  Josh Cooke plays Louis Greene on 'Dexter.' (Randy Tepper/Showtime)
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So Dexter Morgan has two fewer problems and two newer problems.
The third episode of the seventh season of Dexter, which aired Sunday night on The Movie Network and Movie Central in Canada and on Showtime in the United States, had an "even Steven" element to it for the main character, played by Michael C. Hall.
SPOILER ALERT: This is a review of the Dexter episode titled Buck the System, and is meant for people who saw it. If you don’t want to know what happened, now’s the time to bail.
So what got better and what got worse for Dexter this week? Let's break it down.
PROBLEM GONE: Louis Greene.
Certainly the most shocking moment in the episode was when Dexter's wannabe nemesis Louis, played by Josh Cooke, was shot in the head by Isaac, the mob boss from Ukraine played by Ray Stevenson. Louis had been trying to vandalize Dexter's boat.
Louis really kind of freaked me out, which is a credit to Cooke. I didn't know if Louis was going to wind up being a worthy adversary or an amateur who was in way over his head. Well, his head has a bullet in it now, so it doesn't matter.
PROBLEM GONE: Deb web.
At the end of the episode, Dexter's foster sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) tells Dexter he should move back into his own apartment. After trying to keep a constant eye on Dexter, she realizes that can't work. She comprehends what Dexter does now. She knows, thanks to the "murder maze" story line, that if she had let Dexter do what he does, an at-large killer would be dead and an innocent young woman still would be alive. She understands there's a part of Dexter that can't change. But there's a part of her that can't change, either. So it appears Deb essentially has deferred the decision on how she's going to be able to live with what she now knows about her brother.
NEW PROBLEM: Identity revealed.
Before Louis met his demise, he did tell Isaac that the boat belonged to Dexter Morgan of the Miami Metro Police Department. Isaac is tracking a bracelet, which now is residing at the bottom of the ocean along with the chopped-up remains of policeman-murderer Viktor Baskov. I look forward to the scene that surely is upcoming, when Isaac realizes the dude he was talking to at the strip club was, in fact, Dexter Morgan.
NEW PROBLEM: Bloody hell.
Maybe I'm making too much of this, but the camera focused in momentarily on Louis' blood dripping onto Dexter's boat. Yes, Dexter doesn't have to worry about Louis in living-and-breathing form any more, but the blood could wind up being a problem if not properly cleaned up, right? Usually camera shots like that don't happen by accident.
Other storylines: It was pointed out to me by a couple of astute watchers in the past week that my analysis of La Guerta (Lauren Velez) and her intentions with regard to the blood slide she found likely was incorrect. I thought that maybe she was pondering the possibility that Sgt. Doakes is still alive. But the better analysis is that she is trying to clear Doakes' name. That's way more logical than my theory, so thanks.
The third episode of the season marked the arrival of Yvonne Stahovski as Hannah McKay, former girlfriend of serial killer Wayne Randall, who committed suicide in the previous episode. Does Dexter have a thing for her? Is that where this is going?
Also, I can't figure out who's double-crossing who in the budding relationship between Detective Quinn (Desmond Harrington) and a Russian stripper named Nadia (Katia Winter).
But surely, that's the point. We're not supposed to have it figured out yet. Maybe they don't even know.
bill.harris@sunmedia.ca
@billharris_tv
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