Dexter

Season 1

The first season of Dexter is loosely based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, written by Jeff Lindsay. The series stars Dexter Morgan, a man who works for the Miami-Dade Police Department as a blood splatter analyst by day, and as a serial killer by night. However, Dexter chooses his victims carefully - he only kills people who have gotten away with murder.

As the first season progresses, we find out via flashbacks that Dexter's foster father, Harry Morgan, discovered Dexter's violent tendencies when he was a child. Harry feels that he cannot change Dexter, so he trains him adoptive child to "channel" his urges and only target those who have escaped the law. Harry Morgan is a police detective, so he was able to teach Dexter how to cover his tracks when choosing his victims.

However, when a new serial killer starts targeting prostitutes, Dexter becomes fascinated by the mysterious killer's expertise. He sees this an opportunity to challenge his abilities with the desire of catching him, while helping his sister, Debra Morgan, take credit for his discoveries at the precinct.

Season 2

Season 2 picks up with Dexter on edge as his victims are being uncovered and an investigation launched by his own department, dubbing the killer the "Bay Harbor Butcher." To add to Dexter's headache, Sergeant James Doakes is following his every move suspecting he was involved in the "Ice Truck Killer" killings.

To help with the Bay Harbor Butcher case, the FBI sends Special Agent Frank Lundy to assist the Miami Police. Lundy comes dangerously close to uncovering who Dexter really is. Dexter sees Lundy as a "worthy adversary" but an adversary none the less.

Dexter is also forced to attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings after Rita suspects him of being a heroin addict. There he meets his sponsor Lila. Lila leads Dexter down an even darker road, telling him to give into his sinister urges. The two have a short relationship, after he cheats on Rita with her, ending after she turns murderous at the end of the season.

This season also has Dexter's sister, Debra, dealing with the traumatic experience of her almost being one of the Ice Truck Killer's victims. Throughout the season she stays with Dexter in his apartment trying to recover from the incident. Debra starts a romantic relationship with Special Agent Lundy while working on the Bay Harbor Butcher case with him. By the end of the season, Debra has gotten past the trauma she went through with the Ice Truck Killer and is determined to earn her Detective's Shield.

Season 3

Season 3 starts several months after season 2's finale. In an attempt to hunt down a notorious drug dealer named "Freebo." Dexter mistakingly murders an innocent man and pins it on the drug dealer. The man that Dexter murders is the brother of the Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado. Dexter also has to juggle the recent development that his girlfriend, Rita, is pregnant and what to do with their child.

Dexter and Prado become close over the season as well as their respective families. Dexter starts to experience inner turmoil when he starts to consider Miguel a real friend, something that Harry always warned against. Throughout the season Dexter has to struggle with the Code that Harry instilled in him, and whether or not it is right to pass the knowledge onto Prado. He instantly regrets the decision when, after learning Harry's Code, Prado murders a rival lawyer. Dexter then has to come to terms with what he has "created" and what he must do.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to earn her Detective's Shield, Debra, together with her new partner Quinn, investigate the murders of a new serial killer dubbed "The Skinner." However, Debra is approached by an Internal Affairs officer who tells her that Quinn is being investigated as a dirty cop, though Debra stand by her partner and refuses to assist the IA officer.

Season 4

In season 4 of Dexter, the audience is introduced to the idea of Dexter being a family man. His son Harrison has been born and that the family has moved to the suburbs, however Dexter still struggles with the notion of being a “family man” while still being a serial killer this results in quite a few complications for Dexter over the course of the season.

In the fourth season, the audience is also introduced to a new serial killer called “The Trinity Killer” (John Lithgow) who also goes by the name of Arthur Mitchell. The Trinity Killer has been at large for over 30 years and is believed to have killed 3 people, 2 women and 1 man the same way every year. Mitchell kills the first woman by cutting her leg open in a bathtub full of water, forcing the second women to jump to her death, and bludgeoning the skull of a man. The return of the Trinity Killer also prompts the return of FBI Agent Frank Lundy who is recently retired. Lundy’s return also brings back Debra’s feeling for him as well which complicates her relationship with Anton. Debra begins to help Lundy in his investigation which leads to both of them getting shot and Lundy dying in the process. Meanwhile, Detective Batista and Lieutenant LaGuerta have become a couple and both have had a hard time dealing with the problems that come about with having an open relationship that their superiors know about.

