Based on Jeff Lindsay’s cult novel “Darkly Dreaming Dexter”, it is hard to believe that the series of everyone’s favorite serial killer will come to an end. No more “dark passenger”, deadly compulsion and bad guys to dump in the ocean.  Dexter explores the mind of a sociopathic killer who targets criminals who have escaped more conventional methods of punishment.

Also see: 

• Michael C. Hall Breaks Silence on Disappointing ‘Dexter’ Ending
• ‘Dexter’ Spin-Off Still Possible if Michael C. Hall Returns
• Dexter’s Original Showrunner and Showtime President Discuss Much-Criticized Finale

Michael C. Hall, for his performance as ‘Dexter Morgan’ in the fourth season, won 2010 Golden Globe and SAG awards. It should not come as a surprise, Hall, a graduate of New York University’s Master of Fine Arts program in acting, has appeared in nearly a dozen major stage productions. He previously garnered two Emmy nominations, three consecutive Golden Globe and SAG award nominations, and won the 2007 TCA award for ‘Individual Achievement in Drama.’ The Dexter acting ensemble also received SAG Award nominations for the third and fourth seasons.

As a way to support his pathological tendencies, Dexter shares early on that he doesn’t understand emotion and hence has a difficult time faking it. Showtime’s Dexter invites us to take a peek at the “dark passenger” living inside each of us. The beautifully written series captures the human condition in all its glory and sometimes failure. Some of us will be lost for a while when the series ends, hopefully season 8 will provide Dexter the ending it deserves.

This is our list of favorite quotes for the character, Dexter.

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Season 1

Season 1 Episode 1: “Series Premiere”

There’s something strange and disarming about looking at a homicide scene in the daylight of Miami. It makes the most grotesque killings look staged, like you’re in a new and daring section of Disney World: Dahmerland! People fake a lot of human interactions, but I feel like I fake them all, and I fake them very well, that’s my burden, I guess.

 

Harry was a great cop here in Miami. He taught me how to think like one; he taught me how to cover my tracks. I’m a very neat monster.

 

No blood. No sticky, hot, messy, awful blood; no blood at all. Why hadn’t I thought of that? No blood. What a beautiful idea!

 

Blood. Sometimes it sets my teeth on edge, other times it helps me control the chaos.

 

The only real question I have is why in a building full of cops, all supposedly with a keen insight to the human soul, is Doakes the only one who gets the creep from me.

 

With the solve rate for murders at about twenty percent, Miami is a great place for me. A great place for me to hone my craft. Viva Miami.

 

Season 1 Episode 2: “Crocodile”

There are no secrets in life, just hidden truths that lie beneath the surface.

 

I dream. I dream I’m floating on the surface of my own life. Watching it unfold. Observing it. I’m the outsider looking in.

 

I can kill a man, dismember his body, and be home in time for Letterman. But knowing what to say when my girlfriend’s feeling insecure… I’m totally lost.

 

My father taught me one thing above all others; to be sure. And I am. Matt Chambers, Miami is your last stop. If God is in the details and if I believed in God, he’s in this room with me. I just wish he had brought an extension cord.

Season 1 Episode 3: “Popping Cherry”

Most people have a hard time dealing with death, but I’m not most people. It’s the grief that makes me uncomfortable. Not because I’m a killer, really. I just don’t understand all that emotion, which makes it tough to fake. [putting on sun glasses] In those cases, shades come in handy.

 

All you can do is play along at life, and hope that sometimes you get it right.

 

Season 1 Episode 4: “Let’s Give the Boy a Hand”

I love Halloween. The one time of year when everyone wears a mask… not just me. People think it’s fun to pretend you’re a monster. Me, I spend my life pretending I’m not. Brother, friend, boyfriend – All part of my costume collection. Some people might call me a fraud. Let’s see if it will fit. I prefer to think of myself as a master of disguise. Everyone hides who they are at least some of the time. Sometimes you bury that part of yourself so deeply you have to be reminded it’s even there at all. And sometimes you just want to forget who you are altogether… I’m not the monster he wants me to be so I’m neither man nor beast. I’m something new entirely… I’m Dexter. Boo.

