The Evolution of Dexter
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VOICE OVER: Phoebe de Jeu
WRITTEN BY: Richard Bush
Tonight's the night we disect the evolution of Dexter.
Dexter IS a psychopath. Buuuuut, it’s not quite as cut and dry as that. Welcome to WatchMojo and in today’s video we’re going to be looking at the evolution of Dexter.
Through seven years and eight seasons, Dexter Morgan grew from being a bloodthirsty killer, to a compassionate husband and bigger brother. But what happened along the way? How did Dexter manage to harness his Dark Passenger for the greater good?
As a toddler, Dexter witnessed his mother being murdered with a chainsaw, sparking his obsession with murder. Adopted by police officer Harry Morgan – and gaining a sister in Debra – Harry came to realize that Dexter had psychopathic tendencies. Dexter was a loose cannon who needed guidance, which came in the form of Harry’s code – a set of rules that helped Dexter evaluate who deserved to die, allowing him to fulfill his blood-lust.
Skip ahead to Dexter working for Miami Metro Police Department, a job that allowed him to track his victims and maintain a cover. In season one Dexter is killing bad guys buy night, and faking good guy camaraderie in the workplace by day. And he even has a girlfriend, Rita, who with her two kids – Astor and Cody – help him complete his guy-next-door facade. And no one is the wiser, well, except maybe Doakes, but we will come back to him later.
As season one unravels, Dexter has to deal with the sexual advances of Rita – an emotional wave he’s not equipped to deal with – and the prospect that he might have a biological brother who’s just as murderous as he is. But his strong relationship with his adopted sister Deb can’t be overlooked here. He may not feel emotion, but as Dexter puts it, “if I could have feelings at all, I'd have them for Deb.”
And it’s ultimately this bond that comes between Dexter and having a relationship with his birth-brother Brian, a person that is arguably just like him. Dexter trades a life of unscrutinised murder for the life of his adopted sister – proof that there is clearly an emotional heart beating inside him, at least when it comes to Deb.
In season two, Dexter gets off to a rocky start with Rita, and meets Lila, a rebel who quickly becomes fixated with him. Lila puts Dexter’s feelings for Rita to the test – of which he fails by sleeping with her. At this point, Dexter is enjoying living life on the edge, believing that maybe Lila could be a kindred spirit who could accept him for who he really is. But things go south very quickly, with Lila becoming jealous of other people in Dexter’s life. Retaliating, Lila puts everyone around him at risk, including the snooping Sergeant Doakes, whom she kills to protect Dexter.
Dexter’s moral compass is put under the microscope here. He could live a life of carefree anarchy with Lila, but he doesn’t want to do that. Is that because he genuinely loves Rita or because he just doesn’t want to be caught? Even though Dexter was being spied on by Doakes, a guy who suspected he was a murderer all along, Dexter feels guilty when Doakes is killed, proving that in his eyes, even when murder is convenient, it’s not necessarily right.
Dexter knows Lila is too dangerous to be kept alive, so for his, and pretty much everyone’s safety, he tracks her down and kills her.
Season three puts Dexter’s morals to the test yet again. His new relationship with Miguel Prado seems like a match made in vigilante heaven. He too wants to clean up the streets, even if it means using uncouth methods outside of the law. Dexter initially thrives off this, but when Miguel starts skirting Harry’s code in order to get revenge. Dexter realizes that Miguel could not only ruin his cover, but that his actions are just plain wrong. And Dexter tops off his run of epiphanies by marrying Rita.
Following the birth of his and Rita’s new baby at the start of season 4, Dexter finds himself somewhat shackled by the domestic family life, struggling to find time to satisfy, and enjoy, his urge to kill. But after a new serial killer, Arthur Mitchell, comes onto the scene, Dexter begins to admire the killer’s ability to balance his extracurricular activities and his home life. Dexter befriends him, before realizing that Arthur’s home life isn’t as happy as it appears on the surface, and that Arthur’s a different kind of monster all together. This helps Dexter understand that his front of love and compassion for Rita and the kids, isn’t really a front at all, certainly not like Arthur’s destructive front with his family. Dexter takes him out – but not before Arthur gets to Rita and kills her.
