Three seasons in, do any of us really know Dexter Morgan?
Showtime viewers have watched America's favorite serial killer earn acceptance from his long-lost homicidal brother and promptly end that relationship by slicing his neck with a knife. Then, Dexter allowed a woman, Lila, to get close to him, close enough for her to see who he really is, only to plunge a knife into her heart. This season, Dexter bonded with a man who appreciated Dexter's dark side so much that he wanted to be like him, and Dexter strangled him.
"I had higher hopes for you, for us," Dexter (Michael C. Hall) told Miguel (Jimmy Smits) just before he killed him in Sunday's episode of "Dexter." "But I finally just have to accept that I'll always be alone."
That the remark came from a killer of other sociopaths who is getting married on this Sunday's season finale, is having a baby with his fiancee, Rita (Julie Benz), and is becoming the stepfather of her two children, made it all the more notable. Clearly, Dexter, in his own way, is a man of principle -- thanks to a code bestowed on him by his adoptive father, he kills only those who have hurt others and escaped official justice.
He's also a truth seeker on a constant journey of self-discovery, which he shares with the audience through voice-overs, such as the one that came after he killed his brother (Christian Camargo) at the end of the first season: "Sometimes I wonder what it would be like for everything inside me that's denied and unknown to be revealed. But I'll never know. I live my life in hiding. My survival depends on it."
On the verge of becoming a husband and father, after three intimate dances in which he revealed his innermost secrets to other people, the question Dexter introduced in the pilot lingers: Is Dexter capable of loving? Dexter confessed then that he has no feelings, but that if he were to love someone, it would be his sister, Deb (Jennifer Carpenter). Just before he killed Miguel this season, Dexter declared impassively, "I don't get to have friends."
Do we believe him?
"I don't know that Dexter is the most reliable narrator," Hall said by telephone. "I don't know that he was at the beginning of the show, and I don't know that he is now. I think he tries things on and plays at being a human being. I do think there's an appetite for connection and revelation in Dexter that he doesn't consciously acknowledge. But that motivates a lot of his behavior."
