In this weeks episode of Dexter our beloved hero protagonist is facing impending fatherhood, having to let someone who's seen him kill live and trying to turn the police department away from the Freebo case while a new killer begins to emerge from the woodwork.

Read about the jungle, an easy way to get free milk and new friendships beyond the link...

The pieces for this season are beginning to fall into place just right and my concerns about how things were going to pan out are subsiding. I still feel that the show is lacking something without Erik King's amazing screen presence burning hate at Dexter, but the picture for this season's ride is coming clear and it looks like a good one.

So, last week Dexter killed Freebo, was caught post factum by Miguel Prado and forced to think (and act) fast in order to conceal the truth about himself. As a consequence he convinced Prado that he'd killed Freebo in self defense and covered up the truth of the murder rapidly. Since this has happened Prado has decided that it would be best if they became close friends, much to Dexter's chagrin.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight is good, fun, lighthearted Dexter at it's best, there are some indications of the future to come. Especially the appearance of a new serial killer who's been tentatively nicknamed 'The Skinner' by Angel, Dexter's gradual acceptance of fatherhood and the change in attitude it brings. Which is brought home by his slaying of a paedophile who was overly interested in Astor and then his opportunistic stealing of said paedophile's milk at the end of the episode. The episode feels very much like the fun lull before the gigantic s**t storm descends upon the characters and everything gets turned upside down again.

I have to give out a few nods to some excellent acting in this episode, Michael C. Hall is as spiffing as always and Jimmy Smits is compelling as Prado, the way he's inserting himself into Dexter's life feels natural and he's a genuinely likable sort. But the real tip of the hat goes to Jennifer Carpenter as Debra who ran out the truly awesome line "A baby?! A motherf***in', rolly-polly, chubby-cheeked s**t machine -- are you kidding me?!" with such ease. She consistently impresses me each episode by finding a whole new level of filth to utter from her mouth.

As I mentioned last week, TV.com's unwise and massive spoiler about events on set has made it very difficult to judge each episode in isolation. My knowledge of what happens is tainting everything that I see, but that problem aside 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' was a great episode with dark humour in spades. Fun dialog, amusing situations, Dexter performing yoga, it was all there in quantity and I really enjoyed it all. Well, apart from Quinn and his C.I., that story thread can just go away and die in a ditch, it's really uninteresting, has a pair of boring characters and is a complete waste of Jennifer Carpenter's talent.