 

Season 1 Episode 5: “Love American Style”

I can’t kill Dr. Meridien yet. I still need another therapy session.

 

For weeks, I’ve felt like a student in a master class. Is it really possible that the master’s on the run? And even more tragic, does he live in a double-wide?

 

The FBI estimates that there are less than 50 serial killers active in the United States today. We don’t get together at conventions, share trade secrets, or exchange Christmas cards…But sometimes I wonder what it’s like for the others. The only sound I hear, the only sound in the entire world….is my heart beating.

 

I don’t have bad dreams. When I sleep, all of me sleeps. Nothing ever goes bump in Dexter’s night.

 

I like to pretend I’m alone. Completely alone. Maybe post-apocalypse or plague… Whatever. No-one left to act normal for. No need to hide who I really am. It would be… freeing.
Sergeant Doakes: [Doakes seemingly walks up out of nowhere] Stop grinning like a f**king psycho and get back to work!

 

I built my life on Harry’s code. I lived by it. But Harry lied. Why would he do that? What else don’t I know? My concrete foundation is turning to shifting sand. Maybe Rudy was right. You never can truly know anyone.

Season 1 Episode 10: “Seeing Red”

The trifecta, weapon, ammo, and impaired judgment. Throw in a little domestic violence, and you have the perfect recipe for a family slaughter.

 

Season 1 Episode 11: Truth Be Told

I’ve never had much use for the concept of Hell, but if Hell exists, I’m in it. The same images running through my head over and over. I was there. I saw my mother’s death. A buried memory forgotten all these years. It climbed inside me that day, and it’s been with me every since. My Dark Passenger.

 

Season 1 Episode 12: “Born Free”

This is what it must feel like to walk in full sunlight, my darkness revealed, my shadow self embraced. Yeah, they see me. I’m one of them… In their darkest dreams.

 

I’ve lived in darkness a long time. Over the years, my eyes adjusted until the dark became my world and I could see. But then Rudy turned on the light. He flooded my memory and now I’m blind.

 

[breaking into shipping yard, voiceover] No cameras, no patrols, no dogs. With billions spent on homeland security, it can’t be easy as a couple of snips. [cuts padlocked chain and walks in] So much for the War on Terror.

 

[at the shipping yard] I don’t like this place. Something nameless was born here, something that lives in the deepest darkest hole of the thing called Dexter.

 

Season 2

Season 2 Episode 1: “It’s Alive”

Some gangs earn teardrops of blood by killing. I understand, we all need our keepsakes. One man’s tattoos are another man’s blood slides.

I’m on edge. Thirty-eight days, sixteen hours, and twelve minutes have passed since I killed my brother. In that entire time, I haven’t had a single night to myself. Sergeant Doakes makes sure of that. He follows me everywhere now. A human bloodhound incited by the scent of darkness. My best hope of losing him is to act relentlessly normal. Dull. So I bowl. What’s really disturbing is that I’m good at it.

 

Season 2 Episode 3: “An Inconvenient Lie”

I just know there’s something dark in me. I hide it. I certainly don’t talk about it. But it’s there. Always. This dark passenger. And when he’s driving, I feel…alive. Half sick with the thrill, complete wrongness. I don’t fight him. I don’t want to. He’s all I’ve got. Nothing else could love me, not even, especially not me. Or is that just the lie the dark passenger tells me? Because lately, there are these moments when I feel…connected to something else, someone. And it’s like the mask is slipping…and things…people…who never mattered before, are suddenly starting to matter. It scares the hell out of me.

 

Season 2 Episode 4: “See-Through”

 

Anything I can do to overburden Masuka is to my advantage. Trust me, I’m not above sending pizza and hookers to his house in the middle of the night.

 

Season 2 Episode 5: “The Dark Defender”

Most people hate long lines. The bank, grocery store, coffee bar. Not me. Want a real glimpse of human nature? Stand in the way of someone’s mocha latte. It also reminds me that the good people of Miami and I aren’t so different. They have no more idea of what I am than I do.

