Dexter, the twisted tale of a serial killer with a moral code, was a massive ratings hit
for Showtime.
It was also an influential series that prompted a slew of similarly lethal anti-heroes on
TV.
Now it's time to conduct an autopsy on the show's conclusion.
When Dexter was just two years old, his mother was brutally killed at the hands of a cartel
boss, and he and his brother were left sitting in her blood.
At first, the audience is encouraged to believe that this foundational trauma is what put
Dexter down the path to being a serial killer.
When Dexter's adopted father, Harry, realizes his son lacks emotional empathy and might
possibly be a sociopath like when he finds Dexter killing neighborhood pets he teaches
Dexter a code so the child won't get caught.
"The code of Harry, my foster father, is satisfied."
But by the end of Dexter, his story is far more complicated.
As it turns out, it was a criminal psychiatrist who had come up with the code.
Harry was only responsible for teaching it to Dexter, and it wasn't until Dexter's first
kill that he finally understood the monster he'd helped create.
It would be years before Dexter learned that his father's death had been at his own hands,
once he'd realized what his adopted son was capable of.
One of the most compelling things about Dexter is his incredible level of self-awareness.
According to professionals, it's this introspection that makes him an unrealistic psychopath,
in spite of being so relatable to viewers.
He struggles in society, just as we all do.
But in Dexter's case, he struggles with feeling empathy and love, even though he understands
what it looks like.
"Just like me.
Empty inside."
As the narrative progresses from the beginning to the end of Dexter, we see him go from someone
who must imitate human emotion to a man who actually does feel and comes to truly care
about those closest to him.
In fact, it's this emotional development that causes Dexter to get so many people around
him hurt or killed.
In the anthology The Psychology of Dexter, author Christopher Ryan writes:
"Dexter is both cold-blooded killer and warm-hearted family man.
Unfeeling assassin and supportive friend.
Like all of us, he is confused, yet certain.
He's the best and worst we can be often simultaneously."
Dexter's audience is so focused on what he'll get away with next that a key aspect of the
show often gets overlooked.
If America's criminal justice system actually worked better, and criminals weren't set free
by means of legal loopholes or skilled defense attorneys, there would be no need for vigilantes
like Dexter.
So when he sets his sights on unfairly freed predators, Dexter is highlighting a real-life
crisis in America.
And, in a way, his actions are making the world a little bit safer for women and children.
On the flip side, Dexter also shows us how easy it is to game the law enforcement system
from the inside.
Harry's code insists that the person Dexter targets must be a killer or other kind of
confirmed monster.
But since Dexter is able to change information in a computer database, it only takes a few
keystrokes to release someone as his own prey, on the occasion he gets bored and needs a
victim.
This system is how Dexter eventually identifies the men responsible for his mother's death.
And because of his easy-going persona, there are few people who ever strongly suspect something
is off with Dexter, at least until much later on in his story.
Harry's code defines Dexter's approach to vigilante justice, but it isn't foolproof.
And the more human Dexter becomes, through his relationships both at home and at work,
the more he exposes the innocent people around him to the collateral damage of his targets.
On top of that, Dexter happens to be a consummate risk-taker, and his exploits get more and
more dangerous as the years go by.
In season 2, there's Sergeant Doakes, the first person outside of Dexter's family to
suspect there's something wrong with him.
Doakes is killed by Dexter's ex-girlfriend, Lila, who does it in an effort to protect
him.
What's worse at least for Doakes is that Dexter manages to pin his own crimes on the detective,
ruining his stellar record posthumously.
Nobody goes to Doakes' funeral.
In season 3, Dexter unleashes a real monster with District Attorney Miguel Prado.
When Prado finds out who Dexter really is, he wants to learn Harry's code.
The code winds up meaning nothing, however, and Prado goes on to kill a rival attorney
who was about to expose his corruption.
By season 7, Dexter's lieutenant, Maria LaGuerta, learns his true identity and launches an investigation
into Doakes' innocence.
Ultimately, it forces Dexter's sister, Deb, to choose between him and her colleague.
Deb chooses her brother, but not without great personal loss.
But arguably the worst death that Dexter has set in motion is that of his eventual wife,
Rita.
Throughout season 4, Dexter engages in a push and pull with Arthur Miller, a.k.a the Trinity
Killer, who targets victims based on their similarities to his own family.
Although Dexter is ultimately successful in putting Arthur on his table, he leaves room
for Rita to be the last Trinity kill.
And, in a symbolic turn of events that has since been named one of the most shocking
television deaths of all time, Arthur leaves Dexter's son, Harrison, sitting in a pool
of his mother's blood, just as Dexter was when Harry found him as a child.
Other crime shows may wait until later seasons before really amping up the stakes, but Dexter
has his crimes come to light by the show's second season, when divers find his dumping
ground off the Miami coast.
Dubbed the Bay Harbor Butcher, Dexter's true identity remains unknown, and because of his
position in the police department, he even assists in the lab work for his own crimes.
This tension does a great deal for Dexter's character development right off the bat.
