Watching Showtime

Now that Dexter’s with Lila, it looks like his recovery should be moving along just fine. Rita’s having issues with her mother, but it’s nothing she can’t handle, and while Deb and Agent Lundy are exploring their feelings for one another the rest of the department is sent into a tailspin thanks to a letter sent to the newspaper courtesy of the Bay Harbor Butcher. With several twists and turns, this episode leaves you reeling, with a fire and the potential for another character’s demons surfacing even larger than Dexters!

Back in the sack with Lila, Dexter’s learning there’s a lot more to him than he originally thought. After he gets her off, she asks him what he wants, what his deep dark urges are. After telling her he’s already good at fulfilling those, she asks him to be with her like that. Another round of sex and Dexter takes off by the dark of night. Rita’s not doing as good at getting over the relationship, and having her mother there to force her out of bed and her wallowing doesn’t seem to be helping. At Dexter’s house Deb’s asking all sorts of inappropriate sex questions until Dexter tells her they’ve broken up for real this time. Deb doesn’t seem to hear him, telling him they’re forever. I still can’t decide if I agree.

At work, Dexter’s grabbed by Angel to find out they’ve received a 32-page manifesto from the Bay Harbor Butcher. Except Dexter didn’t send any manifesto! The papers contain the names of three victims that they didn’t release names for, so the police think they’ve found their man. This sounds more like the fake Ice Truck Killer than anything else. Except … Dexter did actually send the manifesto to the newspaper, decided to control the actions of the police rather than reacting to what they do. Dangerous!!!

Doakes is on the scene of a murder by a rich family’s pool. Looks like the teenage daughter got beaten to death while sunning by the pool. With the blood spatter analysis needed, Maria asks if he’s taken care of his issues with Dexter so that they don’t have to call in a new detective so there’s no problems between the two. Doakes has used up all of his free passes and Maria can no longer be responsible for what happens to him. Before heading off to the crime scene, Dexter gets a visit from Carmella, the woman who controls all the files in the file room. Looks like Dex hasn’t been to visit her recently so she seeks him out. Turns out Doakes went to visit her looking for the files from his mother’s murder, and when she told him they were boxed up in the basement of City Hall, he got really angry and scared her. She’s come to Dex for help because he’ll find out the files have been destroyed and she could lose her retirement. Looks like Dexter has to find a way to control Doakes for good.

Back in the detectives’ offices Deb and Lundy are talking, sort of flirting like they always do. Lundy’s very caught up in the cuts of the killer, trying to figure out the rhythm to the cuts and murders. He says the truth speaks to him from a peaceful place, and so he has to set the stage with the right music in order to find it. Deb on the other hand, thrives on chaos, although the jazz he’s playing seems to get to her as well.

Back at the scene of the murder, Dexter has to take pictures of the step-father, blood covering him because he tried to stop the bleeding. Turns out when he found her she was still alive and he tried to save her life. While Dex is taking pictures of the man and his shirt, Doakes is talking to the mother, who says her daughter and the step-father used to fight all the time. There’s blood mist on the guy’s shirt, but Dexter tells him it’s the wrong type of blood spatter. Looks like he’s trying to set up Doakes to arrest the wrong man, getting him in trouble.

As they’re leaving the scene of the crime, Lila calls to tell him that her big installation piece sold for an enormous price! She wants to celebrate, and with Dexter having started the set-up process for Doakes s is he!Dexter is definitely becoming a loose canon! At dinner that night, they’ve shown up to eat at a restaurant that needs them to have reservations, and when they can’t get seated Lila makes up a story about a ten-year anniversary to get them a table. At dinner they talk about how Dexter’s experiencing acceptance for the first time, and that they’ve found a substitute for his addiction … life. She might not be so bad for him after all, even if she does live fast and loose (especially with the champagne they shouldn’t be drinking while in recovery).

At Rita’s house, grandma’s trying to coach Cody through his report while also helping Astor with her homework. She’s clearly not very fun, and seems to be taking over the role of parenting. By the time Rita gets home she’s rushing them off to bed so they can get their rest. Rita asks if she’s been looking for a teaching job, but it turns out she wants to do nothing but raise Rita’s kids. Creepy!!

The Miami PD have been able to stop the papers from printing the Bay Harbor Butcher’s manifesto so they can have at least a few hours to go over it and try to narrow down a list of suspects. Masuka and Angel immediately start to get at each other when it comes to analyzing the papers, Angel noticing all the literary references while Masuka just questions everything he says. Turns out Masuka thinks the quotes are from Star Trek, when really they’re Mark Twain. While this is going on Deb’s at the gym with Gabriel. He’s telling her some story about a kid he’s teaching to box, but she’s more into the Chopin playing on her IPod. Something Lundy recommended to her. The crush is clearly building!!

Back home in the middle of the night, Deb walks in to find Lila naked getting something out of the fridge. Deb’s clearly not very happy and busts into the bedroom to ask Dexter what the hell is going on. She’s really upset at what’s happening, and Lila says she just needs some time to adjust. Maybe, but it’s still a hard pill to swallow.

