In contrast to the two episodes before this one, the first season finale, episode 1x12 "Second City", was a blatant advertisement for Dresden/Murphy ship! Blech!

In episode 1x10 "What About Bob?" we had Bob, sacrificing his second chance at life as a mortal in order to save Harry's life (with flashbacks to their shared past in which Bob's affection for Harry overcame even the obedience he owed the owner of his skull, back then Justin Morningway). We also had Harry fearing and worrying over Bob, culminating in his visible panic and mourning when he believed him to be irrevocably dead.

Murphy had a few scenes with Dresden, but most of the time she came across as a dogged, driven hardass who didn't know Harry at all and spurned their former trust and partnership in order to highlight how unbiased she was during a murder investigation, even if a friend of hers became a suspect.

In episode 1x11 "Things That Go Bump" we had Harry worrying to a similar degree when Bob agreed to risk his existence in order to find out whether or not the approaching darkness was finite and therefore passable. We had Bob supporting Harry in as much as he could, including taking the risk of stepping into the aforementioned darkness.

At first, this episode's Murphy appeared to have taken an important step after having stumbled into Harry's usually carefully hidden world of magic and was now learning to deal. Later it was revealed, however, that it had never actually been her, but rather an impostor, which rendered all the changes in their relationship null and void.

Now in episode 1x12 "Second City", none of the events of "What About Bob?" seemed to have happened (or at least, seemed to have stepped back behind a multitude of (off-screen?) cases during which Dresden and Murphy had recovered their friendship and even found a new closeness and a greater trust), and Murphy believed blindly in Harry's trustworthiness and loyalty. She also required no explanation for his unprecedentedly open display of magical abilities, flirted with him and even invited him - in a roundabout way - to kiss her whenever he wanted to.

WTF?!

I'll just be nice enough to presume that the writers of the show either intended to have a more gradual development of Dresden and Murphy's relationship that, for whatever reason, the shortness of season 1 didn't allow them to ease gently into, or different people with different agendas and viewpoints wrote episodes 1x10 and 1x11, respectively episode 1x12.

Because seriously?

Murphy is boring. And often a bitch. Plus, hitting the audience over the head with a 'ship hammer mostly causes headaches, not rose-colored visions of The Lovey-Dovey Great TV Het Romance To End All Het Romances.

Edit: There was another thing in "Second City" that rubbed me the wrong way, and that was Murphy's demeanor during the restaurant scene with her father. Her father, on a short visit in Chicago, hears about Dresden working for/with his daughter, immediately takes a dislike to him and attempts to dissuade that pseudo-wizarding flake from torpedoing his daughter's career. Murphy calmly listens to her father's listing of Dresden's past mistakes and his reasons why that makes Dresden unfit for consulting work with the Chicago PD - and contradicts not a single point. Her reasoning was not "He's not a bad guy! He's helped me countless time in an investigation, and we even reopened the case of his uncle's suspicious death - and Dresden was cleared!", no, it was instead "You've never been there for me, so now you have no right to dictate who I am allowed to associate with and who not!". It felt self-centered, strangely unemotional, and, if I may say so, quintessentially non-female.

Bad writing? Is she a man in disguise? Is she stuck in a teenaged "Me!Me!Me!" phase?