The only thing worse than a serial killer is a used car salesman.

Season two of Dexter is now well underway, and the third episode, "An Incovenient Lie" -- yes, that's a play on the title of Al Gore's well-known film about the dangers of global warming, An Inconvenient Truth -- finally gets us past the dreary process of setting the tempo for what's to come, and begins settling down to the more serious business at hand.  After the previous episode, "Waiting to Exhale", our dearly demented Dexter (Michael C. Hall) has more than his fair share of troubles.  He's being followed by Sgt. Doakes (Erik King) whenever he leaves the office; his darling sister, Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) is still sharing his apartment as she tries to recover from the fact that she nearly married a serial killer; oh, and, of course, the lovely Rita (Julie Benz) now believes that he's a heroin addict.

This would be more than enough to try the patience and sanity of any man.  Unfortunately for poor Dexter, the trouble doesn't stop there -- some intrepid treasure-hunters back in the first episode of the season ("It's Alive!") found his private underwater graveyard, and now all Dexter's old playmates are coming back to the surface for a special repeat engagement.  Put it all together, and it's a wonder everyone's favorite serial killer is managing to stay as sane as he is.  Relatively speaking, of course.

The episode begins at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting that is, in its own way, just as discomforting as any crime scene or ritual slaughter the show has previously presented us.  After all, while most of us will never slit a throat or confront a blood-splatter pattern that looks more like modern art than homicide, almost everyone knows someone who's gone through one of these programs.  Kudos to the creative team for getting it so painfully accurate; it's easy to see why Dexter wants nothing more than to dodge the entire situation.  He exits quietly, without staying to the end of the meeting and getting his newcomer's chip.  Oops.

Next up is what should be, given the show's tropes, a scene of domestic bliss: Dexter, at Rita's, unpacking a bag of Chinese food.  Yummy.  Unfortunately for Dexter's peace of mind, he doesn't have that all-important newcomer's chip, and Rita is having none of it.  She has, after all, already gone through the addiction scenario once with a man who didn't really embrace his own capacity to change, and she won't put herself, or her children, through it a second time.  Kudos to Rita for sticking to her guns, even as I continue to find it difficult to believe that anyone who'd actually seen heroin addiction could believe Dexter was an addict.  There aren't many scenes with Cody (Preston Bailey) and Astor (Christina Robinson) this week, but what we get is adorable, as expected.  Preston especially is doing quite well at moving into an established role without disrupting the family dynamic (the original Cody, Daniel Goldman, was replaced after season one).

Confused as much by his own reactions as by Rita's behavior, Dexter agrees to go back to NA the next day, and stay for the entire meeting.  He's bewildered, Rita's reassured, and the kids don't care, as long as they get their fortune cookies.  Good kids.

We head, at long last, for the station, where Lt. Pascal (Judith Scott) continues to have personal problems, which are beginning to impact her job performance in a fairly visible way, and Lt. LaGuerta (Lauren Velez) is surprisingly willing to cover for her.  FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) is assembling his team to tackle the issue of the "Bay Harbor Butcher", aka, "Dexter".  His selections include most of the regular cast, of course, sans Sgt. Doakes, Lt. LaGuerta, and Dexter himself.  Which is a bit of a relief for him, since this is the last case he wants to give a hundred and ten percent to.

And, of course, no episode of Dexter would be complete without a victim of the week: in this case, Roger Hicks, a used car salesman with a penchant for following underpaid, single brunette women home, and taking care of their car loan needs.  Largely because, by the time he's through with them, they don't need cars anymore.  Pretty tidy, if bad for future sales.

The episode's three plots interweave freely from here.  Will Dexter succeed in convincing Rita that he doesn't need Narcotics Anonymous?  (Of course not.)  Will the Bay Harbor Butcher be caught?  (Again, of course not.)  Will Debra be forced to remain a key part of the hunt for another serial killer -- this one, sadly, her brother instead of her betrothed?  (Duh.)  Will Dexter get his man?  (Wouldn't have it any other way.)  Of the three, two move fast and one moves slow, which provides a perfect balance, and definitely clears up some of the earlier pacing issues.

The show's weakest point continues to be the station drama happening outside Dexter's immediate sphere of influence.  Debra's storyline is at least interesting, even if I continue to wonder why she hasn't taken high school Spanish yet (explained in the books, never addressed in the series).  Angel (David Zayas) seems to have joined a cult over the break, Vince (C. S. Lee) is overworked to the point of becoming almost absent, and LaGuerta and Pascal's storylines simply fail to hold my interest.  Hopefully, they'll resolve themselves soon.  The search for the Bay Harbor Butcher offers a lot of ground to cover, especially now that the 'he only hunts bad guys' connection looks like it's on the verge of being made.  Hmmm.

Thanks to some handy tips from a used car salesman about to take a long sea voyage courtesy of the Gulf Stream, Dexter does return to Narcotics Anonymous.  This matters largely because it provides an introduction for our latest recurring character: the lovely lady Lila (Jaime Murray), a British ex-junkie who may well be more competition than Rita wagered on.  Also noteworthy: Lila manages to drag Dexter into a conversation where the phrase "Dark Passenger" finally appears.  We book fans thank her.

Melissa Rosenberg has penned some of the best episodes of this series, and while I wouldn't rank this one quite at the top, it provides a lot of foundation work for what promises to be an excellent season.  Her dialog remains crisp, clean, and best of all, specific to the characters doing the speaking; her pacing is better than it seems at first, and her plotting is tight.

Definitely worth a first viewing, and I'll probably be returning to this episode as the season goes on, rewatching it to see its flowers bear fruit.  Like global warming, it may be slow, but it can't be avoided.

Episode 2x03, "An Inconvenient Lie"
Writer: Melissa Rosenberg
Director: Tony Goldwyn
Guest stars: Jaime Murray