It's time to clean house, because it's the thing you don't see that's going to kill you.

It's like a heat wave!  Woah woah woah...oh.  Right.  Episode review, not musical revue.  Sorry about that, folks.  (Actually, I'm not.)  We're here to take a look at the fourth episode of <i>Dexter</i>'s sophomore season, "See-Through".  What, exactly, are we seeing through?  A whole lot of masks, a whole lot of lies, and a whole lot of clear plastic body bags which, in the natural way of things meant to protect us from the darkness, make their nasty burdens seem a whole lot scarier by obscuring them just enough to let imagination kick in.  Excellent.  After the previous episode, "An Incovenient Lie", our deeply demented Dexter's (Michael C. Hall) problems are definitely big ones.  He's been forced to join Narcotics Anonymous to backstop his lying to Rita (Julie Benz), and has acquired a sponsor, in the equally lovely, if somewhat twisted, Lila (Jaime Murray), about which we'll have more in a moment.

On the plus side, Dexter's involvement with NA seems to have convinced Sgt. Doakes (Erik King) that his 'secret' was nothing more than a shameful addiction, and the man is off his tail...for now, anyway.  (I'm sure it can't last, as this seems to be the season where Everything Goes Wrong for poor Dexter, who just wants to chop up the denizens of Miami in peace.)  Of course, the hunt for the Bay Harbor Butcher is continuing to pick up some serious steam, with FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) heading up a team that includes most of Dexter's workplace 'buddies'...oh, and his sister, the distinctly damaged Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), who is also, by the way, still living with him.  Oh, and Lt. Pascal's (Judith Scott) personal problems are leading her rapidly towards a meltdown.

That's the season so far, in a very large nutshell.  Any questions?  No?  Good.  We proceed to the episode at hand.

We open in Rita's kitchen, where Rita is frantically scrubbing anything she can get her hands on, up to and including an already fairly spotless floor.  Maybe Rita needs a support group of her own.  But no, she's just upset because her mother, whom she hasn't seen in years, is going to be coming to stay.  Always upsetting, even when it doesn't come right after the death of your ex-husband and the discovery that your potential husband number two is a heroin addict.  Rita's probably starting to be afraid that she has a type.  Newsflash, Rita: you do, it's just not the type you think.

Rita's obsessive cleaning fit is interrupted by the arrival of Cody (Preston Bailey), who hasn't been sleeping well.  Dexter wants to know if he's been having bad dreams about 'the big scary ghost or the alligator'.  Cody's answer is a little less standard: he's having nightmares about the Bay Harbor Butcher.  Dexter looks, for just a moment, like he's been punched in the gut.  Poor Dexter.  He reassures Cody that the Butcher only hurts bad guys, and exits the house on an unintentionally contradictory 'I hope they catch and hurt the Butcher, have a nice day' from Rita.  Poor, poor Dexter.

Back at the station, the task force is making a certain amount of headway -- they've identified all eighteen of their complete bodies, and have confirmed that thirteen of those have felony records.  The Captain (Geoffrey Pierson) wants to announce the Butcher's 'Dark Knight' status immediately, although Agent Lundy is a little more reluctant.  The Captain manages to twist him around to the point, just as Vince Masuka (C. S. Lee) comes charging through with a 'big break'.  Its exact nature, however, must remain a mystery, for Dexter, in his hour of need, does what Narcotics Anonymous recommends: he turns to his sponsor for support.

Lila, it turns out, is an artist of the grungy, urban, 'using a hand-held propane torch to turn scrap metal into twisted parodies of human life, sometimes involving erotic cannibalism'-type.  Is that a type?  Well, it is now.  She asks Dexter if he minds coming with her to get 'art supplies', and, after a brief pause for her to change her shirt (an action that utterly fails to titilate our infamously anti-sex anti-hero), they go out for a 'supply run'.  Now, when I get art supplies, I go to the art supply store and buy them.  When Lila gets art supplies, she commits acts of petty larceny, stealing wind chimes off people's porches and knocking over decorative chain holders with her Jeep.  She works, apparently, in 'found art'.  Newsflash, lady: 'found art' doesn't normally mean stealing the ugly windchimes that Gramma got from Little Timmy last time he visited.  Dexter is equally befuddled, especially since he's now an accessory to a crime that could have easily been avoided by just buying some nice pastels.

He expresses his confusion to Lila, who informs him that this is the first time she's been a sponsor, but as she's had plenty, she 'learned from the best', before asking him why he uses.  Dexter looks befuddled, and finally says he doesn't know.  Lila asks him who he is; his reply is "I'm a bad person."  Lila laughs at this, and says she'll be introducing him to himself.  This lady's either another psychopath, or she's bucking to become his first victim of necessity.

