Dexter Morgan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dexter Morgan
First appearance	Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Last appearance	Dearly Devoted Dexter
Statistics
Aliases	The Dark Passenger (alter-ego)
Gender	Male
Occupation	forensics/serial killer
Family	Deborah Morgan (Adopted Sister) Harry Morgan (Foster Father) Brian (Older Brother) Joe Driscoll (Father) Laura Driscoll (Mother)
Portrayed by	Michael C. Hall
Created by	Jeff Lindsay

Dexter Morgan is a fictional character in two novels by crime novelist Jeff Lindsay, Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004) and Dearly Devoted Dexter (2005).

In 2006, the novels were adapted into the Showtime TV series Dexter. In the TV series, Dexter is played by Michael C. Hall. By day, Dexter is a blood splatter expert for the Miami-Dade Police Department. By night he hunts down and kills those who he feels "deserve to die". These are usually violent criminals (murderers, rapists, etc) who Dexter thinks have escaped justice.

Contents 1 Character history 2 Dexter's personality and sociopathy 3 Dexter's Killing Signature 4 Dexter's Victims

[edit] Character history

As a child, Dexter suffered an event so traumatic he repressed the memory.

According to the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dexter and his older brother Brian were trapped as children in a storage locker at the docks in Miami for two days, surrounded by stinking corpses, sitting in an inch-deep puddle of blood. One of the corpses was their mother, who was involved in some type of illegal smuggling between Miami and Colombia. Evidently, she was murdered with a chainsaw.

His foster father, police officer Harry Morgan, recognized that young Dexter was a sociopath with an uncontrollable need to kill. Harry decided to train Dexter to channel his violent tendencies in a positive direction. He taught the sullen teen to be a cautious, meticulous and efficient killer, and showed him how to leave no clues. Harry also taught Dexter to live a public life that discourages suspicion. Most importantly, Harry gave Dexter a system of ethical principles that Dexter came to call "the Code of Harry." Living by that code, Dexter kills only people who deserve to die because they are themselves killers.

Also featured in the series are Dexter's foster sister, Deborah, a police detective; his girlfriend, Rita; and Rita's two young children, Astor and Cody.

[edit] Dexter's personality and sociopathy

Dexter Morgan considers himself emotionally divorced from the rest of humanity. In his narration, Dexter often refers to 'humans' as if he were not one of them. Dexter claims to have no emotions and no conscience, that all of his emotional responses are part of a well-rehearsed act to avoid looking like a serial killer. He has no interest in romance or sex, and he considers his relationship to his girlfriend Rita to be part of his disguise.

There are chinks in Dexter's emotional armor. He acknowledges loyalty to family: "If I were capable of love, how I would have loved Harry," Dexter says. Since Harry's death, Dexter's only family is his sister, Deborah, Harry's natural daughter. Dexter also likes children. He knows that Rita can trust him with her kids, as he would never hurt them. The flipside of this is that Dexter is particularly wrathful when his victims prey on children.

Animals don't like Dexter, which can make noise problems when Dexter stalks a victim who has pets.

Dexter is driven to kill to satisfy an inner personality he calls "The Dark Passenger." Dexter kills when the Passenger's voice can't be ignored. That's when he "lets the Dark Passenger do the driving."

[edit] Dexter's Killing Signature

Dexter's preferred style of killing entails seizing the victim from behind and injecting them with an animal tranquilizer called M99 (etorphine hydrochloride) that renders them temporarily unconscious. The injection is a tradition established with Dexter's first victim, a hospice nurse (played by Denise Crosby) who killed her patients with overdoses of morphine.

When the victim wakes up, they are naked and secured to a table with heavy, clear plastic tape. Dexter then confronts them with evidence of their crimes.

Typical of the classic serial killer profile, Dexter Morgan collects trophies from his victims, that he can use to relive the killing moment. Dexter's trophy signature is to slice the victim's cheek near the eye and collect a blood sample, which he preserves on a laboratory slide. Dexter keeps blood slides from all his victims, neatly organized in a wooden filing box that he keeps hidden inside a window air conditioner in his apartment.

[edit] Dexter's Victims

These are only the victims seen onscreen; others are stated to have occurred offscreen.

Season One
Name	Occupation	Crime	Episode	Notes
Mike Donovan	Teacher	Serial killer	Dexter	Preys on children.
Jamie Jerworski	Valet	Murder (one victim)	Dexter
Matthew Chambers	Unknown	Manslaughter through drunken driving (repeated)	Crocodile	Matthew Chambers is a pseudonym; changes his name from town to town.
Unnamed	Nurse	Serial killer	Popping Cherry	Dexter's first victim; tried to poison Harry.
Jorge Castillo	Human Trafficker	Murdered people he was supposed to transport	Love, American Style
Valerie Castillo	Human Trafficker	Complicit in Jorge's murders	Love, American Style	Jorge was her husband.
Dr. Emmett Meridian	Psychiatrist	Serial killer	Shrink Wrap	Convinced patients to commit suicide.