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Return to Sender is the sixth of twelve episodes in Season One of the Showtime series DEXTER, and the sixth overall episode of the series. It first aired 5 November 2006.

Dexter Morgan must find a way to cover up his last kill, even if it means using Debra's lack of experience against her.

Summary[]

At Rita Bennett' House, Cody stands by Dexter Morgan as he solemnly drops the fish into the toilet and flushes it. Cody simply remarks that he wants a "snail" now, before running off to eat breakfast. Dexter reflects on the fact that he has sent many to a watery grave. At that moment, the fish floats back into the toilet bowl.

Astor looks through a magazine and decides that she wants a coconut cake for her birthday.

While eating breakfast, Dexter is called to a crime scene, only to discover that it is the same salvage yard where he committed a double murder the previous night. He finds Valerie Castillo's body lying in the Airstream trailer where he killed her and her husband Jorge, despite having thrown their corpses into the ocean. He suspects that "The Ice Truck Killer"— a serial killer with whom Dexter has a murky personal connection — dived underwater 100 feet to retrieve the woman's body and plant it in the trailer.

While examining Valerie's body, Vince Masuka finds a needle mark on her neck. Dexter suggests that it is bug bite.

LaGuerta, Sgt. James Doakes and Debra search the "garage" where it is apparent that people where held hostage as it reeks of human waste. Debra finds a phone number and the name "Mariel. Doakes thinks that Valerie's husband killed her since he is missing.

In the yard, they discover a young Cuban boy, Oscar, hiding in the trunk of a car who claims to have seen somebody take Valerie into the trailer.

In a flashback, teenage Debra begs her father to let her go pheasant hunting with him and Dexter. However, he won't let her and orders her to go swimming with the Logans. He says he wants to see her backflip when he comes home.

Rita receives a phone call from Paul Bennett, her estranged husband who has been released early from prison.

Miami Metro Homicide manages to track down Mariel thanks to the phone number found in the garage. Detective Angel Batista and Officer Debra Morgan question Mariel and she tells them what happened that night. She calls Valerie a "concha" and wants them to make her suffer. They then ask Mariel about a boy named Oscar who was found hiding at the scene. Mariel said there was no boy with them when she was there.

Masuka shows Dexter a lab report that proves M99 was in Valerie's system. He says the only way to get it is with a DEA license and he has requested a list of everyone who has the license. Dexter realizes that his name is on that list albeit under an alias.

An upset Rita calls Dexter and tells him that Paul wants to come to Astor's birthday party.

The homicide team searches Jorge Castillo's house. Doakes still suspects him for killing his wife, but Debra thinks it might be a copycat killer because Valerie was bled out. Doakes phone rings and he again doesn't answer it; Debra asks who is he avoiding.

Dexter returns to the salvage yard. He enters the trunk of the car where Oscar was found and looks through the peephole. The boy could have easily seen him capturing Valerie.

Doakes takes Debra to his mother's house for dinner to provide an excuse to leave early. However, she ends up causing him to stay longer as she spends the evening chatting easily with his family.

At Rita's house, she tells Dexter that Paul has a bad temper when using and she stayed with him because he threatened to find her if she left. She says Astor is the one who called the police the last time Paul was abusive. Dexter assures Rita that if Paul shows up, they will deal with it. Cody overhears his father's name and is excited but Astor runs out of the room.

In a dream, Dexter holds his hand out into rain and it turns to blood. He begins to fear discovery, and experiences his first nightmare: Debra is a serial killer with an identical modus operandi to Dexter. He abruptly awakes and feels his cheek to see if it was sliced.

At work the next day, Dexter hacks into Masuka's email and deletes his alias from the list of people who can obtain M99.

As the investigation proceeds, he attempts to shoot down each of his colleagues' leads on the case. When Debra asks him to read through her report on the killer, profiling a man sharing many of Dexter's characteristics, he second-guesses her theory and she is hurt.

In flashbacks, a teenage Debra pleads with her father Harry bring her on his and Dexter's hunting trips. When Harry forbids her from joining them, she steals his gun and practices shooting cans by herself. Later, Debra lashes out at Dexter in jealousy of the time that he spends alone with their father, apologizes immediately and Dexter dismisses it and lets her keep the can used for target practice telling her that she’s better at shooting than he is.

While Oscar works with a sketch artist describing who saved him, Maria and Oscar begin to bond, and Maria even considers adopting him. However, Oscar's Uncle Roberto is located in Tampa and he arrives to take a happy Oscar back to live with him.

