The Doakes Alternative **DEXTER SPOILERS**

[Joe Washington]

(Yes another Dexter/ "what if" thread. Get over it.)

If Lila wasn't the picture in S2, do you think Dexter could have killed Doakes to save himself? Do you think it would have affected him in future seasons?

 

[Aaron McGuire]

Without Lila in the picture, things would never have gotten to the point they did. There's no guarantee that Doakes would've found out and Quinn wouldn't be on the show. Six plus seasons of Dexter/Doakes cat and mousing would be the best thing to ever happen to television.

Aaron McGuire

 

[Mr Light]

I couldn't stand Doakes. I was glad when he was finally gone.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Dexter did seem to have decided to kill Doakes himself. However, that would have been too big a violation of the Code. The whole premise of the series would have been shot to hell. Not that the writers have been all that good at sticking to their premise...

Really, the time to have Dexter go "off the Code" is close to the end of the series. It would be interesting to see the consequences for him, but there isn't too much you can do with that. If he's full-on crazy, or a "standard" serial killer as a result, you've got maybe one season's worth of material before it starts to run out of steam.

The whole oomph of the series has been the tension between Dexter being a serial killer and Dexter following the Code. Knock out one of those two, and the dramatic basis for the series must be changed, probably just to "will Dexter be found out," and that's no longer a premise that's unique to the show.

 

[stj]

Serial killing is one kind of crazy, and the Code is another kind of crazy (Harry's, to be specific, foisted on Dexter.) There's less dramatic tension in the choice between two versions of the same thing. Choosing between the Code and sanity is much more interesting. Dexter's already gone "off Code" to no dramatic interest, anyhow.

Which means Dexter killing Doakes was always feasible because Doakes was another vigilante killer. Dexter could have posted a picture of the Haitian Doakes murdered in the first season as he had Doakes plastic wrapped to the table. The thing was, wasn't he in effect killing himself when he killed Doakes? That could have had repercussions.

They seemed to have had this set up but went another route instead. Which was, to have Dexter decide to surrender. The newest iteration of Dexter, judging from posts, is to want him to keep on killing, forever, which sort of contradicts this.

 

[Joe Washington]

Do you think Dexter would use Lila to kill Doakes as a way of not breaking the Code personally?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Which means Dexter killing Doakes was always feasible because Doakes was another vigilante killer.

Nope. Doakes never killed an innocent, so the Code doesn't apply to him. Would be kinda uncomfortable if it were otherwise...then Dexter would be forced to commit suicide because the Code would demand that he die!

And Dexter can't choose between the Code and sanity because sanity is not an option for him, because if he isn't so damaged that he can't be cured, what the frak was Harry doing all those years?!? He never attempted to get Dex any kind of psychiatric help that we ever found out.

Harry gets a pass on that only if Dexter never could have been helped. It's implausible that someone who was a basket case for years would spontaneously "get better." If they ever pull shit like that, I'm throwing my TV out the window.

 

[Ayelbourne]

And Dexter can't choose between the Code and sanity because sanity is not an option for him, because if he isn't so damaged that he can't be cured, what the frak was Harry doing all those years?!? He never attempted to get Dex any kind of psychiatric help that we ever found out.

Wasn't that kind of the point of the exchange between Dex and Harry's ghost, after Dex had beaten up the father of Astor's friend?
Harry: I had no Idea you had that in you. If I'd only seen this earlier, maybe I wouldn't have led you down this path.

 

[stj]

My copy of the Code says nothing about everyone and his brother being allowed legal prey, that being killers of innocents. The unwritten commandment is that it applies only to Dexter. Doakes qualified by virtue (an ironic use of the word) of his black ops background. Those ops are kept in the black because they aren't morally acceptable (or weren't, in slightly more innocent times.) The homicidal teenager's victim wasn't a murderer. More importantly, the kid was BSing Dexter, who fell for it because his supposedly nonexistent emotions swayed him. The Castillos victims were all guilty. Running from La Migra is why they fell into the trap. And that is surely true of lots of victims. If the prime offense in the Code isn't murder, then it doesn't make sense at all, not even in the very limited Crazy Harry way.

And the elephant in the room that the show has kept dodging is that Harry was crazy, and his Code wasn't helping Dexter but the most grotesque form of child abuse, turning him into a vigilante killer to act out his own murderous fantasies. Facing this would be Dexter's last step in coming to terms with his repeatedly demonstrated desire for a sane and decent life. And realizing what Harry was would be requisite to Deb growing up.

If Dexter gets to keep on killing endlessly, with Deb's approval, is the reason to throw the TV set out the window.
Dexter passing lethal judgment on himself and committing suicide (or surrendering, to go to Death Row) is indeed uncomfortable, but that is the true dramatic tension in the show. Or was. Killing Rita gutted a lot of that.