Welcome back gumshoes! In the aftermath of Grey’s kidnapping and various crimes–under duress, of course–the cast is piecing their lives back together. But how can Dex forgive him after he was, uh, kidnapped at gunpoint?
This week Dex adds a new, self-destructive corner to her love quadrangle, Grey tries to get laid, and the side characters have a very nice few days for some reason that has nothing to do with the plot. Here’s five thoughts on “Dex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll,” spoilers below.
1. Date Night
We open on a scene of Dex and Detective Hoffman on a date at a punk show. It’s been a little bit since we’ve gotten a chance to see Michael Ealy and Cobie Smulders really flex their aggressively overwhelming charisma. Shocker: they have chemistry! Their night out is immediately deflated by the lead singer of the band, Fiona X (played by indie musician Ionna Gika), dedicating her song to “the one that got away” and then calling out Dex by name.
Firstly, and most importantly, can we talk about what a bonkers power play it is to bring your current fling to your incredibly successful ex’s concert? The writers do set up that perhaps Fiona feels more deeply about her ex than Dex does, but still. Dex is crazy, I am required to stan.
Turns out, Fiona X has a stalker, which is a pretty solid reason to phone up and attempt to hire your hot, badass ex–what I mean by that is, I absolutely relate to the insane, self-destructive impulse drove this poor woman to make this horrendous decision. The newly minted professional PI Dex is on the case, and Fiona then spends the rest of the episode trying to get into Dex’s pants.
2. Two Cooks Having a Nice Time
It’s standard operating procedure for a, uh, procedural like this to find ways to pair off the side characters for the episode’s C-plot, but wooo boy is this one a stretch. A central problem Stumptown has is that it’s filled out the supporting cast with characters that feel like they have a pretty tangential connection to Dex. The further that connection gets, the more Stumptown has to strain to involve the main characters in the plots of the episodes.
There have been a couple strange side plots in these first few episodes, but the wholly inconsequential interaction between Hoffman’s boss Lt. Cosgrove and Dex’s friend Tookie–who are apparently main cast members–takes the cake. Tookie has some trouble with the health department, so he name drops Dex to get Cosgrove’s help. Then he feeds her his famous mole sauce. She gives him an idea for a new dish. And they’re just…pleasant to each other.
It’s a bizarre set of scenes, mainly because they’re almost completely devoid of conflict or tension. Clearly the goal is to fill out some character details for a couple cast members, but all the scenes really do is expose that Stumptown doesn’t know what to do with either of them. I will say, sometimes it is kind of pleasant to just watch people being nice to one another, but it’s tonally odd to have a scene from a Nancy Meyers movie plopped into the center of this detective show.
3. The Other Women
Dex isn’t the only one feeling out an alternative love interest in this episode. Grey meets Liz (Monica Barbaro) at the bar, sparking a heart to heart that leads to a morning after. Jake Johnson is the quiet MVP of Stumptown, and Liz matches his charisma well to make a fun-but-sure-to-be-doomed pairing.
Grey is currently on the outs with Dex for putting her brother Ansel in danger, which is frankly absurd. I could maybe understand Dex being upset that Grey didn’t tell her that Kane had escaped from prison, but being upset that he didn’t tell her about his whole dark past seems excessive. She knew he had gone to prison, and she knew he had been a thief, which is only slightly less of Grey’s backstory than the show itself has bothered to fill in.
Dex and Grey’s fighting upsets Ansel, who repeatedly interrupts Grey and Liz by dropping glasses and silverware while they’re trying to bond. Liz is more or less understanding, and Ansel’s struggles give Dex and Grey the excuse to come back together to explain things to him and somewhat reconcile. It’s a nice scene of bringing the family back together, but mostly I’m glad the plot of Dex and Grey fighting seems to be contained to just this episode.
Continued belowNot to be left out, Hoffman also has a bit of an other woman problem, as his coworker Detective Lee clearly has a crush on him–don’t think I missed that lip bite, girl, you’re too good for him. Hoffman and Lee have some witty banter while helping Dex investigate Fiona’s stalker, and Lee spends a lot of “Dex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll” staring at him longingly and telling him she could set him up with someone who would “treat him right.” Nothing much develops from that in this episode, but the seeds are planted for later.
4. The Culprit
Of course, the story of Fiona’s stalker is more twisted than it seems–come on, we know what kind of show we’re watching–and her manager is taken away for the crime. Things are tidied up awfully quickly after this. Dex realizes drug-fueled Fiona’s life is too crazy and she likes her life in Stumptown, then lets Fiona down easy to go on a bowling date with Hoffman; Grey and Liz officially start dating, and Cosgrove and Tookie are BFFs now. Everything is charming.
It’s jarring just how quickly things wrap up here–those final scenes are given maybe 6 minutes of screen time combined–but I do admire how this show can kind of burn through its plot and keep things moving. Maybe it would have been good to lose the Great Mexican Bake Off subplot in exchange for a bit more time in the third act, but on the whole it was a solid episode.
5. Up Next
Thanks to the promo for next week’s episode that for some reason aired in front of this week’s episode–never change, broadcast TV–we know that next week Liz and Dex get to really meet and some sparks are gonna fly! Or maybe they’ll just smile and have a good time and everyone will get along? Yeah, that sounds like this show. I take it back, maybe I do kind of want Stumptown to be about nice people having nice conversations about nothing of consequence. I’ll get started drafting my petition for Cosgrove and Tookie to get top billing and take over the A-plot for all subsequent episodes.
