Crocodile (Dexter episode)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dexter episode | |
| "Crocodile" | |
 |
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| Episode no. | 2 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 102 |
| Orig. airdate | October 8, 2006 (Showtime) |
| Writer(s) | Clyde Phillips |
| Director | Michael Cuesta |
| List of all Dexter episodes... | |
"Crocodile" is the 2nd episode of the Showtime series Dexter and originally aired on 2006-10-08.
[edit] Plot
Dexter is stalking his next victim, a drunk driver about to be acquitted for the murder of a teenage boy. But when a fellow cop is found murdered, Dexter has to put that on hold to help Homicide Detectives Batista and Doakes investigate a crime boss suspected of the murder. It gets even more personal when the crime boss also orders a hit on the wife of the murdered cop. Meanwhile, the hooker-hunting Ice Truck Killer strikes again and leaves a macabre piece of evidence that Deborah finds, gaining her the transfer she wanted out of Vice and into Homicide.
The episode opens with Dexter floating in the water, watching people play on jet skis, with the narration saying “Look at them, they can laugh and play, it comes so easily for them,” Dexter is floating around like a crocodile, or as he says “today I’m just a sea monster.”
He tells us that he knows he will soon have to go back to work, both for the police department and as a killer himself, and so, he is determined to enjoy the day.
Back at Dexter’s apartment, Deb shows up to share some bagels and talk about the serial killer case with him. She shows a bit of her sensitive side when she asks “Why is it we never talk brother/sister stuff?” Dexter’s reply sums it up. “Our dad was a cop, you’re a cop, I work for the cops, for us this is brother/sister stuff.”
Just before she leaves, she helps Dexter to pick out a tie to wear, since he will have to testify in court. As he takes the stand to discuss a case, we learn that up until now, Dexter has been involved in exactly 2103 cases, having worked for the police department for almost 12 years.
Dexter actually enjoys going to court, seeing humanity (the good and the bad) all on their best behavior. It is also while here that he notices a family in grief and say that while others may see one thing, he sees “so much more than that, I see opportunity.” Dexter follows the distraught man of the family into another court room.
Here, Dexter overhears a “hit and run” case being argued against a Matthew Chambers who struck and killed one Alexander Price. Alexander we learn was a young man with a loving family, about to go to Harvard, who had everything to live for.
Watching this poor father have to testify, Dexter says “I see their pain, on some level I even understand their pain, I just can’t feel their pain.”
After court, while driving, Dexter is eating a banana, which he describes as the “perfect driving food, next to a pulled pork sandwich.”
Arriving at a crime scene of a dead body under an overpass, Dexter runs into his unit commander and observes, “our boss, Lt. LaGuerta, in keeping with her total sense of entitlement, she has this attraction to me” and hilariously adds “and I thought I was creepy.”
Dexter determines where the body must have fallen from and the investigation begins. Dexter points out to Angel that there is something in the victim’s mouth, it appears to be human flesh.
Back at the police station, Deb describes that she has a new boyfriend (Shawn the mechanic) and Dexter invites them to join him and Rita on a date. Lt. LaGuerta announces that the dead body from under the causeway was one Ricky Simmons and he was a cop!
When on the way to a “next of kin notification” Lt. LaGuerta and Sgt. Doakes discover the wife of Ricky Simmons, Cara. She is shot, bleeding, and going into shock. While processing the crime scene, Dexter and Angel discover Cara’s cell phone under the couch. It turns out that Ricky was undercover in Carlos Guerrero’s crime family.
Dexter is next seeing playing with Rita’s children, who Rita quickly sends to their rooms with homemade cookies, so she and Dexter can have some “alone time.” Probably to avoid any intimacy, Dexter devours the cookies and distracts Rita with an invitation to “double-date” with Deb and her new boyfriend.
Debra calls Dexter very excitedly and tells him she has managed to find the ice truck. Dexter quickly joins her and the others on the scene, when they open the back of the still-running truck; they find a large block of ice. Inside the ice, are perfectly frozen fingertips, probably belonging to the last victim of the serial killer. Dexter is amazed that the killer has left “exactly what we need to identify the victim” by providing them with the fingertips (and therefore fingerprints).
