Dexter "Once Upon A Time" Episode Guide

It’s Dexter’s second episode of the season, and although nothing major went down, the season’s made some progress with the emersion of a theme. It seems that Dexter is headed into the realm of faith, wondering what he believes in and how it impacts his role as a father figure with Harrison.

Although there’s always been some small aspect of belief and faith within the show, because of Dexter’s own moral code and way of life, he seems to really be addressing the central issue now. It’s interesting to see how he takes it in stride and works it into his dark passenger’s worldview. Want to get the in-depth coverage? Read on.

•The two men who replaced some poor sap’s entrails with snakes last episode are extremely creepily back at work manhandling mannequins. The younger, named Trevis, seems taken in by the older, who remains nameless at the moment, acting on his instructions and ending the episode lying in wait for an unsuspecting jogger to pass him by.

•The corpse from last week has ties to the cartel, and most likely serves as a warning to other snitches. Miami Metro discovers that toxins in the snakes point to the Florida Everglades region, but that’s all the progress they’ve made on that front this week.

•Quinn finally gets to propose to Deb, but she freaks out a little because he really didn’t give her any forewarning. In addition, Matthews makes her Chief Lieutenant of homicide. She feels guilty about taking the job away from Batista, and is still distraught over Quinn’s marriage proposal. Batista’s not angry with her so much as LaGuerta, who clearly thinks Williams is promoting Deb to get back at her, but Quinn doesn’t understand why she’s dragging her feet. She’s not ready for the next step and the two break up, which is going to make things awkward as her new role of lieutenant technically makes her his boss.

•Mos Def guest stars as Brother Sam, an ex-con turned minister that Dexter almost killed, once upon a time. Dex drops by Brother Sam’s garage to get a read on his converted ways, and follows him after work to see what he’s really up to. He hears a gunshot and sees Brother Sam lugging a body, but it’s not enough evidence for Dexter’s moral compass, which is good considering that he didn’t actually kill anyone. He was just retrieving one of his ex-con employees who skipped a shift to get high instead.

•Still at the garage, a group of thugs lead by a one Julio Benes shows up to threaten Brother Sam, but he falls back on his faith and tells him that he’s not scared of death. Dexter’s convinced, for now, that Brother Sam has managed to change his ways, so he shifts his focus. With Benes on his table, Dexter wonders if it’s God, the universe, or fate that leads him to his victims.

•Even with all of the Miami Metro goings-on, Dexter finds time to sit and play with Harrison while musing about his role as a father. He goes through the rituals – the bubble baths, brushing teeth, telling monster stories – and realizes that he can’t let Harrison see the true him anymore. He needs to let him grow up with the false pretenses and hiding in plain sight, because, “It’s the only way he’ll get to have a happy ending.”

Make sure to drop by next week to catch our in-depth episode guides, and watch Dexter’s “Smokey and the Bandit” Friday at 9 PM EST on Showtime.