But we also need the possibility of cataclysm, so that, when situations seem hopeless, and beyond the power of any natural force to amend, we may still anticipate salvation from a messiah, a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or some other agent with power to fracture the unsupportable and institute the unobtainable.-- Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning the Millennium
Dexter Morgan is a man in his 30's who is a blood spatter expert employed by the Miami Metro Police. He is handsome, charming, easy going, jovial, and a vicious, calculating killer of the serial variety. Dexter (played by Michael C. Hall) in the Showtime drama series of the same name, is the adopted son of the late Harry Morgan (played by James Remar) a law and order police officer who imparted upon his foster child a protocol of behavior, a "code" of vigilante justice and schooled him rather well on the craft and techniques of killing and disposing of murderers who prey on the innocent. His killing, you see, is not random; he does not harm the innocent or the good and only kills the wicked and "deserving". What follows is a mosaic of emotions and contradictions for the viewer who does not know whether to loathe Dexter the bloody serial murderer who is extremely adept at killing and dismembering his victims or to praise him as an uber hero who exacts vengeance on the evil and the wretched in the name of justice for the innocent. And so we the viewers are often exposed to the moral ambiguities, the twisted altruism and the many ethical doubts of this hero/anti-hero with a rather messed up sense of civic duty and moral obligation.
Dexter's apartment is a great example of this character's great ambiguity. When you notice the interior of the dwelling, you will see order, neatness, cleanliness and a lot of soft pastel colors befitting the run-of-the mill, guy-next-door facade Dexter manages to convey. These telling details are always skillfully juxtaposed against the cold blooded butcher who chops up his victims amid a sea of carnage, gore and blood.
Wily, cunning, resourceful, and profoundly traumatized by a horror-movie childhood which included his witnessing his mother's bloody murder when he was a 3 year old child, Dexter embarks as a teenager on his personal crusade to mete out his (and Harry's) brand of justice on the morally-challenged denizens of Miami.
Dexter, more often than not, comes across his targets through the normal execution of his responsibilities as a lab technician. His modus operandi is swift, precise, calculated and cold. Very cold. The skillful stalking of his victims Ted Bundy would be proud of, the nefarious syringe filled with tranquilizer, the scalpel to cut the victim in the face to obtain the blood sample trophy he keeps, the shiny meat cleaver, the surgical saw, the "kill" jumpsuit, the table where he lays his duct taped victims, the plastic he covers the "kill" site with for easy cleaning and disposal, the ritual. The killing ritual.
Terrible in his wrath, Dexter waits. Killing them is not enough. So he patiently waits for his victims to wake up to the horror and the darkness he will inflict upon them in the kill room covered with plastic, decorated with images and mementos of the
people who were good and innocent and did not deserve to be killed. The images of his target's victims. The wicked and "deserving" have to know why they are being punished. Their terror at their impending demise the payment exacted for their misdeeds. An eye for an eye( a stab in the stomach, a knife to the heart, a chopped head). A tooth for a tooth.
