Rats

Rats are animal characters in Season One of the Showtime series DEXTER that also exist in real life.

Vince Masuka finds a clue to the identity of The Ice Truck Killer in a rat’s nest -- a lozenge wrapper.

Description
The rat species featured is the Brown Rat. It’s a nocturnal medium-sized, long-tailed rodent, generally with brown or dark gray coarse fur.

Season One

 * "Let's Give the Boy a Hand"

Dexter Morgan finds a smiley face left by The Ice Truck Killer on a photo of the Angel of Mercy Hospital. It was the place where Harry Morgan's father had worked for many years.

After dark, Dexter enters the abandoned hospital and walks through the halls, his flashlight exposing the presence of rats. From the basement stairs, Dexter can see Tony Tucci lying bound to a table, blindfolded, and set up for Dexter to kill him. Rats are scurrying around Tony’s bed. Dexter, though, decides that Tucci fails to meet his code and refuses to kill him. He leaves, and immediately sends Debra an anonymous tip leading her to the hospital where Tucci is found alive.


 * "Love American Style"

By morning, the hospital is swarming with police officers and forensic technicians. Dexter again walks down a hall as rats scamper in front of him. Dexter tells Maria LaGuerta that the killer was clean and left no evidence, and all blood was from Tucci. As Dexter and Vince Masuka remove the bedding, Masuka hears what he thinks are rats and freezes. He says they all will get Histoplasmosis from the their shit and dust, which causes coughing up blood, skin lesions, and mouth sores. Dexter ignores him and keeps working. When Masuka asks if he’s heard of Rat-Bite Fever, James Doakes yells at him to stop with the rat talk.

Tucci is interviewed by Debra and Doakes, but he is of little help, as he hadn't seen the killer's face, being blindfolded the entire time. He, though, can’t forget how rats would crawl up on his bed and he had to shake them off.

At the lab, Vince finds a rat hair and says he’s worried that he picked up a parasite, causing Doakes to sternly state, “Don’t test me, Masuka!” Debra and Doakes are shown a sheet that was shredded by rats for their nests. Since this means that the rats took evidence away from the crime scene, Doakes wants to check their nests. Fearful of catching a disease from the rats, Masuka is reluctant to do this, saying it’s a wild goose chase.

Tucci is blindfolded at Debra's suggestion, and asked what he remembers hearing while he was held captive. He again mentions the rats. Finally, Tucci recalls the smell of menthol and a crinkly sound as his captor unwrapped lozenges. They made a clicking sound against his teeth as he sucked on them.

The team returns to the hospital to search the nests of rats. Mausuka finds a lozenge wrapper in one of them which has a partial fingerprint on it. While Debra is on Rudy's Yacht, he begins sucking on a menthol lozenge, which unsettles her. She picks up the wrapper which is identical to the one found in a rat's nest. “Rudy” suddenly attacks her and she realizes he is The Ice Truck Killer.
 * “Truth Be Told”

Related Pages

 * Angel of Mercy Hospital
 * Tony Tucci
 * Vince Masuka
 * Brian Moser

Brown Rat Trivia

 * The brown rat is also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat, Norwegian rat, Parisian rat, water rat, or wharf rat. Thought to have originated in northern China, it has now spread to all continents, except Antarctica.
 * Brown rats dig well, and often excavate extensive burrow systems. They have an average home range of 25 -- 100 feet from their nest. They are also excellent swimmers.
 * Rat incisors continually grow throughout life, having to be worn down by frequent gnawing. They have caused electrical fires by chewing on wiring.
 * Females are capable of becoming pregnant immediately after giving birth, and can nurse one litter while pregnant with another. Life spans range from one to three years. Males grow larger than females.
 * Specially bred rats (known as Fancy Rats) have been kept as pets since at least the late 19th century. Pet fancy rats are generally friendly and can be taught selected behaviors. It’s important they have access to an exercise wheel.
 * Tamed rats are also used as working animals, which include sniffing out gunshot residue, laying computer cable, performing in entertainment acts, or providing therapy assistance.