Up until now Dexter has been trying to clear up the mess of a younger DA’s brother’s murder, but he had other things to worry about. In a discussion with Rita and the kids he blurted out a botched proposal of marriage. Rita said no. This was a surprise. Rita’s kids were weirded out as well. So there was Dexter, in control of everything… apart from his home life.

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This episode took a bit of step back from the arc that has been developing in recent weeks. I liked that because, as we all know, all characters in Dexter have really nice little back stories going on. This episode let all stories and characters breath a little bit.

Angel – lovely, optimistic Angel – went to see a hooker to assuage his loneliness and found out, just as he was starting to hand over the money and talk all dirty and get the horn, she revealed herself to be an undercover cop. When they met randomly at work the next day, it made for an uncomfortable couple of minutes for Batista.

Other stories bubbling away? Laguerta was still questioning Prado about the Chickie Hines case, and even though he was batting away her questions, I reckon this story will be the undoing of him.

Elsewhere new guy Quinn, the chap internal affairs wants Debs to investigate, was showing his sensitive side by expertly extracting information from a suspect in a murder case. This woman was found at the side of her dead fiancé, and was recounting the story that an assailant had broken in and killed him. Naturally, she was in a highly emotional state, gutted that her fiancé wad dead. She responded to Quinn’s sensitive approach, and not Debs’, and in the end it was soon revealed (thanks to a bit of blood splatter work from Dex) that she was some demented stalker who wasn’t the dead guy’s fiancé after all. She had convinced herself that she was. This good cop-bad cop scenario worked, but Debs was pissed off that she had been used by Quinn as the bad cop. Suddenly the advances of the internal affairs woman seemed more attractive…

But there was time for the Dexter/Prado/Freebo arc to develop. Prado’s brother Ramon was still supremely buggered up because of his brother’s death and was shouting his mouth off at the lack of activity in finding his brother’s killer. Only Dexter knew the real killer and he had to get this loose canon guy off his back, so again he engineered a little scenario to bide more time.

With that little mess cleared up (for now), Dexter turned his attention back to Rita (who was, I have to say looking AMAZING during this episode). Typical Dexter… he used the demented stalker’s police confession line (my life is an unanswered question, you’re what makes me real etc etc) to propose to his pregnant partner and her kids. It was fine piece of acting, and when she said yes, Dexter’s final piece of the jigsaw was dropping into place.

Rita said yes. Dexter was not only going to be a dad, but also a husband. The ultimate veneer of respectability. Michael C Hall still looks weird when smiles though.