Dexter, Episode 3: Heading to the dark — and human — side?

Posted by Elaine B.

Our hero, a.k.a. the “Bay Harbor Butcher,” now finds himself in hot water with the suddenly cold Rita. She can deal with her boyfriend’s role in her husband’s death but not with living with an addict. So, in what has to be the funniest moment this season, Dexter attends his first open meeting of NA, where, as people discuss their addiction, he contemplates the state of his knives and stock of duck tape. It’s all very boring until Lila, the dark and hot and vaguely gothic beauty a few rows in front of him, takes him out for coffee and explains how she also feels those strange urges rising up in her, that little voice whispering like …

“A dark passenger,” Dexter supplies for her, his voice full of quiet excitement.

Exactly. But she may mean cocaine, or expensive wine or even chocolate. Or does she mean something more?

But, inspired by her and even more by the fact the Rita shuts him out until he can produce a newcomer’s chip from an NA meeting, he goes back and actually shares his feelings — real human feelings — and it liberates him in a way he finds astonishing. Is that a real smile on his face? Is that real laughter? I’m convinced that, at the least, what he feels for Rita is real love.

And he ought to love the fact that Doakes now thinks he’s found the secret Dex has been hiding. He says he understands, or is that a ruse?

Meanwhile, Debs discovers a pattern to the BHB’s kills. Is the noose tightening around Dexter’s neck just as he has a chance to be something akin to normal? And what will the citizens of Miami think when they finally learn what sort of “victims” have been pulled from the briny deep?