At the station, James is still holding the step-father, trying to get a confession out of him. Dexter still hasn’t turned in his blood spatter analysis, so they’re keeping him based on circumstantial evidence. James even went so far as to hold up the man’s lawyer’s paperwork at the court house so that he’d have more time with him. Maria’s clearly not happy, but can’t stop him before he heads back in to continue questioning the man. Just then Dexter walks in to see the whole BHB group still pouring over his manifesto. He slips his blood spatter analysis under a few files on Doakes’ desk, one more piece in the puzzle to get him fired. The BHB group takes a break for lunch, and as everyone’s leaving his office Deb hangs around to talk to Lundy about what’s going on in Dexter’s life. Lundy’s response? To ask if she’s been listening to Chopin. The flirtation takes another step towards consumation!

While Doakes is questioning the suspect, Maria’s watching from a television. Dexter walks up and plays his next hand, asking why they’re questioning an innocent man and claiming he gave his blood spatter analysis to James the night before. After pointing out where it’s sitting on James’ desk, he tells Maria that the killer would have been covered in blood, and the father wasn’t. The mist on the step-father? It was from the exhaling of his step-daughter … thanks to all her internal bleeding. After letting the man go, Maria tells James the blood spatter report has been sitting on his desk. James gets mad for a second before claiming Dexter set him up (which is true). Maria freaks out on him, but James is right.

Over at Gabriel’s house Deb’s still listening to Chopin and trying to get work done while Gabriel’s trying to get in her pants. She stops him and then tells him she wants to break up with him. Looks like Lundy’s finally gotten to her. He’s clearly upset, but she actually treats him well and explains it as best she can without saying she’s in love with Lundy. Dexter and Lila, meanwhile, are out on a walk through his neighborhood, but despite how happy Dexter should be he’s rather upset and agitated. When he says Rita and the kids were the only thing keeping him human, and Lila wonders aloud if they were really helping to keep him a monster. She says his friends and family have to accept him for who he’s evolving into as a sober person, and that’s very different from who he was as an addict. And then she says she wants to fuck him right then and there, so they run off to break into someone’s house. Fast and loose with the twelve steps yet again, they have sex on some stranger’s bed to feed the demon they both share. Looks like the pair has traded one addiction with another. As they’re getting ready to leave, Cody calls Dexter asking if he can come to watch him give his report. Grandma finds him hiding with the phone and hangs up on them. Dexter decides to go, but you can see in Lila’s eyes that wasn’t the answer she wanted.

That night when Rita gets home she finds out her mother has put them to bed early as punishment for calling Dexter. Rita tells her mother she found out the school district had fired her over a year ago. When mom gets all “Holier Than Thou”, going so far as to talk smack about Rita’s kids, Rita tells her she’s going to leave first thing in the morning, only allowed to come visit for birthdays and holidays. Good for Rita!!!

At work the next day, Dexter finds Doakes waiting for him in his office. Looks like he’s been searching and searching for some hint to Dexter’s past, and can’t seem to find anything. Dexter provokes him and then strolls out of his office like nothing’s happened, leaving James chasing after him looking like a mad man beating him up in the middle of the office. The rest of the detectives break it up and Maria puts Doakes on administrative leave pending an official investigation, taking his gun, badge and administrative access. Looks like Dexter’s won this battle, but the war? The war between them has just begun.

Lundy and Deb are at the newspaper offices, trying to come to some sort of agreement as to how the manifesto will be published. He gets them to agree to publishing it without any of the victims’ names, and to put it on page three, successfully squashing much of the hype it could create. After they leave he and Deb sit on a park bench to eat lunch. She’s conformed to his 1pm lunch schedule, and they sit there in the quiet by the water enjoying their time together. She tells him that she hates the quiet when she’s alone, and wants to know if she can “practice” when Lundy’s around. Thens he sort of confesses her attraction/love for him, telling him he gives her strength. When he tries to remind her why he’s a bad crush prospect, she kisses him and he clearly responds. Looks like a tiny office romance is going to keep brewing!!

Masuka is addressing the rest of the BHB group, and Angel disagrees. Turns out every single person in the group has an opinion on the BHB, and as they all argue Lundy figures out the true motive behind the letter … chaos. Lundy then say the only thing they can figure out from this is that the person has law enforcement background. That’s the only explanation for how well he knows how they function on the “inside”.

Dexter goes to Cody’s presentation, and Rita and Astor have saved him a seat. While that’s going on, Lila’s collecting the money for her sculpture. Clearly agitated by the events in her budding relationship with Dexter, she has that crazed look an addict gets just before they use. By next week she’ll most likely be wallowing in Meth, leaving Dexter to pick up her pieces. While Cody’s giving his report, Lila calls him, but Dexter ignores the call, choosing Cody, Astor and Rita instead. Pissed off, Lila takes a blow torch to the sculpture she just sold!!! Not satisfied, she starts to torch the rest of her house, starting with the furniture. Someone’s rather upset that Dexter’s got a life that doesn’t involve her!!! And it turns out she might be more messed up than DEXTER!!! that’s a good way to play the victim and get Dexter away from Rita and the kids, keeping him in her clutches a bit longer. She’s going to become a serious problem very quickly!

To catch up on old episodes:
season one recaps
It’s Alive!
Waiting To Exhale
An Inconvenient Lie
See-Through
The Dark Defender
Dex, Lies, and Videotape

Dexter, Showtime, Dexter Morgan, Michael C. Hall, Rita Bennett, Julie Benz, Debra Morgan, Jennifer Carpenter, James Doakes, Erik King, Maria LaGuerta, Lauren Velez, Angel Batista, David Zayas, Harry Morgan, James Remar, Vincent Masuka, C.S. Lee