Dexter: The Soul Of A Killer

When the series begins, Dexter is of the impression that he was simply born "wrong". His urge to kill is due to random chance; if one in 1,000,000,000 children are born with the urge to kill (that statistic is total bullshit, by the way), Dexter was the one. However, as Dexter soon learns, Harry wasn't entirely truthful about Dexter's life before he was a member of the Morgan family. A traumatic event in Dexter's childhood (the memory of which has been deeply repressed) is responsible for his unique mindset (also, that is why I amended my comparison of Dexter to Sweeney Todd, since outside influences affected both men; however, Todd kills BECAUSE he remembers the event, while Dexter seems to kill because he doesn't remember it... until he does).

But regardless of the reason why Dexter does what he does, the average person cannot commit premeditated homicide once and retain such a sense of calm, so the fact that Dexter does it multiple times definitely suggests that Dexter is not an "average" human. As I said, Dexter repeatedly tells the audience (through inner-monologue voice-overs) that he doesn't have a soul, or that his is broken, or that he doesn't really care about people, he only pretends to keep up a facade of normality. However, when as my friend and I watched the first season, we each came to the same conclusion about these voice-overs: Dexter isn't explaining himself to the audience, he is trying to convince himself that what he's saying is true. After all, it must be hard to kill people, even people who "deserve it" if you fully understand the value of human life.

There are a few examples where it is clear that Dexter sees his work as more than just something to fulfill his own needs. At the end of the first season, he has a twisted fantasy wherein he wishes that he could tell people about what he does, and that the reaction would be overwhelming praise. In his fantasy, a crowd holds up signs with fan slogans (like the ones you see people holding at sporting events), women cheer him and profess their love for him, while his fellow cops commend him on his efficiency in "taking out the trash". This fantasy shows that Dexter believes that what he does is inherently right (Harry taught him that killing killers would be leagues ahead of killing innocents, and it could help protect the innocent, but I doubt he ever thought that it was right), and that, if people could see things from his point of view, he would be seen as a hero, and not a killer. This fantasy hints at a desire for approval from the very people he claims to feel nothing but apathy for. Half a season later, when his victims are discovered by a pair of treasure hunters, a cult following begins to develop around the "Bay Harbor Butcher" when it is discovered that all of the victims were killers themselves. When Dexter discovers that a local comic book shop created a Batman-like character in his honor, he is flattered.

But even more important, he risks his own life, on multiple occasions, to save the people closest to him. The first example is when he prevents the "Ice Truck Killer" from killing his sister. The Ice Truck Killer was a serial killer whose method of carving up bodies without ever leaving a drop of blood at the scene of the crime both perplexed and awed Dexter throughout the first season, and Dexter was nearly obsessed with finding out the Killer's identity so that he could learn from them. Instead, when he had to choose between someone he only "pretended" to care about and someone who understood him, and could offer him so much, Dexter chose Debra. He also let her live with him for most of the second season, due to her being so traumatized by those events; this arrangement certainly causes problems with his ability to satisfy his urges, and yet, he stands by Debra in her time of crisis (though he did once jokingly [I think] recite, "I will not kill my sister" to himself).

Even more bewildering is the fact that Dexter nearly died saving Rita's kids from an insane pyromaniac with a grudge against Dex. With Debra, if people ever found out that he had an opportunity to help her and he didn't, it would lead to some questions that would be very hard to answer. But with Rita's kids, he sought them out to help them. That's going pretty far for the children of a woman he is only using to appear normal; this goes far above and beyond keeping up appearances.

Speaking of the children, named Astor and Cody, their path in the books is much darker than what we have seen in the series so far. Due to their memories of their violent father, they are showing the same signs of sociopathy that Dexter did when he was a kid, and Dexter takes it upon himself to teach them the "Code of Harry". My friend and I are hoping that this is the direction the show takes in the third season; the second season tested the strength of Dexter and Rita's relationship as well as Dexter's ability to stay one step ahead of the law. it would be very interesting to see Dexter, who seems to be much more comfortable with who and what he is, to begin the process of passing on his craft. And though this may be construed as too much of a retread, we also think that LaGuerta should pick up Doake's trail towards the identity of the real Bay Harbor Butcher. She has never been that interesting of a character (she was sadly involved in the worst Dexter plotline ever at the beginning of Season 2; let's just say that it played out like an exceptionally bad after school special), and this would give her character purpose.

So there you have it. This post was much more spoilerific than the first, but that's the rundown on Dexter up to this point. As you can see, it finds a way to give us weekly stories about a serial killer that we can not only tolerate, but even cheer on (to a point).

Up next: Going to Canada...