"Astor, just stand up straight," says Rita. She's uptight about something. "Do you have your emergency phone number list?" "It's in my backpack. Do I have to show it to you again?" "Just promise me you won't let your brother out of your sight." What is going on here? Dexter calls Rita over. "You're scaring them," he says. "Yeah, well, they should be. I didn't tell them what Paul did the other night." "What'd you say when you dragged them to the neighbor's?" "That I smelled gas." There's a knock on the door, and Dexter tells her to relax because "a court supervisor will be there the whole time." Cody answers the door, and FOP walks in with a big bandage wrapped around his head. "Daddy, what happened?" asks Cody. FOP says it's just a little bump on the head, and he takes Cody and Astor outside, getting them psyched for the circus without once looking in Rita's direction.

"I prefer the enchanting Rita over the worried one," VOs Dexter as he walks outside what looks like a cheap motel. "If I can find a way to make her ex-husband my problem, I can help her sleep much easier tonight." Now, he's breaking into what I can only imagine is FOP's hotel room, looking for any clue that he's not exactly on the straight and narrow. "All I need is a little proof of his inner monster. Harry would have insisted on that." Dex starts to snoop around in drawers. "Harry didn't believe in preemptive killing, but maybe I can bend the rules just this once. After all, Harry wasn't perfect. He lied about my birth father." He finds some reefer, hardly enough to condemn the guy. Underneath the socks, however, is a handgun. "The trifecta: weapon, ammo, and impaired judgment. Throw in a little domestic violence, and you have the perfect recipe for a family slaughter." Dex stands up as the sounds of the screaming little boy creep up in the soundtrack along with a woman's voice saying, "Dexter." Finally, a flashback comes up, and we see a dead man lying face down in blood from what I'm guessing is toddler Dexter's perspective. A couple more disjointed shots of the same scene, and Dexter is running from FOP's place, hyperventilating once again. He crouches against a wall outside, shaken. He's not dealing with something. Wow, that was so obvious, sorry.