Welcome back gumshoes.
[Turns chair around backwards.] Look. Stumptown writers–or whoever’s responsible for this–we need to have an intervention. You are clearly addicted to episode titles where you substitute “Dex,” the name of our fearless PI heroine, for “sex” in admittedly hilarious puns. This is now the third episode where you’ve used that wordplay, and I cannot continue to support such tomfoolery.I’m kidding, of course, the episode titles are objectively hilarious, puns are great, every single episode should have a Dex pun.
Now that that’s taken care of: when we last left our heroes, Dex’s brother Ansel had moved in with her best friend Grey, Dex was learning to get used to life on her own, and Grey had teamed up with Dex’s former fling Detective Hoffman in a wildly irresponsible but also weirdly low stakes mission to take down some car thieves. Will Dex come to terms with her definite need for therapy? Will I finally care about a Hoffman storyline? Let’s find out. Here’s five thoughts on Stumptown‘s “Dirty Dexy Money,” spoilers below.
1. Hold the Meat
We open on Dex meeting with her new client, Ginger (Cheryl Hines), who she bonds with instantly over their shared experiences. Ginger describes how she’s finally found something that’s hers, that she excels at, and Dex can certainly relate. Turns out, what Ginger excels at is running a male strip club.
A vegan strip club called Hold the Meat is an absolutely A+ god tier joke, worthy of a sight gag on The Good Place, and it’s fun watching Dex wander around a world where she’s obviously uncomfortable. Ginger needs Dex to investigate the fact that someone–possibly one of her employees–is skimming money from her profits. There are hints peppered throughout that Ginger might not be the best of people, but Dex can’t see it. She’s too blinded by her own loneliness and the fact that Ginger seems like a kindred spirit, a hard worker pushed aside by the people in her life that used to care about her.
2. Looking for Baked Alaska
Ansel, meanwhile has teamed up with Dex’s chef friend Tookie, one of Stumptown’s main cast members who should probably not be a main cast member because the show cannot come up with reasonable storylines for him. Ansel insists that Tookie help him make baked Alaska, which Tookie agrees to after he learns the process will involve fire.
The baked Alaska proves to be quite difficult, but it’s mostly there as an excuse to let Tookie and Ansel bond. They work through the recipe while Ansel presses Tookie for information about Ansel and Dex’s parents, who abandoned them 12 years earlier. It’s a cute subplot that culminates in them gifting the baked Alaska to Dex, as they’d eaten the dessert 12 years back when Dex picked up Ansel from their parents and assured him everything was going to be fine.
3. Car Boys Doing Car Things
Grey and Hoffman are knee deep in their drug running/car thieving case that we keep being told is dangerous but still seems fairly tame. Grey is convinced that he might be able to flip Max, the lady car thief who seems over her head, to the side of the good guys. They share some looks of longing, leading Grey to be certain that she can be saved. Hoffman points out that this is probably stupid, but Grey can’t hear him over the “AAOOOGAH” sound that blares in his ears every time he looks at her.
Things get a little messy when Hoffman’s boss Cosgrove brings in a detective from Vice to consult on the case. He tells Cosgrove some concerns some concerns he has about Hoffman and Grey’s mission, and every single one of them is 100% valid–so obviously the show is setting him up to be a bad guy. Grey and Hoffman’s plan is insane, and the quickest and easiest way to make it seem less insane is to insert someone into the case who is somehow less reasonable than them.
Of course, exposing the corrupt cop doubles as an excuse for Hoffman to again not use someone from narcotics when he needs someone to go undercover as the heroin buyer in their fake drug deal. Who is it that Hoffman and Grey trust to have their back on a moment’s notice? Why, Dex, of course! This is a terrible idea, so obviously it’s going to work.
Continued belowI’m just grateful that this means this plot can only really last one or two more episodes instead of being dragged out over the course of the back half of this season. Stumptown burns through story at a breakneck pace, which often incredibly frustrating. I find this story to be absolutely baffling, however, so watching it wrap up quickly is a nice change of pace.
4. Ginger Gets a Li’l Spicy
Dex’s new best friend Ginger turns out to be the source of her own woes. Dex discovers that a group of her dancers have been skimming money from their tips to help pay the medical bills of a dancer Ginger pushed off the stage. When Dex tries to make peace between the dancers and their boss, Ginger flips on her and attempts to get Dex’s PI license revoked.
As with many a guest star, Ginger is a dark shadow of Dex’s current emotional woes. Dex has trouble adjusting to being alone even though much of her loneliness is a result of her own mistakes. Ginger, on the other hand, actively pushes people away, reveling in the power she has over everyone in her life. Those two impulses aren’t that many steps removed from each other, however, and it finally feels like Dex is starting to recognize how much damage she’s been doing to the people she loves.
5. Call for Help
A tiny moment towards the end of the episode that’s worth mentioning is a short scene where Dex attends a meet-up group for veterans, recommended to her in last week’s episode by her veteran client Jeremy. Dex meets Poppy (Julie Goldman), who helps her settle in and get comfortable in a community that understands what she’s going through. Poppy also, coincidentally, gives Dex exactly the advice she needs to deal with Ginger.
The scene itself is a little odd–Poppy gives what might be good advice given the situation, but is actually terrible advice given the few details Dex told her about what she was going through–but the important takeaway is that Dex is coming to realize that she needs help. A therapist would be great–[steps up on soapbox]: Everyone should go to therapy–but I’ll settle for this bit of progress. Now if she could only get the two men in her life to seek the professional help they clearly need, this show might be on track to have some emotionally functional main characters.
On the whole, this was a middling episode. Dex’s detective storylines continue to do strong work, but the cop/heist B-plot the show is saddled with has not once been entertaining in 12 episodes. Bringing Dex into Grey and Hoffman’s hairbrained scheme might inject some life into the boys’ narrative, but it will surely be a detriment to her own.
