Mythology: Dexter 2
By Martin Felipe
October 21, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
I postulated last week that Dexter doesn’t have a dual identity as the show claims, but rather a triple identity: Dexter the witty blood splatter analyst, Dexter the killer of killers, and Dexter the Dark Passenger, for whom the nature of his victims is irrelevant. The two primary Dexters keep the third in check due to the training of Dexter’s foster father Harry, who concocts a code by which Dexter must abide.
Depending upon one’s view of the latest episode entitled Beauty And The Beast, this thesis may come into question. Dexter has conversations with his dead dad. In the opening moments of the episode, they discuss the character of Lumen, who has seen Dexter kill. Harry asks Dexter the first rule of the code. Dexter considers it to be to never kill an innocent. Harry counters that it’s never get caught.
Well, this is an interesting contradiction. Dexter says not to kill an innocent, but it’s Harry who challenges that, not the other way around. One could read this as evidence that my Dexter trinity theory is wrong - which would change both my view of the Dexter character and that of Harry.
The most compelling thing about Dexter is, to me, the ethical questions his nocturnal activities raise. If he really feels sympathy for the innocent and wants justice for their assailants, then it does humanize him a little too much for my tastes. It makes it easier to root for him. I like the dirty feeling I get when I hope for Dexter to get out of one scrape or another. It reminds me that this guy’s really not much better than those he targets. I don’t want him to get too cuddly and loveable. It waters him down, makes him safer for public consumption.
On the other hand, it makes Harry a more interesting character - not that he’s saintly or anything. He cheats on his wife, for example, but when it comes to matters of justice, he’s always seemed to be steering Dexter towards those who, if any, deserve his knife. However, if not getting caught is really more important to him, then there has always been a clause in the code allowing for the death of an innocent to protect Dexter’s freedom.
This is a little too gray of an area for even Harry’s dubious code. Fact of the matter is, if justice comes first in the code of Harry, then in a situation where getting caught comes into conflict with killing an innocent, then Dexter would have to accept his defeat. After all, no matter the nature of his victims, Dexter is still a serial killer. Legally, he should go down. And the life of an innocent should trump his freedom.
However, this isn’t how I interpret the events of Beauty and the Beast. The fact of the matter is that the Harry Dexter talks to is an unreliable narrator. Harry is dead and we can’t consider this Harry to be authentic. There’s nothing within the text (or subtext, for that matter) to believe that this Harry is a supernatural representation of the real deal. In mythological terms, that would be breaking the rules. So who is this Harry to whom Dexter speaks?
I would argue that this Harry is the representation of the third Dexter, the Dark Passenger, the one who operates on his own code, chipping away at Harry’s teachings. This Dark Passenger seems like Harry to Dexter because Harry is Dexter’s only rock, the only voice Dexter trusts. Dark Passenger Harry is a manipulative, evil Jiminy Cricket, playing upon the only real conscience Dexter has, the Harry code, breaking it down, piece by piece. The Dark Passenger wants to be free, and the code stands in his way.
Of course, The Dark Passenger is correct, allowing Lumen to live is a liability. Dexter is also correct - killing her is wrong. It breaks the code. Doing so would make him no different than the other killers in his bloody slide collection. This has always been the central dilemma of the show. Is Dexter different than them? The easiest answer is probably not. If we accept that killing is wrong, then that really has to extend to killing killers as well. So, as a consequence of this, should Dexter get caught, then Harry’s code would insist that he go down, that he take one for the proverbial team.
I believe that Harry, despite fatherly feelings towards Dexter, would see things this way. Yet, The Dark Passenger doesn’t. It wants to continue to feed. And the innocent taste as good to it as the guilty. It wants Dexter to eliminate the Lumen liability. If he does, however, he will no longer be the adorable serial killer next door. He’ll become a bloodthirsty monster. He probably already is.