Joe Driscoll's House

Joe Driscoll’s House is a location in Showtime’s series DEXTER.

It is a gray, single story house in a residential neighborhood of Dade City, Florida. Dexter unexpectedly inherits it from his biological father.

Season One[]

“Father Knows Best”

While at work, Dexter receives a registered letter that notifies him of the death of his father, Joe Driscoll. It names Dexter executer of his will, and states that Dexter has inherited Driscoll’s house. The letter puzzles Dexter because, according to Harry, his biological parents died in an accident many years ago. Although Dexter initially assumes it is a mistake, he and Rita drive to Dade City.

Before entering Driscoll’s house, Dexter meets an elderly neighbor, Irma Holt. Once inside, Dexter notices bowling trophies and a photo of Driscoll’s bowling team. Dexter wants to sell the house since he doesn’t want to live in Dade City, so Rita says they need to pack it up.

To Dexter’s surprise, Debra and her boyfriend, Rudy Cooper, unexpectedly show up to offer their help. Rudy greets Dexter with a warm embrace, saying that he has wanted to meet Dexter to a long time. In lieu of a hotel, Dexter agrees to let Debra and Rudy stay in the house, if they don’t mind sleeping on the sofa bed.

Early the next morning, Dexter runs into Rudy making coffee in the kitchen. Rudy offers to accompany Dexter to the morgue, but is turned down. At the morgue, Dr. Pittman shows Dexter the body of Joe Driscoll, and Dexter notices Driscoll’s arm tattoo. Dr. Pitmann says that he got it in Vietnam, but Dexter disputes this saying that it is a prison tattoo, three or four decades old. While Dexter looks at the tattoo, he has a flashback of himself as a very young boy, riding in a car with a man who had an identical tattoo. When Dr. Pittman leaves the room, Dexter secretly takes a blood sample to test Driscoll’s DNA against his own. It later comes back a match, proving that Driscoll is Dexter’s father.

That night, while going through papers, Dexter learns that Driscoll purchased the house outright with cash in 1976. He can find no records before then, and no childhood photos. Debra questions why Driscoll’s life seemed to start when he was 30. Dexter speculates that Driscoll spent some time in prison, mixed with some bad people, and maybe had to hide from them. Rita adds that drugs were involved, and reveals a box of Narcotics Anonymous chips.

Rudy finds nothing post-1980 in Driscoll’s rock and roll music collection and plays the record “Slow Ride” by Foghat. He and Debra begin to dance, and they encourage Rita and Dexter to join them. Dexter has no interest in dancing, and Rita takes a phone call from Paul.

When Irma Holt informs Dexter that a cable repairman visited Driscoll the week before, Dexter suspects that Driscoll was murdered. Before he can obtain proof, the body is cremated. Dexter steals the ashes and Rudy persuades him to scatter them in front of Driscoll's favorite bowling alley.

Dexter returns to the house, and Rita directs him to a box of papers she came across. Inside, he finds a "Thank You" card that he himself had written as a boy, after he received a blood transfusion from an unknown man. Dexter realizes that Harry always knew his father was alive and kept this a secret from him.

The next morning, the four of them depart for Miami. As Rudy drives off, Irma Holt calls out, “Cable repairman! Wait! Don’t go!”

Joe Driscoll’s Murder[]

Driscoll met his death at the age of 60, when Rudy (Brian Moser) murdered him as a way to reconnect with his long-lost brother. Rudy accessed Driscoll’s house while disguised as a cable repairman. He then slipped Driscoll a sedative, and injected him with diabetic insulin, causing Driscoll to have a seizure and die of cardiac arrest.