“A Monster We Love: Dexter’s Reproductive Futures”

Abstract

While there has been significant scholarly attention to the Showtime Series Dexter and the fundamental choice between being good or evil that its protagonist Dexter Morgan must make, this article advances scholarship in three ways. Firstly, it examines Dexter’s final twist in plot and the decision Dexter makes to finally embrace his “dark passenger” to argue for the necessity of the plot twist to the series, which scholarship has not yet performed. Secondly, by situating Dexter’s decision within a framework focused on reproductive futurism, a revised and more nuanced approach to Dexter’s ontological dilemma can be proffered. Finally, by locating Dexter’s dark passenger within the theoretical frames of reproductive futurism and community this article adds an important dimension to notions of the monster rooted in theories of identity and subjectivity. In the final moments of the series everything changes for Dexter as his identity is redeemed for a reproductive future without guarantees, which this article argues is germane to considerations of biopolitics and community in the contemporary period

Keywords

• Dexter, reproductive future, biopolitics, community, serial killers, monsters, redemption