 

Season 2 Episode 6: “Dex, Lies, and Videotape”

The full force of the FBI, that’s the last thing I need. I got to make sure Lundy gets his man, after I figure out a way to erase the marina files and make up with my girlfriend. And then maybe I tackle world hunger, because things can not get much worse.

Season 2 Episode 8: “Morning Comes”

It’s one thing to f**k with me, another to f**k with… my ex-girlfriend who hates me. The Lila experiment is officially over.

 

Dexter: You, you are more dangerous than my addiction will ever be. That’s saying a lot. Stay away from Rita. Stay away from me.
Lila: Or what?
Dexter: Or you will see the monster.

 

Season 2 Episode 10: “There’s Something About Harry”

Dexter: Why couldn’t you just leave me to do my work in peace? Why’d you have to go and ruin everything?
Doakes: You’re a killer. I catch killers.
Dexter: So do I. I caught you.

 

Dexter: I should warn you Sergeant, you can’t play on my feelings. I don’t have any.
Doakes: Oh really? Who’s lying now?

 

Taking a life is one thing, but the care and feeding of it is another. I can’t keep my problem locked away in a cabin forever. Harry always said there were plenty of people who deserved to die, but no matter how hard I close my eyes and wish, Doakes isn’t one of them. Harry, he never prepared me for this one, what do I do? What would you do?

 

I remember when life was easy, when the only question I worried about was, “Who’s next?” Now it’s, “How can I dodge my protective detail?” and “What should I do with my hostage?” These are not easy questions.

 

Season 2 Episode 11: “Left Turn Ahead”

I passed through the flames and rose from the ashes, again. I’ve never been one to put much weight into the idea of a higher power, but if I didn’t know better I’d have to believe that some force out there wants me to keep doing what I’m doing.

 

Not long ago I had a dream that people could see me for what I am, and for a brief instant in time the world actually saw my bodies of work. Some even cheered. But as it turns out, nobody mourns the wicked. Sorry James. I think Harry knew that from the start. That’s why he gave me a code. It cost him his life, but it kept me alive through incredible trials. The code is mine now, and mine alone. So too are the relationships I cultivate. They’re not just disguises anymore. I need them, even if they make me vulnerable. My father might not approve, but I’m no longer his disciple. I’m a master now, an idea transcended into life. And so this is my new path, which is a lot like the old one, only mine. To stay on that path, I need to work harder, explore new rituals, evolve. Am I evil? Am I good? I’m done asking those questions. I don’t have the answers. Does anyone?

Season 2 Episode 12 The British Invasion

Sleep, what a concept. I can’t believe I actually contemplated turning myself in. This is so much better than a prison cell. I can squeeze fresh orange juice, savor a fine French roast, grab a morning workout. Okay, working out I could have done in prison. But still, I’m free.

Season 3

Season 3 Episode 1: “Our Father”

Freebo: Stupid c**t’s gonna redefine “short-term relationship.” Catch my drift?
Dexter: Yeah, I catch your drift. (voice over) And I’m entirely confident you’ve earned the privilege of being re-purposed as fish food.

 

Most normal people enjoy a sacred pact with society – live a good life and society will take care of you. But if society drops the ball, then someone else has to pick up the slack. That’s where I come in.

Season 3 Episode 2: “Finding Freebo”

You seem uncertain. It’s uncomfortable, isn’t it? Just when you think you’ve answered all the questions, another one smacks you in the face. Life, life, life. Life is just like that. Which is why I prefer death.

Season 3 Episode 3: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”

In the land of predators, a lion never fears the jackal.

 

The grocery store – the modern-day equivalent of the Serengeti, where the mighty lion goes to hunt. And my weaker brethren reward me with gifts

 

Season 3 Episode 4: “All in the Family”

Dexter: (voice-over) Role playing; such an important part of growing up. When we were kids whatever role Deb assigned me, evil monster, treacherous Nazi, horrible alien, I played them to perfection.

