Dexter is an American television drama series that airs on the premium channel Showtime. Set in Miami, the series centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a serial killer who works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood splatter analyst.
Finder-Spyder has been seen in various episodes.
The show is based on characters created by Jeff Lindsay for his series of Dexter novels. It was adapted for television by Emmy Award-winning screenwriter James Manos, Jr., who wrote the pilot episode.
On October 21, 2008, Showtime renewed the series for a fourth and fifth season, each consisting of twelve episodes. Season 4 aired its season finale on December 13, 2009 to a record-breaking audience of 2.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched original series episode ever on Showtime.
Dexter’s opening title sequence features an extended montage where ordinary day-to-day events such as shaving, flossing, dressing, preparing breakfast and eating are used visually to evoke Dexter’s darker nature. Per television critic Jim Emerson, “The first time you see it… it tells you everything you need to know about the character.”
The series won an Emmy Award in 2007 for “Outstanding Main Title Design”, while the title music was also nominated for “Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music” in the same season.
In addition to Michael C. Hall, the show’s principal cast also includes Hall’s real-life wife Jennifer Carpenter as Dexter’s sister, Detective Debra Morgan, Julie Benz plays Dexter’s girlfriend (and later wife) Rita Bennett, and James Remar as Dexter’s deceased father Harry. Dexter’s co-workers include Lauren Vélez as Lt. Maria LaGuerta, Dexter and Debra’s commanding officer, David Zayas as the friendly Detective and later Sergeant Angel Batista, and C.S. Lee as the perverted lab tech Vince Masuka (promoted to title credits as of Season 2). Rita’s children Astor and Cody are played by Christina Robinson and Preston Bailey (who replaced Daniel Goldman after the first season). Erik King portrayed the troubled Sgt. James Doakes for the first two seasons of the show. Desmond Harrington joined the cast in Season 3 as Detective Joey Quinn; his name was promoted to the title credits as of Season 4. Keith Carradine, as Special FBI Agent Frank Lundy and Jimmy Smits, as ADA Miguel Prado, each appeared in season-long character arcs in seasons 2 and 3, respectively. John Lithgow joins the cast in season four as the notorious “Trinity Killer”. Carradine returns in Season 4, reprising his role as now retired FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy, who is hunting the Trinity Killer.
Notable guest stars in Season 1 include Christian Camargo as Rudy Cooper, who woos Debra and has ties to Dexter’s past; and Mark Pellegrino, as Rita’s paroled, abusive ex-husband Paul. Brad William Henke had a role as amputee victim Tony Tucci in the first season as well. Margo Martindale has a recurring role as Camilla, a records office worker who was close friends with Dexter’s foster parents. Geoff Pierson plays Captain Tom Matthews of Miami Metro Homicide. Jaime Murray portrayed Lyla Tournay in Season 2, a British artist and recovering drug addict who develops an infatuation for Dexter. Anne Ramsay portrayed defense attorney Ellen Wolf, Miguel’s arch-nemesis. Valerie Cruz had a recurring role as Miguel’s wife, Sylvia. David Ramsey, who plays confidential informant Anton Briggs in Season 3, returns in Season 4, now romantically involved with Debra. Courtney Ford guest stars as an ambitious reporter who mixes business with pleasure, getting romantically involved with Det. Quinn while simultaneously fishing for sources and stories.
Season 1’s plot was adapted from the first novel in Jeff Lindsay’s “Dexter” series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Subsequent seasons have featured original storylines.
Orphaned at the age of three and harboring a traumatic secret, Dexter was adopted by a Miami police officer named Harry Morgan, who recognized Dexter’s sociopathic tendencies and taught him to channel his gruesome passion for thrill killing by giving it a constructive direction: killing people who deserve it. Most have slipped through the justice system, due to loopholes and technicalities in the law or were never apprehended.
