Episode 505: First Blood

First Blood is the fifth of twelve episodes in Season Five of DEXTER, and the fifty-third overall episode of the series. It first aired 24 October 2010 on Showtime.

When Dexter is saddled with an unwanted conspirator, he is forced to make some hard decisions about her fate; meanwhile, Dexter wonders if Rita's death has awakened a darkness inside Harrison; due to Quinn's recent suspension, Debra works the Santa Muerte Case alone, leaving Quinn time to enlist an old friend to look into Dexter

Summary
Dexter and Harrison are attending a Mommy and Me parenting class. As Dexter watches Harrison, he thinks, ''I want to believe that smile. That watching your mother die hasn't changed you the way watching mine changed me.''

The kids are playing together when a young boy, Teddy, starts crying. A scratch is noticed on his cheek in the same spot where Dexter collects his victims’ blood. As Teddy’s mother carries him away, the boy points an accusing finger at Harrison. Dexter suspects that Harrison is responsible for the scratch and worries that he has a dark side. He beats a hasty retreat with his son. As he's placing Harrison in a car seat, Harrison suddenly scratches Dexter's cheek.

Dexter has released Lumen and she's staying at the Towne House Motel. While she's sitting alone in the Boardwalk Cafe, tearing up packets of sugar, Dexter sits down at her table. Lumen isn't happy to see him and vice versa. Dexter was hoping that Lumen had left Miami because she saw him murder Boyd Fowler. He advises her to forget what happened and move on with her life. Instead, Lumen wants Dexter to help find and kill her rapists. He says that would just make matters worse. When Dexter gives her a plane ticket to Minneapolis, Lumen only sees it as evidence that he wants to get rid of her. She gets up and leaves, but takes the ticket with her. Dexter hopes he can check this problem off the list.

While Debra is getting dressed for work, Quinn tries to persuade her to go back to bed. She’s annoyed that he is on "vacation" and says, "I'm running down leads and you're sitting around in your boxer shorts watching TV all day." Quinn claims that he had to use his vacation days or lose them. Debra retorts that it's "bullshit." She’s not aware that Quinn is really home because he"s on suspension for trying to question Jonah Mitchell while he was in FBI protection.

Debra and Angel visit Jandro Mendoza in the hospital as he"s recovering from having his throat cut by Carlos Fuentes. Jandro remembers an "eye tattoo" on his attacker"s hand and draws a picture of it for them.

Dexter is in his lab doing a search for Boyd's accomplices, but nothing in his arrest record hints that he had help. Debra enters, bringing Dexter the coffee he left on the hood of his car. He claims that he has fifty things on his mind because Masuka didn't keep up the caseload. He grimaces when Debra wishes him good luck getting the midget porn off his hard drive. She asks if Harrison broke any hearts at Mommy and Me. Dexter doesn’t tell her that Harrison drew his “first blood.” When Dexter mentions that she didn't come home last night, Debra says it was late and didn't want to wake him, so she crashed at a friend's house. Dexter doesn't buy it and asks, "Oh, what friend?" She retorts, "What, are you Mom now?" Debra asks him to lunch, but Dexter says he will be "dining on backlog." Actually, he plans a visit to Boyd's house.

Angel feels jealous while watching Maria and Jim McCourt talk in her office. He asks Debra if she finds McCourt attractive and if she would sleep with him. Debra responds that she'd rather put a campfire out with her face, which clearly relieves Angel.

Debra informs Angel that Cira Manzon will stay on the ATM surveillance while she tracks down the tattoo, which Angel thinks looks like a UFO. Debra and Angel decide to speak to a tattoo expert. They meet with Masuka and he shows them a tattoo of a dragon lady on his back. He says that it represents the dualities of his inner warrior. Debra mockingly replies, "or your inner idiot." Masuka recommends his own tattoo artist, Michael Angelo, who will know if the tattoo was done by anyone local.

