Last night's "Dexter" featured a heavy dose of the show's trademark humor along with a return to its title character's hunt for sleazy victims. Of course, the new twists of the season were along for the ride as Dexter's relationship with Miguel Prado tightened and his paternal instincts began to develop.

All this was built around a jungle theme as the title of the episode was "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Dexter's voiceover consistently compared his actions to that of the titular beast as he began the show traversing the grocery store with Rita and her kids, comparing the event to the modern-day equivalent of stalking wild game.

At the store, Astor runs into a shady character who supposedly wanted to know where the Cheerios were. Dexter instantly sensed the man's less reputable intentions in talking to his girlfriend's daughter and made sure to keep vigilant with regards to this man - he likened this to a lion protecting its cubs.

Dexter confirmed his suspicions by locating his new prey in the sex offender database and spotting him at the beach snapping pictures of youngsters on the sand. All this led Dexter to break his code for the first time by killing this man: Dexter's code has always asserted that his victim must have also taken a life, and while this man had abused a child in the past and may do it again, he didn't fit the code.

It could be pure bloodlust that drove Dexter to go against the word of Harry, this would be his first post-FreeBo victim, but it seems that the killing was far more relatable than that. Dexter justified the slaying by saying it was right to protect his own, also has he was strangling his victim he snarled to leave his kids alone. His kids? It seems there may be more to Dexter than an empty shell of killer.

Of course, this could also mean that our hero could begin to justify more killings and become increasingly bloodthirsty, inventing new reasons to target his prey. That doesn't seem the case; however, as Dexter also seemed to realize in this episode that he'd like to be involved with his kid and took action towards that goal several times.

This decision was also spurred by his sister whom Dexter finally told Rita was pregnant. When Dexter told her that he was unsure about taking a role in the kid's life, Debra was outraged and had to inform Dexter that decision was more about the kid than it was him - something about which Dexter was completely oblivious. It's amazing that Debra still is utterly unaware of Dexter's lack of real connection to anyone after knowing him for so long.

Dexter is forging a connection elsewhere, with ADA Miguel Prado, the first man outside of Harry, Doakes and the Ice Truck Killer to know the truth about Dexter, and the first man to encourage Dexter's habit. There's more to their relationship than just FreeBo's execution; however, there was a fine scene last night where Miguel and Dexter both discussed how they could never live up to the visions there father had for them. Of course, the vision Harry had for Dexter was far different than any other father would have for their son.

But this episode wasn't simply a dark examination of fathers and sons and the animal instincts that go along with that relationship, the show's brilliant dark humor made a return in a big way. Whether it was Masuka's showing off his 'Forensics Quarterly' article, Debra's transcendently foul-mouth description of her brother's new child, the song her CI wrote about her, or Dexter stealing a carton of milk in the afterglow of a murder, laughs were more prominent than blood in this installment of the serial killer series.

What "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" did was seamlessly blend the charms of the series' first season with the deeper twists of what can already be called its best season. The series has finally found a way to add more psychology to its concoction of cop drama, killer thrill, and brilliant black humor.

Because even serial killers enjoy a good joke now and then.

Story by Andrew Payne

Starpulse contributing writer