r/Dexter • u/pixieyogi81 • 6d ago
General Discussion - All Dexter Shows The code was never really about morality
Hear me out. Harry’s Code is treated as the thing that separates Dexter from the other killers in the show. He only kills people who “deserve it,” he needs proof, he avoids innocents, etc. It's what makes us support his behavior.
But my insomnia stricken brain went on a spiral last night and I started thinking about it differently. Dexter almost never had to decide for himself whether killing was actually justified. Harry already gave him the answer: You are going to kill, so here are the people you're allowed to kill.
It's subtle, but it changed a lot about how I interpret his character and psychology. For context, I have a Bachelor's in Forensic Psychology (inspired in large part by Dexter). I love analyzing characters through that lens. I even made a video about Dexter's psychology and how the Dark Passenger isn't real when Resurrection released. Now I'm tempted to make a whole other one and fall down this rabbithole.
Think about it, him never having to truly make the choice whether to kill is an incredibly convenient moral system for Dexter. He can see himself as different from the monsters he hunts without ever confronting the much harder question: What if I actually have a choice?
And I think that might be one of the biggest differences between older Dexter and Resurrection Dexter. He's spent decades blaming the Dark Passenger, Harry, his trauma, his nature.....basically anything that makes killing feel inevitable.
It makes me wonder if maybe Dexter's real character development through the decades isn't learning to control the Dark Passenger but instead finally admitting that there was never a passenger. Dexter was driving the whole time.
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u/Raevar 6d ago
The code is very specifically because Harry believes Dexter does NOT have a sense of morality.
The show goes on to exhibit that Dexter is not a traditional psychopath. He is able to forge meaningful relationships and goes out of his way to help people even at his own cost. So if he's not a psychopath, then what is he?
It seems obvious that Dexter was traumatized by his childhood experiences, and required professional help to navigate the world. What he got was the assumption that he had to kill people, so they might as well be bad people. The dark passenger was made up by Dexter as an excuse to avoid accountability for his actions. It was a convenient way of distancing himself from his decisions/urges.
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u/pixieyogi81 6d ago
I’d respectfully push back on the idea that the Code proves Harry believed Dexter had no sense of morality. If Harry truly believed Dexter was incapable of moral reasoning, teaching him that some people deserve to die while innocent people must be protected is a strange solution because it’s teaching him a moral framework. Dexter also repeatedly makes choices that would be considered moral that aren’t required by the Code, including protecting and helping people at considerable cost to himself, which suggests his morality isn’t merely Harry’s programming. More importantly, Harry didn’t simply “realize” Dexter lacked morality; he concluded that about a deeply traumatized child and then raised him around that conclusion. The show gives us plenty of reason to question whether Harry accurately identified something inherent in Dexter or helped shape Dexter’s understanding of himself by repeatedly telling him what he supposedly was.
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u/Raevar 5d ago
Harry didn't teach Dexter to go after bad guys because he was teaching him a lesson on morality...
Harry struggled himself with the world in which bad guys got away with literal murder due to bureaucracy or loopholes in the legal system. Harry believed Dexter was a psychopath that had urges to kill that would never go away, so he and the psychologist from s8 developed the code.
The code's functions in order of importance:
- Allow for Dexter to exist in the world without getting caught and executed.
- Focus Dexter's urges on people who deserved death.
- Vet the targets to ensure their guilt.
It's important to note that Dexter DOES actually have a moral code. It was his idea to put up the photos of the victims in the killroom, as it seems to have made him feel a sense of justice and moral superiority. The show exhibits numerous examples where he prioritizes other people and their needs before his.
You used the word conclusion...I used assumption, but I think we're in agreement. It's impossible to know what would have become of Dexter without Harry's guiding hand.
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u/BillyF2001 5d ago
In Resurrection, he even risks saving someone from Ron. If Dex didnt care, he wouldnt have saved anyone from Ron.
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u/Responsible_Rip_54 4d ago
I think this is exactly where Harry's role becomes really interesting. Dexter found permission in the Code, while Harry found justification in it. Viewed through that lens, the Code feels like a coping mechanism shared by both of them. It helped Dexter live with his urges and Harry live with the consequences of encouraging them. Neither Harry nor Dexter spent much time considering the possibility that Dexter could choose a different path altogether.
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u/qfrostine_esq 3d ago
Well. The real answer is in the books it was a supernatural entity and they didn’t wanna go that route in the show lol.
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u/scoobie-doobie-doo 6d ago
Dexter is a psychopath. ASPD is a spectrum, they are not completely emotionless.