Dexter breaks into Boyd's house to learn the identity of Boyd's accomplices. However, someone has already been there. The house is a mess and there is a broken window. As Dexter goes through Boyd"s files, he finds an empty envelope with a bloody fingerprint on it. He takes it home to run it through the database.

Dexter asks Sonya if she's ever noticed Harrison being aggressive. She assures him that Harrison is a very gentle child.

There’s no match for the fingerprint in the criminal database, so Dexter checks the DMV. He finds a Minnesota match for Lumen and is surprised that she broke into Boyd's house before he did.

Dexter breaks into Lumen's motel and is shocked to find a wall covered with rape articles, news clippings, police case numbers, and a large map. There is also a letter from Boyd's cellmate, Robert Brunner, who seems to be her target. Dexter notices that Lumen has been sleeping in the closet, where she apparently feels safe. He thinks that her behavior will endanger them both.

Lumen returns to the Boardwalk Cafe and is not happy to find Dexter waiting for her. He accuses her of looking for the men who hurt her, and she asks if he’s spying on her. Dexter wants to know what she is going to do if she catches one of the guys. Lumen answers that she will do what he won't, and points out that she asked for his help but he turned her down. Lumen says she's grateful that Dexter saved her life, but now he needs to leave her alone. Dexter reaches out to stop her and she yells, "Don't touch me!" causing the other diners to stare at them. Dexter reminds Lumen that the men put five women in barrels and urges her to abandon her dangerous plan.

Angel questions Maria about Quinn's vacation because he's needed back at work, but she claims it's out of her hands. He then asks about his IA case, and if there's anything else he needs to know about. Maria assures Angel there isn't. She then notifies him that she might be late that night and departs. Angel is suspicious and hurries outside in time to see Maria leave in a car with McCourt.

Francis brings Brunner's file to Dexter, but she wont give it to him until he lets her see photos of Harrison, who is now ten months old. As Dexter reads through the file, he learns that Brunner committed abduction, rape, and torture. He was sentenced to seven years but was out in three for good behavior. When Dexter looks at the photos of Brunner’s victims, he notices that their injuries are similar to Lumen’s wounds. Francis says Brunner is living under Tuttle Bridge because sex offenders can't live anywhere near kids.

Masuka takes Debra to meet Michael Angelo, a female tattoo artist. After looking at Jandro's sketch of Carlos Fuentes' tattoo, she says that it's definitely a simplistic eye and shows them similar eye designs. While Debra is there, Michael flirts with her.

Cira tells Debra there is footage of eight people freaking out at ATMs while they're withdrawing maximum amounts of money. That behavior is the same as the first Santa Muerte victims. Debra wants their addresses so they can go house to house the next day.

Dexter tracks Brunner to a tent under the Julia Tuttle Causeway where he's living with other sex offenders. Pretending to be one of them, Dexter sits down with Brunner and they chat for a bit. When Brunner begins to brag about raping women, Dexter injects him with M99 and takes him to the Kill Room meant for Boyd. As Dexter starts his ritual, he notices an ankle monitor on Brunner and realizes that he can't be one of Lumen's attackers. Angry that he almost killed the wrong guy, Dexter dumps an unconscious Brunner near the bridge.

Dexter returns to the apartment early and finds Quinn sitting on the couch with Debra, drinking a beer. Dexter asks her why Quinn is there and she stammers that he wanted to borrow a book. As Quinn is leaving, he leans to kiss Debra, but she pulls away. Quinn looks over at Dexter, notices black gloves in his back pocket, and says, "Kinda warm for gloves." After Quinn is gone, Debra admits to Dexter that she and Quinn are "fuck buddies." Dexter expresses disdain for Quinn and orders Debra not to bring him around when Harrison is there.

Maria arrives home late without calling. She tells Angel that she was working and goes to take a shower. While she's out of the room, Angel checks her phone and reads a message from McCourt telling her to meet him the next day at the Beach Inn Motel.