Brief Harry-time flashback: Dexter's adoptive mother is telling Harry that there's something wrong with their foster son.  Well, duh.  As a young Dexter (Devon Graye) listens in terror, she says it can't hurt to have him tested.  It's clear she'll win...and it's clear this isn't a test he can exactly pass by showing his true colors.

In the modern day, Dexter is saved from Lila's interrogation techniques by a brutal murder.  Yay!  The victim, Alicia Barnes, was apparently killed by her husband, Curtis Barnes, who shot her repeatedly in the chest without any visible hesitation between shots.  This is very difficult to do, as anyone who's ever been shooting can attest; Mr. Barnes was an expert at, well, shooting wives.  And other things, as Sgt. Doakes quickly ascertains from clues around the house that Curtis was special forces.  Just like Doakes.  Hmmm.  (Also, Dexter's attempts to get information on Vince's 'big break' while studying the body?  Adorable.)

This is about where it becomes really clear that this episode will have no victim of the week for poor, poor Dexter; he's already got too much on his plate, and things get jumbled from here.  Agent Lundy assigns each member of his team to one of the five bodies not yet directly associated with a murder.  Messy, but necessary, if he's intending to build a serious motive for his murderer.  For the first time, we're being given the sort of police work that makes us root for the people who are working <i>against</i> our hero -- it's an interesting contradiction, and one of the strengths of this season.  Which side of the issue are we on?  Are we standing with the man, or with the monster?  Dexter's our hero, but the things he does aren't exactly pretty.

This episode does the station drama outside of Dexter's head a definite favor, resolving several storylines and bringing others into more direct visibility.  Dexter aims Lt. Pascal at Vince when she wants a shirt belonging to her fiancee to be put through forensic investigation for a 'smell'; Dexter's happy to provide the distraction, given that Vince is the one most likely to bring him down.  Pascal's storyline wraps up this episode, with a nasty little twist that seems obvious in hindsight but was definitely a surprise.  I'm going to leave it that way for now, just because you need something to keep you guessing.

A casual comment from Agent Lundy actually gets Debra to get off her ass and start dealing with her issues -- and what better form of 'dealing' than a nice roll in the hay with handsome gym-bunny Gabriel (Dave Baez)?  He's hot, he's clever, and he's not afraid of a girl who's not afraid to break out the handcuffs (even if they're less about kink and more about making sure he's not yet another long-lost brother of Dexter and Brian's).  Maybe there's some hope for our fragile little flower of foul-mouthed femininity yet.  Dexter just hopes he never sees that much of his sister ever, ever again.

With the news out about the Bay Harbor Butcher's taste in victims, he's gone from night terror to night avenger in Cody's eyes, which is probably good for poor Dexter's ego.  Rita's mother (played with wicked sharpness by JoBeth Williams) is a little too astute for anybody's safety; after only one episode and a few hours, she's already figured out that Dexter's hiding something.  Bet you don't know what, lady...

Rita thinks she's getting her way when Dexter tries to 'break up' with Lila as his sponsor, but her reaction to a few corpses makes him reconsider, and maybe turns her on a bit more than is strictly normal.  Doakes tracks down this episode's killer, and makes a kill of his own, leaving him shaken, while Lt. LaGuerta (Lauren Velez) gets her old job back.  Nice going, Maria.  Let's see you keep it.  Dexter thinks a little destruction of evidence will save him from Vince's big find, but things, unfortunately, aren't as transparent as they might initially seem.  Does that all seem a little confusing?  Well, this episode was a little confusing: densely-packed, delivering its clues and pointers rapid-fire, you'd better be paying attention if you want to keep your scorecard up to date.

This episode marks a return to the series for writer Scott Buck, and a freshman outing for director Nick Gomez -- although interestingly enough, this was also Buck's first time, in the sense that he previously co-produced an episode ("It's Alive!", season two, episode one), but had never written one.  A quick review of Buck's earlier work shows that he was a frequent contributer on Hall's previous series, <i>Six Feet Under</i>.  Maybe that explains why he got so good so fast at penning dialog that would sound easy and natural when delivered by our favorite dark avenger.  (Buck also wrote the teleplay for <i>Tremors 4</i>.  This really has nothing to do with whether or not he can write for <i>Dexter</i>, but it certainly impresses me.)

Despite the lack of a 'victim of the week', this episode was a shining gem of character moments, mistaken hopes, and beautifully blossoming fears.  This is the point on the season's roller coaster to hell where everything starts to go wrong, and the episode takes its time about things, letting you savor the inevitable chaos up ahead.  Definitely first-rate.

This just keeps getting better and better.

Episode 2x04, "See-Through"
Writer: Scott Buck
Director: Nick Gomez
Guest stars: Jaime Murray, JoBeth Williams, Dave Baez