Stumptown Review: All Hands On Dex (Season 1 Episode 18)

Stumptown wrapped its first season with Stumptown Season 1 Episode 18, “All Hands on Dex” and they drop a pretty huge bombshell right as the episode ends.

After tying up the mystery surrounding Benny’s death, “All Hands on Dex” delivers on hints suggesting the return of Dex’s parents when Dex and Ansel’s mother shows up at their door. We don’t know much other than that Mama Parios is there, that Ansel was in communication with her, and knew she was coming.

“All Hands on Dex” focuses primarily on the mystery of how Benny died and bringing the people responsible to justice. The episode encapsulates what’s great and what’s disappointing about Stumptown‘s entire season.

There is a lot to love about “All Hands on Dex.” There are great moments and compelling developments full of possible stories to come and yet, in the end, it still feels underwhelming.

Per usual, the scenes between Dex and Sue Lynn are some of the best of the episode. Their relationship is one of the most compelling of the series and their scenes on ‘All Hands on Dex” feel the most satisfying and well earned.

I like the way Dex’s work as a PI is the thing that helps her get answers but the impact of that coming full circle is blunted because they did not spend enough time during the season focusing on her growth as a PI, or the way being a PI helped her personally.

They touch on it in various episodes to be sure, but it’s not enough. If we had more of an opportunity to watch her progress from the raw talent we saw on Stumptown Season 1 Episode 1, “Forget It Dex, It’s Stumptown” to the expert PI she is in the finale, seeing her PI skills get her closer to some sort of closure about Benny would feel more important.

In a similar way, it’s hard to care too much about Benny when we barely get the opportunity to get to know him. As viewers we aren’t given the chance, until the very end of the season, to see why Benny is so important to Dex and even then it’s just little snippets that don’t flesh him out enough to allow us to mourn with Dex.

Benny never becomes more than a McGuffin driving the plot, and while Cobie Smulders does an excellent job drawing viewers into her emotional journey, the season-long plot surrounding Benny’s death is anti-climatic because it doesn’t really matter how he died or even who he was.

That feeling of “this is good but it could be so much better” sums up the whole season. Season 1 of Stumptown is decent and most of the episodes are good. With the exception of a few leading up to the mid-season finale, most of my reviews of individual episodes are positive.

Week to week and within the context of the single hour being reviewed most of the season’s episodes are entertaining, well made, and fun. But the season as a whole doesn’t come together in the way I hoped for after Stumptown‘s stellar pilot.

There are characters to love and relationships (mostly non-romantic) to root for but it never quite makes it to the appointment TV I thought it was going to be.

That said, I want to see season 2. There are more stories to tell with these characters and there is still a chance for it to hit its stride, especially given a few of the new developments they ended season 1 on.

The introduction of Dex’s mother is obviously setting up a long arc to fill the gap left by the now solved mystery of Benny’s death. Even more significantly though, it opens up some interesting possibilities to learn more about Dex and Ansel’s history and explore their bond.

I’m also interested in seeing how having her mom in her life again impacts Dex’s relationship with Sue Lynn.

You can’t exactly say Sue Lynn has been a mother figure to Dex. Until recently they were more adversaries than allies but over the course of the season, the two women develop a new understanding and a unique bond.

Sue Lynn has been there for Dex in motherly ways while her own mom was not. Even if the presence of Dex’s mom doesn’t explicitly change anything between Dex and Sue Lynn, it will still be interesting to see those dynamics mirror each other and offer insights into Dex’s relationship with each woman.

Grey and Miles also have potentially great storylines for Season 2, and neither of them is centered on a romance with Dex. I’m particularly interested in Miles’s existential crisis and what it means for his relationship both with Dex and Lee. 

Stumptown‘s first season was far from all it could be and all we wanted but I still want to see more stories with these characters and I hope the cast and crew get the chance to tell them.

What did you think of this episode and season of Stumptown? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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