‘Dexter’: ‘Do I see plastic sheets in your future?’

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‘Isn’t this a bit...’ ‘...morbid?’ Dexter conversed with his friend, the terminally ill Camilla (Margo Martindale), in tonight’s episode. They were discussing her funeral plans, and I so hoped to see Michael C. Hall in a scene with a funeral director, but a ‘Dexter’ and ‘Six Feet Under’ crossover episode will have to wait.

Tonight’s episode wasn’t any more morbid than any other episode in the series but it did pose a number of ethical dilemmas mixed with a stronger than usual ensemble episode. Is it right to kill a person who wants to die? How about someone who represents murderers? Should you tell your CI secrets and then kiss him? And who do you invite to your wedding?

Once again, the episode opens with Dexter’s cautious optimism about having a friend in Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) -- he has a dream that Prado was waiting for him to finish disposing of a body, but instead of being repulsed like Harry, Dexter’s father, Prado embraced the truth. Dexter explored new areas of friendship in the episode, however -- Prado wanted Dexter to look into offing public defender Ellen Wolf (Anne Ramsay), and Camilla, a dying old family friend, wanted Dexter to look into offing, well, her.

On the lighter side, the elements of putting together a wedding provided an entertaining backdrop to the serial killer’s wife. Pondering whether he should add Joey Quinn (Desmond Harrington) to the list, Dexter ruminated, ‘He’s so...tan.’ I was glad to see Vince Masuka (C.S. Lee) back in fine, jolly, offensive form after an off season thus far. Nailing down an Asian suspect, Masuka crowed that they’re ‘supposed to be the smart ones.’

I haven’t been too satisfied with the goings-on at the Miami Police Department thus far but it seems like Maria Laguerta (Lauren Vélez) and Wolf are doing some actual work in between the gabbing and drinking -- they appeared to be on the path to discovering that Miguel Prado’s got some issues to work out. Smits has been inhabiting his role more fully as the season wears on. He seems to have more of a heaviness to him, and I liked it when he yelled ‘Well [expletive] you!’ at Dexter for refusing to off Wolf. It’s nice to actually see him walking the walk and not just doing the ‘I understand you, Dex -- let’s throw some fish on the grill, amigo’ talk. It will be interesting to see how the Dexter/Rita (Julie Benz)/Prado family friendship works out, with Prado being Dexter’s best man and Rita and Sylvia Prado (Valerie Cruz) being BFF. Maybe the two of them will find out together that they have extremely bad taste in men -- it never occurred to me how ridiculous it was until Rita confessed that when Dexter had been acting moody and distant it was because (to her) he had been doing drugs and having an affair. Of course it brought them closer and now they’re getting married! Great idea.

In the end, Wolf was safe and so was Deb’s CI, although the two of them did finally -- finally! -- kiss, which may or may not mean that one of them will die soon. Dexter did end up doing the non-Catholic thing for Camilla, confessing to her that he killed his brother (she being the only one who knew that Dexter and the Ice Truck Killer were related). ‘It’s good that you did,’ she whispered. We’ll see if Dexter gets the same reaction if anyone finds out what he did to Camilla, mercy or not.

-- Claire Zulkey