Harry had taught him never to get caught, and because of his intellect, Dexter thought
he had the system beat.
But when his dumping ground is revealed, it's an enormous reality check that grounds Dexter
for a few years.
The Bay Harbor Butcher also marks a turning point in Dexter's arc where collateral deaths
that don't meet the standard of Harry's code begin in earnest.
Dexter frames Sergeant Doakes for his murders, although he has no intention of killing him.
But Dexter's former lover, Lila, becomes so obsessed with him that she's driven to kill
Doakes, hopeful that Dexter will love her in return.
She's wrong and winds up being the next Bay Harbor Butcher victim.
Like Hannibal Lecter, Dexter is one of the few serial killers viewers actually root for,
even after he gets innocent folks killed.
Michael C. Hall's fierce yet compassionate performance is a big reason why Dexter feels
so human.
His internal monologue, courtesy of the Dexter writers room, is another.
But for some, Dexter's isn't just someone to root for.
"People think they've found their own personal Batman."
People have actually committed real-life crimes because they felt they related to him on such
a deep level.
Maybe the show made Dexter a little bit too real, too sympathetic, and too relatable.
Then again, Dexter's kill list is really, really long, so now that we've seen the ending
of Dexter, we should probably be thankful more people haven't been inspired by his laundry
list of crimes.
At the beginning of the show, Dexter is convinced that he can't be in a proper relationship
because physical intimacy would likely reveal his inner monster to the other person.
Rita seems perfect for him because as an assault survivor, she isn't interested in the physical
at all.
"She's perfect.
Because Rita is, in her own way, as damaged as me."
Eventually, however, it does become a factor in their relationship.
And, when Dexter joins Narcotics Anonymous to provide a cover for his activities, he
gets a beautiful sponsor in Lila - and discovers that he actually is a physical person but
only with people who really see him.
Things are further complicated when Rita gets pregnant, and Dexter feels obligated to play
father, both to that child and to Rita's other kids.
After Rita's tragic death, Dexter is sure he'll be alone for the rest of his life, and
he's sort of okay with it.
But then he meets Lumen, the Barrel Girl survivor, and realizes that he misses having a partner
especially a partner who understands him as deeply as Lila did.
Dexter ultimately meets his match in Hannah McKay, another serial killer who falls in
love with him, as he does with her.
For Dexter, his experience of both love and physical intimacy comes from the women who
recognize and appreciate his monstrousness and his humanity.
Arguably the most important woman in Dexter's life is his adopted sister, Debra.
Debra is Dexter's grounding force, constantly reminding him of the good she sees in him.
In many ways, Debra is Dexter's living conscience.
But for Debra, the relationship is far more complicated.
In season 1, she winds up in the middle of a bloody back and forth between Dexter and
his biological brother, another serial killer known as the Ice Truck Killer.
He kidnaps and tortures Debra in an attempt to bond with Dexter, and the experience leaves
her traumatized and emotionally dependant on her brother.
Debra's relationship bad luck would continue throughout the series.
When another of her boyfriends becomes the target of a serial killer named The Skinner,
the experience triggers Debra's earlier trauma.
She ultimately finds comfort in a much older man and colleague, but tragically, he too
leaves her life when he's shot and killed.
Debra's shoot-from-the-hip style brings her career highs and lows, from vice to homicide
detective to lieutenant.
After she discovers her beloved brother is a serial killer, she joins the private sector
as an investigator.
Complicating things further, Debra realizes that her feelings for Dexter are not just
family love.
She goes against everything she believes in when she kills LaGuerta to save her brother,
and the experience puts her on the eventual downward spiral that leads to her untimely
death.
Dexter, Hannah, and his son Harrison are just about to ride off into the Buenos Aires sunset
to live happily ever after when Dexter gets sloppy again.
He leaves fellow serial killer Oliver Saxon alive in order for Debra to arrest him.
But Oliver frees himself and shoots Debra in the stomach, severely wounding her.
When Dexter realizes that he's the one responsible for Debra getting shot and put on life support,
he understands that he will never have a happy ending.
He sends Hannah and Harrison to Buenos Aires without him, takes Debra off life support,
and fakes his own death.
Dexter had always worried Harrison would turn out to be a monster like him.
In the end, Harrison is left to be raised by another serial killer in another country,
with no idea that his father is still alive.
Could this be the perfect setup for a Dexter spinoff years down the road featuring Harrison?
After the death of his sister, and the loss of his son and lover, Dexter's internal monologue
disappears.
By the end of Dexter's eighth and final season, he is empty.
He has come to terms with the fact that it's not safe for him to be around people especially
not innocent people he loves.
Lumberjack Dexter lives alone in a cabin in the woods, which begs the question: has he
stopped killing?
He no longer has access to a police database and can't vet victims per Harry's code.
But throughout the show, Dexter makes it clear that he doesn't have a choice in killing.
He needs it to survive.
So after the end of Dexter, who and how is he killing now?
The ambiguous closing shot of a bearded Dexter silently staring into the camera certainly
leaves a lot of room for future seasons.
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