Stepping out of the truck and into the sun, Dexter muses “another beautiful Miami day, mutilated corpses with a chance of afternoon showers.”
In the frozen ice, as it melts, we notice (as does Dexter) that the fingernails are painted the same exact colors as those on the cut-up doll left in Dexter’s freezer in the first episode. “Ice truck killer returns, dead undercover cop, it’s a typical day in the neighborhood.”
From the flesh in the mouth of the dead police officer, a DNA match has been made and the police now know who it was that killed the cop. Sgt. Doakes makes the arrest and even though Carlos Guerrero is there with the man at the time of his arrest, they cannot arrest him too.
Back in court, Dexter is watching Matthew Chambers testify like a pro and while crying “crocodile tears” gets the jury to let him off. We know that Dexter won’t.
Angel and Dexter go back to the house to review the crime scene and it this time that Dexter discovers a single blood drop that cannot belong to the wife. A DNA match confirms that the blood belongs to the same man who threw the cop off the overpass.
In a flashback we find out that Harry Morgan’s partner, Davie Sanchez was killed on the job and his death has left feeling like his “world is out of control.” Harry tells Dexter that the need to find the man who did the murder comes from something “deep inside.”
Dexter goes to a bar, to have a drink and watch Matthew Chambers who claimed in court to be sober, drinking himself. He has an interesting conversation with Matt and further confirms his decision to kill him. While obviously too drunk, Matt drives his car away anyway. Dexter does more searching and discovers that Matt has done similar crimes in many other places. All true to the “code of Harry” Dexter is now sure. Dexter sets up the room he will use later when he “Dexterizes” him.
Dexter, Deb, Rita and Shawn have their dinner date together and Rita feels a little uncomfortable that she and Dexter aren’t as “touchy-feely” as Deb and Shawn. It is now when Dexter utters “I can kill a man, dismember his body, and be home in time for Letterman, but knowing what to say when my girlfriend's feeling insecure....I'm totally lost.”
At Rita’s home another awkward moment ensues when Rita and Dexter start to make-out and as the moment falls apart, Dexter observes “We have an elephant in the room, and its name is sex.”
For her work on the case, a reluctant Lt. LaGuerta is forced to agree with the Captain who re-assigns Deb to homicide. She is finally off vice duty and could not be happier. Later Lt. LaGuerta has to tell Sgt. Doakes that Cara Simmons has died. From his reaction to the news, she confirms her suspicion that Doakes was having an affair with her. Still she decides to leave him on the case.
Dexter is just about to follow Matt Chambers into his house and kill him when he gets a message from Deb to come join her immediately at Loco’s crab shack, she has news. It is not just that she has been transferred that has Deb upset; she has learned that Shawn was married. Carlos Guerrero also arrives to the crab shack and Dexter follows him into the bathroom where he briefly contemplates abandoning the “code of Harry” and killing him.
Instead he sticks with his original plan and returns to Matt’s home to take him away to his “last change of address” and kill him. Looking over to his refrigerator, Dexter sees that the severed doll’s head has been put back on the outside door. When he opens the freezer he discovers all the other parts of the doll have been taken. Dexter determines this to be a message that says “come find me” and Dexter vows “I will.”
The episode closes with Dexter’s voice saying “there are no secrets in life, just hidden truths that lie beneath the surface” and with that, Dexter slides beneath the surface of his bathtub like a crocodile.
[edit] Guest Stars
- Susanne Krietman Taylor as Detective Sue
- Ethan S. Smith as Jamie Jaworski
- Devon Graye as Teenage Dexter
- Christina Robinson as Astor
- Maureen Muldoon as Kara
- Brandon Morris as EMT
- Roger Hewlett as Mr. Pryce
- Andrew Hawkes as Guard
- Roxanne Beckford as Reporter
- Camilla Banus as Girl Swimming
- Nina Onuora as Uniform #1
- Keith Pillow as Lawyer
- Erik Joseph as Police Officer
- Dominic Janes as Young Dexter
- Jason Bartley as Crime Scene Officer
- Geoff Pierson as Captain Matthews
- Sam Trammell as Matt Chambers
