Dexter Morgan
The serial killer who follows a killer's morality handed down by his father: never get caught, and kill only murderers.
series · 2006
A blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police, Dexter kills at night. He says he feels nothing and imitates other people's emotions so as to pass unnoticed. His adoptive father, a police officer, saw his need to kill very early and channelled it with a code: never get caught, and kill only murderers whose guilt is proven. Dexter speaks of this need as a "Dark Passenger" that does the driving, but he prepares each killing with a care that belies the image.
2 more
Justification
Dexter says he is driven: his need to kill is a "Dark Passenger" that takes the wheel, and he could not get rid of it. His words place him on the side of . His acts say something else: he investigates his targets for weeks, waits for proof, gives up when it is lacking, chooses the time and place. He does not choose to have this need, but he governs what he does with it, which brings him close to .
The voice-over and the "Dark Passenger", from season 1 · The preparations for each killing (scouting, proof, kill room) · Season 7, Hannah McKay
Justification
Dexter calls himself a "monster" and speaks of his need as a nature he did not choose and will not change: his words are those of . One can read in them what calls : freezing oneself into a ready-made identity, embodied by the "Passenger", so as not to answer for what one does. His acts do not warrant ascribing another position to him on this axis: only his words are taken into account here.
The voice-over, seasons 1 to 6
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Justification
Toward his victims, Dexter holds to : the code demands proof of their guilt, and before killing them he puts the photos of their own victims before their eyes. An executioner convinced that no one is responsible would not need this ritual. This demand contrasts with the way he speaks of himself, driven by a cause he did not choose: he invokes causes for himself and desert for others.
The ritual of the photos on the kill table · Season 8, final episode
Justification
The code has the form of rules, but their justification is a balance sheet: those Dexter kills have killed and would kill again, he rids the city of predators the courts let slip. This guides his choice of targets, but it also serves to cover a need that comes before it. Some rules work for him as prohibitions: he forbids himself to kill an innocent and stops when proof is lacking, even though he sometimes gets it wrong. The code's first rule, never get caught, is a matter of prudence more than of morality.
The rules of the code, handed down by Harry (flashbacks) · Season 1, episode 1
Justification
What Dexter inflicts resembles a death penalty without a court. The ritual, the confrontation with the victims' photos, the proof he demands make it : the guilty party pays for what he did. A preventive motive is added, these men would kill again, but it is not deterrence: his killings are secret and warn no one. It is permanent incapacitation, which this axis's poles do not name. No room is left for the offender's reform.
The kill table and the plastic wrap
Justification
Dexter holds to the letter of Harry's code as to the only thing that restrains him: he quotes its rules and turns to them when he hesitates. This concerns a private law, set against the common one.
Season 4, Jonathan Farrow · Season 5, episode 1
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Justification
Dexter describes himself as a man without emotions, who imitates them to blend in. That is not a thesis about reason, and only his acts are taken into account here: they show attachments that make him see what matters. He puts his sister and his son before his own rules, and these attachments increasingly steer his choices, toward .
The voice-over on the emotions he imitates · Season 1, final episode