TV Detail: Dexter review. Episode 3.03—"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"

Very much a transitional episode, this week’s Dexter spent more time progressing the season’s central plot than it did staking out new ground. The exception is that Dexter decides to stay with Rita and raise their child when it’s born, but who does that really surprise? Dexter’s father—who has been dead since before the show started—continues to show up in dreary flashbacks even now that we know about his past, so the show will inevitably find plenty of material in the idea of Dexter as a father.

Besides, Dexter’s uncharacteristic break from the Supreme Court this week indicates he’s already thinking less like a special breed of civil servant and more like a parent. Who wants to bet the kid turns out to be a boy?

Elsewhere, the still questionable but increasingly durable Miguel Prado subplot continues to heat up. That Dexter finally seems to return the district attorney’s affection for him—the liquored-up chat about fathers this week was as awkward and poignant an act of soul-searching as we’ve seen from him—might give the plot a little more emotional weight, if still not yet an organic place in the show. Meanwhile, Deb continues her hapless search for the apparent new serial killer tied up in the Prado case, and the corruption asides peppered throughout the early episodes continue to brew quietly in the background.

There's altogether not much to report, but rumors have the next episode tapping into how domestic Dexter is willing to let his new commitment get. (Possible spoiler: some places are using the “M” word.) The season seems settled in terms of major plotlines—weirdly enough, we’re already a quarter of the way through—so now it’s just a matter of taking them on a little more vigorously.