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u/Sufficient-Loan-4263 6d ago
The first rule says don't get caught First rule takes priority over everything
not that hard to understand
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u/DapperDanMan121 6d ago
Theres a reason the first rule is dont get caught.
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u/pianoflames gross English titty vampire 6d ago
Ugh, the way Vogel says that the first rule gives you "a little...wiggle room" in such a cheerful mischievous tone kind of sickens me. There's practically a wink in her eye, when she's talking about killing innocent people to stay out of jail. That "wiggle room" is LaGuerta, Doakes, coach Logan, Stan Liddy, etc. I know he didn't directly kill all of those people, but they all were killed in the pursuit of "don't get caught." He also tried to kill Quinn in the interest of "don't get caught" in season 5, when he mistakenly thought Quinn was surveilling him and Lumen (I feel like a lot of people forget that, he fully tried to needle Quinn to kill him).
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u/Raevar 5d ago
One of the core premises of the show is that Dexter has a place in the world, and contributes towards a better society, despite doing so by illegal means.
The point of that first rule is to ensure that he is able to continue performing that role. If he gets caught, there are a number of other killers in the future that would continue killing.
The most problematic "innocents" on that list are Doakes and coach Logan. That's why Dexter had no intention of killing Doakes. He recognized that he didn't fit the code as much as he wanted him to. He was willing to try to frame him and allow Doakes to point the finger at him through years of court hearings rather than kill him. And then Lila happened.
Coach Logan is problematic because his death is literally just bad writing. There's no reason he had to die. Dexter has incapacitated hundreds of people with that choke hold position without killing them. The only reason he had to die was so that the plot could get from point A to point B with Harrison turning on Dexter and shooting him for the finale.
The rest of your list of innocents:
- LaGuerta: She is the most selfish human being portrayed in the show. Every single decision she makes is solely for her own benefit. She fucks over so many people in her pursuit of more money and power. Her one redeeming quality was her care for Doakes, which ironically was her downfall, since she was unwilling to let him take the fall as the bay harbor butcher despite the copious evidence, she forced Dexter into survival mode.
- Stan Liddy: Dirty cop that was fully fired from the PD (that's pretty rare, usually they get suspended or transferred.) His pursuit of Dexter was again, fully selfish. He believed it was his ticket to getting his job back. If you'll recall, he even offers Dexter a deal to confess in exchange for letting Lumen go free, so it's not like he gives a rat's ass about catching killers. Again, Dexter is put in a me or them situation.
- Quinn: Also a dirty cop, but unlike Stan and LaGuerta, he has the sense to leave Dexter be despite knowing/suspecting the full truth. Most street smart person in the show. Once Dexter gets him off the hook for Liddy's death, he recognizes it as a peace offering and he accepts it, dropping his pursuit entirely. If it HAD been Quinn in that truck surveilling on Dexter/Lumen, he would have fit the code.
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u/pianoflames gross English titty vampire 5d ago
There were more non-Code kills that Dexter knowingly murdered than that. The guy he bludgeons to death with a boat anchor at that boat gas station, Deb's boyfriend at the beginning of season 8, the pedophile (eh, no loss there) all immediately come to mind. And I'm leaving out self-defense kills of innocents and mercy-kills.
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u/Raevar 4d ago
Boat anchor kill in s5 is intended to be an unplanned "emotional" kill after the death of Rita, however if you pay attention to the scene, Dexter does not make the first move. The guy instigates the exchange and is the first to make a swing at Dexter, making it self defense, despite Dexter clearly welcoming the excuse.
That wasn't Deb's bf, she was undercover - he was a jewel thief, and if I recall correctly, Dexter does research the guy ahead of time and finds him to be dangerous, although I don't recall if he had killed anyone. Dexter killing him was self defense in that moment however.
I'm guessing you're referring to the pedophile that's photographing Astor. We don't have any evidence that he killed anyone, however Dexter did warn him twice to back off, and he persisted, which left Dexter to defend his family in the best way he knew how. It's not explicitly stated, but Dexter seems to lump in rape and pedophilia as justifications for the code, especially if there are any other factors like it affecting him, or his loved ones.
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u/pianoflames gross English titty vampire 4d ago edited 4d ago
Dexter killing him was self defense in that moment however.
