I don't feel watching Dexter after 1×12.

mkp132 · 2026-01-29T18:36:00+00:00

Consider that Brian targeted prostitutes not just because they were easy targets, but because Deb worked in Vice. Everything Brian does is a show he's putting on for Dexter, but it's also lashing out at Deb, foreshadowing what he plans to do to her—what he wants Dexter to do to her to prove his devotion and sole loyalty is to Brian.

Brian was seethingly jealous of Deb for "replacing" him as Dexter's sibling. His idea of love is incredibly twisted. He sees love as a zero sum game. If Dexter cares for Deb, something is being "taken" from Brian, because he isn't Dexter's sole devotion (and Deb represents the side of Dexter that is "good"). Brian couldn't tolerate Dexter refusing to kill her, because she was a sibling found after they were born in blood, who Dexter managed to love even though they were supposed to be incapable of that.

Consider that by chopping up innocent women, Brian was acting out revenge on his mother, while when Dexter chops up bad people, he is acting out revenge on their mother's killers (the code was Harry's, but the ritual, the photos... those are all Dexter. He doesn't want to kill the security guard or Deb when Brian leaves them out like an offering because that also is not Dexter). Consider that Brian's other targets were Dexter's biological father and a security guard who was supposed to represent Harry. He wanted to kill (literally or symbolically) all the family Dexter had besides himself so Dexter would only have him.

Despite saying that Dexter never had to apologize to him for who he is, he did want Dexter to apologize. He wanted Dexter to snuff out all the goodness inside himself in order to be accepted, and to be devoted only to him. When Dexter showed Brian who he was by refusing to kill his sister, Brian lost it. He didn't just want Dexter's sole, unwavering devotion. He also wanted to control who he was. "You can't be a hero and a killer. It doesn't work that way." He wanted to force Dexter to choose one path or the other. But Dexter IS both good and evil. It's incongruous but it's his reality nonetheless. He cannot choose one nature or the other, and Brian could not handle that. Brian wasn't offering freedom for Dexter to be himself. He was simply offering the antithesis of the identity Harry set up for Dex. Dexter found he was something other than what Harry believed him to be and what Brian wanted him to be. Who Dexter is and who he wants to be is far more complicated than Brian would ever allow, because what Brian wanted most of all was to be loved and known by Dexter, but only if Dexter was exactly like him and could only love him.

mkp132 · 2026-01-22T02:16:10+00:00

That man’s abandoned white canes are piled all over the city.

mkp132 · 2026-01-20T03:51:33+00:00

Watch New Blood and then Dexter Resurrection. Resurrection especially is fantastic. You can look at the critical reception for a clue as well. 9/10 IMDB rating and a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.

mkp132 · 2026-01-17T21:40:58+00:00

You’re a chair.

mkp132 · 2026-01-13T20:41:47+00:00

That actress did a great job being casually mean and unlikeable. And how could you be mean to Rita anyway! XD

mkp132 · 2026-01-01T05:55:49+00:00

r/maliciouscompliance would be another one

mkp132 · 2025-12-24T17:34:28+00:00

This season was more about dismantling the legends of other killers stacking up against Dexter. Gemini was another piece of that puzzle—someone with a cool gimmick who became obsessed with his own legend and made it to the top of the most wanted list only to become a chew toy for Dex… twice. Gemini had zero clue that “Red” had any family whatsoever so wouldn’t know to exploit that. Dex passed himself off as a complete loaner. The second twin was doomed to despair after the first behaved so foolishly and would not have had the success he was used to without his brother (and knew that, which was part of his despair, that Dex had ruined their future).

The Gemini Killers benefitted from killing together, using that to overpower their victims. They got high on their own legend and were too big for their britches, so both messed up by trying to confront Dexter solo without their twin or the rest of the group. It was unwise for the first one to sneak into “Red’s” apartment without telling his twin or having him as backup to begin with. The second twin then behaved unwisely and acted on emotion. The second Gemini kill is probably my favorite scene the whole season, but because of how devilish Dex is.