To hide in plain sight and to erase his own crimes, Dexter works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. Although his drive to kill is unflinching (otherwise overcome by a feeling of “emptiness”) Dexter is, through extensive instruction from Harry, able to fake normal emotions and keep up his appearance as a socially-responsible human being. Flashbacks throughout the series show how Harry, who died several years before, instructed Dexter on the art of appearing normal, and he follows Harry’s instructions as a sacred “Code of Harry”.
In accordance with this code, most of Dexter’s victims must be killers themselves; people who have killed multiple times with no remorse. Dexter must also have proof that the criminals are definitely guilty before he takes action.
Despite not having any “real” feelings, Dexter dates a woman named Rita Bennett, to appear normal. Rita is psychologically damaged from abuse by her former husband (a violent felon and drug addict) and is too distraught to want to be in an intimate relationship. This suits Dexter, who believes he is unable to fake intimate emotions. Dexter hopes to keep up his façade of normality by distancing himself from Rita. At the same time, he feels genuine affection for Rita and her two children, Astor and Cody. Dexter sets up Rita’s ex-husband to look like he violated his parole. While back in prison proclaiming his innocence, he points Rita to a clue to the truth about Dexter.
The first season focuses mostly on “The Ice Truck Killer”, a serial killer eluding the Miami PD who is communicating with Dexter through his crime scenes. Dexter’s adoptive sister (and Harry’s biological daughter), Debra, makes known her jealousy of the perceived preferential treatment Harry gave Dexter, but is unaware of Harry’s training or Dexter’s tendencies.
Dexter uses his calculated charm to become well-liked by all of his colleagues, with the exception of Sgt. James Doakes (Erik King), who finds him odd (often calling him a “freak” or a “creep”), and openly accuses him of being up to something, as well as harboring vague suspicions that Dexter has some connection to the Ice Truck Killer and even keeping Dexter under some surveillance. The tension between the two is an ongoing plot motif.
Debra begins dating Rudy, who is later revealed to be the Ice Truck Killer at the end of the season. Rudy also reveals to Dexter that he is his biological brother, Brian Moser. He describes additional details of Dexter’s early childhood to him, complementing Dexter’s vague memories as well as details he has been piecing together over the length of the season. The formative event for the brothers was witnessing their mother and several other people being chainsaw-butchered by a drug dealer and being locked in a cargo container for two days with the dismembered corpses, the floor covered in blood. Brian spent much of his childhood institutionalized. Harry deliberately hid the details about the crime from Dexter, as well as information about his biological family.
Brian kidnaps Debra, with the intention that he and Dexter would kill her together to cement their bond and sever the ties between Dexter and his adoptive family. Dexter instead turns against Brian and ultimately kills him, making the death look like a suicide. Everyone, including Debra, remains unaware of the exact connection between Dexter and Rudy/Brian. Dexter feels some regret over killing Brian, the one person who fully understood him, in order to save Debra, whom he knows would turn away from him if she ever learned his true nature.
The season ends with Dexter and his sister arriving at a crime scene, with Dexter imagining a ticker tape parade for himself, complete with confetti and an airplane pulling a congratulatory banner.
In the U.S., the complete first season of Dexter was released in a four-disc DVD package on August 21, 2007. On January 6, 2009, a three disc Blu-ray version was released.
New cast members for the 2nd season include Jaime Murray as Lila, an artist who is a former meth addict and arsonist who becomes Dexter’s sponsor (and later his lover), Keith Carradine as FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy and JoBeth Williams as Rita’s mother Gail. The role of Rita’s son Cody was re-cast, and in Season 2 was played by child actor Preston Bailey.
Dexter begins the season unable to satisfy his urges for over a month, due to the constant surveillance by Sgt. Doakes. When the opportunity to kill arises, he has problems executing his victims after having killed his brother.
To further complicate matters, treasure hunters discover Dexter’s underwater dumping ground for his victims. As the police extract body part after body part from the ocean, the media dubs the killer the “Bay Harbor Butcher”, and FBI Special Agent Lundy is brought in to catch the “Butcher.”
