Dakin Matthews: Dr. Pittman

Father Knows Best

Dr. Pittman

[Continuing the conversation with Dexter]
Dr. Pittman: Who knows what caused it? Stress, inactivity, French fries?
[as Dexter looks down on the tattoo again, he hears, drowning out the voice of Dr. Pittman, a song begin: It's Creedence Clearwater Revival, singing "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" - and he is flashing back to when he was a small child. And he sees an arm stretched with the same webbed tattoo that he saw on Driscoll's arm. Dexter begins hearing Dr. Pittman again:]
Dr. Pittman: ...It's hard to accept so many unanswered questions, but sometimes...
[Dexter raises his hands to his face]
Dexter Morgan: No, you're right. Dr. Pittman. Man. This is really hard. Do you mind if I just take a minute alone? With... Dad?
Dr. Pittman: [smiles] I'll be next door in my office.

[At the morgue, Dexter meets Dr. Pittman. Dexter is not at all impressed by Dr. Pittman's inflated opinion of himself; and Dexter trusts less and less in the doctor's abilities as an observer as the scene goes on]
Dr. Pittman: I gave Joe a physical once a year, like clockworks, and no history of heart disease, but it happens.
Dexter Morgan: Mm-hm, it appears so.
Dr. Pittman: About to send him to the Crematorium when we found you. We thought his son should have his chance to pay his last respects.
Dexter Morgan: I'm not his son.
Dr. Pittman: [taking this in the wrong way] An estrangement in a family is a shame, but Death is the great unifier.
[He wheels the corpse out on a gurney. Dexter nods. The doctor pulls the sheet back. Dexter leans down close to look at the corpse's face. Then he goes around to the other side of the body and kneels to examine a tattoo covering the left elbow and much of the arm]
Dexter Morgan: Oh. It's an interesting tattoo.
Dr. Pittman: [affectionately] Joe said he'd picked that up in Nam. You can be proud he was a patriot!
Dexter Morgan: Mm, perhaps. He was also an ex-convict.
Dr. Pittman: Excuse me?
Dexter Morgan: It's a prison tattoo.

Dexter Morgan: How did you determine cardiac arrest was the damage to the coronary artery?
[Dr. Pittman glares at him]
Dexter Morgan: Sir, it's out of professional curiosity. I work in Forensics, down in Miami.
Dr. Pittman: I see. Well, um, I found micro-aneurysims in the retinas. They're common, with seizures, during a heart attack.
Dexter Morgan: And it's also a sign of diabetic retinopathy.
Dr. Pittman: [condescendingly] Son, I may be a small-town doctor, but I know a heart attack when I see one.