Disney/Eric McCandless
Moment Of Truth: Sonny (Maurice Benard, r.) demands to know who is bankrolling Dex (Evan Hofer, c.).
Convinced that someone on the inside of his organization is working against him — and worse, trying to kill him — Sonny goes on high alert when Brick presents him with compelling evidence that the person betraying him is Dex.
This lands Dex in a very precarious spot, reports his portrayer, Evan Hofer. “Frank [Sonny’s bodyguard] is keeping an eye on Dex and he goes, ‘Hey, the boss needs to see you,’ and grabs Dex and takes him to the car, takes him to Sonny,” Hofer begins. “That’s obviously off-putting for Dex; he’s like, ‘Why am I being shoved into a car? I’m one of you guys!’ ” Once in the vehicle with his boss, “Dex can tell something is off with Sonny. However, there are so many things going on with Sonny right now and as close as they are and how well they know each other at this point, Dex doesn’t know exactly what’s going on. It could be that Sonny is off because of the whole Nina thing blowing up. He could be off about Spencer’s death. I don’t think Dex immediately jumps to, ‘Could he be on to me?’ But I think there’s always been an underlying [awareness], no matter how close he feels with Sonny, that this could happen at some point.”
Of course, the secret Dex is preserving — that he was working for Michael against Sonny when he first joined the Corinthos organization — is not the one Sonny is poised to accuse him of. “Dex isn’t surprised that the tension is so high with Sonny because he just got shot at days ago in Puerto Rico and he’s concerned about that,” Hofer notes. “He’s thinking, ‘Maybe Sonny figured something out about that.’ But Dex is not ignorant to the fact that he just got another payment from Michael — although it feels different now [to be on Michael’s payroll] because he’s been protecting Sonny, not trying to take him down.”
Still, the mood in the car is tense as the men speed off to a destination unknown to Dex. “His guard is starting to go up as he starts to get more warning signs,” Hofer describes. “But still, he just can’t really be certain about what’s going on given all the different moving parts. Dex is like, ‘Did we find something out about the shooter? We’re being extra secure because there’s a mole in the organization, so are you pulling me in so that it’s just you, me and Frank that is the group that can be trusted? Is that it? But also, you’re acting pretty aggressively toward me!’ ”
Over the course of the drive, Sonny pointedly brings up how important loyalty is to him, further provoking Dex’s anxiety. “He’s been around Sonny long enough, certainly, that he can read between the lines of what Sonny means by that,” Hofer says. “But I think Dex also tries to establish that, ‘Hey, I know you do. I understand that, and here I am, I’m not resisting anything because I’m here with you and that’s where I want to be.’ ”
The vehicle then parks — at the Pine Barrens. That’s where things begin to click more fully for Dex. “He realizes, ‘He thinks I’m the one who betrayed him.’ ” Sonny confirms this, and with his back up against the proverbial wall, “Dex doesn’t want to try to feed Sonny any sort of line, feed him anything that’s not true, because he knows there’s no point,” the actor explains. “He’s really hoping Sonny can see his heart and his loyalty and see, ‘I’m not lying to you. I’m right here. You think I betrayed you? I promise you that you don’t have the whole story. Please don’t do this. I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong, I’m not going to tell you you’re stupid, because you’re not. But here I am, pouring my heart out to you, telling you that you don’t have the full story.’ ”
Sonny then confronts Dex about the payment that was just deposited into Dex’s bank account — the timing of which is certainly suspicious given the attempted hit on Sonny in Puerto Rico. He demands to know who Dex is working for — information Dex is loath to give up, even if it costs him his life, because of the upheaval it would surely cause Sonny to learn of Michael’s betrayal. “I think Dex’s thought process is, ‘Please don’t make me do this. This is only going to hurt you. I’m trying to protect you — your life, your feelings. Please don’t make me tell you this. Please trust me enough and I really hope you know me well enough at this point to know that I really am trying to protect you.’ ”
Sonny is unmoved — and for Dex, the stakes couldn’t be higher in that moment. “Dex is definitely afraid for his life,” Hofer says. “But he also knows that it’s really best for everyone — even though he definitely knows that his life is on the line — that this information not come out. Previous to his life in Port Charles and his life with Joss, Dex really could risk his life all the time because he had no one; he kind of had nothing to live for. And you kind of see him revert back to that sort of mindset where he’s like, ‘It would be better for everybody if I die rather than blow up everyone else’s life.’ You see this kind of almost martyr side come out. He comes to an acceptance that his love for these other people outweighs his desire to save his own life.”
Having made the decision to sacrifice his own life rather than rat out Michael and blow up not only Sonny’s family, but Josslyn’s, as well, Dex prepares to die at Sonny’s hands. Hofer can’t say what happens next, but teases, “It’s definitely going to blow up a lot of stuff for a lot of people.”
