Dexter (season 1)

Plot

The first season introduces Dexter Morgan, a forensic blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. Dexter is also a serial killer who targets only other killers. How he came to be a serial killer and develop his unique Code of morality is revealed in flashbacks throughout the episodes.

At a young age, an orphaned Dexter is found by police officer Harry Morgan, who adopts the boy. How he lost his parents is a traumatic memory which he represses. When Dexter's adopted sister and Harry's daughter Debra ask about Dexter's real parents, Harry says that they died in a tragic accident. At an early age, Dexter begins killing animals and showing signs that he doesn't emotionally connect with people. Seeing that the boy's homicidal tendencies are rising and can't be fully quelled, Harry decides to help the boy channel them. Harry teaches Dexter how to hide his actions from police investigations and that if he must kill, then it should be only murderers who are escaping the law. Dexter comes to refer to these guidelines as "The Code" or "Harry's Code" - Rule 1 is to never be caught, Rule 2 is to kill only those who he knows without a doubt are killers. Harry's daughter Debra is unaware of her adopted brother's true nature and doesn't know why her father spends so much time with him on "hunting trips." Harry puts Dexter off killing an actual person for as long as possible, but finally gives his adopted son permission to do so when he is in the hospital and realizes that his nurse has been killing patients. In season 7, Dexter clarifies that he is 19 years old when he first kills a human being. Harry dies in a hospital a year later, from heart difficulties.

Throughout the season, Dexter (now in his 30s and working for the police) verifies the guilt of his chosen victims before stalking and incapacitating them. As a general rule, he injects them with a tranquilizer that immediately puts them to sleep. Dexter takes the victim to a specially-prepared room, sometimes their own homes, which he has covered entirely in plastic and sometimes decorated with artifacts acknowledging the person's crimes. The victim wakes up naked, immobilized and secured to a table by tape and plastic wrap. Dexter confronts them about their crimes as he uses a scalpel and glass slide to obtain a sample of blood from their right cheek. The blood slide is added to a collection of similar trophies that he keeps hidden in his apartment. After killing his victim (sometimes using a weapon that calls back to their own crime), Dexter butchers the body into smaller pieces placed in different trash bags. He then takes his boat The Slice of Life to a special spot in the bay harbor and dumps the bags.

Dexter's life as a killer is a secret from everyone. To appear more normal, he dates Rita, a mother with two children Astor and Cody, whose husband is in jail. Dexter chooses Rita because her abusive past and fear of intimacy means that she is not initially interested in sex and he can keep her at a distance. At work, Dexter is seen as a friendly, if occasionally odd colleague with excellent insight on the nature of murderers. His sister Debra Morgan, who works in the vice department at the beginning of the season, regularly goes to Dexter for advice. Dexter's superior Lt. LaGuerta flirts with him and he is considered a friend by CSI Masuka and Detective Angel Batista. Only Sgt. James Doakes is suspicious of Dexter's behavior, believing that he takes joy in looking at blood and murder scenes. Doakes doesn't hide his dislike of Dexter.

The season starts with a string of murders where the bodies of prostitutes are found in pieces and completely drained of blood. Dexter is immediately impressed by the precision workmanship behind the killings and helps Debra identify some of the killer's methods. For her insight on the murderer, who is now dubbed the "Ice Truck Killer", Debra is promoted to homicide. Meanwhile, Dexter finds that the killer broke into his apartment and left clues related to the killings behind. Dexter realizes that he's been invited to play a game with the killer, to learn who he is. Meanwhile, Dexter's romantic life is complicated when Rita becomes more interested in taking things to a sexual level and later when her husband Paul Bennett is released from prison on parole. While Bennett is good to his children, he repeatedly — but unsuccessfully — attempts to get back with Rita, despite her insistence that they are getting a divorce. After Bennett threatens him and Rita, Dexter impulsively knocks Paul out. Dexter then sets Paul up to look like he violated his parole by using heroin. While back in prison, Bennett insists that Dexter set him up.

