It is rare that a television show, even a crime drama, does a decent job of delving into any type of forensics or psychology on a deep level. Everything is on the surface, easy to glean and understand, with the show holding your hand and walking you through any big reveals that require an understanding of forensics. However, Dexter is different. Of course, they do have their share of those moments too. The thing that is constantly fascinating about the show though is the psychological depth, and sometimes torment, of the characters. This is particularly true of the seventh season of the show.

Michael C. Hall portrays the character of Dexter Morgan with brilliance in every episode. Other characters know their roles well and play them just as expertly. The new members of the cast for this season, Yvonne Stahovksi playing Hannah and Ray Stevenson playing Isaak Sirko, step into their roles with vigor. Sirko is one of the best characters to hit the show in years. The writing and the show’s psychology are real standouts this year too. There will be spoilers.

Who Made Dexter into a Monster?
One of the psychological questions since the beginning, at least for many viewers, is whether Dexter would have become a serial killer without the tutelage of his adoptive father Harry Morgan. Dexter’s biological brother followed the path and became a murderer, as seen in the first season, but Dexter was still very young when he witnessed his mother’s death. Would he have gone down the same path as his brother? When Harry sees the signs of Dexter’s Dark Passenger, he doesn’t get the boy help, fearing that no one would understand him. Instead, he tried to control it. Later, he molds Dex and teaches how to kill and how to clean it up. He protected Dexter, but at what cost?

Dexter begins to question this more in this season, although it does not seem there will ever be any resolution to this, but it is something that all the armchair psychologists, and real psychologists, of the world can ponder. Deb, his sister, has to think about this now that she knows the truth about him as well.

Counterparts
When we move into this season, we see some parallels to previous seasons. In the first episode, Dex kills a criminal named Victor, who is close with Sirko. Sirko, a part of a criminal organization, goes after Dexter for a revenge killing. Without giving too much away, this parallels the murder of Dexter’s wife Rita at the end of season 4 at the hands of Trinity.

A New Love?
One of the other things that we’re seeing in Dexter this season is the fact that he has a new love interest. This is not Dexter’s usual type of relationship, as the woman, Hannah, has nearly as much damage to her psyche as Dex does. They are not a killing duo like Bonnie and Clyde, at least not yet. But it does have potential to be very interesting. It remains to be seen what will happen or how Dexter, a psychopath, is going to respond to actual feelings. Thus far in the show, he’s been shown to have very limited emotional response when it comes to things such as love. He loves his children and his sister, seemingly, but it is hard to tell with a sociopath what is really happening.

Because Hannah is also a serial killer, it begs the question of what she is doing with Dexter. Two sociopaths do not seem as though they are going to be able to last.

As you can see, this season of Dexter is offering up a smorgasbord of psychological candy to devour!

Anita Schepers provides advice and information on how to get a forensic psychology degree online at ForensicPsychologyOnline.com.