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This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. |
| NOTE: This page is only for Dexter Morgan's characterization in the Dexter TV series, considering the original comic counterpart was not voted Inconsistently Heinous. Therefore, only the TV series version's info and crimes should be listed here. |
| “ | Tonight's the night. And it's gonna happen again and again. Has to happen. | „ |
| ~ Dexter Morgan's catchphrase and his most famous quote. |
Dexter "Dex" Morgan, also dubbed The Bay Harbor Butcher, is the titular main protagonist from the crime drama TV franchise Dexter. He is a serial killer who only kills other murderers, following the "Code of Harry" to satiate his own bloodlust. He poses as a regular person in his day-to-day conduct and works as a blood spatter analyst for Miami Metro Homicide.
He is portrayed by Michael C. Hall in the original series as well as the sequel series Dexter: New Blood and the upcoming sequel series Dexter: Resurrection. In Original Sin he is portrayed by Patrick Gibson.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- Throughout his life, he has killed more than 150 people. While most of them are murderers themselves, Dexter doesn't kill them to prevent them from committing more crimes but to satisfy his own needs for killing without eliminating victims that would draw attention to him. He also often tampers with the evidence so that the police don't catch the criminals because Dexter wants to kill them himself. On one extreme occasion, he freed a convicted murderer from a courthouse so that he could murder him.
- Dexter even admitted to one of his victims, Little Chino, that he didn't actually care about Little Chino's victims.
- While Dexter usually vets his victims to ensure he is sure of their guilt, there have been times where he has been much more impulsive with his kills, aside from victims that were completely innocent.
- On several occasions, it has been made clear that Dexter, if pushed too far, could snap and kill an innocent person. He has even had daydreams about killing completely innocent people and even his friends, such as when he fantasized about killing Masuka by stabbing him in the neck with a pen and smiling while he died.
- While most of the killings are quick, on one occasion Dexter dismembers a man alive because he had killed his mother in front of his eyes, and he was planning to do the same to the man who had ordered his mother's murder (deservingly).
- Several of his other kills have been slow and more drawn out, such as when he uses a reciprocating saw to slowly cut through the throats of some of his victims, as well as slowly stabbing 'Little Chino' with a machete.
- A few of the people he has killed are not actually murderers, even though, in most cases, they are still criminals. For example, on one occasion, he killed a pedophile. However, there are several instances where he killed innocent people:
- He killed a man at a shop because he was rude to him, beating him to death with an anchor and showing no guilt or remorse for having murdered a complete stranger.
- He killed his friend, Sergeant Logan, to escape his cell. He showed no remorse or guilt for this when Harrison discovered it, instead reiterating that the first rule of the Code was to not get caught.
- He killed his girlfriend Hannah's father, Clint. Though he was an abusive father, Clint was innocent of murder, and Dexter even mentioned that while it didn't fit the Code, he wanted to kill him. However, it could be argued that he deserved it as he almost drowned his daughter when she was a child.
- He killed a motel owner because the man was pointing a gun at him and trying to blackmail him. The gun was unloaded, though, as Dexter had previously used up the rounds in it.
- While he expresses a desire to be a normal person rid of his urges, he is not a villain by proxy due to ultimately enjoying the psychological thrill and sadistic satisfaction he gets by killing people and not making enough of an effort to stop throughout the series to count.
- While he has several somewhat funny moments, such as mocking his victim making weird noises, some interactions with Doakes and Rita, and wondering what it is with Zoey and rape, none of these are long enough to be detracting, nor do they take away from how seriously he is taken by other characters.
Background[]
- As a child, he killed several animals to satiate his sadistic urges, including the Neighbour's dog. This only increased as he attempted to kill a teenager who was bullying him when he was a teenager himself.
Original Sin[]
- Assaulted a frat member at a frat party and would have killed him if not stopped by Debra. While the assault was justified due to the frat member trying to rape an unconscious Debra, Dexter almost lost control when he noticed a nearby knife and was reaching for it before Debra knocked him down and stopped him.
- After becoming aware of Etorphine (M99) and how powerful a tranquilizer it is, he snuck into a horse track and stole some so he could use it on his victims.