Rita’s relationship with Dexter becomes more tense as she and her children are dealing with the death of her ex-husband Paul, who was killed in a prison fight. Paul’s repeated suggestion that Dexter was to blame for his imprisonment eats at Rita’s conscience and eventually Rita accuses Dexter of setting up her ex-husband. Dexter admits to setting up Paul, but Rita refuses to believe that Dexter premeditated the crime and assumes that Dexter is a heroin addict. He acquiesces to “having an addiction”, though he characteristically allows her misinterpretation to go without clarification; in return, she vows to stay with him while he goes through the Narcotics Anonymous program. In this way, Dexter avoids responsibility for Paul’s death (though he set the process in motion) and consequently maintains the rationalization that he only (directly) kills people who are murderers. Doakes continues to pursue Dexter until he encounters Dexter leaving a NA meeting. Doakes seems satisfied that Dexter’s odd behavior and apparent drug use can be explained by traumatic experiences from a career in law enforcement.
A cult following begins to form behind the “Butcher” when it is discovered that his victims were themselves responsible for deaths. Dexter even finds that a comic-book character was created called, “The Dark Defender”.
Debra continues to struggle with the trauma of her experience with the Ice Truck Killer combined with everyone recognizing her as the “Ice Truck Killer’s girl”. For a sense of safety and comfort, she stays with her brother, another new source of stress in Dexter’s life.
Throughout Season 2, Dexter is pursued by Special Agent Frank Lundy, while both Debra’s affection for Lundy and her confidence in her own detective skills grow. Doakes’ suspicions about Dexter are revived, and he ultimately discovers Dexter’s collection of glass slides containing blood sample souvenirs from all of his victims. The possibility of matching the slides hidden in Dexter’s air conditioner with the bodies of the Butcher’s victims sets up a climactic showdown in which Doakes confronts Dexter at a drug dealer’s remote cabin. Despite receiving a gunshot wound in the leg, Dexter overpowers Doakes and keeps him locked in the cage inside the cabin. He begins to frame Doakes as the Butcher after the police discover Dexter’s slide collection in Doakes’ car while searching for him, making Doakes the prime suspect. Lieutenant LaGuerta, Doakes’ former partner, is the only one who believes in Doakes. She finds evidence of Doakes’ innocence and takes it to Lundy, but he tells her that the evidence is tainted by her previous failure to report Doakes’ telephone conversation to the investigation team. Lundy rejects LaGuerta’s case files, though he believes she may be correct about Doakes.
Dexter struggles with his life as a serial killer, thanks to revelations throughout the season regarding Harry Morgan, his foster father. Dexter learns that Harry was sleeping with Dexter’s biological mother, Laura Moser, before she died and that Harry took his own life after walking in on Dexter in the middle of a murder, unable to deal with the reality of the monster he had created. With his confidence in the Code of Harry and himself destroyed and exhausted from having to maintain his “mask” for so long, Dexter plays out the possible resulting scenarios in his head of turning himself in. Dexter’s events on his last day of freedom include having Deb becoming the beneficiary of his will, having a final dinner with her, and taking Rita and the kids out on the boat. During the “last meal” with Deb, he realizes how much she depended on him to resolve her feelings about the murder attempt by the Ice Truck Killer and decides to continue with his original plan of framing Doakes as the “Bay Harbor Butcher.”
Near the end of the season, Doakes escapes from the cage temporarily and is recaptured by Dexter. In the season finale, Lila finds the cabin where Doakes is imprisoned and causes a propane tank explosion, blowing up both Doakes and the corpse of one of Dexter’s victims, preventing Dexter from being caught. Lila then meets with Dexter, expecting him to accept her love now that she knows his ‘dark secret’. She catches him preparing to kill her and seeks revenge by trying to kill Rita’s children and Dexter. Dexter manages to save the children and escape and then exacts his own revenge on her after she has fled to Paris. In the closing scenes, Doakes’ memorial service goes largely unattended, with the exception of LaGuerta, Dexter, and Doakes’ immediate family. Expressing the logic of Dexter’s mental world, the final words in the series are a voice-over of his thoughts on the recent events. We hear that he now considers himself the master of the techniques his father taught him. Dexter believes this combined with the fact that Harry knew himself to be wrong about the code gives Dexter the right to rewrite that code and to live his life the way he wishes. He also states that he now needs those relationships that he originally cultivated as disguises to fit into society, even though they make him vulnerable. He considers himself, “An idea transcended into life.”
