There’s nothing like some time with the family and the neighbors to remind a guy why he’s a lone wolf. Dexter does a good job pretending to play well with others: He didn’t kill the teenage skate hooligan who snubbed him, nor did he off his wife for nagging him and singing off-key to the worst of the eighties. He’s convinced that someone normal would be better at things like knowing what to say to his step-daughter, but, hey, everyone has trouble with that, Dexter. It’s called being human, and it’s something we each have to learn! Just because macho Quinn doesn’t think you’re a real dude doesn’t mean that all is lost.
The block association’s head-lamp-wearing, anti-graffiti vigilantes nearly confront Dexter in what might have been a slapstick tragedy worthy of Laverne & Shirley (but bloodier). It’s a relief to see Dexter scare off the block’s window-breaking bad seed by doing an accidental (and non-fatal) imitation of the Trinity Killer, who subdued his second victim by threatening to go after the kids.
After convincing that mother of two to jump to her death, Trinity cries for his own mommy and leaves a smudge of (her?) cremated ashes at the crime scene. Hopefully he’ll bludgeon his third victim soon so his mother issues can balance out Dexter’s daddy issues. Harry is still dropping by for imaginary conversations to warn Dexter about the dangers of family and the need to fit in so he can keep killing; we’re waiting for a subplot that will take a good look at what a sociopath Harry must have been.
That Special Agent Grandpa Lundy is at the very least a monomaniacal freak is increasingly clear — he’s just like Trinity and Dexter and Debra that way. But he’s slightly less annoying than Anton, who’s spending way too much time at the house now that he has a gig in town, especially since he won’t even make coffee or cake. Deb might as well just move on to Quinn and get it over with.
Deb’s officially off the hypothetical Trinity murders now that the Vacation Killer case has picked up, if you can call a surprise gunfight amid a whole lot of nothing “picked up.” Is the Vacation person just meant as a contrast to Trinity, or to structure LaGuerta and Batista’s relationship? Or is something interesting about to happen?
Meanwhile, Dexter is going to have to explain to his wife just why he smashed out all the security lights in front of the house. He’s probably not going to use the old “I’m a serial killer” excuse, but she’s eventually going to start suspecting something.
