Episode no. Season 1
Episode 9 Written by Melissa Rosenberg ← Previous
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"Seeing Red" | Directed by Adam Davidson Production code 109 | |
Original air date November 26, 2006 (2006-11-26) | ||
"Father Knows Best" is the ninth episode of the first season of the American television drama series Dexter, which first aired on November 26, 2006 on Showtime in the United States. The episode was written by Melissa Rosenberg and directed by Adam Davidson.
Plot
Dexter learns that his biological father, Joe Driscoll, who he thought had been long dead, has only recently died and left all of his belongings to Dexter, including his house. Dexter travels to the house with Rita. Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) and Rudy - revealed in the previous episode to be the Ice Truck Killer - arrive there later (following Rudy's advice) to assist Dexter in cleaning out the house. Dexter suspects Driscoll was murdered.
Flashbacks to Dexter's childhood show his questioning his adoptive father Harry (James Remar) about his real parents, and Dexter finds that Driscoll had donated some of his blood to the young Dexter for surgery.
In the last scene, one of Joe's neighbors, an elderly woman, recognizes Rudy as a cable repairman, who happened to be Joe's last visitor before his death. After Dexter, Rita, Debra, and Rudy had left the premises, Rudy is shown to have returned to the elderly woman's house, dressed as the cable repairman again.
Back in Miami, Angel is questioned about a shooting incident involving Doakes and a suspect. Doakes was claiming that he fired in self-defense, but his story doesn't add up. Dexter's analysis of the angle and blood spatter evidence suggests that Bayard was not shot from where Doakes says he had shot him. Angel contemplates what he should do and opts for what he thinks is right, so he reports his actual observations, the forensic evidence, and the discrepancies with Doakes' story to Internal Affairs, even though this will brand him as a rat. It turns out that the man Doakes killed was a former Haitian terrorist militia member of the Tonton Macoute, whom he had encountered while in the army during Black Ops in Haiti, and Doakes knew the suspect had committed awful crimes. The whole situation in the end gets kicked under the rug.
Meanwhile, Paul begins to slide back into his old abusive habits when Rita attempts to prevent him from seeing their children.