Season 2 premiered on September 30, 2007. On July 17, the first two episodes of the season were leaked on the internet, and on December 4, the last two episodes were also leaked. On November 4, 2007, the Writer’s Guild of America started a strike, but writer Daniel Cerone stated in the L.A. Times that Season 2 had already been completed in anticipation of the WGA’s action.
In the 3rd season Rita discovers she is pregnant and Dexter finds it hard to choose when she asks whether she should keep the baby or not. After some consideration, Rita informs Dexter that she will keep the baby and raise him either with or without his help. It also takes some time for Dexter himself to cope with the idea of actually having a child (an acceptance helped by the fact that he now sees Astor and Cody as his children and therefore to be protected), and he ends up proposing marriage to Rita, which, after a couple of initial refusals due to Dexter’s early ineptness, she happily accepts.
While stalking a murderous drug dealer nicknamed “Freebo”, Dexter stumbles upon a fight between Freebo and another man, whom he is forced to kill in self defense. This victim turns out to be Oscar Prado, brother of ADA Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) a prominent assistant district attorney and old flame of Lt. LaGuerta. Dexter assists on the case, and Miguel confides in him and grows to trust him. Dexter is able to track down Freebo and kills him, but as he leaves he encounters Miguel, who has followed a lead to the Drug Dealer’s location. Dexter tells Miguel he had discovered Freebo and killed him in self defense, but instead of reprimanding him, Miguel thanks him and offers to help him cover up the crime. However, Dexter refuses, knowing that his “kill room” would betray his story of self defense.
As Dexter and Miguel cooperate to conceal Freebo’s true demise from everyone else, the duo end up becoming close friends, as do Rita and Miguel’s wife Sylvia. While the Prados assist Rita during a medical emergency, Miguel searches for Dexter, who was on a cruise ship killing a murderer Miguel has complained about. Miguel realizes that Dexter committed the murder and praises Dexter for killing another murderer and offers his aid in the future. Trying to discourage Miguel, Dexter proposes a risky operation to free an infamous Aryan Brotherhood leader, who continues to commit crimes while inside prison, to kill him. Miguel agrees with the idea and the plan succeeds (despite the alarm sounding during the escape), and Dexter starts to recognize Miguel as his first and only true friend, to the point of inviting him to be his best man at his wedding.
Throughout Season 3, Debra starts working more seriously to earn her detective shield, but due to her untimely comment about Oscar she is cut off from the Freebo case. She starts working with a new partner, Joey Quinn, to investigate a serial killer with the habit of skinning his victims while alive (labeled “The Skinner”). She also starts a relationship with Anton, one of Quinn’s confidential informants who starts working with her. However, Yuki Amado, a female Internal Affairs officer, starts pressuring Debra to give her information on Quinn, promising to help her become a detective in return, but Debra refuses to cooperate, despite Yuki’s claims that Quinn cannot be trusted.
A notable change from previous seasons is that instead of flashbacks involving Dexter’s foster father, Harry, fantasy scenes are used. Harry instead offers guidance, ideas, and guilt; leading to revelations on Dexter’s future.
Camilla Figg, an old friend of Dexter and his family, is dying of terminal lung cancer and asks him to end her suffering, which he (who had never purposely killed an innocent before) reluctantly agrees to do. On the occasion, Camilla reveals to Dexter that she knew that his brother was the Ice Truck Killer and as she expires, congratulates him when he confesses to her that it was he who killed Brian.
