The term "adios, amigo" forever has taken on added significance for TV fans keeping up with Dexter.

But having dealt with one major problem, Dexter Morgan still has several others to worry about in the third-season finale of Dexter, which can be seen Sunday on The Movie Network and Movie Central.

After all, the "skinner" still is out there, and he's looking for Dex!

Last weekend in the penultimate episode of season No. 3, the complex friendship between secret serial killer Dexter (played by Michael C. Hall) and neophyte killer Miguel Prado (played by Jimmy Smits) reached its thrilling but inevitable conclusion. And the deathly scene was notable not only for its memorable dialogue.

As Dexter looked up after doing the deed, the background music changed. It suddenly sounded like backwards tape loops lifted from the Beatles' classic White Album in 1968.

And slowly, as the odd music played, the colour drained away, leaving Dexter in a ghostly black and white. A representation of Dexter's world returning to its more simple black-and-white state, perhaps?

Speaking more generally, we're not going to argue that the behaviour of Miguel this season didn't push this series beyond the bounds of believability.

As a public figure, there's just no way Miguel could have gotten up to some of the things he got up to without risking exposure. And as a fairly low-ranking employee of the Miami police department, Dexter sure gets to take off for hours on end quite often without anyone saying anything, doesn't he?

But Dexter still can be enjoyed for the quality of the acting, the intrigue of the story (believability aside) and the show's production values.

Dexter aptly and succinctly summed up this season's theme last week, when he said to Miguel, "I don't get to have friends."

"And yet I think there remains an unconscious desire for a connection," Hall said when asked about the inner workings of Dexter, whose murderous tendencies adhere to his version of an ethical code. "(Dexter) simultaneously is attracted to, and repulsed by, the idea of a sort of intimacy with another person."

Speaking of intimacy with another person, if there's one thing we could change about Dexter this season it's the behaviour of Dexter's fiancee Rita.

We have nothing against Julie Benz, the actress who plays Rita. But the writers have changed Rita from a smart, careful, cautious woman who emerged wiser after an abusive marriage into a ditzy, overly emotional, blindly stupid woman with horrible judgment and no radar.

Seriously, every scene in which Rita appears comes to a grinding halt. We know she's pregnant with Dexter's kid, but we just don't care about that story line.

Dexter and Rita can't possibly be headed for wedded bliss, can they? After all, this doesn't strike us as a series where people stay happy for very long.

"Nobody wants to watch that," Hall agreed.