Why oh why is The Sopranos scheduled at the same time as Dexter? Surely the shows enjoy the same audience (both having questionable criminals as the lead characters, violent themes, etc.) and the stations are just splitting these numbers by competing with each other? The Sky magazine even suggests that if you enjoy The Sopranos that you should ‘check out’ Dexter. Oh, I have good people at Sky magazine and the more I see, the more I love it. Michael C. Hall is fantastic in the title role and now that we know the identity of the Ice Truck Killer, things are really getting interesting.

In last night’s episode, Dexter found that he had been left a house in the will of Joe Driscoll, a man claiming to be his biological father. Dexter was dubious at the news as foster father Harry had assured him as an inquisitive youngster that his real father had died long ago. But as he was the named beneficiary, he made plans to go and pack up the dead man’s house and perhaps find out a little bit more about how he had come to inherit it.

Keen to keep their relationship moving forwards after having finally consummated it last week, girlfriend Rita invited herself along for the trip. She wasn’t the only one keen to tag along as Debra and new boyfriend Rudy also turned up. Debra desperately wanted Dexter to meet the new man in her life and sod the bizarre circumstances – she was going to make the introductions happen.

The four of them set about packing up Joe’s house with everyone but Dexter seeming to enjoy the bonding experience. Dexter however was undergoing an unexpectedly unsettling time. On visiting the morgue to view Joe’s body, he was surprised to see a distinctive tattoo on the deceased’s arm that he remembered from his youth. Could this man have been his real father?

Dexter surreptitiously collected a sample of Joe’s blood and sent this off with some of his own for a DNA test. When the results were in, Dexter’s ears were not the first to hear the news. Debra had mistakenly intervened and was not only upset that her brother had doubted the honesty of their father’s words, but that he was right to: the DNA test was a match. Joe Driscoll was Dexter’s biological father.

Dexter insisted that this knowledge would change nothing and gradually his and Debra’s relationship settled down. Such emotional conditions would have been quite awkward between any recent acquaintances, but Dexter and Rudy’s association is very far from normal. Debra’s new man said all the right things and appeared on the surface to be the ideal boyfriend but his shadier behaviour was almost revealed.

Dexter doubted that his father died of natural causes, and though this assertion upset the dead man’s doctor, it was a suspicion that nagged at him. His reservations were further heightened when Joe’s elderly neighbour confirmed that a cable repair man had recently visited Joe. Could this mystery man have killed his father? Dexter thought so.

Succumbing to his curiosity, Dexter broke into the morgue in a bid to scour the corpse for any evidence of wrong-doing, but was thwarted by the fact that Joe had been cremated. Stealing his ashes, Dexter out ran a heavy security guard to freedom. Rudy picked him up in his car, claiming to have chased after him to stop him doing anything foolish and the two of them scattered Joe’s ashes.

Back at Joe’s house, Rita had found some documents of his hidden in the wardrobe. Among the papers was a thank you card made by a child. The action switched to a flashback and we saw that the card was made by non other than Dexter himself. Wanting to show his thanks to the blood donor who had saved his life after an accident, he had made the card and a begrudging Harry had promised to personally hand it to the generous donor. As he mentally joined the dots, Dexter began to understand Harry’s levels of deception. Would this rude awakening shake his faith in his one and only role model?

With the house finally packed up, the two couples prepared to hit the road. As Rudy buckled up the elderly neighbour identified him as the cable repair man that Dexter believed to have killed his father. She shouted hysterically, waving her arms as she approached the two cars. Rudy sped off before Debra could notice, while Dexter noticed but ignored the old woman. If only he had heard what she had to say – talk about a close shave!

Rita’s husband Paul had not responded well to her absence over the weekend and upon her return forced an aggressive entrance to her house. At one point he forced his wife to the bed and I feared that all of Rita’s hard work in achieving independence and confidence was about to be crudely shattered. I should have had more faith. The single mother battered Paul with a hidden baseball bat and gathering her children made a speedy run for it.

Elsewhere, Doakes and Angel were involved in a dubious scuffle that ended with Doakes killing a man. Doakes claimed that the man was armed, ran from police and started shooting at him but being slow to the scene, Angel was doubtful that Doakes was relaying the truth. Conflicted, Angel revealed his predicament to Internal Affairs, hoping that this would force the facts into the open.

Privately Doakes confided to Laguerta the identity of the victim, as someone from his past, guilty of the most heinous crimes. Laguerta agreed to hush up the internal investigation and soon it was Angel, labelled a rat that was in trouble with his colleagues.