Dexter: Dearly Devoted To Death

Dexter is not the first world that I've covered with a serial killer as the lead character. Sweeney Todd and Angel were both about men who did their share of killing, but Dexter is fundamentally different than these other two examples. Todd was a man driven to kill after a lifetime of injustice, and while he went overboard, it is unlikely the demon barber would have made all the meat pies if Judge Turpin hadn't interfered. And on Angel, the murderous Angelus only showed up in a handful of episodes (and most of these appearances were in flashback), and in this case, Angelus killed because he was a soulless vampire. Dexter Morgan, however, is completely human, and he has a compulsive NEED to kill (hmm... it's possible that Todd eventually suffers from a similar compulsion, and that both of them were, to an extent, driven to the compulsion, but for the sake of my analysis, I am drawing a distinction).

Dexter would probably not be a very likable protagonist if he killed an innocent person every week, no matter how complex the character is. After a while, we as an audience would want him to get some sort of comeuppance. Fortunately, one of Dexter's complexities is that he only kills people who are killers themselves. He has a painstaking method that he uses to make sure that he never takes the life of someone who hasn't taken the life of an (or many) innocent(s).

Dexter's foster father, Harry, was a cop, and recognized that there was a darkness in his young son. But instead of making young Dex see professional help, Harry decided to train Dexter to do "good works" and make sure he wouldn't get caught. Harry was pretty vocal about his frustration with the fact that the legal system allows so many guilty murderers to go free, and reasons that Dexter would be doing good works while simultaneously satisfying his dark urges.

As an adult, Dexter has taken a job at the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood spatter analyst in the forensics department. This job serves multiple functions; his obsession with blood is put to practical use, murderers are brought to him as part of his work routine, and he will be the first to know if one of his own victims is ever found, and can stay ahead of the investigation. He notes how ironic it is that most people at the station find him to be such a likable guy. His sister, Debra, often comes to him for advice, since he seems to have good "intuition" about killers, while Lt. LaGuerta, Dexter's superior, seems to have a bit of a crush on the killer. Det. Batista is the closest thing he has to a best friend (this relationship perplexes Dex, since he doesn't think that he has done anything to warrant someone wanting him as a friend). The only exception is Sgt. Doakes, a tense ex-special forces soldier, who gets a bad vibe from Dexter, and will stop at nothing to expose whatever dark secret he believes Dexter harbors.

In the interest of keeping up appearances, Dexter has a girlfriend, despite the fact that he has little interest in companionship or sex. To Dexter, relationships with other humans are problematic and tedious, while sex is... messy. To compensate for this, he deliberately chose Rita, a woman who was the victim of domestic abuse. Her jailed husband beat and raped Rita to the point where the thought of touching another human makes her regress to a state of near-paralyzed fear. At first, it seems very off-putting that our hero is merely using this poor woman for his own sick ends, but as the series goes on, we begin to see that Dexter is providing Rita with something she needs; a man who is kind to her and won't pressure her. Of course, if Rita were ever to find out about Dexter's dark secret, she may go catatonic. Also, even though Dexter claims that he doesn't care for anyone, it is even hard for him to deny that he feels nothing for Rita's two children. He plays with them, brings them breakfast, and even makes them laugh. Not bad for someone who denies that he has a soul.

And that is one of the series' main themes: the presence or absence of Dexter's soul. Dexter continually reminds us that he is "different", and he puts up with people in order to stay out of jail. If he had his way, he would withdraw from human society and only emerge to fulfill his need to kill. Or so he says. When the people he "pretends" to care about are in trouble, he is willing put his own life on the line in order to protect them.

Up next: More about Dexter's soul, and what the future may hold...