The protagonist in “Dexter” is himself. By day, he is a funny blood expert in Miami Metro police. No one, except Harry (his foster father) knows his darkest secret: Dexter is addicted of killing. Trained to be a “perfect” killer to leave no trace and follow the code “Only kill bad people”, Dexter becomes a serial killer by night. Going through the first season is the case of Ice Truck Killer, which later leads to a heart-breaking tragedy.
Everything in “Dexter” season 1 is amazing and striking. At the very beginning, we might have thought “This guy is so evil” but it turned out that he killed a kidnapper and murderer, which put us in dilemma: Is he good or bad? Usually, killers are bad and saviors are good. If no one kill that killer, many people will probably die. So to save people, killing a killer is right. But then the one who kills the killer becomes a killer, either. Back to Dexter. In this case, is he an angel who saves people or he is just a monster as he calls himself?
Also, Dexter impresses us with a unique killing style: anesthetizes the victim, wraps him to a table, cut his cheek to keep a drop of his blood, then cut his throat or stab his heart. Like Hannibal, he is a combination of white-collar and psycho criminal. In spite of his weird taste, he is well-educated, knows a lot about forensic examination, which somewhat helps him not to be caught.
The most epic part of the season is the last episode. Dexter discovers a home of truth: Rudy, the Ice Truck killer, is actually Brian, his own BROTHER (I guess I’m even shocked more than Dexter because they look totally different)! They both saw their mother’s death and sat in a full-of-blood container, which later made them addicted to killing (and they’re both handsome). But only Dexter was adopted by Harry, who taught him to kill only bad guys. Brian was sent to an orphanage and later becomes a demon as we see.
Back to the present. Brian persuades his brother to kill Debra, Dexter’s beloved foster sister, and be with him so that Dexter can comfortably live with his real nature, “A killer. Without reason or regret. Free.” (sounds interesting). However, after hesitating for a while, Dexter declares that he loves Debra and saves her from Rudy’s knife. That night Rudy came back and tried to kill Debra but he was captured (you know who do that).
Now, this is my favorite part. Rudy, or Brian, wakes up and finds himself tied to the table with plastic wrap, just like his brother’s victims. While having an emotional conversation, Dexter cut his brother’s throat because he can’t stand hearing anymore. And for the first time and forever, I see Dexter cries.
Despite his clear-cut slice, I still find an extremely miserable and painful killer (That’s why I love Michael C.Hall’s acting). Although he has been weird, cold and inhuman from the very first episode, now he turns into a very normal man who feels sad to harm the one that understands him. And then, he regretfully wondered what he has done when killing a biological brother who can sympathizes and supports his killing addiction to save a foster sister who can readily leave him if she knows his dark secret. However he tells himself that this is how he survives.
At the end of the season, Dexter imagines how people will treat him if they know who he is: They praise him as if he’s a hero. “Yeah, they see me. I’m one of them. in their darkest dreams.”, says Dexter. A wonderful season ends.