Season five sees Dexter distraught after Rita’s death, even if he doesn’t know how to show it. But he finds solace in Lumen, a victim of abuse who has her own revenge-fueled Dark Passenger. Dexter takes her under his wing – bonding emotionally over their lust to kill. But she soon loses that thirst, and the two grow apart, leaving Dexter heartbroken. Season five ends with Dexter going out of his way to clear Quinn’s name – a cop Deb has been romantically involved with – in order to clear his own name, and keep his sister happy.
Dexter slips into the mentor role again in season six as he discovers that a killer, Travis Marshall, is being manipulated into doing evil deeds. Instead of killing him, he tries to help him, but ultimately learns that Travis is more dangerous than he imagined. In the meantime, following a therapy session, Debra realizes that she may be in love with Dexter, which is put to the ultimate test in the season finale when she walks in on Dexter killing Travis.
With Deb aware that Dexter is a killer, there’s a lot of toing and froing in season seven. She can’t rat him out because she loves him, and Dexter cares about Deb too much to kill her to save himself. Dexter falls for a woman called Hannah McKay – also a murderer – who tries to hurt Deb, while Deb is doing everything she can to hide Dexter’s true identity. Both make sacrifices. Dexter gives up Hannah to protect Deb, and Deb kills her long time mentor LaGuerta to protect Dexter.
Season eight is the culmination of all of Dexter’s newly-learned emotions. He finds that he’s willing to curb his life of killing in Miami, for a normal-ish life with Harrison and the aforementioned Hannah McKay. He even risks the life of his new mother figure, Dr. Evelyn Vogel, by keeping killer Oliver Saxon alive, believing him to be rehabilitated. That ends badly, with Saxon killing Vogel, and shooting Deb, causing her to become brain dead. Dexter then risks everything by taking Deb off life support, faking his own death, and fleeing to Oregon to live with his guilt.
Dexter does some questionable things throughout seasons one to eight, but what starts as a selfish need to satisfy his urge to kill, turns into a want for a normal, domestic life. His carefulness to protect himself almost becomes non-existent as he strives to protect those around him.
And that is The Evolution of Dexter!
Through seven years and eight seasons, Dexter Morgan grew from being a bloodthirsty killer, to a compassionate husband and bigger brother. But what happened along the way? How did Dexter manage to harness his Dark Passenger for the greater good?
As a toddler, Dexter witnessed his mother being murdered with a chainsaw, sparking his obsession with murder. Adopted by police officer Harry Morgan – and gaining a sister in Debra – Harry came to realize that Dexter had psychopathic tendencies. Dexter was a loose cannon who needed guidance, which came in the form of Harry’s code – a set of rules that helped Dexter evaluate who deserved to die, allowing him to fulfill his blood-lust.
Skip ahead to Dexter working for Miami Metro Police Department, a job that allowed him to track his victims and maintain a cover. In season one Dexter is killing bad guys buy night, and faking good guy camaraderie in the workplace by day. And he even has a girlfriend, Rita, who with her two kids – Astor and Cody – help him complete his guy-next-door facade. And no one is the wiser, well, except maybe Doakes, but we will come back to him later.
As season one unravels, Dexter has to deal with the sexual advances of Rita – an emotional wave he’s not equipped to deal with – and the prospect that he might have a biological brother who’s just as murderous as he is. But his strong relationship with his adopted sister Deb can’t be overlooked here. He may not feel emotion, but as Dexter puts it, “if I could have feelings at all, I'd have them for Deb.”
And it’s ultimately this bond that comes between Dexter and having a relationship with his birth-brother Brian, a person that is arguably just like him. Dexter trades a life of unscrutinised murder for the life of his adopted sister – proof that there is clearly an emotional heart beating inside him, at least when it comes to Deb.
