Astor's party has just begun, and Rita lights the candles on the cake, wondering aloud to Dexter, "When did lighting the candle become more fun than blowing them out?" "Nice turnout," Dex observes. Apparently, Rita called all the moms to assure them that Paul wouldn't be there. Dex asks her if the kids know that she told Paul not to come. "After presents," she says. Fair enough.

As Astor prepares to blow out the candles, Rita reminds her not to tell anyone her wish, or it won't come true. "It already came true; Dad's not here." Well, then maybe you should wish for something else, right? Anyway, as Dexter watches from afar, he VOs, "I was wrong about birthdays." Hell yeah, you were. Birthdays are awesome! "Maybe the reason to celebrate them is what they offer: the hope of living to see another one." Looking over at Deb, who is glowering at him: "The thing about Deb forgiving me? I'd better give her a few more days. I barely escaped getting caught this time. I realize now my days are numbered, so I'd better make the most of them." And by "make the most of them," he means "have a non-stop tickle fight with Cody," because that's what he does.

Later, as he leaves his apartment, Dexter goes on: "All along, I thought this was a game my alter ego and I were playing. But relationships change, evolve. And this one's getting deep." He looks out at the sky as storm clouds like the ones from his nightmare gather. Lightning strikes a couple of times in the distance. "Like Harry said in the dream, 'A storm's on its way.'" Yeah, I guess he did say that.

Okay, definitely not my favorite episode. I could have done without LaGuerta and the kid, but at least it was relevant to the plot. I could have done with more killing on Dexter's part, but I guess we did get a two-bagger last week. At the same time, I thought that was to make up for the lack of carnage in the previous episode, so hopefully Dexter will find an entire village of murderers and rapists next time. I think this one set up the rest of the season nicely. We're definitely going to see Dexter get a lot more paranoid, and I'm curious about the possibilities with Paul, Rita's ex, if they plan to explore them. Dexter's whole "my days are numbered" thing at the end of this episode have me a little worried, but not too much. If his days are numbered, then so are the show's, and that's no fun for anyone.