Is Dexter good or bad? [Major S4 spoiler alerts]

Amtmann

^^ That's been a pretty typical reaction to the Season 4 finale from a lot of Dexter fans who were perfectly happy with the whole "Dexter the family man" scenario that seemed to be the show's natural vector since Season 3. I think people such as the guy above are angry because they've received a jolt and have finally been forced to really think about the character we thought we knew so well.

So! It's time to get all metaphysical and philosophical. Yes, I know it's just a TV programme, but it's also art and, well, art is something that can be written about ad nauseum.

I think the Season 4 finale was about more than simply spinning Season 5 off in a new direction. I think it was about making the audience think about how they've viewed Dexter as a character since it all started. Now, I'll base what follows on the premise that Arthur Mitchell did indeed murder Rita (something which I think is blindingly obvious, and which has since been confirmed by Clyde Phillips, Michael C. Hall and John Lithgow).

Genuinely I'm amazed that so many people still can't accept Rita's death as it actually happened. People persist in theorising that:

a) It was all a dream
b) Dexter did it himself
c) Arthur couldn't have found Dexter's house
d) The timeline is wrong
e) Quinn or Matthews or someone else killed Rita

a) I think we all know in our heart of hearts that a dream would just be incredibly stupid from a story-telling point of view. This isn't Dallas (though it almost was with the whole "Who shot Lundy?" speculation!) or the Twilight Zone.

b) Dexter did not kill Rita. He doesn't have multiple personality disorder. Regarding the scene with the mirrors in episode 11: Dexter is aware that he is acting all these parts (blood-tech, brother, father, husband, serial killer, Kyle Butler). People with multiple personalities don't know that they have them. Dexter has only one personality. The Dark Passenger isn't some separate entity or persona: quite simply, the dark passenger is his urge to kill and thrill he gets from it. He is always aware of it. He always knows what he's doing.

c) Arthur could have found Dexter's house, as has been demonstrated, either by looking through Deb's apartment or by consulting the rest of the phone book. Personally I think he found it in Deb's apartment. He could have done so very easily.

d) The timeline fits. This has been pointed out by numerous people across the web.

e) Quinn or Matthews or "someone else" killed Rita. No! Trinity was a brilliant serial killer. Dex doesn't get to take him down without Arthur landing a killer blow of his own, which is what he succeeded in doing when he murdered Rita.

I think all the people who just can't accept Rita's death are failing to understand that Dexter's narcisistic acts have had grisly consequences this season. He was playing a deadly game with a seriously dangerous man, playing Trinity for a fool. And when Trinity found out that he was being taken for a fool, we got to see just how good a serial killer he really was, by stalking Dexter and boldly walking into the heart of the homicide department. In effect, Dexter did to Trinity what Miguel had done to Dexter: and Trinity was having none of it.

In choosing to toy with Trinity - who, lest we forget, succeeded in murdering well over 100 people undetected for over three decades - Dexter reaped the whirlwind. And it all finally blew up in his face, as it was always going to. He got away without being implicated with the ITK; he framed Doakes; he played with two women in season 2; he killed the ADA of Miami and got away with it, all the while fooling his friends into thinking he was just a generic, regular guy.

Luck like that does not last.

His arrogance (because that's what it was) finally caught up with him. Lest we forget, we've seen the truly ugly side of Dexter before. We saw it in Season 2 with Doakes locked up in that cage. Dexter was the bad guy there, in case you didn't see it. He even transferred the blame for Doakes's death entirely onto Lyla in the penultimate scene of Season 2. He absolved himself of ALL responsibility then and there, and it never troubled him again. That is not the way a moral man operates. One irony is that Paul, Rita's second husband, was right when he pleaded with her from jail that Dexter was dangerous. He was concerned for his kids. And ultimately, he was right to be.

Now, I totally agree that Rita did not deserve to die. However, I disagree with the widespread viewpoint (particularly among female fans) that she was the 'ray of hope' for Dexter. A lot of people seem to think that Dexter the show is about redemption; that, somehow, Dexter the man can be healed. I think this viewpoint is wrong.

The show has many themes, but redemption was never really one of them. The show is about duality and deception, including self-deception. Dexter deceived himself when he thought he could have a normal life. He deceived Rita for every moment of every show, as well as all his friends and co-workers. And the fans have deceived themselves into thinking Dexter is basically good, apart from his dark urge, which is okay for him to act on, since he only kills bad guys.
The truth is that viewers have blinded themselves to the reality of Dexter's megalomania, his lies, his vanity, his arrogance and, most importantly, to the fact that he kills not to do justice, but simply to kill for killing's sake. If Dexter was interested in justice, he would have left Farrow to the justice system and he would have let Arthur be caught by the police. He needed to kill Arthur to indulge his own ego (hence his self-congratulatory "ta-da!" when he collects Arthur's blood).

