A character in a television series presents a unique challenge in storytelling because, differently from literature or film, a TV show presents the audience with a continually progressing story on a weekly basis and therefore the characters involved in the story are required to do the same. The strength of a great television character is complexity and consistency; strong motivation, a multi-faceted personality, challenges and faults, and a deliberate evolution – all building and conflicting with each other over the course of a show’s run, a culmination that often, if successful, stretches over multiple years. This hopefully will be the first of a series of articles celebrating the best of these characters that television has to offer.
Dexter Morgan, Dexter
In a nutshell, Dexter Morgan is the sociopath with a heart of gold and a whole lot of skeletons in his closet (or rather, blood slides in his air conditioner). Adapted from Jeff Lindsay’s Darkly Dreaming Dexter novel and its subsequent sequels, the Showtime series follows the titular blood spatter analyst as he juggles a career and a new family while trying to put behind him a ‘dark passenger’ that risks destroying his seemingly perfect life.
After bearing witness as an infant to the brutal murder of his mother, Dexter is adopted by Miami police officer Harry Morgan. It quickly becomes evident to Harry that Dexter has a severe dissociative personality disorder, taking note of Dexter’s nasty habit of butchering neighbourhood animals. However, sympathetic to Dexter’s traumatizing past and in denial as a caring father, he refuses to take the ominous signs at face value, instead devising and teaching Dexter his own ‘killing code’. Among the various rules and guidelines involved, the code would teach Dexter to hide his sociopathic nature in order to avoid suspicion as well as restrict his bloodlust to other serial killers. This governing rulebook becomes Dexter’s personal doctrine, and he follows it like a lifeline. The Code is also the springboard for the entire show, as it sets in motion Dexter’s primary motivation, and effectively drives the show’s narrative.
The show’s most important conflict arises early in the first season of the show when Dexter starts dating his girlfriend, Rita. Initially using her as cover while investing in his murderous escapades, he slowly finds himself, for the first time in his life, having real feelings for the woman. With Harry recently deceased, there is no one for him to confide in about this unexpected materialization of emotion, and he struggles to find the actual meaning of this new relationship. As the show progresses Dexter finds himself reluctantly caring for Rita and her children Astor and Cody, eventually embracing his feelings and welcoming them into his life. Suddenly, Dexter’s two worlds collide – the Dark Passenger is in direct competition with the family man. This duality is the catalyst for Dexter’s evolution; the story is an exploration of his journey from sociopath to family man, as he struggles to discover which of these two incarnations he truly is, and which is the real facade. The serial killer premise is simply the narrative manifestation of Dexter’s fundamental inability to socially connect. Every plot point in the overarching story stems from this idea, and always cycles back to it. This is never more powerfully stressed than the end of season four, in one of the most surprising and unforgiving plot twists in recent television, when Dexter’s Dark Passenger forcefully implicates itself in his home life, breaking down the wall he has built to separate both of his lives.
The theme of Dexter’s conflicting personalities is brought up in many ways throughout the series, but rarely in more interesting facets than within the murder of his victims. Like all serial killers Dexter kills in a ritualistic pattern, setting up a sterile ‘kill room’ complete with pictures and accounts of all the killer’s victims. Both sides of the man come together when he forces his own victims to face the crimes they have committed – the socially capable Dexter is horrified by the person’s actions, yet he is satisfying his own ugly addiction by bringing him to justice. Similarly, each season of Dexter features a single murderer under Dexter’s scope who serves as his main target. The finale of each season culminates with his capture and fate at Dexter’s hand. However, all of these specific kills serve as a mirror to Dexter’s own actions. They either result in the cathartic assurance of the Dark Passenger’s necessity, or reflect upon him its savagery. Dexter’s clearest moments of introspection and revelation come in these moments. It’s clear indication that he is inexorably linked to the same people he invokes justice upon, and that he can’t entirely remove himself from the darkness he was born into.
Dexter takes advantage of the common ‘wearing a mask’ metaphor to encourage the audience to question the true nature behind the character. Stretching the metaphor to extremes, Dexter is essentially battling between the peak of wholesome values and the depths of animalistic violence, yet on a much smaller scale it’s a common conflict. It is a compelling struggle, and a difficult one from which to decide a victory. Ask any variety of Dexter fans out there about their desired outcome of Dexter’s moral conflict, and I’m sure the answers will vary. There is no certainty in defining a person. That is the sign of true character.
Dedicated to Allen Sadikov (awww, cute)
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