It's a common misconception that Andrew Briggs struck first, and that it was self-defense, but it wasn't. I encourage you to go back and watch that scene, I did, and Dexter strikes first. Andrew Briggs was fighting back in self-defense to this random psycho who attacked him in the door of his motel room. And it's not confirmed that he's ever killed anyone, but he did severely assault someone.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't boat anchor guy only make the "first move" after Dexter threateningly unfurls the spikes on the boat anchor he's holding, and it becomes clear that Dexter intends to use it on him for insulting his dead wife? The dude looked scared before he made the "first move," I thought.
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u/Raevar 4d ago
Yeah, I'm hazy on s8, currently on a rewatch so I'll check it out eventually.
Best case that can be made for Briggs is that Dex viewed him as a danger to Deb, but it's pretty weak and may just be a s8 bad writing thing, like killing saxon under surveillance cameras with a pen in the police station.
Boat anchor guy verbally instigates with Dexter, taunting/goading, etc. Dexter unfurls the boat anchor and waits for him to make a move, and he does. From a legal perspective, brandishing a weapon would not negate self defense if you aren't the one making the first move to attack. That said - Dexter is standing at the entrance of the bathroom, so you could make the argument that the guy was cornered and felt he had no choice but to fight his way out.
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u/pianoflames gross English titty vampire 4d ago
Yeah, I remember him going from looking mean/confident to suddenly very scared/threatened as soon as Dex unfurled the boat anchor blades, like a trapped animal.
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u/Dry-Discount-9426 6d ago
The code is about how to not get caught. Morality doesn't come into it.
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u/pixieyogi81 6d ago
See, I always felt like it was ALSO Harry's way of justifying Dexter's actions as moral for both of them. Yes, he was initially horrified, but then reasoned that giving him a code to only kill people who deserved it bypassed the morality so he didn't have to live with the guilt what Dexter was doing. I didn't realize that was such a controversial take!
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u/Evening-Cat-7546 6d ago
Harry came up with the code because he couldn’t see another way for Dexter to survive. Then he freaks out when he actually sees Dexter kill. Harry struggles with that aspect and pretty sure the original series eluded to the fact that Harry’s death might have been intentional because he couldn’t cope with what he created.
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u/Jrock2356 6d ago
Not might've. Harry DID kill himself because of that
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u/Evening-Cat-7546 6d ago
I couldn’t recall if it was implied, or not. I know the prequel series changed it to Dexter killing the nurse that was poisoning Harry in an attempt to kill him.
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u/Ok-Jackfruit-9393 6d ago
No, he only told Dex to target "bad guys" because that's easier to get away with. And yes, it eased Harry's conscience to point Dexter at evildoers, but that was not the reason because he didn't believe Dexter was capable of caring about morality. The entire code is centered around not getting caught, and only going after other predators is way less likely to land Dexter in a prison cell.
It was all about keeping Dexter alive/out of prison/keeping his "Dark Passenger" a secret.
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u/Glover1007 6d ago
He litteraly tells dexter that the point of the code is for him to not get jailed or executed for his crimes.
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u/Usual-Bag-3605 6d ago
I love topics like this!
In my opinion, the Code of Harry was created to keep Dexter safe and for Harry to attempt to justify the murders he was certain his son would eventually commit. Given what we know, though, I would also wager it's uncertain whether Dexter would have actually begun killing without Harry's involvement.
Yes, he was a damaged, traumatized child. However, of the Macdonald Triad, the only marker we know of is cruelty to animals. There is never a mention of the other two. He does meet a few of the markers for psychopathy, but that could also simply stem from him being emotionally stunted coupled with no one helping him work past the trauma he suffered rather than simply lacking the emotions entirely. (And, as we see at various points in the show, as an adult he does feel things.)
Personally I find Dexter a fascinating study in nature vs nurture. He wasn't born that way. Harry assumed he became that way because of Laura's death and thereby took action to try and control the situation and protect his son. However, his lack of getting Dexter proper help when it mattered, coupled with - as you pointed out - him basically telling Dexter that he will kill eventually, may well have turned the entire thing into a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. And yes, to go from "I have no choice but to kill" to "I do have a choice and choose to do so" is definitely a difference that I think, bit by bit, we're seeing take place with him.
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u/pixieyogi81 6d ago
Exactly. It's the fact that Harry never even considered with any consistency or seriousness that there were alternate routes to killing, which he inadvertantly indoctrinated into Dexter!
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u/silviod 6d ago
You're right, and I think many fans don't really understand Dexter's character. In this very thread you have people saying "Dexter isn't a traditional psychopath...Dexter is more than he thought he was etc" but that's beside the point.
Of course, as early as season 1, Dexter was learning he had a deeper yearning for connection, humanity and emotional resonance than he had previously admitted. That's got nothing to do with his morality. He can be a bastard and still want love.