Miguel and Dexter’s partnership takes a new step when Miguel offers to be the one to kill their next target, a former football player turned gambler who to pay his bookie commits murders on the bookie’s behalf. With some reluctance, Dexter accepts, and after preparing the trap and teaching him the basics of his “code”, he witnesses Miguel killing the victim without hesitation. However, the next day, Ellen Wolf, a ruthless defense attorney and old courtroom adversary of Miguel’s, goes missing, and Dexter, suspicious, discovers that Miguel has killed her. After some investigation, Dexter also discovers that Miguel has been manipulating him since the beginning and never trusted him at all.
While the relationship between Dexter and Miguel begins to unravel, so does Miguel’s marriage when Sylvia begins to suspect that Miguel is having an affair and confides her fears to Rita, who in turn confides in Dexter.
Dexter and Miguel then begin to dance around in a game of who has leverage over whom, whilst the police investigate the death of Ellen Wolf. This game of leverage ends with Dexter realizing that Miguel cannot be allowed to run loose any longer (at which point Dexter decides to kill him using the Skinner’s Modus Operandi) and with Sylvia, convinced that Miguel is having an affair with Lt. LaGuerta after seeing them leaving LaGuerta’s house together, ordering him out of the house. Miguel uses his position to help the Skinner escape and evade police custody in return for his agreeing to kill Dexter.
Striving to discover the truth about Ellen Wolf’s death, LaGuerta ends up obtaining evidence linking Miguel to the crime, while Miguel himself discovers that LaGuerta was investigating him and decides to kill her, but Dexter discovers Miguel’s plot beforehand and captures him when Miguel comes to LaGuerta’s house looking for her. Before killing Miguel, Dexter confesses to him that he was the one who killed his younger brother Oscar (in self-defense when intending to murder Freebo instead).
After Miguel’s body is discovered, he is immediately identified as a victim of the Skinner, just as Dexter planned. But Miguel’s other brother Ramon is still suspicious of him. After pointing a gun on Dexter during a dinner with Rita, he is captured by Angel and Debra. During a visit to him in jail, Dexter helps Ramon put his demons to rest offering advice and personal relation to Ramon’s life.
However, on the night before his wedding, Dexter is captured by the Skinner and manages to break free by taking advantage of a moment when the Skinner is distracted, intentionally breaking his hand in the process to escape. After a short but vicious fight, Dexter manages to snap the Skinner’s neck and make it look like suicide by throwing his body before a running police car. Dexter gets his broken hand put in a cast and attends his wedding. He admits to himself that his wedding vows, “to be the best husband and father he could be”, were absolutely true. The season ends as a drop of blood from Dexter’s cast falls upon Rita’s wedding dress as they dance.
The complete third season of Dexter was released in the USA and Canada on DVD and Blu-ray on August 18, 2009.
In the 4th season Dexter is now a married family man. Rita has given birth to a baby boy named Harrison and Dexter and the family have moved to the suburbs, where he struggles to reconcile his new life as a family man with his killing urges. Angel and LaGuerta are revealed to have begun a romantic relationship. Special Agent Frank Lundy returns, having recently retired from the FBI, and meets Dexter at a crime scene where a woman is found dead in a bathtub. Later, Lundy reveals that he believes the death to be an actual murder, and possibly the work of a serial killer he has tracked for years whom he dubbed the “Trinity Killer” (John Lithgow). The killer has a tendency to always kill three people in a very specific sequence: a young woman in a bathtub, an older mother of two falling to her death, and a father of two bludgeoned to death. Lundy also states that Trinity’s pattern has been repeated in various cities across the country dating back over decades. We are also introduced to reporter Christine Hill (Courtney Ford), eager to get a major story from this and relentless enough to seduce Debra’s partner, Detective Quinn to ‘pump’ him for information.
Lundy’s theories begin to seem accurate when Dexter discovers that another girl was killed in the bathtub in the same house 30 years prior, making Trinity the most consistently active serial killer to have eluded capture. Lundy begins working with Debra to capture Trinity before he completes his cycle. However, Anton, who now lives with Debra at his apartment, is uneasy about her working with Lundy given their past relationship. His fears are justified though, as Debra ends up ‘doing it’ with Lundy. Afterward, both are shot by an unseen assailant. Debra survives but Lundy is killed.
