Analyzing Evil: Dexter Morgan

Hello everyone and welcome to the eighty-fifth episode of Analyzing Evil! Our feature villain for this video is Dexter Morgan from Dexter. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for watching. If you have any feedback or questions feel free to let me know below!

#dexter #dexternewblood

[adaj]

In short, Dexter Morgan is a shining example of, “If you treat ppl like animals, they’ll probably act like animals”.

[jtdarelli]

That moment when Dexter realized that Miguel was using him and went into a legitimate fucking rage was chilling. To see a guy who's normally so in control finally lose it was incredible.

[franzgemota]

Props to Michael C Hall to become one of the underrated actors in America

[ashleytupper]

It makes me SO happy that you’re acknowledging how Harry plays a big part in why Dexter’s mental is the way it is and that he did more harm then good for Dexter no matter how you try and look at it. Harry’s his dark passenger for a reason

[olafowl]

Dexter is wild. Goes to show just how hard it is to come back when you were never given a chance to be normal.

[OutrageIsNow]

I’ve seen this series more times than I can remember because it’s my number one favorite show. In one episode, Dexter tells a man on his table that “you’re all just unchecked versions of myself” and I think it sums up the character of Dexter Morgan perfectly.

Killing bad people is what prevents/prevented him from killing true victims like innocent people. Without it, he would be just like all of the victims that laid on his table.

[CraigEmpson]

The true villain of Dexter are the writers who gave him TWO terrible endings.

[jayemel]

It's not a mystery that Harry Morgan is the real villain of the series, he pretty much groomed and raised the distressed and traumatized Dexter to be a serial killer by teaching him how to get away with it and only harming those who had ran away from the law(just to flex on his own unsatisfactions with the law), but like any unhealthy obsession it was a slipery slope and soon Dexter start enjoying this, and after realizing he created a monster, he cowardly took his own life leaving Dexter alone to harm more people to feed his obsession and to deal with all the conflicting emotions he started to feel with the dark passenger persona. If Harry looked for a second opinion instead of listening "a professional" who could be a sociopath herself, Dexter could have lived a normal life if his adoptive father wasn't irresponsible with his condition.

[rdfm]

Dexter is a greek tragedy the likes of which breaking bad perfected. Really the major flaw with Dexter was the end in my opinion. Which felt rushed. But it's arcs were so purposeful and good and unraveling that I still count Dexter as one of the best shows that have been made. And an excellent example of the unreliable narrator trope.

Dexter insisting he has no feelings while plainly experiencing them will never not be hilarious to me.

[Xehanort]

4:39 Harry was one of the series's biggest villains if you think about it. Got Laura killed because he couldn't keep it in his pants and kept cheating on his wife with his women CI'S, turned the traumatised Dexter into his weapon against criminals who got away, abandoned Brian because he was too old to brainwash with the Code and when he saw one of Dexter's kills up close it dawned on Harry what he'd done but the coward killed himself instead of trying to fix it.

[ashleytupper]

One thing always stuck out to me was how badly Harry misread certain situations. Like when Dexter killed the neighbours dog because it was keeping his sick mom up at night. Harry saw it as Dexter finding an justification but really it was just a traumatized teenager trying to help his sick mom and thanks to Harry he seemed to only know one way to express feelings and/or help those he deeply cares about. You see it with Rita’s ex when Dexter framed him because he was causing problems

[BlastedOblivion]

Your point about him being misdiagnosed by his adoptive father actually fits perfectly with the biggest hole I saw in the series. Everyone who knew about the real Dexter went on and on about how he wasn't a normal person and he has to pretend because he can't actually connect with real people. However, we see so many instances of his actual connections with people. A great example is the dude that killed the priest that Dexter got close to. He drowned the dude in the ocean with what can only be described as rage. Had he done what he normally does, he would have waited for his moment and did his bay harbor butcher thing. Instead, he heard a man confess to murdering someone and reacted in the moment with anger driven violence. That doesn't happen unless Dexter has an emotional connection with the victim. Time and time again we are given examples that he isn't as far gone as everyone is telling us he is yet it is never actually addressed by the characters in any meaningful way.

[JaxBlade]

OH YESS I LOVED Dexter, that show was my jam, & Love hearing your input on Anti-heroes and Anti-villains too

[simbadas]

in regards to "they could've been dealt with if dexter revealed his finding to his collegues"
the issue with that is that alot of the evidence dexter finds is obtained illegally, and therefor can not be used in court, so those people would just end up getting away with it.

[BrootalMetalBanjo]

I loved the book version of Dexter. He was definitely more dark, he did not just stab and dismember like in the show, he liked to torture and experiment with new tools just like his brother Rudy.
I also loved that Rudy was a recurring character in the books.

[NexLegacyAccount]

Seeing his personality traits and relationships laid out like this, I can say Dexter shows the most signs of having CPTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder). That disorder manifests very differently from PTSD due to the differences in causes. CPTSD is the developmental and mental version of death by a thousand cuts, especially so if the ongoing trauma happens during childhood development.

- Dexter is a Freeze/Fawn type. He dissociates when faced with a difficult situation, or emotions his brain is protecting him from. He's also a people-pleaser, only wanting to do what he believes or has been told is good for people or society, and he gets extremely attached to people that fulfill an emotional need.

- He's socially awkward, but not quite in a universal way. He's awkward around people he doesn't know because it scares him, not because he doesn't know how to be. Severe social anxiety is a common symptom of CPTSD, because we learn at an early age and often have it reinforced throughout adulthood that people are unsafe, so it can take us a while to warm up to new people.

- He's hypervigilant, which is what makes him so good at his professions.

- He feels immense shame and guilt for his mistakes, far above what an average person might feel.

- He has a very shaky self-image because he was never taught how to get to know himself. He was only ever allowed to follow how other people saw him.

[fireboltinc]

I consider Dexter Morgan, Tony Soprano, and Walter White to be the big three antiheroes of television. There's plenty of them now, but these three set a high bar for interesting, compelling monsters.

Edit: Seems like there's some disagreement, so I'll add this. By anti-hero, I mean the central character of a story having a darker side. The hero part is just a stand-in for protagonist. Yes, all three are terrible people and Tony and Walt do become the villains of their stories by their respective endings. They're not heroic, nor do any of them (Save for Dexter) have that many traditionally heroic moments.

[theresanoelle]

I adored Rita and her death gutted me I don't think I've ever cried so hard for a character death before or since. The writing definitely peaked in season 4 and John Lithgow did an amazing performance as well I was blown away

[thenomad]

He does have conscience and seems to feel really bad when his actions cause innocent deaths. That alone is a redeeming quality that seperates him from truly evil characters and serial killers, he even isolates himself because he causes harm to those he loves. If there'd be a scale of evil he'd not be that high, but if you count the amount of pain he caused then he did terrible evil. So maybe not completely evil at heart, but still evil.
Good take!

[darionman]

Strongly believe if Rita stayed alive Dexter would have eventually stopped killing. He was slowly becoming more human, social. Getting married, having a family and child himself showed a maturation process. As we saw at the beginning of New Blood he can go without killing for long periods of time if he has life going for him. Despite all the kills before and during his relationship with Rita he still showed signs of being “saved” or normal, once Rita died and the manner she died officially sent him off the deep end and to the point of no return.