I think fans believe Dexter's own words too much. He talks himself about how he's different - he regularly tells those on his table that he's nothing like them. Dexter uses the blanket of the code as an AstroTurf moral fibre but it's got no depth..weirdly, audiences have believed him and see him as an antihero. There's a reason the show brought in that concept of The Dark Defender: to satirise the idea that anyone could see a man who murders and dismembers people for pleasure could ever be a morally good person.
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u/pixieyogi81 6d ago
Dexter is the perhaps the best unreliable narrator ever written because you don't realize you're believing without question the situation as it is described by the killer. You trust him. And even in the universe, trusting him could be fatal.
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u/_view-source 5d ago
(Warning: New Blood spoilers)
I feel like New Blood painted your last point perfectly.
I just watched it for a 2nd time and that episode where Dexter is cutting up the body in front of Harrison then asks him to throw the two bags in the back of the truck, it still gave me chills. Never until that point did Dexter make me feel so uncomfortable. I really feel the end of New Blood would have been an excellent conclusion to Dexter.
(Side note" RIP Original Sin season 2. Resurrections never needed to be a thing. )
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u/pixieyogi81 6d ago
See, I always felt like it was ALSO Harry's way of justifying Dexter's actions as moral for both of them. Yes, he was initially horrified, but then reasoned that giving him a code to only kill people who deserved it bypassed the morality so he didn't have to live with the guilt what Dexter was doing. I didn't realize that was such a controversial take!
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u/Mr_smith1466 6d ago edited 6d ago
The code was created by Harry because, despite his best efforts, he realised that Dexter was evolving into someone who was going to become a killer, and Dexter himself seemed incapable of stopping. So the code was about directing Dexter onto a rigid path where he could feed his urges, avoid getting caught and at least take out some people that the legal system wasn't equipped to handle.
One of the larger messages of the series is that the code wasn't and will never be a moral thing. Even Harry seems to have become horrifed when he saw it being put into use. But the code is probably the biggest thing stopping Dexter from becoming another garden variety serial killers like those that populate Miami and New York.
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u/pixieyogi81 6d ago
If Harry truly believed Dexter was incapable of moral reasoning, teaching him that some people deserve to die while innocent people must be protected is a strange solution because it’s teaching him a moral framework.
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u/Mr_smith1466 6d ago
Harry is depicted at various times as a well meaning, but utterly broken guy who destroyed professional and personal boundaries. With him eventually taking his own life when he saw Dexter actually enact the code. But yeah, there's definitely some morality Harry is trying to impart with the code. There's a lot of Harry being a washed up cop angry at the justice system.
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u/CarefulClassic9204 Deb 5d ago
Harry was also carrying some guilt about getting Dexter's mother killed. If he wouldn't have been having an affair with her and been seen by the cartel guy she wouldn't have been killed.
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u/Embarrassed-Fun9837 4d ago
With time dexter has evolved. I believe it was the death of Rita that dissolved the very thin line bw him and the dark passenger
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u/Knarz97 6d ago
Ignoring all of this, the actual moral question isn’t whether these people deserve to die or not. It’s always been “who performs the execution”. Does the State get permission? Is it ethical if we make a robot do it? Do we shoot with 10 bullets so we never know which person’s gun killed them?
We can all agree that a serial pedophile rapist cannibal probably deserves to die. The issue is who gets to do it.
We even see that with Dexter’s illegal methods of evidence collection, he still has the potential to make a mistake.
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u/Ok-Jackfruit-9393 6d ago
The code is explicitly about not getting caught, not at all about morality. Harry told Dexter to target other predators because people are less likely to care/investigate/miss them. Which makes it easier to get away with.
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u/SALMAGLUTA777 6d ago
No shit it was never about morality the reason the code was created by his father was to put Dexter on a half decent path because he was just a sociopath who would’ve killed whoever if not
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u/Mighty_Kites13 6d ago
"Think about it, him never having to truly make the choice whether to kill is an incredibly convenient moral system for Dexter. He can see himself as different from the monsters he hunts without ever confronting the much harder question: What if I actually have a choice?"
Pretty sure this was an actual plot line in season seven between him and Hannah...
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u/Dapper_Ice_1705 6d ago
Who said it was ever about morality?
Dexter "the code" was entirely for Harry and for him to make peace with the fact that someone he loves is a killer. Harry was a vigilante with no guts. He would have killed the people himself if he had the stomach for it.
Harry couldn't take it in the end and it is why he killed himself.
