Dexter and Charley spent episode 3 of Dexter: Resurrection season 2 pretending to be a couple, and by the end of the hour the act felt a lot less like an act. For a man whose romantic record is as grim as Dexter Morgan’s, that is a bigger moment than it sounds.
The partnership began in episode 2, “Fallen,” when Charley Brown, Leon Prater’s former head of security, offered to find killers for Dexter the same way she once found them for Prater. Dexter hesitated because, like most serial killers, he prefers working alone. A midlife crisis and a life full of loose ends convinced him that a partner might be exactly what he needed.
Charley has her own reasons for wanting in. She took Prater’s money to pay for her mother’s treatment, and when she finally told her mother the truth about her boss, all she got back was hatred and the wish that she had been left to die. After her mother’s death, Charley decided that redemption was the only road to peace.
Dexter and Charley Get Close To Each Other in Episode 3
To hide the real reason for their partnership, the two agreed to play a couple. Charley rented a brownstone on Beekman for a week using Prater’s slush fund, then used Prater’s private email address to invite Ray Ballard, the Sleepy-Eyed Stranger, to New York. The invitation told him to bring a trophy, which explains why he arrived with a kidnapped man named George.
Dexter was ready to inject Ballard with etorphine, but learning about George changed the plan. A killer like Ballard was never going to talk on the table, so Dexter had to befriend him over wine and coax out where George was hidden. Ballard admitted only that George was locked in a U-Haul van, refused to say where, and went straight to his room.
That left Dexter no choice but to bring in Charley, who had insisted from day one that she would only facilitate and never take part in the hunt. Together they set a trap for Ballard and stopped him before another innocent person died.
The couple cover nearly cost them too, since Joey Quinn traced the brownstone through Charley’s payment to the real estate group, though he missed the pair this time.
The quieter scene came afterward. Charley asked why Dexter only hunts killers, and he told her about his mother, a police informant whom a drug cartel murdered with a chainsaw inside a shipping container while a three-year-old Dexter watched. Charley tied the kill room to that container right away, and Dexter waved off the nine-piece dismemberment as a matter of easier disposal.
Related: Can the Police Prove Framt Is the Ripper?
Every Love Story Dexter Has Had Before Charley
Dexter’s romances began as camouflage. In season 1, he dated Rita Bennett partly because she was scarred by an abusive ex and wanted little intimacy, which made her the perfect cover. In season 2, she left when she believed he was a drug addict, and he drifted into an affair with Lila West, his sponsor, whose obsession turned dangerous.
Dexter and Rita reconciled and married in season 3, and their son Harrison was born. Rita was killed by the Trinity Killer in the season 4 finale, one of the show’s cruelest turns. Season 5 brought Lumen Pierce, a survivor Dexter helped hunt the men who attacked her, and the two became lovers before she left to start a new life.
Seasons 7 and 8 gave him Hannah McKay, a poisoner who knew exactly who he was. That story ended with Hannah and Harrison leaving for Argentina while Dexter faked his own death. In Dexter: New Blood he was living as Jim Lindsay and dating Angela Bishop, the local police chief, a chapter that closed with Harrison shooting him.
The pattern is hard to miss. Every relationship ended in loss, violence, or a secret Dexter could not keep. Charley is the first partner to join him already knowing what he is.
Related: Dexter: Resurrection Season 2: Full Episode Release Schedule, Streaming Times & Killer List Tracker
So, Are Dexter and Charley Falling in Love?
I think the groundwork is there, though the show has not confirmed anything romantic. Dexter, a deeply antisocial man, is opening up to her about his mother, and Charley understands his trauma in a way Harry never did, since Harry could not stomach watching the feast. Both of them also lost a mother and are chasing a purpose that makes that loss mean something.
The evidence against is just as real. The partnership started as business, Charley’s stated goal is redemption, and the couple act was built to deceive. Dexter also has Harrison, Harry’s code, and a long history of keeping people at arm’s length.
If romance does come, it would be the first time Dexter loves someone with no secret to hide. It would also give Quinn and Detective Wallace one more thread to pull.
Episode 4 of Dexter: Resurrection season 2 arrives Friday, Nov. 20, with the pair already turning toward the Jaw Splitter.
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