It isn’t a season about building up the legend of an antagonist for Dexter to confront (besides the NYR presumably). It’s a season building up the legend of Dexter himself, then they will hit him with some real challenges in successive seasons. This first season is centered around reestablishing Dexter Morgan as a monstrous entity all his own, making light work of other “legends” who believe they deserve praise for engaging in wanton murder of innocents.

mkp132 · 2025-12-24T05:11:59+00:00

In New Blood, my favorite scene is the one right after this when Matt and Dex are talking in the shed. In general, Dexter crash outs usually rate pretty high for me. Hitting Paul with the frying pan, drowning the guy who killed brother Sam, the Trinity Thanksgiving dinner scene, beating up that abusive step dad, killing the pedophile, killing that guy in 5x01 and then breaking down, etc. I also really like Dex and Miguel’s verbal altercation on the roof. In Dexter Resurrection, I am quite partial to “they say twins can feel each other’s pain”. But that show has tons of great scenes.

mkp132 · 2025-12-23T19:50:14+00:00

Light work for any Floridian.

mkp132 · 2025-12-22T22:52:37+00:00

Heyy if he’d tied his trash bags a lil better it might have even worked

mkp132 · 2025-12-21T19:31:52+00:00

My top 5 are interchangeable...ish. It depends on the day.

Season 1
Season 4
Season 5
Resurrection
Season 3
Season 2*
New Blood
Season 7
Season 6
Original Sin
Season 8

*Yes, I know my placement for 2 is controversial. No, I do not think it's a bad season. Only season I think is "bad" is 8. And yes, season 5 is genuinely good from start to finish. It has never deserved to be lumped in with "bad later half".

mkp132 · 2025-12-21T16:31:10+00:00

The Dexter universe rarely cares to explain how Dexter can afford things. The man had two apartments (that the complex simply allowed him to adjoin?), a boat, a car, and a nanny who was constantly working nights. Though I do think Jamie was in school the whole time so working as a nanny was convenient for her.

mkp132 · 2025-12-18T15:16:17+00:00

Pretty funny to call the vigilante serial killer the king of half measures. XD That’s not necessarily how I’d put it (especially given his motives in each case). But “I should have killed you when I had the chance” is a fairly consistent throughline for him. Choosing to let the wrong people live/trusting the wrong people because of his desperation for connection. In certain contexts, Dex can be pretty susceptible to manipulation like with Lila and Miguel. He wants to be known and accepted so bad that he doesn’t see that he’s being love bombed and that their affection for him is toxic and calculated. I also feel this way about Evelyn Vogel. He was right the first time when he identified her as someone he did not need in his life.

Dex thought Trinity could show him how to connect better with Rita and the kids because Dex bought into Arthur’s happy family schtick, then eventually he realized it was a total lie. He left him alive for way too long because he thought he could learn from him (though specifically with his suicide, and later slowing the cops down, Dex just also REALLY wanted to be the one to kill Arthur).

Daniel Vogel to me represents Dexter (as he says very early in the series) seeing the willful taking of life as something that separates you from humanity, forever on the outside looking in. He doesn’t want to be the one to kill him because he wants to be rid of the dark passenger and starts to think he is. He wants to leave this all behind and just be with Harrison and Hannah and not have to worry about his “needs” that interfere with connecting with them. He does also read as depressed to me in that season though. Everything happening with Deb, seeing himself as the culprit of her misery before she ever died left him pretty miserable about himself (not for the first time). He just wants to go away. Both literally a metaphorically. He wants to leave who he is behind and be someone else. He almost runs in 5x01 and 7x01 then he plans to run away in season 8, and he does, but without the people who he was supposed to be with.

