text: it 's alive ! ( dexter ) " it 's alive ! " is the second season premiere and thirteenth overall episode of the american television drama series dexter , which first aired on september 30 , 2007 on showtime in the united states . the episode was written by daniel cerone and was directed by tony goldwyn . in the episode , which takes place five weeks after the first season finale , sgt. james doakes ( erik king ) is following dexter morgan ( michael c. hall ) at all times , but when he gets his first opportunity dexter finds himself unable to kill . meanwhile , his sister debra ( jennifer carpenter ) returns to work after her ex - fiancé brian tried to kill her , and his girlfriend rita bennett ( julie benz ) refuses to believe that dexter sent her ex - husband paul ( mark pellegrino ) to prison in spite of the evidence in front of her . although dexter 's first season was adapted from jeff lindsay 's novel darkly dreaming dexter , the show 's writers decided not to follow lindsay 's second novel , dearly devoted dexter , in the second season . filming of the episode began in may in los angeles , california , marking the show 's permanent move from miami , florida , where the show takes place . a small crew flew to miami to film short pieces of dexter which were integrated into " it 's alive ! " and other episodes , but the bulk of filming took place in san pedro and long beach . with 1 . 09 million viewers , dexter became the first showtime series to attract over a million viewers with a season premiere . the episode received mostly positive reviews . plot in the five weeks after murdering his brother brian , the " ice truck killer " , dexter has been followed by suspicious sgt. doakes and thus cannot satisfy his urge to kill . trying to act " relentlessly normal " , dexter goes bowling almost nightly with his co - workers . he is finally left alone when doakes gives up and takes a night off ; dexter pursues a blind voodoo priest , jimmy ( glenn plummer ) , but finds himself uneasy and ultimately unable to kill the man , and lets him go . at a homicide scene , the victim 's mother ( anna maganini ) pleads with dexter to kill her son 's murderer , gang lord " little chino " ( matthew willig ) . he sees the woman 's young daughter , marissa ( jillian bruno ) , and is reminded of himself as a boy , having witnessed his mother 's brutal death . he leads doakes to believe that he is bowling for the night but instead brings chino to jimmy 's killing room . chino wakes up in the middle of dexter 's procedure and manages to break out of the duct tape and escape . debra , who is staying at dexter 's apartment , is exercising incessantly and barely able to sleep as she struggles with memories of brian , her ex - fiancé , trying to kill her . she returns to work at the police station ; sgt. maría laguerta ( lauren vélez ) expresses concern about her emotional stability , but debra is determined to resume a normal lifestyle . when she takes rita out to a bar , a man recognizes debra as the fiancée of the ice truck killer . he touches her on the shoulder and she instinctively punches him in the nose , certain that he was trying to grab her . rita takes her children astor ( christina robinson ) and cody ( preston bailey ) to see paul ( mark pellegrino ) in prison . he insists that he was framed by dexter — that dexter dragged him out of rita 's house before drugging him and tipping off the police — and that if she could find his missing shoe it would prove his innocence . rita tells him that there is no shoe , despite having found it over a month ago . she later admits that she found the shoe , but refuses to acknowledge that dexter is involved . that night , she receives a call from paul 's prison and learns that he was killed in an inmate altercation . flashbacks throughout the episode show the attempts of a teenage dexter ( devon graye ) to feel his heart pound . at the end of the episode , debra turns on the television in dexter 's apartment and shows him the news : a team of scuba divers in biscayne bay has uncovered over 30 garbage bags , each containing parts of dexter 's mutilated victims . as he watches , his heart races . production the first season of dexter followed the same storyline of jeff lindsay 's novel darkly dreaming dexter , the first in the series of novels on which the television show is based , albeit with many additional elements and altered characters . when writing the second season , daniel cerone said that the writers " didn 't see the opportunity in the second book " to continue on the path that they hoped to go down and chose to depart from lindsay 's second dexter novel , dearly devoted dexter . instead , they chose " to turn our biggest card up - " what if dexter 's bodies were discovered ? " - and just chart that course throughout the season . " according to executive producer clyde phillips , they decided to resume the second season storyline five weeks after season one 's finale " so all of the emotional resonance of what each [ character ] went through [ ... ] will continue as if that were the actual passage of time , so they 're still dented and rocked by what has happened . " cerone added that " the nice thing with dexter is it 's actually the lack of emotional resonance . " speaking about dexter 's situation at the beginning of the second season , hall said , " i think his world is pretty rocked . he encountered [ his brother ] , a person he never anticipated encountering , someone who sees him for who he is , accepts him as such , and he really has no choice but to do him in ... he 's still reeling from that , and any footing he 's able to establish for himself is pretty much immediately pulled out from under him . " with filming beginning on may 21 , 2007 , " it 's alive ! " marked the permanent relocation of production from miami to los angeles . five episodes of the first season were shot on location in miami , which cerone said was " a bigger hassle than it was worth " . showtime programming chief robert greenblatt said that " it just became impossible , production - wise , to shoot the whole show [ in miami ] " , because of the overlap between dexter 's production window and florida 's hurricane season , making property insurance costly . a small crew flew to miami with hall and filmed , according to producer sara colleton , " a lot of pieces — not just dexter walking in and out of his door or car , but also scenes that we know we 'll need and can use " , which the writers then worked into the episode and others . for the episode , biscayne bay was substituted with a set in los angeles , while most on location scenes were filmed in and around san pedro and long beach , california . reception " it 's alive ! " brought in 1 . 09 million viewers in the united states , making dexter the first showtime series to attract over a million viewers with a season premiere , while an additional 414 , 000 people watched the late - night encore . the ratings were 67 percent higher than the series pilot and 40 percent above the first season 's average . the episode attracted 471 , 000 australian viewers on its first free - to - air broadcast . in the united kingdom , the episode drew 348 , 000 viewers , an increase of 50 , 000 from the pilot . production sound mixer patrick hanson and re - recording sound mixers elmo and joe earle , received a creative arts primetime emmy award nomination , in the category outstanding sound mixing for a comedy or drama series ( one - hour ) , but lost to the sound mixers of the lost episode " meet kevin johnson " . stewart , the editor of " it 's alive ! " , received an eddie award nomination for best edited one - hour series for non - commercial television . however , the eventual recipient of the award was sidney wolinsky , for the sopranos . the episode was positively received . writing for variety , brian lowry called the second season 's opening " a bloody winner " and said that hall 's performance " remains a towering achievement " . ign 's eric goldman thought that the episode 's biggest problem was " having to follow up such a great first season " , but called " it 's alive ! " " a solid episode " . he praised dexter 's flashbacks and dexter and debra 's storylines , though he said that doakes ' following dexter was " ridiculous " and that laguerta 's overhearing lt. pascal 's private conversation was " a bit contrived " . keith mcduffee of tv squad " love [ d ] the flashbacks to a young dexter and living harry " . regarding the episode 's end , he wrote that " just as dexter 's heart beats out of his chest , as does ours . " paula paige , writing for tv guide , said that the episode " made for some exciting , heart - pounding fear " and called the discovery of dexter 's corpses " a fantastic storyline " . she commended benz for " develop [ ing ] her character , rita , into a person instead of just the shell of one she appeared to be " . blogcritics ' ray ellis commented , " if [ ' it 's alive ! ' ] is any indication , dexter 's second season looks to delve deeper into the psyches of its characters . it certainly sets up a number of plot complexities [ ... ] and new devices that offer a myriad of new developments . " the a.v. club critic scott tobias stated that " the writers have done a solid job setting the table for season two " .