I think we can recognise that Rita is a victim of all of these deceits. We as viewers overlooked all of them because we were privy to Dexter's seductive inner dialogue. As he was fooling himself, he was fooling us, too.

The show could never keep treating us to happy endings for the protagonist. Season 1 wasn't a happy ending for Deb. It was ghastly. Season 2 ended with Doakes - an innocent man and a great cop - being blown to bits for Dexter's freedom. Season 3 ended with the death of Ellen Wolfe and tragedy for Miguel's wife and brother. We didn't care about these people as much as we cared about Dexter. So it didn't affect us as much. Season 4 changed that, and that's why its ending was so great. It jerked us out of our cosy little enclave of moral ambiguity and made us think about Dexter the man in a way that we never had to before. Kudos to the writers.

mdwexford

lol at the youtube clip, what a freak.

Agree with some of what you are saying but Dexter doesnt kill for killings sake, if that was the case he would be killing innocents no problem without remorse and as we saw with the photographer that isnt the case at all.

He has some evil in him and has a need to kill but he tries to channel it in the best way he can, which is killing people who deserve to die.

Amtmann

mdwexford wrote: »

lAgree with some of what you are saying but Dexter doesnt kill for killings sake, if that was the case he would be killing innocents no problem without remorse and as we saw with the photographer that isnt the case at all.

He has some evil in him and has a need to kill but he tries to channel it in the best way he can, which is killing people who deserve to die.

I think Harry has conditioned and programmed him so well that yes, he can only kill those who he (and Harry) deems worthy of death. But my point is that he doesn't kill them even in part in order to serve justice. Justice never enters into his equation. He does it simply to quench his thirst to take life, and it just so happens that he's been trained to sate that thirst on fellow killers.
If he was in any way concerned about justice then he would have turned Trinity in and left Farrow to the cops who were investigating him, and killed some cold-case murderer as he did in previous seasons instead. (BTW: Let's not forget that murdered a paedophile, who had never killed anyone, in Season 3.) In Season One he only went after cold-case murderers who had slipped through the system. But now he's not even letting the system get close to them. His need is taking over. As an audience we can sit easily through his murders because we think, in some way, that he's delivering justice. I think what we've failed to appreciate is that this isn't Dexter's perspective at all; and that when he does speak of justice, he's deceiving himself and us along with him.

mdwexford

While obviously his need to kill takes preference over justice in the traditional sense of the word he is still getting rid of evil off the streets, and they are gone for good in Dexters way, not just walking free in a few years time.

The system wasnt close to catching Trinity anytime soon so by taking matters into his own hands he saved lives as well as having him gone for good (the boy in the cement was dead if he was relying solely on the police).

Also paedophile's deserve to die imo so good riddance.

thehomeofDob

mdwexford wrote: »

The system wasnt close to catching Trinity anytime soon so by taking matters into his own hands he saved lives as well as having him gone for good (the boy in the cement was dead if he was relying solely on the police).

Dexter misled the police and he had plenty of information to slip to them that would have resulted in Trinity being caught. Plus with all the info they have on the murders and with Trinity's personal history (sister, mother and father's death) they would have had all the proof needed to make good with the death sentence.

Amtmann

Agreed. The police were certain to catch Trinity had Dexter not interfered. In fact, they might have had him with the DNA swab in "Road Kill" had Dexter not tipped him off.

tman

Thanks for the spoiler alert... I'm still only halfway through S4:(

Amtmann

Jesus tman, sorry about that. I thought the Youtube clip title and the first two paragraphs would've been enough to scare away anyone who hadn't seen the finale yet. I'll amend the thread title.

Mossy Monk

Furet wrote: »

LOL at the woman sitting beside him. She is all smiles until she realise he is serious.

mdwexford

thehomeofDob wrote: »

Dexter misled the police and he had plenty of information to slip to them that would have resulted in Trinity being caught. Plus with all the info they have on the murders and with Trinity's personal history (sister, mother and father's death) they would have had all the proof needed to make good with the death sentence.

Yeah but hes not a vigilante who wants to see people brought to justice, hes a guy that needs to kill people on a regular basis to keep his demons in check.

tman

Furet wrote: »

Jesus tman, sorry about that. I thought the Youtube clip title and the first two paragraphs would've been enough to scare away anyone who hadn't seen the finale yet. I'll amend the thread title.

Ah, its fine... I knew full well that I should have just stopped reading, but I ploughed on anyway.

I'm sure my crap brain will have forgotten all about it by the time I wake up tomorrow:p

thehomeofDob

mdwexford wrote: »

Yeah but hes not a vigilante who wants to see people brought to justice, hes a guy that needs to kill people on a regular basis to keep his demons in check.