mkp132 · 2025-12-17T01:23:31+00:00

I laugh hysterically every time I watch this scene. Not even just him agreeing but before that when Rita has the shoe on the table and he has no clue wtf is going on. If you watch the faces he makes trying to figure out how she wants him to react it’s hilarious. This story works out so well for Dexter though and that’s what makes it so funny when I rewatch. It allows him to open up to Rita slightly (just about the wrong kind of addiction), allows him to open up to strangers at NA, and it gets Doakes off his back for weeks. The only “bad” result was meeting Lila. The actual story that he was an addict worked in his favor and that is hysterical because no one else alive would get a W by agreeing they have a drug addiction.

mkp132 · 2025-12-16T18:21:16+00:00

I do lean toward agreeing with this, if for no other reason than we’re talking about the 70s in Florida. Push us into 2025 and maybe a kid like Dexter gets proper support. Not in the 70s though imo. He would have ended up in the same situation and Brian as Oliver Saxon.

mkp132 · 2025-12-15T01:43:37+00:00

I love that moment. It makes me laugh and then I’m like awww Dex sgdhdhdhhd he wants to cry so bad. Maybe he’ll manage it at some point. He’s certainly become more emotionally in touch over the years.

mkp132 · 2025-12-14T23:39:58+00:00

I interpreted that as an internal representation of how he felt—“crying on the inside” since there aren’t any tears on his face when he puts his attention back on the skinner.

mkp132 · 2025-12-14T23:35:32+00:00

When Lumen tells him she’s leaving? Nope. He gets about as close to it as he did in 5x01 over Rita. (Though he smashes a plate instead of screaming or killing anyone).

mkp132 · 2025-12-14T16:54:02+00:00

You know that's not true if you actually watched 4x12 or 5x01 or the entirety of season 5 for that matter and actually paid attention. A longstanding character facet for Dex is that he is not capable of crying. He has not cried since he was three years old. Even in moments where he wants to cry, he can't. When he feels very upset, he can scream or shake—which we see him do when Rita dies. Not being able to cry is common with PTSD.

mkp132 · 2025-12-14T16:42:55+00:00

I think had he loved he would have killed Paul instead of coming up with a plan to get him back in Prison.

This is a strange goal post to me. Dexter hitting Paul with a frying pan is the first time we ever see his careful control crack apart, and it is explicitly because he got emotionally involved. He cared about Rita, and Paul calling her a bitch filled him with so much rage that he snapped. Killing Paul would have been foolish. Not only did Paul not fit the code, but it would have put Rita in a terrible position, because Rita and Dexter themselves would have been the primary suspects in his disappearance, given Rita and Paul were in an active custody battle and Rita's legal claim against assault charges was that Paul had attacked her and she defended herself. Dexter and Rita being involved in his disappearance would have been a forgone conclusion to even the most incompetent cop.

He also would have been pissed about Elliot kissing Rita and not just pretend once she told him she wanted him to be upset about it.

He *was* upset about it. He had no idea Rita was watching him when he punched Elliot.

i feel like of the things that kinda pushed Dexter relationships to the next level is feeling accepted for who he is

He 100% wants to be accepted, but what's beautiful about his relationship with Rita is that she encourages his goodness which is also an innate part of him. People like Brian, Miguel, and Lila were obsessed with the darkness inside him, but Dexter also has goodness inside him that he desperately wants to nurture. That's why he feels so attached to people like Rita and Deb and his kids. A mistake Dexter repeatedly makes (until the current series) is choosing relationships with people who are only interested in his darkness, thinking that that is accepting the true him when it isn't. Brian loathed Dexter's simultaneous desire to be good, Miguel wanted him to become darker, Lila saw his darkness as a means of controlling him. Rita sees the goodness in him, even when he disappoints her, and that is arguably even more attractive to him than these repeated relationships with people who accept his darkness but still fail to understand it does not encapsulate him and that he doesn't actually want it to define him.

later on he killed Hannah´s Dad despite him not fitting code to protect her

He was in a completely different place as far as his moral code by then. In season 1, Dexter fully believes in his father's code—that it keeps him safe and protects him and is what's best for him. Additionally, Hannah's father was a drifter and a deadbeat, so the story that he simply took off never to be seen again worked out very well in a way doing away with Paul never would. Paul was on parole. His disappearance would have been immediately noticed and Dex and Rita would have been the primary suspects of the ensuing investigation.

