Dexter, "Easy as Pie": The key lime code

Spoilers for last night's "Dexter" coming up just as soon as I find my plus one...

In case you hadn't noticed it by now, that Michael C. Hall is kind of a good actor, isn't he? Even though the outcome of the Dexter/Camilla story never really seemed in doubt, Hall and Margo Martindale played the hell out of it, as Camilla pleaded for a painless death and Dexter wrestled with whether The Code of Harry was elastic enough to give it to her. Very touching work by both, and I loved that Dexter confessed to Brian's murder because he couldn't let Camilla's final thoughts of him to be completely pure. (That, or he really wanted to unburden himself about Brian's death, and chose the one person who would both understand and be unable to tell anyone else about it.)

All that said, I wish Dexter had either decided against euthanizing Camilla because it clearly didn't fit the Code, or else that the writers had followed up on suggestions from the season two finale and the season three premiere that Dexter was preparing to move himself beyond the Code altogether. Dexter's world seemed shaken when he accidentally killed Oscar Prado, but rather than use that development to examine a Dexter operating without a rudder, it's mainly been an excuse to put him into the orbit of Miguel. That story arc has had its moments, and I like watching Jimmy Smits play such an unhinged character after a couple of decades of playing super-cool hero types, but watching this episode reminded me of the greater dramatic opportunity that was there for the taking at the start of this season.

And the Prado storyline did give Dexter yet another chance to examine the Code (even though he's still clearly trying to operate within its limits) as he pondered indulging Miguel's request to take out Ellen Wolf. Midway through the season, Miguel's already going off the rails, and I look forward to watching Smits play that.

As for the rest of "Easy as Pie"? Eh. Masuka's outrage over *%&$ing Albert Chung was very funny even before we got the punchline about their obvious resemblance, and Deb and Angel's stories are interesting, I suppose, if you care much about either character independently of their relationship with Dexter. I just don't. And I'm glad that the slicer doesn't seem to be Quinn -- multiple serial killers operating under the same precinct roof would stretch credulity even on this show.

What did everybody else think?