked whether he thinks he made a good impression, he answers with a strained joke rather than a defence. Later, in the guest room, he asks Sylvie Mayhew whether she wants him to apologize again. She says nothing; her nose throbs, and her unmoving face sustains the silence that began when she left the room. The episode reverses Dexter’s aim: a game in which he meant to demonstrate confidence instead makes his recklessness visible, and the injury turns his desire for acceptance into a scene of embarrassment, accusation and unresolved hurt.