Season 3 Episode 5: “Turning Biminese”

There are many ways to stop the heart, electric shock, bad diet, sever the aorta, my personal favorite, but to start one beating, this is a first.

Season 3 Episode 8: “The Damage A Man Can Do”

It’s said that everything is connected to everything. The butterfly-effect. You drop a pebble into a pond and the ripples radiate outwards touching and affecting everything. Until finally a fish grows arms and legs and crawls out of the water…and picks up a rock and smashes the next two fish over the head…and we have the first serial killer.

Season 4

Season 4 Episode 3: “Blinded By The Light”

The backyard barbecue. It’s a holdover from the last ice age when food was scarce and men had to work together to take down such a large beast. Those who worked well with others survived, and their genes have been passed through the centuries until they landed here, in this…my community.

 

Season 4 Episode 5: “Dirty Harry”

[To Rita] See? I have nothing to hide. [Voiceover: Except for the syringes, scalpels, and bone saw hidden in the drawer underneath.
[Voiceover on going after Trinity]: It’s almost poetic – one serial killer ending the 30-year reign of another.

 

Season 4 Episode 7: “Slack Tide”

There’s a moment sailors call slack tide…when the tide is neither coming in nor out, but perfectly still. It’s a moment frozen in time, when all is calm and peaceful. The only downside to it is that it passes so quickly. As much as we might like some things to remain suspended in time, they never do.

Season 5

Season 5 Episode 1: “My Bad”

I’ve watched 67 people die, and at the moment of truth I looked into their eyes and I knew – and they knew – they got what they deserved. But what if that’s not what happens, if you don’t get what you deserve?

 

Season 5 Episode 2: “Hello Bandit”

It’s said there are seven stages of grief. I suppose killing someone with my bare hands in a men’s room was my way of working through the anger stage. Whatever the other six stages are… I don’t have time for them

 

Season 6

Season 6 Episode 1: “Those Kinds of Things”

High school, a small world unto itself, combining all the elements of a federal work camp with those of a third-world poultry farm. It’s a miracle I graduated without killing anyone.

 

Season 6 Episode 12: “This is the Way the World Ends”

I guess it’s fitting that I end up where I’ve left so many others. I only wonder if the world is going to be a better place without me. It’s wrong what people say about dying. I’m not flashing back over my life, over the lives I’ve taken. I’m thinking about the life I’ll miss. Harrison. I’ll miss watching my son grow up.

 

Season 7

Season 7 Episode 3: “Buck the System”

I feel trapped – like there’s no escape. And it’s not because I’m at the post office… She’s got me penned in like a caged animal. And an animal is never more dangerous than when it’s…backed into a corner

 

Season 7 Episode 8: “Argentina”

Everyone wants an Argentina – a place where the slate is wiped clean. But the truth is Argentina is just Argentina. No matter where we go, we take ourselves, and our damage, with us. So is home the place we run to, or is it the place we run from? Onlt to hide out in places where we’re accepted unconditionally, places that feel more like home to us – because we can finally be who we are.

 

Season 7 Episode 9: “Helter Skelter”

Watch any western and you’ll know a man out for vengeance should dig two graves. One for his enemy, and one for himself. I won’t be needing mine. But I’ll see to it that Isaak isn’t alone in his.

 

Season 7 Episode 10: “The Dark…Whatever”

Monsters, aliens, phantoms – none of them are real. The thought that an actual person could do this is too awful. So our imaginations create a way to make it easier to take. But even the strongest of imaginations can’t protect us once we know the truth.

 

Season 7 Episode 11: “Do You See What I See”

Christmas is a time of expectation. If you’re good, a red-suited fat man will break into your house and leave you presents. But Santa Claus doesn’t exist. The most wonderful time of the year celebrates a lie.

 

Season 7 Episode 12: “Surprise, Motherf**ker !”

We all make rules for ourselves. It’s these rules that helps define who we are. So when we break those rules, we risk losing ourselves and becoming something unknown. Who is Deb now? Who am I? Is this a new beginning, or the beginning of the end?