Crocodile (Dexter episode)

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“Crocodile”
Dexter episode

Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 2
Written by	Clyde Phillips
Directed by	Michael Cuesta
Production no.	102
Original airdate	October 8, 2006
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"Crocodile" is the second episode of the Showtime series Dexter and originally aired on October 8, 2006.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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 Debra 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. He is floating like a crocodile, or as he says, “today I’m just a sea monster.” He says 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, Debra shows up to share some bagels and talk with him about the serial killer case. 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 is scheduled to testify in court. As he takes the stand to discuss a case, we learn that Dexter has been involved in exactly 2,103 cases, having worked for the police department for almost 12 years.

Dexter actually enjoys going to court, seeing humanity (the good and the bad) on their best behavior. He notices a family in grief and says that while others may see one thing, he sees “so much more than that, I see opportunity.” Dexter follows the distraught family into a court room. Dexter overhears a hit and run case against a Matthew Chambers, who struck and killed one Alexander Price. Alexander 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, 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, has this attraction to me” and hilariously adds “and I thought I was creepy.” Dexter determines where the body must have fallen from and 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 reveals 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 man from under the causeway was one Ricky Simmons — and he was a cop. On a “next of kin notification,” LaGuerta and Doakes discover Ricky Simmons’ wife, 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 seen playing with Rita’s children; Rita quickly sends them to their rooms with homemade cookies, so she and Dexter can have some “alone time.” Probably to avoid intimacy, Dexter devours the cookies and distracts Rita with an invitation to double-date with Debra and her new boyfriend.

Debra calls Dexter and excitedly tells him that she has found the ice truck. Dexter quickly joins her and the others at the scene. In the back of the still-running truck, they find fingertips, probably belonging to the last victim of the serial killer, embedded in a large block of ice. Dexter is amazed that the killer has left “exactly what we need to identify the victim” — 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.” As the frozen ice melts, Dexter realizes that the fingernails are painted the exact same colors as those on the cut-up doll left in Dexter’s freezer at home (in the first episode).

A DNA match has been made on the flesh in the mouth of the dead police officer, and the police now know who killed the undercover cop Ricky Simmons. Sgt. Doakes makes the arrest; Carlos Guerrero is with the man, but Doakes can’t arrest him.

Back in court, Dexter watches Matthew Chambers testify like a pro while crying “crocodile tears.” The jury lets him off. We know that Dexter won’t.

Angel and Dexter go back to the Simmons house to review the crime scene. 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 flashback, it is revealed that Harry Morgan’s partner, Davie Sanchez, was killed on the job and his death has left Harry feeling like his “world is out of control.” Harry tells Dexter that the need to find the man who committed the murder comes from something “deep inside.”

Dexter goes to a bar and watches Matthew Chambers, who claimed in court to be sober, drinking. He has an interesting conversation with Matt, and further confirms his decision to kill Chambers. While obviously drunk, Chambers drives his car away anyway. Dexter does more searching and discovers that Chambers has committed similar crimes in many other places. True to the “code of Harry” Dexter is now sure, and sets up the room he will use later when he “Dexterizes” Chambers.

Dexter, Rita, Debra, 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. Dexter muses, “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.”

Recognizing Debra’s work on the case, a reluctant Lt. LaGuerta is forced to agree with the Captain who re-assigns Deb to Homicide. Debra 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, LaGuerta confirms her suspicion that Doakes was having an affair with Cara. Nevertheless, she decides to leave Doakes on the case.

Dexter is just about to follow Matt Chambers to kill him when he gets a message from Deb to join her immediately at Loco’s crab shack. She has news; Shawn is married. Carlos Guerrero also arrives at Loco’s. 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 house to take him away to his “last change of address.”

Back at his own home, Dexter sees that the severed doll’s head has been put back on the outside door of his refrigerator. When he opens the freezer, he discovers that all the other parts of the doll have been removed. Dexter decides that this is a message that says “come find me.” 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.” With that, Dexter slides beneath the surface of his bath water, like a crocodile.

[edit] Trivia

When Angel kneels down to retrieve the cell phone from under the couch, he puts his knee in the middle of a blood stain.
When Deb is asked to see Lt. LaGuerta and Captain Matthews, she is talking to Dexter in uniform and on her left shoulder is her radio. It is there when she hugs the Captain after being re-assigned and then it is gone as she stands ready to leave the room.
Sgt. Doakes takes down Norberto's photo from the chart. When Lt. Laguerta later comes to speak with him, not only has the photo reappeared, but he's seen taking down another photo. In the close-up it's the photo on the right in the middle but in the long shot it's the photo on the bottom right.
Chocolate, a favourite food of the ice truck killer, is found in the ice truck after it is taken apart.

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