Episode Report Card Jeff Long: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Show and Kill
By Jeff Long | Season 3 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.28.2008
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.From the looks of things, Dexter has racked up four or five fresh kills since we last saw him. Dex is feeling good and things are great with him and Rita. They do it like three times during this one episode. In order to satisfy his primal itch, he sets his sights on this guy Freebo, who killed two college girls and got away with it. When he goes to his house to knock him off, he's fighting with another guy. Dexter ends up killing the extra guy, while Freebo gets away.
It turns out that the guy Dexter killed was the brother of the new ADA, Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits). Angel gets promoted to Detective Sergeant and his first order of duty is to sideline Deb after she bothers Laguerta with her loud mouth. Deb got her hair cut and everyone noticed it, except for Dexter. Dexter stood her up when they were supposed to recognize Harry's birthday. Dexter is feeling a little cold to Harry's memory after the revelations of last season and is wondering if he needs to live by his Code any longer. Internal Affairs is trying to get Deb to give them info on one of her fellow cops, Quinn. She is really belligerent to the officer who approaches her, but I got a feeling she's going to give in. Dexter attends the wake of Prado's brother at his request. Later, a girl Dexter had seen at Freebo's place when he was casing it turns up dead, with a missing patch of skin from her shoulder. It looks like it was surgically removed.
And, Rita is craving chocolate pudding most of the episode. When Dexter brings up the fact that she's wanted it so often, she remembers something… she only craves chocolate pudding when she's pregnant.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Dexter is back! And, I'll be tagging along. Thanks to Mr. Stupidhead for his previous stellar contributions! I've really missed this show, starting with the rad title sequence. We get the rundown on last season's happenings, including the death of Doakes. I'm still kinda floored by that development. And, here we go.
A bright surgical light cuts through the darkness. Someone's putting on a surgical glove. This could mean only one thing... Dexter is at the dentist. Dexter VO's that life is ritual, and that regular oral hygiene is a part of that routine. Sure. I was going to say that killing people was a part of that routing, but I guess you should brush your teeth too. Dexter is getting a shot of Novocain. This is the whitest dentist's office ever. The dentist asks Dexter what he was up to that summer. He says he went to the carnival -- we see shots of Dexter incapacitating some presumed carnie with a hypodermic needle. As we see progressive shots of Dexter's dating technique, he tells the dentist that he won a prize and also indulged himself in some sweets. I know that they have to tell this story visually and quickly, but poor carnies sure get a bad rap, huh? How would you feel if your profession was the go to job for wordlessly depicting someone that deserves to be killed? And, we love a carnival -- why hate a carnie? I'm sure the answer is something that regards transience and the HR techniques of carnival producers, but I'm just saying. Let's give a carnie a chance.
As we see Dexter placing a new blood slide is his new blood slide box, it looks like there are three or four slides in there already. So, since that's a new box -- must mean he's killed three or four people since we last saw him. Such a hard worker, that one. Dexter tells the dentist that he's tried to meet new people and doc replies, "You can never have too many friends." The dentist is putting a temporary crown in Dexter's mouth. He says it's going way in the back of Dexter's mouth so, "There may be some blood." "Not a problem." He asks Dexter if he still owns his boat and he says he does, it's the only place where he can "let everything go." Heh. The doc says he will have Dexter back on the water in no time and we fade to Dexter on his boat with some awesome brassy Cuban music playing over it.
Dexter has a big smile on his face as his boat is speeding along in the water. He VO's that, for someone who has had to pretend to be someone else his entire life, he has settled into a "nice normal world." That normal world includes having sex with Rita. She's on top and Dexter has a look of (almost) total contentment. OK, that goes on for a while. There's some music with a lady singer playing in the background. Later, (now totally content) Dexter and Rita are spooning. Dexter says that "Rita is the scaffolding that holds that world in place." She asks Dexter what he's thinking and he responds, "Life is good." Wow, everything seems to be going so well or ol' Dex. Show over.