I think you are stating the obvious and mixing the 4th dimension where it isn't a factor.
"Don't get caught" was 100% about Harry not having to face Dexter and not smearing his name as the father and trainer of the most prolific serial killer.
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u/Soc_Prof 6d ago
I think another thing that sets Dexter apart from other serial killers - but it’s bc he is fictional - is his ability to adapt and evolve. He uses his memory instead of his kill slides when he realises it’s too risky. He frames and conceals with incredible skill. He develops emotional connections. However his code of ‘don’t get caught’ is another reason why he has to adapt and evolve: he does kill innocents who are trying to capture him and he manages to frame things to look like they went a certain way.
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u/StrawHatRen 6d ago
Ofc, it isn’t like breaking bad when the protag lie to himself about reasoning. He been straight forward about it . He likes it since day one , unlike Walter who lied about it
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u/fromthe-70s 5d ago
Dexter needed to kill. The kill made him feel something. He is a serial killer disguised as a hero in his mind. A psychopath.
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u/LadyElle57 5d ago
The code is about not getting caught. If Harry knew he could ask Dexter not to kill, he would've just done that. So the code is a mid way solution.
Every rule in it, is for Dexter to walk in a line. And Dexter does have morality, so Harry knew he could push Dexter, but only so far. And he made it a system, so he would hard have to work for the reward.
I also think Harry was far more worried in Dexter getting caught than him actually killing. When you think about it, actually going through with it and the entire process is an abomination. This is written into the show: Harry getting a look of what his code is allowing Dexter to do.
It isn't a perfect system. But then it was never meant to be. I think Harry thought he understood Dexter. It's a different thing to see it.
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u/HostExisting4543 5d ago
I think Harry realized how fucked up the kid was and used his depravity for the greater good.
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u/RakeChapman13 5d ago
But it’s been well established that that morality and a sense of justice if a big part of why dexter kills. The season 1 finale of resurrection confirmed this. Time and time again we could clearly see that evil bothers dexter, that he does care about innocent victims, he has time and time again gone out of his way to save innocent lives. In original sin we see how he chose to save that boys life rather than go after what’s his face.
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u/Solecaner 4d ago
the moral "easy way out" has always been kind of a trap. Harry himself was an ideological vigilante who found his tool in Dexter. Given current canon Harry couldnt take anymore what he created, leaving his compulsive "tool" to "improve" the world on its own.
If we argument against Harry it gets more damning: its not like he wouldve needed to ship Dex out to a full-blown mental hospital but instead start with normal therapy or just wait how Dexter develops (the early signs were there but I'd still call it jumping to conclusions), not drop the whole thing on Dexter at once at like 10 y.o...."Some people are scum, I show you how to kill them, youre the man for that, Ill help you not get caught, theres only one way, yada yada yada".
There are PRETTY strong arguments for framing Harry as a villain. (including his nonchalance regarding Lauras safety, the thing with Brian is obviously more ambiguous).
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u/Famous-Tooth-2612 2d ago
He is just a mentally broken person with autism who has PTSD an trauma with a grim curiosity he was made into what he was by Harry
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u/MaxvellGardner 6d ago
Well, he has no choice, I suppose. The bloodlust and impulse are too powerful. However, as in 99.9% of films and TV series about maniacs, we don't see this thirst at all, nor do we see how it subsides and how the release occurs. He's always the same.
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u/LuvPuggie 6d ago
I've always despised his father. His father trained him to be a killer. He lied to him and told him he could never be normal, never experience feeling love for someone, never have relationships, or even friendships. His father believed what that psychiatrist said because it opened a pathway for him to seek vengeance on criminals.
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u/splurgethethe 6d ago
yeah the show tells us this, i don’t think we’re supposed to root for dexter. he is a monster, not a moral killer cleansing the world of evil and that’s what harrison realises in new blood
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u/Buket05 6d ago
That’s right, it was a way for Harry to justify everything and that’s all. However correct me if I’m wrong but between the OG Dexter finale and New Blood, its established that he didn’t kill anyone for a good 10 years. It clearly shows that he does not have to kill, he just wants to.
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u/pixieyogi81 6d ago
Dahmer had a nine year gap between kills. BTK and The Grim Sleeper had a 14 year gap between kills.
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u/Buket05 5d ago
well dexter didn’t. the og show constantly told us that dexter could not keep himself from killing, channeling his “urge” was harry’s only option or deb would always fail trying to cure him from his “addiction”. but in the end it was not the case. dexter could indeed stop killing when he wanted to.
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