Darkly Dreaming Dexter

“…but I’m hungry for something different now.”

“I’m a very neat monster.”

“See you at the next bloodbath?”

“Never miss a party.”

When looking down at his box once containing donuts, having all been taken by police, Dex remarks: “Just like me, all empty inside”.

“And the ritual is intoxicating.”

She's the only person in the world who loves me. I think that's nice. I don't have feeling about anything, but if I could have feelings at all, I'd have them for Deb.

I suppose I should be upset, even feel violated, but I'm not. No, in fact, I think this is a friendly message, like "Hey, wanna play?" and yes, I want to play. I really, really do.

Dexter Morgan is a blood spatter specialist by day, serial killer of serial killers by night. He narratively voices his pathology/psychology/darkness to us throughout each episode, communicating to us what motivates that "urge to kill". "Damaged" at a young age by a traumatizing experience, the opening episode doesn't elaborate what exactly happened to Dexter at a young age, but flashbacks to his "father" (James Remar, character actor extraordinaire) reveal conversations about "channeling that urge towards the 'proper' victims" instead of killing randomly. The "dark passenger" and "murder code" have yet to find their way into the "Dexter vernacular", in the opening episode, but we see two instances where Dex "removes" two psychopaths from Miami. Chopping them up after cellophaning them naked to a slab and executing them, he often dumps their pieces off in the ocean away from Miami. Within the Miami police force, only Sgt Dokes of Homicide seems to find him an intolerable creep. Dokes, in fact, wants little to do with him, except give him the answers he requires, and this includes insulting/ridiculing him when the two of them come in contact within the station. Dexter's boss, Lt LaGuardia, seems to be attracted to him, and her attraction is more than a little lacking in subtlety. When Dex soon comes in contact with a new serial killer in the city, "honing his/her craft", driving (what they believe might be) an ice truck of some sort stolen (Dex believes), LaGuardia draws in close to him, seemingly speaking volumes with her demeanor and interest through her behavior, and he pries away successfully. Dexter admits to us in his thinking that he has no emotional ties to humankind. He has a void of emptiness and apathy to humans in general. However, when he speaks about crime scenes with blood spatter, detailing how he views the evidence provided, an excitement and energy is evident.

Women are abducted, killed, dissected, drained of blood, certain pieces of the body packaged, others left open, even some bone protruding (cleaned and dried), and beheaded. It appears, after the discovery that each victim's body had "cell crystallization" that they had been stored in the cold. When Dex realizes the infamous ice truck in his vicinity near his girlfriend, Rita's home, is indeed carrying the killer the police are after, he follows it until said truck turns around at a dead end, driving directly towards his direction, tossing a woman's head at his windshield! This isn't the end. Dex returns home to find a Barbie doll, dissected and left to perfectly mimic the dead women left in Miami city, in his refrigerator. Dex is actually pleased with a challenge…it is as if this is a dream come true. He even acknowledges that this ice truck killer could be better than him. This episode, the pilot, does what it sets out to do…it wets your appetite (they throw the viewers a bone by having Dex kill two people: the first victim is a rather well-to-do "man of the people", at a public function glad-handing with locals, responsible for hunting and killing children; the second victim, who loves to pluck suburban women from young families, rape and savage them for a "rape and kill" website).
 
Obviously, the first episode needs to present a worthy adversary for Dexter, so we will keep watching. The details of him as a child with Remar conveys pivotal moments from the past important in explaining the adult Dexter of today….this just didn't happen overnight; Dexter's pathology is rooted in a dark past that will continue to be presented to us with each accompanying episode. Also Dexter's "sister", Deborah, swearing very much part of her language, so badly wants to leave Vice, desperate to make Homicide so she would no longer have to stay undercover as a prostitute, leans on him for advice, encouragement, and his unique understanding of crimes/cases. He tries to feed her potential clues to the ice truck killer, but she hasn't built up enough confidence and poise to impress LaGuardia. Her time will come, though, and Deborah will rise out of her lowly position on the force.