Our Father

"Our Father" is the third season premiere and twenty-fifth overall episode of the American television drama series Dexter, which first aired on September 28, 2008, on Showtime in the United States. The episode was written by Clyde Phillips and directed by Keith Gordon. In the episode, which takes place several months after the second-season finale, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) mistakenly kills an innocent man but forms a friendship with the man's brother, well-known assistant district attorney Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits). Dexter's sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), meanwhile, has turned over a new leaf in her life and is determined to become a detective. To carry the remainder of the third season, Dexters writers introduced Miguel as a new character so that his relationship with Dexter could serve as a "central arc". In order to allow them to explore Dexter's psychological and emotional reactions, the writers revealed Dexter's girlfriend Rita Bennett (Julie Benz) to be pregnant. They also had Dexter kill an innocent person to develop the ongoing theme of rebellion despite initially rejecting the idea of Dexter killing "somebody who doesn't deserve it". Filming of the episode began in early June in Los Angeles, California at Sunset Gower Studios, though a small crew flew to Miami, Florida, where the show is set, to film short pieces of Dexter, which were integrated into "Our Father" and other episodes. The episode brought in 1.22 million viewers, an improvement from second season's premiere and finale, and attracted mixed reviews from critics. Plot Several months after the deaths of James Doakes and Lila Tournay, Dexter Morgan's life has returned to normal. He looks up a drug dealer, Fred "Freebo" Bowman (Mike Erwin), whom he believes to have killed two female college students. Pretending to want to buy heroin, Dexter visits Freebo's house, where he sees his girlfriend Teegan Campbell (Jelly Howie). He returns to the house at night and finds Freebo fighting with another man (Nick Hermz). When the man attacks Dexter, he stabs and kills him in self-defense. Dexter flees, shocked about breaking his father Harry's "code" and killing an innocent person. Dexter is called to the scene the following day and discovers that the man was Oscar Prado, the brother of prominent Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado. Miguel seeks an explanation and consolation from Dexter, and invites him to Oscar's wake.