Dexter Returns
By Dan Birlew | Posted September 28, 2009 in Television | Comments OffShowtime’s most popular and most controversial series returned to premium cable last night. Dexter follows the twisted tale of Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a blood-splatter analyst who works for the Miami Metro Homicide Division by day, but murders and dismembers criminals by night. Dexter is a serial killer who takes out the trash, a one-man judge and jury who eliminates the criminals who slip through the cracks of the justice system.
Dexter reveals his secret to his newborn son.
Dexter felt the urge to kill people from a young age. When his foster father, police detective Harry Morgan (James Remar), caught on to Dexter’s problem, he coached Dexter and instilled him with a set of principles designed to prevent him from killing innocent people and to avoid getting caught. Dexter came to call these principles “Harry’s Code,” and employed them throughout all his kills until the first season of the show. Harry died years earlier, but Dexter still lived by his foster father’s ghoulish set of ethics.
Each season puts Dexter and the officers of the Miami Metro Homicide Division on the trail of a serial killer. While not an officer himself, Dexter gets access to the crime scenes by being a CSI. Oftentimes his special insight gives him clues into how the serial killer operates, what his motives are, and he shares these tidbits with his foster-sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), giving her a leg-up on her career path to detective.
The first season centered around the “Ice Truck Killer,” a serial killer who created his own crime scenes by arranging bloodless body parts at various locations. As the first season progressed, Dexter helped the police determine that the killer was using a refrigerated truck to transport the bodies, hence the nickname. After the Ice Truck Killer began leaving Dexter cryptic clues that tied into his own forgotten past, Dexter began to remember the horrible event of his childhood that made him the way he is. And with those memories came the realization that he had a forgotten brother, who was now the Ice Truck Killer. His brother forced him to choose between living life in the open or remaining in the closet, all he had to do was kill Debra. But in the end Dexter chose Debra over his own brother, indicating that there might be some humanity to Dexter after all.
The serial killer featured in the second season was Dexter himself. When divers uncovered his dumping ground for body parts, he became dubbed the “Bay Harbor Butcher.” FBI agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) joined Miami Metro Homicide in the manhunt, and he struck up a relationship with Debra. But it wasn’t Lundy who finally uncovered Dexter’s true identity, he was unmasked by Sergeant Doakes (Erik King). Though Dexter managed to capture Doakes, this put him into a quandary as to what to do. Being one of the good guys, Doakes didn’t fit Dexter’s code so he couldn’t murder him. Therefore, he decided to let Doakes bring him in. But Dexter also attracted the attention of a manipulative sociopath named Lila (Jaime Murray) who knew Dexter had a secret and was determined to reveal it. When she learned that Dexter had Doakes captive because he was the Bay Harbor Butcher, Lila murdered Doakes to cover it up. Though she escaped Dexter’s wrath, he caught up to her in Paris.
Season three started with Dexter in a fog about Harry and the code he’d always lived by. Learning that Harry committed suicide after realizing that he’d turned Dexter into a monster, Dexter begins to bend the rules a bit for convenience’ sake. This causes him to befriend Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits), who also bears a murderous streak. But when Dexter learns that Miguel is a very different kind of killer who refuses to adhere to any code, Dexter severed all ties as well as Miguel’s jugular veins. The season also saw Dexter grow closer to his long-time girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz), planning a wedding after learning that she was pregnant with his child.
Season 4 of Dexter features John Lithgow as "The Trinity Killer."
Season four begins with Dexter trying to balance his obligations as a husband, father, CSI, and serial killer. Unable to get a full night’s sleep, he seems to be bungling everything while trying to live the American dream. He brings the wrong notes to court and a killer goes free. Usually this is no problem for Dexter, who prefers for killers to suffer his own horrific justice anyway. But when he falls asleep while stalking his prey, he is discovered by a police officer and must adjust his timetable. When he eventually captures the one who got away and dispatches him in gruesome Dexter style, he again falls asleep at the wheel and crashes while his mini-van is full of dismembered body parts. Meanwhile, an aging serial killer (John Lithgow) returns to Miami and begins recreating his crimes of the past, prompting the return of now-retired Frank Lundy. Learning that this killer has been active for over 30 years, Dexter realizes that he’s the most successful serial killer in history, and wonders if he can learn how to re-balance his life from this “fellow traveler.”
Altogether, it looks to be another nail-biting season. Will the likable but demented Dexter be found out or caught? Will Rita finally find out his true nature? If so, will she leave him or turn him in, or will she accept his dark passenger as part of their new family life? Or will Debra’s improving detective skills finally give her a clue about her foster brother? Because we side with Dexter, we hope he doesn’t get caught in spite of the tangled webs the people around him weave.
Dexter airs at 9pm ET, PT Sunday nights on Showtime.