Events lead to Debra dating a prosthetics technician named Rudy Cooper, who is also interested in befriending Dexter. Dexter later finds out that a recently deceased man named Joe Driscoll was his biological father, meaning that the man didn't die when he was a child and that Harry lied to him. While he's in the midst of discovering this, Dexter is introduced to Rudy, who says he has been waiting for a long time for them to meet, and the two begin a friendship, although it becomes clear to the audience that Rudy is responsible for the death of Dexter's biological father. Debra is confused that at times Rudy seems more interested in Dexter than in her.

Arriving at a scene arranged by the Ice Truck Killer, a hotel room covered in blood, Dexter suffers a panic attack and realizes that he is regaining his repressed memories. Investigating his past, he learns that Harry found him at the scene of a vicious murder when he was a child. Eventually, he remembers that he and his mother, a woman named Laura Moser, were in a shipping container, imprisoned by criminals. These criminals then killed Laura and chopped her up with chainsaws in front of Dexter, then left him locked in the container, sitting in his mother's blood. It was not until two days later that Harry and the police found Dexter and his dismembered mother. After taking Dexter in, Harry arranged for the report on his discovery and the circumstances of his mother Laura Moser's death to be destroyed.

It is revealed to the audience that Rudy Cooper is actually the Ice Truck Killer. After attempting to kill Det. Batista, who was closing in on him, Rudy proposes marriage to Debra. But this is a ruse to kidnap her and use her as bait for Dexter. Rudy's clues lead Dexter back to his childhood home, where Rudy is holding Debra. Dexter recalls now that he had an older brother who was also in the container when their mother Laura was murdered. Rudy Cooper is actually this older brother, Brian Moser, who was not adopted and spent much of his life in mental institutions. Like Dexter, he is a serial killer but not bound by a moral code. Rudy reveals that he has been searching for Dexter for years and was happy to realize that his younger brother was also a killer. For months now, he has been leading Dexter to him and helping his younger brother recover the memories of their shared childhood trauma. Rudy then reveals a room covered in plastic, where an unconscious Debra is naked and taped to a table. Rudy has arranged the room to be just as Dexter prefers for his own kills, and says that they will kill Debra together to cement their bond as brothers. Dexter says he won't kill Debra and Brian protests that his brother "can't be a killer AND a hero." Dexter saves Debra from Brian just as she wakes up and Brian escapes as the police arrive.

Doakes suspects that Dexter knows more than he's sharing and may have been helping "Rudy Cooper," but Debra insists that Dexter saved her from the Ice Truck Killer. Rudy's biological connection to Dexter is kept secret. Brian Moser makes another attempt on Debra's life, but falls into a trap set up by Dexter. Determined to keep Debra safe, Dexter kills Brian and arranges the scene so the police are convinced that the Ice Truck Killer committed suicide. This time, Dexter does not keep a blood slide trophy of the kill. The season ends with Rita wondering if Dexter did indeed set-up her husband to be imprisoned again, while Dexter realizes that Doakes, now convinced the blood spatter specialist is hiding something, is monitoring him closely.

Main cast

Crew

The series pilot was developed by James Manos, Jr. based on Jeff Lindsay's novel. Manos served as an executive producer for the pilot along with John Goldwyn and Sara Colleton. The pilot was produced by Dennis Bishop. Steven Brown also served as a producer for the pilot episode. Chad Tomasoski worked as an associate producer. The pilot was directed by Michael Cuesta.

Manos, Goldwyn and Colleton returned as executive producers for the first season. Mid-season Clyde Phillips became a fourth executive producer. Daniel Cerone joined the crew as a co-executive producer and writer. Pilot director Michael Cuesta returned as a co-executive producer and regular director. Melissa Rosenberg also joined the crew as a consulting producer and writer. Timothy Schlattmann served as a story editor and writer. Lauren Gussis worked as a staff writer throughout the first season. Dennis Bishop returned to produce further episodes but left midseason and was replaced by Robert Lloyd Lewis.