While investigating Lundy’s data about Trinity, Dexter not only determines Lundy was killed because he was getting close to Trinity, but that Lundy had determined when and where Trinity would claim his third victim. Dexter sneaks into the office building Trinity is renting and witnesses Trinity bludgeoning a man on a security camera. He is unable to stop the murder, but he does follow Trinity to his home. To his surprise, he finds Trinity is much like him: a seemingly normal family man living a double life as a serial killer. Cpt. Matthews decides that to protect the district, Angel should be transferred from homicide, but LaGuerta volunteers for transfer instead. In the end, both report to Matthews that they have ended the relationship. Neither is transferred, and Matthews states that if they are lying it will dearly cost their careers.
Introducing himself under the alias Kyle Butler, Dexter attends the same church as Trinity (whose real name is Arthur Mitchell) and eventually befriends him. While investigating the reasons behind Arthur’s crimes, Dexter learns how he manages to consolidate his family life with his killing urges and utilizes that knowledge to deal with issues in his marriage with Rita. However, Debra deduces that Trinity may be the one responsible for Lundy’s death after all and decides to investigate him, much to Dexter’s displeasure.
Dexter also mistakenly kills an innocent man and violates the “Code of Harry”, rather than follow Harry’s wish that he kill Arthur. Debra explains the idea of the Trinity Killer to the department, but she isn’t allowed to work the case since she was supposedly shot by Trinity. Dexter visits Arthur at his home and discovers that Trinity will be traveling to Tampa on another building project, which could be the start of another cycle. Dexter decides to make the trip with Trinity to ensure this doesn’t happen. While Dexter is away, Rita and the neighbor, Elliot, have dinner with the kids. On the way Dexter tells Trinity that he killed an innocent man in a hunting accident. The Miami Homicide department decides to block some roads for DNA collection in hopes of finding a match with the saliva left by Trinity. With Masuka’s help, Debra discovers that Trinity wasn’t the person who shot her and Lundy; the shooter was Masuka’s height. With Debra no longer considered a Trinity victim, she is put in charge of the case.
In Tampa, Dexter and Arthur visit Trinity’s childhood home. Arthur reveals that at the age of 10, he spied on his older sister in the shower out of innocent curiosity. His sister, who is startled when she sees him, falls and slips. The fall provokes the glass door around the bath to shatter and cut open her femoral artery, causing her to bleed out and die before the ambulance arrived. Arthur’s parents blame him for his sister’s death, also frequently insulting him with words like “pervert.” His mother, unable to live after this tragedy, committed suicide (because Trinity kills his victims in the same fashion that his family members died, it is known that she killed herself by jumping off a warehouse roof). Arthur also reveals that his father, a bad-tempered alcoholic who beat him after his mother died, died soon after his mother; Dexter assumes Arthur murdered him since one of Trinity victims is a father of two whom he bludgeons to death. On the night Dexter is to kill Arthur, he discovers that Trinity has left their hotel early and is at the build site, atop the building, contemplating suicide. Arthur pours a small portion of sister’s ashes off the building, and steps off the edge. Dexter grabs him saying that this isn’t the way he will die (meaning that he should die by his hand). Arthur orders Dexter to let him go and Dexter feels that if he does, it will count as him killing Trinity. Just when he is about to, two foreman come to help and pull Arthur to safety. Trinity sees this as God sending Dexter to help him just as Trinity had helped Dexter. On the way home from Tampa, Trinity and Dexter come to a traffic jam caused by a police road block who are conducting the DNA sweeps. Dexter, who wants Trinity for himself, mentions that he heard that the police are looking for some big time serial killer. Arthur accepts the information like it means nothing but then does a u-turn saying he doesn’t want to wait in traffic.
