EPISODE 3: "Popping Cherry"
Episode summary:After the dead body of another of victim of the so-called "Ice Truck Killer" is found on the ice rink at Miami's Hockey Dome, Dexter helps out Debra, newly transfered to the homicide squad to investigate when Lt. Laguerta, ambitious for a promotion and the media spotlight, decides to have the department pursue a security guard whom they believe is the Ice Truck Killer. Meanwhile, Rita receives an unpleasant visit from her imprisoned ex-husband's drug dealer who confiscates her car, leading Dexter to drive her to and from her hotel receptionist job, while at the same time, Dexter zeros in on his next victim, a recently paroled teenage murderer who harbors some dark secrets of his own. Dexter also flashes back to committing his first killing: a nurse who was taking care care of his sick father, Harry told him that the nurse had been overdosing her patients (including him) and was slowly killing them, he told Dexter to kill her. Elsewhere, Sgt. Doakes continues to hound the drug kingpin Carlos Guerrero, but gets in over his head when a group of dirty cops decide to take matters involving Guerrero into their own hands. As the manhunt for the ice truck killer continues, another victim is found and a suspect emerges. Have they Identified the Ice Truck Killer at last?
Original air date: 10/15/2006
Written by: Daniel Cerone
Directed by: Michael Cuesta
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 Description of crime: Latest victim of the Ice Truck Killer is found at the Miami Blades ice arena.
Victim(s): Sherry "Cherry" Taylor, a prostitute
Assigned officer(s): Angel Batista, Vincent Masuka, Debra Morgan
Crime scene: Victim is posed inside the goal on the ice inside the arena
Suspect(s): Night watchman from the arena, Tony Tucci, who is missing; a stolen surveillance tape found in his apartment shows him assembling the body parts in the goal.
Clue(s): The body is missing her fingertips, which are assumed to be the ones found frozen in the block of ice in the back of the ice truck in the previous episode.
When Debra questions prostitutes, she learns that Cherry got into a wood-paneled station wagon the night she disappeared.
The killer uses liquid nitrogen to process the body parts.
Blood evidence suggests... No blood to analyze
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 Victim name: Mary, AKA Angel of Death, or First Nurse (Darkly Dreaming Dexter)
Age/Occupation: 40s; nurse
Where/how Dexter stalks victim: She is the nurse attending his father in the hospital. Harry encourages him to make her his first purposeful killing.
 Why victim deserves it: She over-medicates her patients with morphine, killing them.
Victim's victims: Her terminally ill patients
Dexter's kill methods and rituals: An amateur version of what we have seen of him in the future. The room is completely wrapped in plastic, to the point of overkill (pun intended). Dexter wears a full poncho, complete with hoodie. He attempts to inject her with the M-99 but ends up just wrestling her into submission.
On the table he stabs her in the side repeatedly. No blood slide was taken.
Victim's last words: "I helped them, all of them. I take their pain away."
Location of killing: Nurse's apartment
|  Victim Name: Jeremy Downs
Age/Occupation: 17 year old vagrant.
Where/how Dexter stalks victim: Dexter follows him into a swamp where he anticipates Jeremy to try to kill his own friend. When Dexter breaks up this gruesome little scene, Jeremy and his friend run away. Dexter later is able to track him down to a youth center and confront him there.
Why victim deserves it: He killed somebody violently at such a young age and Dexter has reason to believe he is trying to ritualize his murder.
Why Dexter let him live: Dexter saw himself in Jeremy once he discovered that Jeremy had killed the man he did because he was raped by him. Dexter and Jeremy could both agreed that the man deserved it. Dexter lets him live, but lets him off with a warning, telling him to only kill people who deserve it, because the boy in the swamp did not. |
FLASHBACKS
- He recalls hunting with Harry, learning the chief tenet of the Code of Harry: a killing must serve a purpose, otherwise it is just plain murder. Harry says: "When you take a man's life, you're not just killing him, you're snuffing out all the things he'll ever become."
- Harry, sick in the hospital convinced he is going to die, imparts some wisdom to Dex and Deb in case he dies soon. Harry is really speaking to Dexter about his murderous ways, but Debra is just confused.
- Harry tells Dexter the nurse is over-medicating him, as well as other patients, and gives Dexter is his blessing to kill the nurse.