- To show Harry that his training and the Code was effective, he drugged Harry and set him up on a makeshift kill table. While he had no intention of killing Harry, this act still shocked his father even if he did give Dexter advice for his kill room afterwards. As pointed out by Harry as well, Dexter could have unintentionally killed him if he hadn't gotten the dosage of M99 right.
Season 1[]
- Planted drugs on Rita's ex-husband Paul to conceal the fact he hit him over the head with a frying pan in a moment of anger, which led to him being arrested for violating his parole and being murdered in prison, though it can be argued Paul deserved this.
Season 2[]
- When people found out about the BHB. he made the civilians in Miami paranoid and scared as apparent when his stepson Cody having nightmares about him and in another incident is that he was shot by his elderly father who panicked because of The Bay Harbor Butcher news and mistook his son when he arrived home from the late-night shift.
- He indirectly inspired a copycat, Ken Olsen, to kill people like a vigilante, but Ken didn't kill any murderers but 2 people who were undeserving, a drug-dealer and a wife-beater.
- Dexter later killed Olsen and left his remains at the kill site as a gruesome warning to deter other copycats. He admitted that while he didn't feel the urge to kill the man, he still killed him both as a warning and because he felt he had to, as the man did fit the Code as well.
- He imprisoned Doakes in a cage inside Jimenez's cabin in the Everglades.
- He framed Sergeant Doakes for his crimes to save his own skin, despite the fact he knew it could get him put on Death Row, and showed no remorse when Doakes was indirectly killed as a result.
- He had also traumatized Doakes to a degree by sadistically killing a man in front of him using his usual MO, with Doakes forced to listen and watch through the plastic wrap surrounding the room.
Season 3[]
- He encouraged Miguel to kill only people who fit the code, and they killed one person together. He even showed him how to dispose of a body.
- Because of this, Miguel killed an innocent lawyer who wanted to expose him.
- After he discovered that Miguel killed an innocent person, he lured him and knocked him out, and before killing him, he told him that he killed his brother.
Season 4[]
- He assaulted his Neighbour, Elliott, for kissing Rita.
- He didn’t kill Arthur Mitchell right away because he wanted to know how he balanced his lifestyle with his family. This leads to many events that could be avoided. Like Trinity kidnapping a child and attempting to kill him.
- He killed Stan Beaudry, a criminal, and made him out to be Trinity while using his hammer to make it more legitimate.
- He is indirectly responsible for Arthur Mitchell killing a guy named Kyle Butler as this was the alias that he was using when talking and meeting with him.
- He drove recklessly when chasing down Trinity, even hit a car, and even attempted to assault the guy when he confronted him.
- At the end, him not putting an end to Trinity indirectly caused the death of his wife, Rita.
Season 5[]
- After Rita's murder, he also seemed to be annoyed and on the verge of lashing out murderously at Elliott when the man visited his home.
Season 6[]
- When he found out that Jonah Mitchell killed his own mother, he at first tried to kill him, but later he let him go because Jonah wanted to die. While intently a good act, he still let him go without any punishment. There is a possibility that he will continue killing.
- He killed a smuggler when the smuggler was threatening to shoot a pregnant woman who had nothing to give when he demanded money. While Dexter was saving someone else, he could have disarmed the smuggler or incapacitated him in some other way without having to kill him.
Season 7[]
- He withheld information about Viktor Baskov's fingerprints so he could kill him, even though his sister wanted him not to kill again.
- He lies to Hannah about her father leaving, as he never tells her that he killed him.
- He plotted to kill Laguerta to keep her from exposing his crimes, which resulted in her death at Debra's hands.
- Though he did appear to be remorseful at first, in the next season, he admits in his narration that he doesn't really regret what happened since it solved all his problems.
Season 8[]
- To make sure that his sister wouldn’t be convicted, he changed her gun that she killed a criminal with.
- He tried to make Zack learn the code and make him target other criminals, even though he killed several innocent people.
- He covered for Hannah McKay, who was a fugitive wanted by the U.S. Marshals, so she could go to Argentina.
- He abandoned his child, Harrison, and his girlfriend, Hannah.