During Thanksgiving, Dexter learns that Arthur has been terrorizing his family in their own home, locking his daughter away in her bedroom and physically abusing his son. Dexter spends the holiday with them while Rita prepares her own dinner with Elliot, who reveals that he is interested in Rita, taking advantage of Dexter’s absence; Masuka was invited to the dinner and witnesses their kiss. Meanwhile, back at Arthur’s home, his son snaps and begins destroying Arthur’s trophies, finally destroying the urn containing Trinity’s sister’s ashes, which provokes Trinity to nearly strangle his son. Dexter garrotes Trinity with a belt and drags him to the kitchen, intending to finish the job with a kitchen knife, confessing that he should have killed him when he had the chance. Dexter is interrupted by Arthur’s wife and daughter who, when they see the knife, huddle around Trinity to protect him. Dexter is forced to retreat. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that the father of reporter Christine Hill is, in fact, Trinity.
Later Arthur kidnaps a boy while being pursued by Dexter. He manages to escape with the boy, warning Dexter that he will preserve the boy’s “innocence.” Dexter does some research and finds out that Trinity’s pattern begins with an abduction first; the boys disappear days before the first bathtub death, which also means that his patterns are of four kills, not three. Dexter asks Arthur’s son for help and goes looking through vacant properties to narrow down where he might be. While Debra’s suspicion about Christine mount further when she is interviewed by her for an exclusive piece, she decides to bring in Batista who also suspects something. When they decide to run her DNA from a toothbrush retrieved from Quinn, they find that she is directly related to the Trinity Killer. Debra’s actions during the “interview” cause Christine to frantically call her father, begging him to meet with her. When they finally meet, it is revealed that they rarely see each other and that Christine witnessed her father murdering a woman in a bathtub when she was young. Christine tells Arthur that she shot Debra and killed Lundy to protect him. Dexter manages to locate where Arthur is holding the boy but arrives late to confront him, he finds out from some residue that Trinity is planning to bury the boy alive at the Four-Walls build site as a way of preserving his innocence (the boy representing Arthur in his cycle of killings). Dexter manages to arrive just in time, however, Arthur escapes by the time Dexter rescues the boy from the cement pool. The episode concludes with Christine’s arrest and Dexter arriving home to look in on his own son promising him that he won’t let his killing put his family in danger like Trinity’s.
Christine is interrogated at the station about her involvement in Lundy’s murder. They let her go for lack of evidence, but later find postcards from Arthur’s past kill sites, she eventually confesses to Debra. After Debra refuses to forgive her, Christine pulls a gun and commits suicide in front of her. Arthur searches for Kyle Butler (Dexter’s alias), and kills a man with the same name. LaGuerta and Batista, in danger of losing their jobs for lying about their relationship, decide to marry. They confront the Deputy Chief, and say that if he files perjury charges against them, he will be seen as an anti-marriage, anti-family and anti-love person. He is furious, but cannot file the charges because of the future implications against him. Dexter decides that he must draw police attention away from Arthur, so he finds a man whom he can blame – Stan Beaudry. Beaudry is a trucker, who was acquitted of charges for killing a prostitute. Dexter sneaks into his home and plants a comb, toothbrush, and the framing hammer that Arthur used to bludgeon the man in the office building. He sneaks into Beaudry’s truck, kills him, and plants Lundy’s Trinity files on the passenger seat. Arthur calls Dexter from the arcade, and Dexter soon arrives there to try and find him. He is unable to locate Arthur, so he leaves. Arthur, who was hiding, sees Dexter leave, and follows him to the police station. He steals a visitor badge from an elderly woman, and proceeds into the homicide division. Dexter sees him come out of the elevator, and confronts him in the main area. Arthur, who still thinks that Dexter is “Kyle Butler”, learns his true identity.
