Summary
- The Code in Dexter kept Dexter Morgan alive by guiding his behavior and ensuring he wouldn’t get caught.
- The Code was taught to Dexter by his adopted father, Harry, and later Dr. Evelyn Vogel, creating a unique bond.
- The success of Dexter as a show was largely due to the Code, making audiences view Dexter’s actions in a more positive light.
Few television shows have a lead character who is a serial killer who is likable enough to justify eight seasons and multiple spinoff shows. However, Dexter proved that it is possible. Dexter Morgan managed to be charming enough in his day-to-day life for his dark passenger to be something that audiences were willing to accept and wanted to watch.
As a blood spatter analyst by day and a serial killer by night, Morgan was a unique character in television history. However, Dexter managed to be an acceptable show due to the dark Code that Morgan lived by. This strict set of rules is what Morgan lives by and is ultimately how he gets away with killing so many people.
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What Was The Code In Dexter?
This Helped To Keep Him Alive
The Code was something that was explained to Dexter very early on, and it played a crucial part in his life. It was a set of guidelines that were created for him after the brutal murder of his mother. Dexter was left in a pool of her own blood after he witnessed his mother, Laura Moser, be butchered by a chainsaw. It left a long-lasting impact on Dexter from childhood, and he grew up knowing he was different. Dexter had urges and was fascinated by blood and the idea of death. He started out killing animals, such as the family dog, and it became clear he was going to grow into a serial killer, which led to the Code being created by Harry Morgan to try and guide him.
The Code is a series of rules that Dexter follows when it comes to all of his kills, with the main rule simply to not be caught. The Code had 12 specific points that helped to guide his behavior, including never killing someone who was innocent, which is why he put so much effort into tracking people’s behavior to ensure they had committed a crime beforehand. He had to ensure his kills would serve a purpose, such as helping others, while he also had to not get emotionally involved. The idea of the Code was that it would help channel his feelings toward people who deserved it, and that stopped him from just going on a wild killing spree.
Who Taught Dexter Morgan The Code?
He Didn’t Learn This Until The Final Season
From the start, it is revealed that the Code was actually taught to Dexter by his adopted father, Harry. It’s a surprising situation considering he works in the police force, but Harry could see the signs and the dangers of Dexter’s urges, so he opted to create the Code in a bid to protect him. It was also born out of his frustration at certain criminals slipping through the cracks and not being sent to jail despite obviously breaking the law. It led to him pointing Dexter toward certain criminals and teaching him how to track them, which saw him go to work with the police as well. It was a great way for Harry to fix multiple issues in his life at that point, while it serves a great purpose for Dexter within the show to keep him calm under pressure.
In the original show’s final season, it is revealed that Harry wasn’t alone in creating the Code. That’s because Dr. Evelyn Vogel, who specialized in psychopaths, helped him by creating the Code to help him. Harry originally went to see Vogel in a bid to try and get answers for his son, but it led to them working together to make this decision, which Vogel followed up on later in life as she and Dexter created a unique bond when she realized how successful the Code was. However, it didn’t help Harry, as he ended up taking his own life due to the stress of what Dexter was doing.
Dexter Was A Popular Show Because Of The Code
Audiences Would’ve Hated Dexter Morgan Without This
While the Code was something that served its purpose in terms of keeping Morgan alive and ensuring that he had some form of moral compass, it was significant toward the success of Dexter. Having the lead character have villainous tendencies as a serial killer isn’t an easy feat to pull off because it would have been easy for audiences to just hate Dexter and not want to watch a show centered around him as a person. However, the Code made people think that Dexter’s actions weren’t as negative as they actually were. Dexter was only killing people who had done something negative to others, and the Code was his method of getting rid of them. In some ways, he was providing a service to people, even though it wasn’t in the traditional sense. The Code was a unique way of making Dexter work as a show, and that’s something that helped the franchise grow into what it is today.