New Blood[]
- After managing to avoid killing anyone for almost a decade, he impulsively killed Matt Caldwell, who had been harassing and annoying him.
- While Matt had killed five people in a claimed boating accident and had endangered Dexter at one point, Dexter's main reason for killing him was that he killed a white deer that Dexter had earned the trust of, as well as the fact that he had annoyed him repeatedly. Dexter even focused more on the deer's death when confronting Matt with his crimes then the five people he had killed.
- When his girlfriend Angela arrests him, Dexter stares at a knife and is ready to grab it to kill her, despite her being innocent and totally undeserving of death. He also had no issue with traumatizing Angela further by sending her to Kurt Caldwell's bunker, where she would discover the embalmed bodies of Kurt's victims.
- His general attitude towards the Code began to become more apathetic as the series went on, with New Blood showing him to only follow certain aspects of it when he relapsed into killing, culminating in him killing an innocent man simply to try and maintain his own freedom.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He has an extremely tragic backstory because, as a young boy at the age of 3, he, his mother and brother, and three other people were kidnapped and locked in a container. The people who kidnapped them brutally killed his mother and the three other people, and he had to sit in their blood with their bodies for two days until he was found by the authorities and adopted by a caring family, but his brother was separated from him.
- His biological father, Joe Driscoll, had zero care for Dexter and was never in his life (except when he suffered from severe blood loss from being attacked by a dog), which explains his attachment towards Harry as a father figure.
- Before he watched his mother die brutally, he was a genuinely kind and innocent child who wanted to save animals compared to Brian, who was shown cutting off lizard tails, showing how much this event affected his growth into the man he is now.
- He lost his memories of who his brother was because of how traumatic the event of his mother's death was to him, which made it even worse that he had to kill his brother for him.
- This caused him to develop an urge to kill other creatures, which messed him up and made him partially unable to understand normal human behavior. His first killing of a human being was committed against a nurse who tried to poison his father, which led him to kill even more people afterwards.
- His father, Harry, loved him and cared about him but didn't do anything to permanently cure his condition. Instead, he developed "the Code of Harry," which regulates when Dexter can kill another person and when not, which pushed Dexter even further into becoming a serial killer.
- He wanted to live a normal life, but he has been unable to control his sadistic urges for too long.
- He also suffers from deep insecurities regarding who he is, wanting to be loved and accepted by other people, and his inability to be a good father to his son and friend to others.
- Him mercy-killing his adoptive sister Deb completely broke him as she was his last anchor to humanity that he had left, leading him to attempt suicide.
- He is overall portrayed very sympathetically.
- He genuinely loves and cares for his family and friends:
- He avenges his father, Harry, by killing the nurse who had attempted to poison him and trying to follow his Code. He was also shown to be devastated when he realized that Harry had killed himself because of what he had made Dexter into. Despite later departing from the Code to a degree, Dexter continued to envision Harry as his conscience and 'Dark Passenger' for years, showing just how important his adoptive father was to him.
- Though he wasn't as close to her as he was to Harry, Dexter did care for his foster mother Doris. When confronting his first victim, Dexter mentioned Doris' death and how Harry was the only parent he had left. He later visited her grave and paid his respects, thinking that she had seen the good in him.
- While his memories of her were suppressed for most of his life, Dexter also deeply loved his mother Laura Moser. As a kid he would usually be found playing with her or being held by her. When he finally remembered her, and how she died, he had a daydream of saving her and he later saved a picture of her from being shredded, thinking to himself that he couldn’t let her be cut up again.
- Despite having a rivalry with him, he saved Doakes life, and while he didn't really show remorse for indirectly causing his death, one of the reasons he killed Lila West was to avenge Doakes (due to him not fitting the code). He was also one of the few people to attend his funeral.
- He deeply cares about his sister and protects her on many occasions (even killing his own brother to keep her safe), and when she had a stroke and was pronounced brain dead, Dexter mercy killed her (also honoring her request from previous seasons that she would rather be put out of her misery by Dexter than lay suffering forever) in the final episode. He told Debra that he loved her just before she died, and he showed extreme grief after mercy killing her to the point of where he attempted suicide through boating into a hurricane.
