“I don’t know if killing you will fill the void, but it’s a place to start.” – Dexter
While that title certainly doesn’t describe this episode, it was an improvement over last episode’s disappointing “Hello, Bandit” in terms of the Dexter.
With the step kids out of the way at their grandparents, Dexter and Harrison move ahead with their life together. Deb helps them look for a nanny and they choose Sonya, an Irish woman who was formally a nurse but budget cuts have her looking for work. Dexter and Harrison also go to counseling together and the therapist seems convinced that because of his young age Harrison likely won’t be traumatized by the death of his mother like Dexter was.
Dexter’s pursuit of Boyd Fowler (Shawn Hatosy) continues. He trails Boyd so they can accidentally meet and poses as a guy out of work. Boyd mentions Dead Animal PickUp might be hiring and they agree on a ride-along. On his own, Dexter scopes out the route and sets up a kill room although his father is concerned that by using a public place in the daytime Dexter isn’t thinking things through clearly.
While they are out, Dexter makes a move but things go awry, and they both end up in the hospital in a nice, unexpected twist by the writers. Boyd goes home but Dexter is there waiting for him and this time the spider catches the fly. However, in the process of completing his work, Dexter is seen by a woman (Julia Stiles). This sets up a great dilemma for Dexter as the episode concludes and has me curious in what will happen next.
The other plotlines just seem like filler at this point because I don’t have much concern for what’s going on.
As the investigation proceeds, the murder-suicide seems to have been called too early. Being from the neighborhood, Officer Cira is called in to offer Deb more assistance. A local storeowner helps out by asking around and predictably ends up dead.
Quinn moves a little bit further on connecting Dexter with Kyle Butler. Since we’ve already covered this ground with the late Sgt. Doakes, it would be great if they picked up the pace.
In the previous episode Batista got into a bar fight with an officer who insulted his wife. Turns out the damage he inflicted was so bad it has drawn the attention of Internal Affairs.
I enjoyed portions of this episode more than last week’s, but the series is imbalanced. The producers need to make the non-Dexter plotlines equally as compelling as his or I might just skip over them when watching future episodes.
Some stats and info about Dexter, “Practically Perfect”
TV SHOW – Dexter
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 5 Episode 3
AIRED ON – October 10th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – Showtime
GENRE – Drama, Crime Dramas, Office Culture, Thrillers
CREATED BY – James Manos, Jr.
CAST – Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, David Zayas, James Remar, C.S. Lee, Luna Lauren Velez, Desmond Harrington, Julie Benz
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.