- Dexter ambushes and murders the nurse in her own apartment, as her cat watches on apathetically.
| CLUES TO DEXTER'S PAST
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DEXTER'S RELATIONSHIPS
Developments with Rita:
- Dexter, Rita, and the kids plant a lemon tree in the front yard, and when one of Paul's old dealers stops by to take their car, Dexter stands back and lets him, per Rita's request.
- Dexter helps Rita with her kids by picking both of them up from school
- Dexter let's Rita borrow a car from the police impound, much to her delight.
| Interactions with others:
- Dexter buys Deb a cactus from the swap meet.
- Dexter has Jeremy Downs in his clutches, but decides to let him walk free when he realizes that Jeremy reminds him of himself as a young man, and that the boy Jeremy killed deserved to die. He warns him to never kill again unless the person deserves it.
- Dexter showed off his social cluelessness again when Masuka and Angel both have to explain what a "butterface" is, and what it means to "bronco" a girl.
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| SIGNIFICANCE OF EPISODE TITLE |
| The episode title comes from the slang term for piercing a women's hymen, usually during sex for the first time, which should be a special occasion. In this episode, there is a flashback to Dexter's killing of a human for the first time, which indeed was a special occasion for him. The title could also refer to the dead prostitutes name, Cherry. Popping is also a slang term for killing someone, so it ties into the sex theme of Cherry being a prostitute and also the fact that she has been murdered |
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Best Moments:
- One of the most intense scenes is when he follows Jeremy and Lucas into the swamp, and he is surprised by an alligator.
- [about going to the Captain behind LaGuerta's back]
Shanda: [Whistles]
Debra Morgan: What?
Bella: Never piss off your pimp.
Debra Morgan: LaGuerta's not my pimp.
Shanda: Is that right... b!tch tell you what to do?
Bella: Is your p^ssy taking all the risk?
Prostitute #1: Does she steal everything you earn?
Debra Morgan: Yeah, she definitely does that.
Bella: She's your pimp, baby, and she will mess you up if you play her.
- Dexter sees Jeremy wondering off into the woods of an Alligator park with a "friend" of Jeremy's. Dexter saves the boy, and asks himself "What am I doing out here?" Then, an alligator that was laying in bushes startles him with a snarl, Dexter falls down and loudly proclaims "F^ck! F^ck!" Stumbles into a tree and grabs it "AHHH!"
| Best Lines: - "Things were a little messy in the beginning, Hey perfecting a new craft takes time" (Dexter reminiscing his first kill)
- "Most people have a hard time dealing with death- but I'm not most people.It's the grief that makes me uncomfortable. Not because I'm a killer. Really I just don't understand all that emotion, which makes it hard to fake. In those cases, shades come in handy" (Dexter to himself, at Ricky Simmons' funeral)
- Deb: How you holding up? Dexter: I'm managing.
Dexter (to himself): No I'm not. Keeping your face pinched in sorrow for two hours straight is a real chore. - "Killing must serve a purpose. Otherwise it's just plain murder" (Harry Morgan to young Dexter).
- "If you feel like you're slipping, lean on your sister. She'll keep you connected" (Harry to Dexter).
- "But of course it was Harry who paved the road to my salvation. With the nurse put down, Harry lived another year before hardening arteries squeezed the last bit of life from him. But his lessons have never failed me. Harry taught me that death isn't the end- it's the beginning of a chain reaction that will catch you if you're not careful. He taught me that none of us are who we appear to be on the outside- but we must maintain appearances to survive. But there was something Harry didn't teach me. Something he didn't know- couldn't possibly know. The willful taking of life represents the ultimate disconnect from humanity. It leaves you an outsider, forever looking in, searching for company to keep. All you can do is play along at life, and hope that sometimes you get it right". (Dexter to himself)
- "Score one for the little wooden boy". (Dexter to himself)
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EPISODE TRIVIA
- Goof:Deb tells Captain Matthews she got a tip about a wood-paneled station wagon from Gabrielle, one of her vice contacts. In fact, it was a different hooker named Bella who gave Deb the tip
- Jeremy Downs goes to Dade County Juvenile Prison.
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ORIGINAL VERSUS NETWORK BROADCAST
This one is for the superfans, tell the newbie fans what they're missin' out on!
 IN THE SHOWTIME SERIES | |  IN THE CBS BROADCAST | | | | |
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