Debra helps LaGuerta remove a hair stuck on her contact lens.

Astor apologizes to her mother for wetting the bed, and Rita comforts her.

Worried about coming under suspicion, Dexter throws all of his knives overboard from his boat, but while looking at the blood drops from his victims, he notices that Valerie's slide has a happy face etched into the blood. He realizes that this is a hint from The Ice Truck Killer, and plants Jorge's fingerprints and a dry drop of Valerie's blood onto a knife, which he hides in a car at the salvage yard. He convinces Doakes to organize another search of the yard and a Police Cadet finds the knife.

Meanwhile, Rita dissuades her abusive husband Paul Bennett from attending their daughter Astor's birthday party after he is released early from prison.

LaGuerta bonds with Oscar and considers adopting him until his uncle arrives to take him home.

Astor's birthday party is a success and she is happy that her father didn't show up.

After successfully framing Jorge for Valerie's murder, Dexter discovers that Oscar's description of the man who "saved" him from Valerie is in fact of Jesus, not Dexter.

Dexter changes the lock on his door.

Quotes[]

  • I don't get birthdays -- The party, the song. Celebrating another year just being alive feels... forced. -Dexter narrating
  • "All we got so far is that he's [Oscar] Cuban and he seems to like LaGuerta. Spend enough time in a hot trunk, I guess she'd look good to anybody." - Debra to Dexter
  • "My neat little world of lies is crumbling all around me, and I can't tell a soul, especially not Deb." -Dexter, voiceover
  • "What we do on these weekends your sister can never know about. Keeping the truth from the people closest to you is how you'll survive......and how you'll protect them if anything ever goes wrong." - Harry to Dexter
  • "I shouldn't even be here. Rita will be devastated if I'm arrested. Her husband was a crackhead, her boyfriend's a serial killer. It's kind of hard not to take that personally. Dexter voiceover
  • "I don't have bad dreams. When I sleep, all of me sleeps. Nothing ever goes bump in Dexter's night. I've never felt a moment of remorse, doubt, regret. What's happening to me? If my back wasn't against the wall, I'd almost feel guilty for hacking into Masuka's e-mail. Once I got past all the porn, it was easy. And there I am. Dr. Patrick Bateman -- So wholesome, so inconspicuous. Harry would frown upon destroying evidence, but he never wanted me to get caught, either. -Dexter voiceover
  • "The similar manner in which the victim's body was displayed suggests this k*ller "feels a connection to the ice-truck k*ller, "excited by what he's doing. "The cut on the victim's cheek, while not fatal, "appears to be a signature of sorts. "Because of the lack of evidence collected from the crime scene, "the suspect may be familiar "with law enforcement or forensics procedure." -Debra's profile of Valerie's killer
  • "What I really needed was tits. I had Winnie the Poohs on my bras until I was 16. As you can see, not a whole lot's changed since then. -Debra to LaGuerta
  • "You're loud, you're impulsive, and you constantly question authority." -LaGuerta to Debra
  • "I was wrong about birthdays. Maybe the reason to celebrate them is what they offer -- The hope of living to see another one." -Dexter voiceover

Related Pages[]

Trivia[]

  • Dexter uses the alias of "Patrick Bateman, M.D." to buy M99, which is a reference to Patrick Bateman, a character similar to Dexter which appears in the novel American Psycho (which was also adapted to film).

Reception[]

"Return to Sender" was generally praised by critics.

Eric Goldman of IGN wrote that the episode's "most interesting facet" was its flashbacks to Dexter's youth from Debra's perspective,although he felt that the young Debra's hasty apology to Dexter after insulting him was "a slightly cheesy moment." He thought that LaGuerta's bonding with Oscar "was okay, but [the storyline] fell a little flat."

TV Guide's Paula Paige "love[d]" the episode, saying that "It just keeps getting better and better," but was unsure "what Deb having dinner with the Doakes' family has to do with anything."

Writing for TV Squad, Jonathan Toomey opened his review of "Return to Sender" by saying, "Dexter did it again. Wowed me. Amazed me. Edge of my seat for the whole hour." He was amused that Debra's profile of Valerie's murderer matched Dexter, but was uninterested in Rita's storyline with her husband.

Both Malene Arpe of the Toronto Star and Daniel Fienberg of Zap2it were disappointed with the episode's audio commentary featuring Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, Lauren Vélez and David Zayas on the first season DVD.

Gallery[]

The Episodes of Dexter
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