Daddy Kills People

He does.

SPOILER ALERT!

If you're like me and violently react to spoilers, stop reading and go away. Seriously. Deb dies. Go on. Get outta here. Now, for the rest of you... read on.

I miss him. I do.

I miss the Bay Harbor Butcher. The Dark Defender. Dickie Moser (that always gives me a chuckle). Dexter Moser. But most of all, I miss Dexter Morgan. America's favorite serial killer.

Blood spatter analysis by day. Serial killer by whenever he feels like it. And a lumberjack, too. Interesting career change. Guess he wanted to switch out his bone saw for a two-man crosscut saw, but hey, to each his own.

Serial. Killer. Put those words together, and we get not-so-good feelings about that, right? But that's just it. Dexter kills, yes. But he only kills bad people. People who kill people.

That's his code. Kill people who kill people. I think that's also a Barbra Streisand song.

Here's a list of his guidelines to The Code. I'm telling you, this dude's dedicated.

The Code, as he calls it, was ingrained into him by his foster father, Harry Morgan, and also by Dr. Evelyn Vogel, a neuropsychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of psychopaths. Surprise, surprise, turns out ol' Dickie's a psychopath.

Psychopathy fascinates me. They fascinate me. Psychopaths. I think the disorder is fascinating because of how it affects them as functioning human beings. That's another thing that bothers me. Some people don't consider psychopaths as human, as a part of humanity. Sure, for some of us, the word "humanity" can be synonymous with compassion, kindness and having a wholesome character, but let's not confuse humanity with humaneness. Is a psychopath not a person? Are they not of humankind? They're born with something just like the rest of us are. Typically, their "something" is entirely out of their control.

Psychopathy may be a word some people mistakenly correspond with evil and not human, but it's a disorder. A real one, causing them to score high on “traits defined as fearless, callous and lack of empathic disregard for others.” They have reduced connections between two regions of the brain—the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). The amygdala is responsible for awareness of emotions and helps you decode them, especially in particularly threatening situations. The vmPFC aids in decision making and regulating emotions. Now, in psychopaths' brain scans, studies have shown that there is a reduced connection between those two areas, which is why psychopaths tend to be impulsive and careless in their actions and with their emotions.

Another confusing bit of conventional wisdom is the incorrect belief that psychopaths are devoid of any empathy. This, in turn, leads us to believe that they have zero emotion, but that's not true, either. They can experience anger or many other emotions, just like anyone else. Real compassion and a shared sense of morality is what they don't have. Get it? Good—because this will be on the quiz at the end.

It’s also important to note that not all psychopaths are remorseless killers. And while we might not have a Dexter as our neighbor, or in our office, there is a likelihood we might have a different, more subtle variety in our midst... capable of plenty of different victimization in their own right. Psychopaths come in different colors just like non-psychopaths do. Just like all of us.

Pretty interesting, huh? The human brain. Each person's as vast as a universe.

Psychopaths are often portrayed in movies as evil, malicious and devoid of all goodness, which can affect our real-life thinking about them. We often consider them to be life-threatening... and not much else.

Thanks, Hollywood.

So yeah, that's why I like Dexter. It portrays a psychopath in a humane sense, sort of. It shows Dexter as a person. Not as another monstrous atrocity. And the show was just really frickin' good. Great writing.

I love the use of flashbacks in storytelling. In any show. Done correctly, they give you a fuller grasp of the overall story. They can help you understand why a character came to be the way they are. Dexter utilized flashbacks to when he was a kid. A baby, even. But back then, he was Dexter Moser, a son, and a brother to Brian Moser (who happened to be the Ice Truck Killer). Told you this would have spoilers—for those of you who haven't seen the show. Something bad happened in their youthful years. Dexter and Brian watched their mother get chopped up with a chainsaw in a shipping container, and the pair were left soaking in two inches of her blood for two days before the police found them. In came Harry Morgan to the rescue, finding three-year-old Dexter dripping red, and thus Dexter Morgan was born. Sad to say Brian wasn't as lucky. Dexter killed him later on out of protection to Deb. Yeah... Brian tried to kill Deb and all that. They were engaged, actually. Deb also works for the police department with Dexter. Yep, it was stressful, to say the least. Told ya Dexter was good.

SIDE NOTE: So, wait... are all psychopaths born with those hard-wired brains? Or can psychopathy be born from traumatic experiences? Predisposition, maybe? Another discussion, perhaps.

There is a facet of “goodness” to Dexter, the character. He’s a well-intentioned psychopath, if you will. He is. He possesses a clear sense of right and wrong, thanks to Harry and Dr. Vogel. Without them, he'd be in prison. The show delivers you a good dose of dichotomy, though. It makes you choose to either root for Dexter or go against him. Because, though he is "taking out the trash" (his words, not mine), he's still committing murder in doing so. Serial murder. There's an important cinematic theme at play. Darkness vs. Light. And Dexter considers himself the bastard child of them both. Hence, the moniker, "The Dark Defender" (again... his words, not mine). Sure, the reasoning behind it can be understood. No one digs child rapists or murderers. He kills... and he likes it. He wants to do it. There's perhaps nothing else in the world he enjoys more. So I don't know... should we be rooting for him or not? Up to you. But what does that say about you? Your own dichotomy to sort out, I guess. Watch the show. All of it. See how you feel, and get back to me.

Artistic. Beautiful. I consider it a true dramatic masterpiece. Kudos to Showtime. Thank you for not being afraid to introduce us a good psychopath-murderer-hero... And thank you, Michael C. Hall, for giving the world a guilty pleasure.

Oh, and one last thing... IHOP's pancakes are the B-team. Go to Cracker Barrel instead. You're welcome.