Five-Legged Iguana

DEXTER
Season 2 Episode 7
‘That Night, A Forest Grew’
Written by Daniel Cerone
Directed by Jeremy Podeswa
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So thanx to Lila, Dex is evolving into a newer, purportedly better version of himself.
The good news: he hasn’t had any recent urges to “use,” the quaint (and necessary) euphemism he replaces the word “kill” with, during his talks with Lila.
The bad news: there’s fallout.

Dex is suddenly improvising: he goes out on the Internet and cuts and pastes blog material from various sources, producing a 32-page “presto, manifesto,” which he sends off to the Miami Tribune.
Designed to plunge the Bay Harbor Butcher Task Force into chaos (by presenting a confused and false amalgam of the Butcher’s personality), the manifesto initially does that, till Lundy sniffs out the game, and comes to the conclusion that the Butcher’s law enforcement, since he apparently knows exactly how this concocted manifesto will keep the Task Force spinning its wheels.

Dex also utilizes “creative problem solving at the expense of others” to get Doakes off the board, after Doakes begins to harass Camilla for the files regarding the crime scene at which Dex and his brother, the late Ice Truck Killer, were found.
He lies to Doakes at a crime scene to get the detective to lean on an innocent man, and waits till Doakes is making the man suffer during interrogation when he springs his trap, planting a blood report on Doakes’ desk to exonerate the suspect.
LaGuerta chews Doakes out, but Doakes realizes that Dex set him up, making him look only more obsessive in LaGuerta’s eyes.
And when Doakes confronts Dex in his office, Dex headbutts him, then casually walks out into the main section of the station, where an enraged Doakes tackles him, and starts wailing on poor Dex in front of the entire department.
LaGuerta has no choice but to suspend Doakes right then and there.

Over on the Deb front, there’s an encounter with a naked Lila, whom Deb instantly disapproves of (calling her a “skank”), reminding Dex of his responsibility, if not to Rita, then to her kids.
A conversation with Lundy regarding Chopin also gets Deb to consider her feelings for both Gabriel and Lundy, and she breaks up with the former, and finally admits to herself (and to Lundy) her feelings for the latter.
Lundy of course, initially argues about the age thing, but in the end, reacts rather tenderly to Deb, so we’ll see where this thing goes. (And to be honest, I’d never have guessed when Lundy was first introduced that this was where we’d end up.)

While on the Rita front, the kids and Rita suffer under the Gail regime. But Rita finally puts her foot down and kicks Momma out (sniff… bye, JoBeth) when Gail punishes the kids after Cody makes a covert phone call to ask Dex to attend his Saudi Arabia report at school.
Dex attends the school report, to the silent disapproval of Lila, who finally reveals herself (to us, at least) as the lying, loony, co-dependent b!tch she really is.
After having sold her “cannibal” sculpture for an obscene amount of cash, she calls Dex, who’s watching Cody’s report at the time, so he switches his cell off. In retaliation, Lila blowtorches her art, including the piece she’s just sold and a considerable portion of her studio.
She finally gets through to Dex as he accepts an invitation from the kids for some ice cream. When he hears about the fire though, he rushes off to Lila, to Rita’s silent disapproval.
When he gets to Lila’s place, she lies and says the piece just caught flame while she was working on it. All huggy and fake teary, Lila says not to ever leave her again. Dex, the blind fool, agrees.
B!tch.

(Image courtesy of sho.com.)