“Dexter” Season 5, Episode 8

• Showtime
• Insert bedwetting joke here.

I keep meaning to cue up some Dexter episodes from seasons one or two for a refresher—I’m starting to forget what the show was like before it became an endlessly churning soap opera. But despite too much time with Miami homicide and the totally unnecessary introduction of Lumen’s ex-fiancé, Old Dennis the Menace, this week feels a little more like old times. I suppose we can thank last week’s smart but slow-like-a-slug setup episode for a more propulsive installment this week, but if some enterprising video editor cut last week’s and this week’s episodes into a single hour, it would be an unmitigated slam-dunk. Forthwith, some ideas on what to keep, and what to cut.

What to keep: all the Dexter stuff, of course. In a cool twist, we begin this week with the voiceover of our big bad, Jordan Chase, set to Animal Kingdom scenes of predators in pursuit—the opening to Chase’s Rally to Restore Insanity. Dexter has infiltrated the lion’s den, one of Chase’s blue-lit inspirational conventions, where a rabid crowd cheers “TAKE IT!” over and over—just like our creepy murderous roadkill collector Boyd did way, way back in episode two. Dexter remarks that he’s never been around people who made him feel this normal—and it feels not just true, but totally promising.