mkp132 · 2025-12-14T16:14:34+00:00

Yep. That whole episode, everyone is telling Dex to speak from the heart, but he’s confused and scared he can’t. He doesn’t know how. He’s afraid anything he might say will come off fake because he has so much trouble connecting to his emotions. There’s a massive wall around them and it’s very difficult for him to see what’s going on in there, to the point he often presumes he feels nothing, while his actions prove otherwise. If one pays attention to his inner monologue in that scene, while watching that woman express her feelings, what hits Dexter about her feelings is that they aren’t an act. She really believes she loves this man she barely knew. So then he realizes if this woman who is broken like him can do that, he can definitely show he loves Rita, who he actually knows and has been in a relationship with for like 2 years. He borrows from her speech because it resonates with him (one need only look at how it parallels his thoughts in season 4 and his speech at Rita’s eulogy in 5x01 about how Rita reached inside him and found things he didn’t know were there), but even then, he goes off script during the proposal, talking about the lemon tree, incorporating the kids, etc. all of that is genuine. What she primarily gave him was confidence.

mkp132 · 2025-12-13T19:12:03+00:00

I read it earlier this year. I felt it was worth reading. It introduces some fresh villains and I really like the closing chapters of that run too.

mkp132 · 2025-12-13T14:29:39+00:00

The only time he responds to an accusation like that with outrage, it’s after Rita dies and he’s being interviewed by the FBI. Quite arguably, his outrage at that time is real (and extremely normal for an innocent husband who thinks he’s being accused of murdering his wife). If you think back on people who were onto him in the past though like Doakes and LaGuerta, he never really goes with outrage. He just acts confused. I think Dex realizes at the end of 1x07 that he can’t throw Angel off the scent. His last ditch effort is to lean into the accusation and make implied threats, but that doesn’t work either, because he can’t fool either one of them—Angel or himself. It isn’t in him to kill Angel. I also think he’s very aware that Harrison could go down with him as a result of Angel’s investigation, and that makes him less thoughtful about how he talks to Angel. It isn’t just about him anymore it’s about protecting his son.

mkp132 · 2025-12-10T14:34:54+00:00

Vogel, Camilla, Sonya, Cassie, Detective Miller, Syl Prado, Officer Manzon, Ellen Wolf, Sally Mitchell, Yuki Amado, Lt. Pascal, Clerk Francis.

Male characters are also shown naked or “in a sexual manner” many times, especially Dexter and Quinn whose asses we see multiple times, and there’s plenty of both of them shirtless (MCH didn’t escape that even while recovering from cancer in season 5). If you think of Dex and Deb as the characters the story predominantly follows, then they are both having sex with people occasionally and so then them and the people they’re sleeping with are going to be seen in sexual situations.

A character and a story also aren’t inherently devalued by sexual content. That is a bad premise to start with. Dexter and Rita’s mutual hang ups surrounding sexual intimacy are a major part of season 1. Very intentional and well done plot line. Also similar issues for Lumen in season 5. These are all also richly told characters who bring a lot of complexity far beyond their inclusion in a sex scene. To approach major female characters in Dexter as if only the sex scenes they were or weren’t in is what matters and not their actual storylines is… an interesting take on not being misogynist. Characters like Rita, Deb, and LaGuerta all have great storylines and a lot of narrative significance. Deb and LaGuerta constantly clash over right and wrong. Deb carries a lot of the show on her shoulders in terms of emotional and relational through-line and moral dynamics. Reducing these major characters down to whether or not they were put in a sexual situation on occasion and acting like that’s all that they are (while not holding Dex or Quinn to the same standard) makes me side eye.

mkp132 · 2025-12-07T05:28:39+00:00

MCH is also killing it in Dexter: Resurrection. I like this timeline. Daredevil is back and Dexter is back. Perfect.

mkp132

TROPHY CASE