- After Debra's death, Dexter began to envision her as his conscience, and despite ignoring her on occasion, he showed that he still loved her. When he was dying, he imagined her holding his hand before letting go.
- Despite having to eventually kill him, Dexter deeply loved his older brother Brian. The two were quite close as children, and the two stayed huddled together for the two days they were locked in the storage container in their mothers blood. When the two were separated by Harry in the container, Dexter did call out for Brian. Dexter also asked Harry where Brian as going when he was taken away by social services, with that being the first time Dexter had spoken since he had been taken in by the Morgan's. Though Dexter would unconsciously suppress his memories of Brian for decades until they reunited, he was shown to be quite happy when he realized who Brian was. Though he would kill him to keep Debra safe, Dexter was distraught to do so, offering Brian more tranquilizer so he wouldn't feel a thing and being on the verge of tears after having slit Brian's throat, even admitting to him that he was right and he wished the two could be free together. Dexter would also hallucinate Brian on a few occasions, even envisioning him as his darker side at one point.
- Dexter had lovers throughout the course of the show (Hannah, Lumen, and Rita), and he cares about all of them. He protected Hannah from her abusive father by killing him, and he helped Lumen take revenge against a band of psychopaths who had been torturing and raping her. He married Rita, had a son with her named Harrison, and was devastated when Rita was killed.
- Dexter genuinely loves his son, Harrison, and is concerned about his future when Harrison experiences the same tragedy Dexter himself experiences by witnessing the murder of his own mother. Dexter wants him to become a better person than him and not a serial killer.
- Dexter tried to reconnect with him when they reunited in New Blood and frequently showed his care for his son, culminating in letting him kill him and even thinking that it was the first time he'd truly felt love.
- While he initially opened up to Harrison about their dark urges, he tried to avoid admitting to his son that he was a killer. He claimed he simply abducted killers and scared them into not killing again. It was only when Harrison worked out that Dexter killed his victims that he admitted to it. He also attempted to give Harrison a bit of closure on his trauma by admitting he had killed 'Trinity', though he still lied and claimed he killed him in revenge for Rita's murder.
- He also has sincere love and care for his stepchildren, Cody and Astor, treating them like his own and even risking his life to save them from a fire when Lila tries to kill them. Dexter even willingly broke his Code to keep Astor safe when he noticed a released pedophile stalking her. After he had killed the pedophile, Dexter even referred to Cody and Astor as his children. He would later refer to Astor as his kid again when he beat the hell out of her friend's abusive stepfather.
- Dexter genuinely likes his colleague, Angel Batista. When Lila frames Angel for rape, Dexter makes an honest effort to console him and tries to get Lila to drop the charges. At one point, he also admits that Angel is the type of man that he would want to be if he were normal.
- He develops a genuine friendship with another killer named Brother Sam. He also tried to follow Sam's final words and forgive his killer. While he ended up dishonoring Sam's last wish when he killed Nick (who shot and killed Sam), this doesn't subvert it as Dexter does it out of anger because Nick rejected redemption and started to brag about his murder and how he would get away scott-free with it, showing that Dexter ended up killing Nick out of care for Sam. Even then, Dexter still showed remorse for dishonoring Sam's last wish to the point that he didn't enjoy killing Nick and even showed remorse when disposing of his body.
- Despite their relationship being iffy with Evelyn Vogel saying he was a remorseless psychopath and taking notes behind his back which made him hate her, when her throat was slit by her son, Oliver Saxon, he rushed to Vogel as fast as he could to try and save her.
- He genuinely cares about his former coworker Bobby, who worked with his adoptive father and was furious that Aaron Spencer's actions led to him getting shot.
- He is capable of feeling small amounts of empathy towards some of his enemies, like giving a goodbye speech to Miguel Prado for being his best friend even if they become enemies and Miguel wanted to kill him, giving Trinity his last wish and playing his favorite song before killing him, and becoming almost friends with Isaak Sirko, being clearly saddened when he is killed by Oleg and also giving him his last wish of throwing him in the same ocean in which Dexter dumped the body of Isaak's lover, even saying that he will make sure that Isaak won't be alone in his grave.
