'Dexter': Going deep -- but do we want to?

"The future might hold something different for me," Dexter (Michael C. Hall) muses at the end of last night's episode, and if this particular installment is any indication, he was referring to a lot of other people in his world.

If there's one main weakness with Showtime's murderous show, it's that it often feels like it's in second gear when it's focusing on anyone other than its hero.  Maybe it's simply too difficult to make other characters shine in comparison to your average sarcastic, witty serial killer on the police force.

The best secondary characters have been Rita (Julie Benz), Dexter's kind and strong girlfriend, who matches him well because, in her way, she has as many issues as he does, and Sgt. Doakes (Erik King), Dexter's nemesis in the police department.  Some of the best laughs on the show are Dexter's benign greetings to Doakes, which are returned with malicious cursing and volleyed back with idiotic cheeriness by Dexter, who knows that Doakes is the only one on the force with any idea that he might be up to something.  Doakes' angry suspicion made him a great foil for Dexter, but the audience now has been fed a back story on the sergeant involving a divorce and a traumatic turn as a Special Ops ranger.  Do we really want to know why Doakes is the way he is?  It was more fun to see him as a crank.

It's interesting to see Rita feel jealous of Lila (Jaime Murray), Dexter's Narcotics Anonymous sponsor.  The jury is still out on Lila.  Her character seems in danger of becoming one of the freewheeling, free-spirited women we see so often on television -- she's impossibly beautiful, has an accent and is a kooky artist.  Then again, her relationship with Dexter is just warming up, so the audience may see more facets of the two of them, especially as Dexter, in a twist, seems to see her as a sexual being.  Rita also has her mother (JoBeth Williams) to contend with, who has decided that she doesn't trust Dexter for reasons not fully explained.  Here's hoping that she turns out to be more than a stock cranky, suspicious mother.

The supplementary cast continues to grow and turn.  Angel Batista (David Zayas) was given a small story line last night that involved forcing a woman to admit that her husband, killed by the Bay Harbor Butcher/Dexter, might actually have been a killer, but this just seemed like screen time taken away from the protagonist.  Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), Dexter's sometimes-obnoxious sister, might have her attitude tempered as she explores romance with a man who we assume is not a serial killer, like her previous beau, and as she works with Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine), the FBI agent brought in on the Butcher case.  His character is still undeveloped, but Carradine has an amiable, natural presence with some promise, especially as a potential father figure in Debra's life.

Otherwise, the police force is a shambles, which may explain why Dexter has been able to operate so smoothly until this point.  How else to explain Lt. Esme Pasquale (Judith Scott) allowing herself to have a very public breakdown at work about her cheating fiancee, who, wait for it, was cheating with Lt. Maria Laguerta (Lauren Vélez) in her own underhanded way of getting her job back?  "Pasquale has set women on the force back 20 years," says a department captain, but so far none of the women seem to be doing a stellar job.

Then there's Vince Masuka (C.S. Lee), the lowest common denominator hornbag forensic expert.  He likes his job, women and gross humor, and maybe that's all we really need to know about him, because thus far, background on the other characters just isn't as satisfying as that of Dexter's.

-- Claire Zulkey

(Photo by Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)