Dexter - About First Season

Season 1

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 (Michael C. Hall, Six Feet Under) was adopted by a Miami police officer named Harry Morgan (James Remar), 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 (dead of natural causes several years before the start of Season One) 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 (though there has also been mention of arsonists, and child molesters), who have killed multiple times with no remorse, and Dexter must have proof that they are definitely guilty before he takes action. In the episode "Return to Sender", Dexter is shown to have used the email alias "Patrick Bateman" to disguise his actions. This is the same name used by Bret Easton Ellis for the serial killer in his 1991 novel American Psycho (as well as the 2000 film of the same name), who has the same modus operandi as Dexter, a seemingly normal businessman by day but a ruthless, sociopathic serial killer by night.

Dexter has a girlfriend, Rita Bennett (Julie Benz), whom he dates in order to appear normal. Rita is psychologically damaged by her abusive former husband (a violent felon) and is too distraught to want to be in an intimate relationship. This suits Dexter, who believes himself unable to fake intimate emotions, making the "damaged Rita" the perfect girlfriend. Dexter hopes to keep up the facade of normality by never engaging in a close relationship with her. Meantime, he feels genuine affection for her and her two children, Astor and Cody.

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 natural daughter) Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) begins dating Rudy, who is revealed to the audience to be the Ice Truck Killer. At the end of the season, Rudy reveals that he is really Dexter's biological brother, Brian Moser, and describes additional details of Dexter's early childhood, 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. Dexter (then three years old) was adopted by Harry who was lead detective at the crime scene, while Brian (several years older) was more obviously traumatized and spent much of his childhood institutionalized. Harry deliberately hid the details about the crime from Dexter, as well as information about his biological family. Dexter's perception of Harry's betrayal begins to weigh on him.

Rudy/Brian has kidnapped Debra and has intended all along for him and Dexter to kill her together, cementing their bond and severing Dexter's with 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 and a recurring theme thoughout the series is her jealously of (as she perceives it) the preferential treatment Harry gave Dexter over her. She is unaware of Harry's training or Dexter's tendencies. Dexter feels some regret over killing Brian, the one person who fully understood him, to save Debra, who he knows would turn away from him if she ever learned his true nature.

Dexter uses his calculated charm to become well-liked by all of his colleagues, with the exception of Sgt. James Doakes (Erik King), who repeatedly calls him a freak 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 surveillance. The tension between the two is an ongoing plot motif.

Rita's ex-husband, set up by Dexter for a felony parole violation, is back in prison proclaiming his innocence, and points Rita to a clue to the truth about Dexter. The season ends with Dexter and his sister entering a crime scene, with Dexter imagining a tickertape parade for himself, complete with confetti and airplane fly-over, and the crowd praising him for his fine work "taking out the garbage" (i.e. killing those who prey on the weak and vulnerable).