Throughout the course of the season, Dexter makes contact with Arthur Mitchell under the alias ‘Kyle Butler’ and gets very close to him learning how to juggle a life of killing with the life of a family man. However, not all is what it seems as Dexter learns that the perfect family life that Mitchell has is not all that it seems, his family lives in fear of his abusive ways. Combined with that is the disappearance of a ten-year old boy Dexter makes sure that Arthur is not the same kind of monster that Dexter is and must be eliminated. Also, the audience learns that Mitchell does not only 3 people but rather 4. Mitchell starts his string of murders by kidnapping a young boy and burying him before moving to the other 3 victims, due to the young boy being kidnapped it is never reported as a murder.

Debra also learns that Dexter is the Ice-Truck Killer’s brother but reassures him that she loves him the same and that he is the one constant good thing in her life. In the meantime, Mitchell also learns that Kyle Butler is not the real name of Dexter and learns who he really is. It is finally revealed who the person was that shot Agent Lundy and Debra, it was Mitchell’s estranged daughter Zoey Kruger who is also a police officer, Kruger ends up committing suicide after Mitchell pushes her away. Dexter ends up killing Mitchell only to find out that Mitchell has killed Rita and left Dexter’s son Harrison sitting in a pool of Rita’s blood akin to the way that Harry found Dexter as a young boy.

Season 5

Season five opens immediately after season four concludes with Dexter looking at the crime scene of his murdered wife Rita and his son sitting in a pool of her blown. What was an ideal life for Dexter has just been destroyed by the Trinity Killer, Astor blames Dexter for the death of Rita and chooses to live grandparents in Orlando along with Cody. Detective Quinn also becomes very suspicious of Dexter due to his belief that Rita’s murder does not fit the M.O. of the Trinity Killer. This combined with the FBI’s only lead on catching Arthur Miller is a sketch of Kyle Butler (i.e. Dexter) which looks very similar to Dexter makes things very complicated for Dexter.

Dexter’s first victim in season five is a sanitation worker, Boyd Fowler who is believed to be connected to the murders of many women. After Dexter kills Fowler, he finds Fowler’s next would-be victim, Lumen Pierce (Julia Stiles) who was held captive by Fowler. Pierce tells Dexter that there were other men that did this to her and asks him to help her seek revenge. Dexter at first refuses to help her, but after Pierce begins to target the wrong person Dexter finally agrees to help her.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant LaGeurta and Sergeant Batista have come out in the open about their marriage which has not been easy and the marriage is a bit on the rocks. Also, Debra begins to have some feelings toward Quinn after a one night stand with him. Quinn also is suspended without pay due to his coming in contact with Jonah Mitchell who is in witness protection. In order to continue his investigation into Kyle Butler/Dexter, Quinn hires Stan Liddy (Peter Weller) an undercover cop who is suspended after a police sting involving LaGuerta. Liddy ends up gathering enough evidence to incriminate Dexter and even captures him in the process but Quinn refuses to arrest Dexter. Dexter ends up killing Liddy and destroys any evidence that Liddy had on him.

Dexter ends up teaching Pierce his methods and practices when choosing who to kill both of them go on to kill Pierce’s attackers who are linked to the death and rapes of 12 other women. The last person that Pierce needs to kill in order to find pierce is Jordan Chase (Jonny Lee Miller). Chase ends up capturing Pierce and Dexter is called away to Liddy’s crime scene this leads to Quinn being arrested under for suspicion in Liddy’s death. Eventually Dexter finds out where Pierce is, and after a confrontation with Chase, kills him. Debra ends up discovering Dexter and Pierce but allows them to go.

With all three men tied to Lumen Pierce’s attack now dead, Pierce decides to go back home leaving Dexter distraught due to his feelings he that had developed for Pierce. The season ends with a birthday party for Harrison, in which Quinn who was cleared of his murder charges due to Dexter faking a blood test for him. Quinn and Debra as well as LaGeurta and Batista have all reconciled. Cody and Astor also reconcile with Dexter decide to come back and live with him.

Season 6

In the beginning of the season Maria Laguerta is promoted to captain after she blackmailed Deputy Chief Mathews, who's name was on a dead prostitutes ledger. Vince Masuka hires an attractive blonde college student named Ryan, to be his intern after his original choice fainted at one of the crime scenes. She is later fired after stealing evidence from the Ice Truck Killer case, taking the prosthetic hand and selling it on Ebay. In desperate need of assistance and in fear of losing his job, Masuka hires computer programmer and video game designer Louis Greene. He assured Masuka that the auction would no longer be visible, but that the prosthetic was gone for good.

