Dexter: Miami Metro on the Hunt for Justin Bieber

"Practically Perfect" may not describe this week's episode or the previous two entries in Dexter's fifth season but it's a vast improvement from last week.

The credit doesn't go so much to the show's titular anti-hero but rather the supporting cast.  Deb is at her best when she's a hardass so this week's episode got off a great start in my book, with Deb playing the "bad cop" in Dexter's search for a nanny, grilling a poor co-ed as if she's a potential murder suspect. 

And the brother and sister engage in a classic Morgan family show of affection that calls back to season one, like much of this season seems to so far.  Deb says "love you," waits a beat and Dex responds with "me, too."  It's been a long time seen we've seen Deb attempt to emotionally train Dex, like a beaten, stray dog that recoils at a human touch. 

While Dexter may not be able to make emotional connections with ease, he can recognize one when it's happening.  The immediate bond between his son and his new nanny, Sonya is one he can easily recognize.  And on a side note, that baby sure can act! 

Back at Miami Metro Homocide, it's business as usual with Masuka (who gets a gold star this week for likening Dex to Justin Bieber in a composite sketch) and Batista trading wisecracks about their night of debauchery and LaGuerta pressing for the truth.  Batista may get kicked off the force and could even face jail time for kicking another cop in the head.  Somehow, I'm sure it will all work out though, so no point in paying attention to this lame C-storyline.

Deb on the other hand, is back to pounding the pavement in search of the "La Muerta" killer and she's got a rookie sidekick with an inside track to Miami's tight-knit Venuzuelan community along for the ride.  And then there's Quinn and that nagging one-afternoon stand that Deb just can't shake.  How long the writers are going to drag this one out isn't anyone's guess, as we know by now Deb's lame lovelife storylines are season long affairs.

After getting the good news that watching his mom bleedout in a bathtub won't have any lasting negative effects on baby Harrison, Dexter takes his crisis councelors advice to "do something for Dex," by focusing on Boyd Fowler.  How Dex mananged to catch Fowler, who usuallly eats at home, out for a bite I don't know but perhpas I'm just splitting hairs.

Fowler invites out-of-work Dex, errr Daryl Tucker, to shadow him on the job the following morning.  Dex works out so more of his "grief" by prepping the kill room in an abandoned tourist center and ignores Harry's concern over making a daytime kill.  It turns out to be a bad idea when Boyd, who's already proven himself a detail oriented serial killer, manages to fire off his tranq gun after Dexter stabs him with his needle.

This leads to a fun little interlude, with Dex and Boyd on the way to the hospital, sizing each other up while coroborating each other's cover story to the EMT.  Both manage to flee the hospital, but Dex gets a head start and per usual, his prey awakens to find himself bound to a table with Dex hovering over him.

But Boyd, who claims his victims were mercy killings, apparently has some unfinished business.  After Dex plunges a knife into Fowler, he discovers a lady in waiting in the form of Julia Stiles, who plays the mentally unstable "Lumen." 

This is where I think the season get make a sharp turn for the better.  We've Dexter into some tight spots but few have been let in on his Dark Passenger and lived to tell about it.  The easy way out here would be to turn Stiles' character into another "Lila" or god forbid, "Miguel Prado," but it seems that the "practically perfect" Sonya, might be the friend-turned-foe this season.

That means there's real potential to take this relationship between Dex and Lumen in a direction the writers have yet to explore.  Dex has never dealt with an innocent victim of one of his own.  Perhaps Lumen and Dex will connect over their respective traumas. 

Whichever direction the writers take this arc, let's just hope its a new one.