After Arthur and Dexter talk at the station, Dexter follows Arthur to a bank where he closes his accounts and takes out his life savings. On the way, Dexter hits another car and does not stop. The other driver follows Dexter to the bank and calls the police. When Arthur comes out of the bank Dexter sneaks up on him and injects him. He puts Arthur’s body in the back of his van, and takes Arthur’s large envelope. He finds a large amount of money and receipts. He also takes Arthur’s wallet from his back pocket. When he leaves the van, he sees the other driver talking to the police. He quickly hides the envelope and confronts the man. Dexter tries to get out of the hit and run charge, offering to pay for the damage, but the sheriff won’t let him go. The other driver tapes the conversation on his cellphone, and Dexter takes the phone and smashes it, causing the sheriff officers to arrest him. He is later let out of the holding cell, and the officers have called Rita to pick him up. Meanwhile, one of Harry’s informants takes Deb to the house of the informant that Harry left her for. Deb immediately recognizes the house as the home of Brian Moser, the Ice Truck Killer. The informant says that the woman’s name was Laura Moser. Deb looks for information about Laura, and finds out that Dexter is her son, and the brother of the Ice Truck Killer. Dexter goes to Arthur’s house to try and find him. He is confronted by Arthur’s scared family. They tell him that he just left after taking anything in the house that he can sell, as well as any cash in the house. Dexter hears a helicopter flying low over the house, and checks the window. He sees the S.W.A.T. team preparing to invade the home, and he quickly runs to the garage, where he takes refuge in Arthur’s coffin. He later pops out and puts his ID on. Deb confronts him about his true identity, and Dexter fakes surprise. He says that Brian must have tried to get to him through Deb. Dexter then notices Arthur’s broken Mustang windshield. He uses a receipt in Arthur’s wallet to find the autobody shop and hides in the trunk, removing the oil cap so the car will break down. Sure enough, Arthur is driving late at night when the car begins to break down. He pulls over to check the engine when Dexter comes out of the trunk and chokes Arthur until he passes out. Arthur wakes up in the basement room where he held the missing boy. Arthur says that this is God’s plan for him, and asks Dexter to turn on his model train and his record player. Dexter obeys his wishes, and then strikes him with a framing hammer (but not the same framing hammer Arthur used in his first Miami killing, as all evidence in the case has been taken by the FBI). Dexter dumps Arthur’s body, and reflects on his life thus far, even considering killing the dark passenger. He returns home and picks up a message from Rita on his cellphone. She had to come back home to get her ID. After listening to the message, he decides to call her back, only to hear Rita’s phone ring from within the house. After finding Rita’s phone, Dexter soon hears Harrison crying, and rushes to the bathroom, where he finds Harrison sitting on the tile in a puddle of blood. Rita is found dead in the bathtub, presumably murdered by Trinity. He carries Harrison out of the bathroom, thinking to himself that he can never have a nice life, and never be rid of his Dark Passenger, because he is what’s wrong. Afterward, the screen goes black.
The initial response to Dexter was positive. The website Metacritic calculated a score of 77 from a possible 100 based on 27 reviews, making it the third-best reviewed show of the 2006 fall season. This score includes four 100% scores from the New York Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times and People Weekly. Brian Lowry, who had written one of the three poor reviews Metacritic tallied for the show, recanted his negative review in a year-end column for the trade magazine Variety after watching the full season. On the CNET Networks website TV.com, Dexter has an overall rating of 9.2/10.
Dexter: Early Cuts, a twelve-part animated web series, premiered on October 25, 2009. Michael C. Hall reprises his role as the voice of Dexter. The web series revolves around Dexter hunting down the 3 victims that he mentions in season one, episode 6, “Return to Sender”. Each victim has their own story and each one is split into 4 chapters with each one becoming available to watch on the Showtime website every subsequent Sunday (the same day as the show).
On December 14, 2006, Michael C. Hall was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category Best Actor in a Television Drama Series for playing Dexter.
The show was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for its second season (Showtime’s first ever drama to be nominated for the award), and its star for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. It won neither, losing to Mad Men and Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston.
The third season finale on December 14, 2008 was watched by 1.51 million viewers, giving Showtime its highest ratings for any of its original series since 2004, when Nielsen started including original shows on premium channels in its ratings.
In 2008, it won a Scream Award For Best TV Show.
The fourth season finale aired on December 13, 2009 and was watched by 2.6 million viewers. It broke records for all of Showtime’s original series and was their highest rated telecast in over a decade.
This article uses material from the “Dexter” article at Wikipedia.org and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
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