- He is shown to be honorable and have standards:
- As follows, a special code called "the Code of Harry." It was created by his adoptive father, Harry, and prohibits the killing of non-murderers. On the few occasions where he breaks it, he feels bad about it, though he was also shown to have no issues with breaking it on some occasions.
- Dexter hates those who harm kids and is very protective of children. He protects Arthur Mitchell's son from him, stops Arthur from killing a young boy, and beats the hell out of Astor's friend's abusive father. His first on-screen victim was a serial killer and a pedophile, and Dexter showed extreme anger towards the man. Even further, he was disgusted with Aaron Spencer's actions of being a child kidnapper and killer, so he cut Spencer's finger off as karmic justice for the kids that he kidnapped and killed.
- He's willing to spare people if he understands their motives, such as Jeremy after learning his victim raped him or Jonah after finding out he killed his mother because she was abusive. He also spared Zach Hamilton when he had him on his table, as he understood Zach's urges and why he had killed.
- He has a lot of Pet the Dog moments:
- After seeing himself in Jeremy Downs, Dexter tried to help by advising him to pretend to have feelings until they became real, and he was saddened to learn Jeremy had killed himself.
- When family friend Camilla is suffering from cancer, she asks Dexter to kill her and end her suffering. He initially refuses because of the code but decides to bend the rules for her. Despite it being what she wanted; he's shown to feel remorse for doing so.
- He beats up the abusive father of Astor's friend to protect her from him.
- Dexter takes Zach Hamilton under his wing and is proud of him when he lives by the Code.
- Despite being at his worst in New Blood, he still has a rather significant moment as he decides to save Molly from being murdered by Kurt; despite knowing it would be to his benefit if she were to die. He also stopped Harrison from attacking some kids who were harassing him and showed extreme concern when Harrison had previously broken a boy's arm in a wrestling match.
- He displays some grief and remorse in the show:
- Though it only happened once and it was before he became more at ease with killing innocents, Dexter was shocked and almost guilt-wreaked when he discovered one of his victims was innocent of murder but not abuse.
- He displayed genuine grief after killing his own brother, and he was reluctant to kill him at first, even stating how his brother was not like his other victims in that he was not a trophy to him, showing how much he loved Brian despite him being a cruel killer.
- He was devastated after indirectly causing Rita's death due to his inaction to kill Arthur to the point of where it culminated in him brutally bashing in the head of the unruly redneck who insulted Rita after her death and suffering a mental breakdown in the process.
- He is on & off, as he does heroic acts that are not done out of pragmatism, such as freeing 8 Cuban refugees from the Castillo's captivity, saving his step kids Cody and Astor from a fire Lila started, saving his sister Deb from getting raped at a party, saving Nicky Spencer from drowning, stopping the Wormwood terrorist attack, which saved everyone in the Miami Metro building, and he is a morally ambiguous character overall, as a lot of his actions can be understood.
- Most of the time, he's genuinely affable, for no pragmatic reasons, to the people he works with, his babysitter, and overall, his family.
- While his everyday interactions are a "facade" and practical in the sense that he fakes normal human interaction to avoid detection, his politeness and respect for others during these moments is still genuine.
- He attempted to kill himself because he believed that he must protect the people he loves in his life. When it fails, he decides instead to fake his death, move to the Pacific Northwest, work at a local game shop, stop his killing spree, and, in the process, almost achieve a partial redemption. When his identity was discovered by his girlfriend, he claimed that he hadn't intended to fake his own death but that he had genuinely been attempting suicide and that when he survived, he took it as a second chance. But this partial redemption doesn’t continue, as he wanted to continue murdering other criminals if he and Harrison escaped and would’ve most likely made him learn the code.
Trivia[]
- While he is currently Inconsistently Heinous, this could change as there are plans for sequel and prequel shows for Dexter.
External Links[]
- Dexter Morgan on the Villains Wiki
- Dexter Morgan on the Heroes Wiki
- Dexter Morgan on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
- Dexter Morgan on the Dexter Wiki
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 Inconsistently Heinous
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Dexter Morgan |
Harry Morgan |
Arthur Mitchell | ||