Maria Laguerta and Angel Batista are revealed to be divorced, but are still good friends. This further complicates things between the two after Matthews promotes Debra Morgan to LaGuerta's vacant lieutenant position, instead of Batista, who thinks this is a result of a feud between Matthews and LaGuerta. In retaliation, LaGuerta continuously attempts to make Debra look unfit for the position by showing her up in front of the media as well as giving her wrong and damaging advice. In return Debra hires Mike Anderson as her replacement against LaGuerta's advice to prove independence.

This seasons main protagonists are The Dooms Day Killers (or DDK), Professor James Gellar and his student Travis Marshall who seek to bring about the end of the world by basing their killings from events and concepts from The Book of Revelations. They leave a cryptic tableau at each crime scene that reflect the events such as Alpha and Omega, The Four Horseman, The Whore of Babylon and The Angel of Death. This season also introduces Brother Sam (played by MosDef) a minister who served time as a drug dealer and murderer. He runs a body shop where he employs other ex-convicts, whom he also "shepherds" to lead crime-free lives in belief that everyone is capable of good and change.

Dexter believes initially that Sam is the murderer and even contemplated on murdering him, but was proven wrong and even ended up befriending him. He learns from Brother Sam that not only could he be a better father to Harrison Morgan , but that he could also keep his Dark Passenger at bay if putting in enough will power. However, Brother Sam is murdered by one of his trusted ex-convicts; Dexter learns who it is and, going against Brother Sam's wish to forgive his killer, kills the murderer himself. Dexter comes to the conclusion that his Dark Passenger can't be put to rest and that killing was just something that he had to do in order to continue living.

Dexter learns that the Trinity Killer's wife and daughter have turned up dead. After confronting his son he is assured that the killed his mother in rage after his sister killed herself. Dexter forgives Jonah, and leaves him behind to deal with his own problems.

This season also reveals that Louis Greene (Masuka's intern, Batista's sister's boyfriend AKA Dexter's babysitter's boyfriend) is strangely attracted to Dexter, trying multiple times to get Dexter to notice him. In the end of the season it is revealed that Louis himself purchased the prosthetic hand from the auction website. He also sends in a package to Dexter's home, which is picked up and misplaced by his babysitter.

After following Travis Marshall, it is revealed that Travis is the only DD killer after finding his professor dead in a cooling freezer. Travis concludes that Dexter is The Beast from Revelations and attempts to kill him by blowing up his boat with Dexter on it. Dexter escapes and flees the lake of fire and is rescued by a migrant boat. Finally, Travis kidnaps Harrison, Dexter's son and attempts to sacrifice him as the final tableau to end the world, but is stopped by Dexter. After Dexter saves Harrison, he takes an unconscious Travis to the church were Travis operated his schemes and set it up as a kill room. As Dexter plunges his knife into Travis' heart, Debra walks in and watches and Dexter kills his victim. She raises his gun at Dexter and the series ends.

Season 7

This season opens up with Dexter frantically rushing to the Miami Airport, teasing that Dexter is on the run. It is later revealed that he is there to catch and kill a killer who murdered a stripper and homicide detective Mike Anderson who was introduced in the last season.

The scene flashes back to Dexter and Debra at the church. He pleads to Debra Morgan and reassures her that the murder of Travis was in self defense. She questions this after realizing that Dexter was dressed for the murder and that Travis was set up for it by being naked and tied down and ready to be killed. Against her intuition, she agrees with Dexter to cover up the murder by making it look like a suicide. The next day both Debra and Morgan are sent back to the church to investigate where it is ruled a suicide. Unknown to Dexter or anyone else for that matter, Maria Laguerta finds Dexter's blood slide with Travis' blood on it. She takes it after learning from Vince Masuka that the only person who carried blood slides at crime scenes was deceased James Doakes.

After she questions Dexter, Debra finds holes in his story which makes her feel uneasy. She digs into past cases as well as Dexter's background and puts together that Dexter and his brother Brian AKA The Ice Truck Killer had the same kill rooms. Dexter denies any involvement and suggests that she let it go. Unable to go on without knowing the truth about her brother and learning from Dexter's baby sitter that he is always gone at night, Debra raids Dexter's apartment while he's gone getting rid of the body form the airport. He walks in to find Debra sitting over Dexter's blood slides and the prosthetic hand from The Ice Truck Killer's murder case. She asks him if he had murdered all the people from the blood slides and he replies that he has. She finally asks him if he is a serial killer and he closes his eyes and whispers "Yes...".

Season 8