Dexter returns to Lumen's motel to convince her to move on, but she's not there. The clerk says he just missed her and that she was asking about Tuttle Bridge.

Lumen has been walking around under the bridge, wearing a hoodie. She finally finds Brunner and is about to shoot him when Dexter stops her. She's angry at him until he explains why Brunner is not one of her rapists. Lumen, realizing that she almost killed the wrong man, falls apart and agrees to return to Minnesota.

Debra and Cira are visiting the homes of people on their list. When they see flies inside a window of one house, they kick in the door. They are horrified to find two rotting corpses covered with maggots. Cira runs outside and vomits while Debra calls for backup.

Angel, suspecting that Maria is having an affair with McCourt, bursts into the Beach Inn Motel. He swears at McCourt and begins to attack him. Maria orders Angel to back off and says that she is working undercover. If she helps I.A. arrest a narcotics cop on the take, Angel's bar fight charges will be dropped. Angel explains his behavior in that she barely talks to him, comes home late, and sneaks around. He asks, "Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn't you trust me?" Stan Liddy is shown handcuffed in another room. Just then, Angel and Maria are called to the Ortiz crime scene.

Maria and Angel arrive at the site separately. Dexter, Masuka, Debra, and reporters are already there. Masuka exhibits his knowledge of insects. "It's like the fucking food chain in action in there. Flies -- the blow flies are attracted by the smell and they lay eggs, and the beetles -- they're drawn by the larvae, and they burrow into every orifice --"

It’s determined that the man and woman were killed about four weeks ago by machete. However, since there aren't any cult relics present and the defensive wounds suggest inexperienced killers, Dexter proposes that Awilda and Daniel were the Fuentes Brothers' first victims.

Debra spots something across the street and tears away a few posters on a wall. She’s excited to find a symbol that matches Jandro's description of Carlos's tattoo, which she discovers is actually a hand stamp from Club Mayan.

Dexter takes Lumen to the airport and finally tells her his full name. He says she can call him if she needs to talk about what happened. After Dexter leaves, Lumen is forced by airport security to undergo a body search, during which she has a panic attack.

Over the phone, Deb tells Quinn that Carlos and his brother hang out at Club Mayan and they are going to stake it out. Quinn says he will pick up steaks and beer to celebrate.

When Quinn hangs up from a bar, Stan Liddy thanks him for buying him a drink. They both begin to complain about LaGuerta. Liddy states that he's going to fight his case down to his last dime. Quinn offers to hire him to look into a guy so that he'll have money to pay his lawyers. At first, Liddy is suspicious and warns, "If you fuck with the bull, you get the horn." The two stare off, and then they both laugh. When Quinn reveals the guy’s name, Liddy asks, "What the fuck kind of name is Dexter?"

At a Mommy and Me class, Dexter overhears two mothers saying that Harrison will never be the same because he watched his mother die. Dexter promptly tells them that there's nothing wrong with his son. He then apologizes to Harrison for ever thinking the worst and promises that whatever they have to face, they’ll face together.

Lumen enters a taxi and the driver welcomes her to Miami.

Quotes

 * We all have something to hide, some dark place inside us we don't want the world to see. So we pretend everything's okay, wrapping ourselves in rainbows. And maybe that's all for the best, because some of these places are darker than others. - Dexter (voiceover)
 * "That’s a little too familiar. But I use a scalpel. All you have are your fingers...wiped clean. Not even a year old, you're already destroying evidence. And having to flee the scene of the crime." - Dexter, after Harrison scratches a boy’s cheek

Related Pages

 * Boardwalk Cafe
 * Boyd Fowler's House
 * Awilda and Daniel Ortiz's House
 * Dexter's Apartment
 * Fuentes Brothers
 * Julia Tuttle Causeway
 * Maria LaGuerta's House
 * Miami International Airport
 * Santa Muerte Case
 * Towne House Motel

Videos
First Blood