Stumptown (1×07) November Surprise Review

For our review of the last episode of Stumptown, click here.

Synopsis: Dex goes undercover after she is hired by a local politician to dig up dirt on his political opponent. Meanwhile, Grey and Liz’s romance continues, and Dex celebrates a tense Friendsgiving at the Bad Alibi. (IMDb)

Who said being a PI was going to be easy? This was the case in this week’s solid yet unremarkable episode of Stumptown as Dex would be hit with a moral dilemma that she would still find her way out of. Meanwhile, Grey’s relationship situation would remain a moot point.

November Surprise started with Dex watching a campaign ad. She was in a politician’s campaign office for a job which (from a cliche crooked campaign manager) would entail finding dirt on their opponent and a seemingly well-liked man, councilman Dan Gibson, which they could use as a November surprise. She was initially uncomfortable with this and politics weren’t quite her thing but a paycheque was a paycheque (if both sides are dirty then it didn’t matter but this would clearly not be the case by the end).

Dex’s first step was to go undercover at Gibson’s campaign office but as soon as she got there, she was clearly over her head. She needed to salvage documents before they got shredded at the end of the day so she devised a plan to hold the staff party at the Bad Alibi while she could go back to the office to find dirt on Gibson. Little did she know, there was another PI working undercover (another staffer whom she had interacted with earlier) the campaign office also looking for dirt. Dex prevailed after a quick confrontation, finding a letter that led her to Gibson’s time as a college professor. He was all about living his truth as a gay politician, however, she had evidence that suggested otherwise in the form of an affair with one of his students that produced a child.

Dex eventually found the mother and child but became conflicted about how this revelation would affect the life of the child. She decided to give the credit to her find to her rival PI who now was more interesting in retiring than helping her out. Unfortunately, her choice would soon be out of her hands when they brother of the love child’s mother sold them out to the rival campaign (Dex still got paid). Meanwhile, Grey decided to give Liz a job at his bar on a trial basis. They were growing closer, however, she was still uncomfortable being in the middle of whatever Grey and Dex had. This feeling caused some tension between her and Grey.

Dex found a way to salvage the situation by alerting Gibson and his campaign of her involvement and brokered a deal between both campaigns were the improper relationship and the child would not be mentioned in exchange for Gibson dropping out of the election.

The episode ended with Dex, Ansel, Grey, Liz, and Hoffman coming together for a version of Thanksgiving which they would call Friendsgiving.

So that was uneventful.

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, follow us on Instagram, and also like us on Facebook.

Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.