In season two, Dexter gets off to a rocky start with Rita, and meets Lila, a rebel who quickly becomes fixated with him. Lila puts Dexter’s feelings for Rita to the test – of which he fails by sleeping with her. At this point, Dexter is enjoying living life on the edge, believing that maybe Lila could be a kindred spirit who could accept him for who he really is. But things go south very quickly, with Lila becoming jealous of other people in Dexter’s life. Retaliating, Lila puts everyone around him at risk, including the snooping Sergeant Doakes, whom she kills to protect Dexter.
Dexter’s moral compass is put under the microscope here. He could live a life of carefree anarchy with Lila, but he doesn’t want to do that. Is that because he genuinely loves Rita or because he just doesn’t want to be caught? Even though Dexter was being spied on by Doakes, a guy who suspected he was a murderer all along, Dexter feels guilty when Doakes is killed, proving that in his eyes, even when murder is convenient, it’s not necessarily right.
Dexter knows Lila is too dangerous to be kept alive, so for his, and pretty much everyone’s safety, he tracks her down and kills her.
Season three puts Dexter’s morals to the test yet again. His new relationship with Miguel Prado seems like a match made in vigilante heaven. He too wants to clean up the streets, even if it means using uncouth methods outside of the law. Dexter initially thrives off this, but when Miguel starts skirting Harry’s code in order to get revenge. Dexter realizes that Miguel could not only ruin his cover, but that his actions are just plain wrong. And Dexter tops off his run of epiphanies by marrying Rita.
Following the birth of his and Rita’s new baby at the start of season 4, Dexter finds himself somewhat shackled by the domestic family life, struggling to find time to satisfy, and enjoy, his urge to kill. But after a new serial killer, Arthur Mitchell, comes onto the scene, Dexter begins to admire the killer’s ability to balance his extracurricular activities and his home life. Dexter befriends him, before realizing that Arthur’s home life isn’t as happy as it appears on the surface, and that Arthur’s a different kind of monster all together. This helps Dexter understand that his front of love and compassion for Rita and the kids, isn’t really a front at all, certainly not like Arthur’s destructive front with his family. Dexter takes him out – but not before Arthur gets to Rita and kills her.
Season five sees Dexter distraught after Rita’s death, even if he doesn’t know how to show it. But he finds solace in Lumen, a victim of abuse who has her own revenge-fueled Dark Passenger. Dexter takes her under his wing – bonding emotionally over their lust to kill. But she soon loses that thirst, and the two grow apart, leaving Dexter heartbroken. Season five ends with Dexter going out of his way to clear Quinn’s name – a cop Deb has been romantically involved with – in order to clear his own name, and keep his sister happy.
Dexter slips into the mentor role again in season six as he discovers that a killer, Travis Marshall, is being manipulated into doing evil deeds. Instead of killing him, he tries to help him, but ultimately learns that Travis is more dangerous than he imagined. In the meantime, following a therapy session, Debra realizes that she may be in love with Dexter, which is put to the ultimate test in the season finale when she walks in on Dexter killing Travis.
With Deb aware that Dexter is a killer, there’s a lot of toing and froing in season seven. She can’t rat him out because she loves him, and Dexter cares about Deb too much to kill her to save himself. Dexter falls for a woman called Hannah McKay – also a murderer – who tries to hurt Deb, while Deb is doing everything she can to hide Dexter’s true identity. Both make sacrifices. Dexter gives up Hannah to protect Deb, and Deb kills her long time mentor LaGuerta to protect Dexter.
Season eight is the culmination of all of Dexter’s newly-learned emotions. He finds that he’s willing to curb his life of killing in Miami, for a normal-ish life with Harrison and the aforementioned Hannah McKay. He even risks the life of his new mother figure, Dr. Evelyn Vogel, by keeping killer Oliver Saxon alive, believing him to be rehabilitated. That ends badly, with Saxon killing Vogel, and shooting Deb, causing her to become brain dead. Dexter then risks everything by taking Deb off life support, faking his own death, and fleeing to Oregon to live with his guilt.
Dexter does some questionable things throughout seasons one to eight, but what starts as a selfish need to satisfy his urge to kill, turns into a want for a normal, domestic life. His carefulness to protect himself almost becomes non-existent as he strives to protect those around him.
And that is The Evolution of Dexter!