I wasn't referring that, I was only replying to your comment on how the system wasn't close to catching Trinity.

Redisle

I can't stop thinking about this show after my little marathon! Think I watched a few too many episodes together!

I agree with other posters who mention that this really makes you think about whether Dexter is really good or bad.

All Im thinking about is what's to come. The implications of Rita's death on the kids, the shock in the community, in the police force and the greater Miami area. Im wondering if the writers will skip the immediate aftermath of her death in the next season and instead skip to a "few months later" situation? It would be difficult to do otherwise, the fallout from her death is too far reaching to only have it regarded in an episode two then forgotten about.

This really does make me think of all the families that go through the exact same thing daily at Dexters hands. Obviously it isn't as bad, in that he dosen't leave mutiliated bodies lying around but the familes have to deal with the dissappearance of their loved ones. They will be tormented for life, will never know if their relation/friend/whatever abandoned them, was killed, or otherwise. In many cases Dexter is inflicting lifelong mental torment on the relations and friends of his victims. And in many cases (Especially Trinity) justice would have been better served by public trial and prison/death sentence. Now that the FBI have acknowledged the existence of this serial killer all of the victims families will become aware how/that their loved ones were murdered. Many of the "suicides" will be reclassed as homocides and many missing children cases will be closed. Then they have the burden of knowing that the killer is still at large, having "fled" the country.

Dexter really wanted to kill Trinity to serve his own needs. Justice did not come into play here, maybe justice is served in previous cases of lowlifes slipping through the cracks but not here, Trinity was a challenge for him, he needed to kill him. In this way he comes across as nothing but a monster. A blood hungry monster stalking it's prey before finally taking it down. Not exactly the behaviour of a HUMAN.

I really am beginning to see Dexter in a new light. Before this I just accepted that killing is what he did, and never even questioned it. This episode certainly changed that.

Very well done by the writers.

Should be interesting to see where they go next season, will Dexter now be solely responsible for 3 kids? Unlikely.. this gives him little time for his little activities. I was going to say "his calling" there, but that kind of has positive connoations, maybe it would be a calling if he just existed to serve justice on those who got away. I no longer see him like this, he is in no way motivated by justice, he just picks lowlifes because they will be the least likely to be missed.
All Harry did was recognise that Dexter was going to be a killer no matter what he did, so he moulded him to select people based on a "code". He designated what he considered to be low-lifes as sheilds or alternatives for other potential victims. I believe he did this initially out of a combination of love and regret. The primary purpose of the code seems to be to keep Dexter safe and allow him to give in to his urges. I don't think Harry ever really meant him to be a masked crusader.

L31mr0d

Furet wrote: »

Now, I totally agree that Rita did not deserve to die. However, I disagree with the widespread viewpoint (particularly among female fans) that she was the 'ray of hope' for Dexter. A lot of people seem to think that Dexter the show is about redemption; that, somehow, Dexter the man can be healed. I think this viewpoint is wrong.

Is this a common female reaction. I know my OH was of this mind after the finale. I think she was mainly watching to see if Rita could change him... now she'll never know. I think that fact alone was more shocking than the murder.

I personally think the whole Rita murder was sugar coated, and I hope its revisited next season, with Dexter imagining how it happened. I think we needed to see Rita killed by Trinity in the same fashion as we seen Trinity kill the no namer in the bath at the beginning of this season. The last time a murder actually gave me a chill in this series was in season 2 when Doakes was in the cage behind a plastic tarp and he seen the blood pooling under his cell as Dexter was killing one of his victims. His expression of horror, and the lack of Dexters calming monologue in his mind brought home the perspective of what Dexter was doing from a normal persons viewpoint.

I guess the first few seasons have lulled us into imagining that sure, Dexter is killing horrible people but he's morally just in his actions. But this season we've been shown that he's human, imperfect and makes mistakes. The power to take another persons life should never lie in the hands of just one person, because, as this season has shown, innocents will die.

I think also the writers broke the archetypal hero mould with this season that they'd been building on previously, which is why his character seems very unsettling in this season. Socrates, in his arguments to define justice in "The Republic" touched on it and you can see it in everything from Jesus to Superman and more recently The Dark Knight. What they seem to be aiming for now is more of a parable in line with the archetype we associate with the story of Satans heroic beginnings but eventual fall, mirrored in pop culture with Darth Vader

They broke it by making Dexter selfish, and also by making him care what the people around him thought of him. We see a massive amount of internalizing from Dexter this season. It is no longer killing to keep his fathers code, or about cleaning up the city of the murderers that have fallen through the cracks, it is about Dexter wanting to have it all. This arrogance is no more apparent than in his final speech to Trinity.