Beware of spoilers, only spoilers from the seventh and eighth seasons are meant to be blacked out. All character sheets contain major spoilers. Proceed reading at your own risk.note
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Astor Bennett
Played by: Christina Robinson
Rita's oldest child and later stepdaughter of Dexter.
- Adaptational Heroism: She's a sweet child in the early seasons and a pretty normal teenager in the later ones, while her book counterpart was not only much less likeable, but a budding serial killer!
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: During season four, she becomes this and Dexter has no idea what to do.
- Break the Cutie: She becomes understandably heartbroken after hearing about Rita's death, which leads her to becoming more frosty towards Dexter.
- Calling the Old Man Out: To Dexter in "My Bad" and "Teenage Wasteland".
- Cheerful Child: In the first seasons she's a bright and happy little girl. She's troubled only when her father shows up and she's worried he'll treat her mom Rita badly. She soon grows out of it as she becomes a pre-teen. In later seasons, she's a sulky teenager and extremely troubled because her mom has been murdered.
- Demoted to Extra: With Rita's death, she and Cody move to Orlando with her grandparents.
- Drugs Are Bad: Almost said word for word by her in season 7, after she is lectured about her pot habits.
- Morality Pet:
- Dexter behaves wonderfully to her and her brother. He's especially great with them when they are small.
- Shares this role with Cody, for their father. Paul genuinely loves and cherishes them. They are both basically the only good thing he ever did.
- Out of Focus: In season 6 especially, continuing into season 7. It's a little odd considering Dexter is still the legal guardian.
- Put on a Bus: After the Season 5 finale. She decides she wants to live with her paternal grandparents. The Bus Came Back in the seventh season when they visit Dexter for one episode.
- The Stoner: In Season 7, Cody reveals that she's been doing drugs, although Astor claims she only does it to relieve her of the stress. She does admit that she knows they are bad.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In season 4, she goes from a Cheerful Child to a Bratty Teenage Daughter. After Rita's death, she even tells Dexter You Should Have Died Instead.
- Took a Level in Kindness: After Dexter saves Olivia from her mother's abusive boyfriend, Astor becomes a lot kinder to Dexter, and eventually started liking him again.
- Two First Names: Either "Astor" or "Bennett" can be used as a first name. It also applies after Rita married Dexter, and took the name "Morgan".
Cody Bennett
Played by: Daniel Goldman & Preston Bailey
Rita's middle child and eventual stepson to Dexter.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the novels Dexter figures out he and his sister are budding serial killers after some neighbourhood pets go "missing".
- Adaptational Wimp: His book counterpart was a budding serial killer who faced adult murderers on two separate occasions without any fear, stabbing one with a pencil in self defense and helping kill another.
- Adaptation Personality Change: In the books, Dexter stated that Cody is very quiet and that his sister Astor often talks for both of them. In the TV series, Cody is more talkative than Astor.
- Cheerful Child: He's a happy fellow, lacking Astor's angst. This is a sharp contrast to his book counterpart, who was The Stoic due to the psychological effects of his father's violent abuse.
- Demoted to Extra: He moves to Orlando with Astor to stay with his grandparents.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Makes sense given his age, but may also be inherited from Rita. He thinks the world of his father, and Lila is "nice", apparently…
- Morality Pet:
- Dexter is at his best when he plays with Astor and Cody.
- Shares this role with Astor, for their father. Paul genuinely loves and cherishes them. They are both basically the only good thing he ever did.
- Out of Focus: In season 6 he has few scenes.
- Put on a Bus: On the sixth season. He returns on the seventh season along with his siblings.
- Two First Names: Either "Cody" or "Bennett" can be used as a first name. It also applies after Rita married Dexter, and took the name "Morgan".
Harrison Morgan
Click here to see Harrison in New Blood
Dexter and Rita's son.
- The Ace: He scores so highly on the school's placement exam the staff assume he cheated, he's bilingual, and he's a skilled wrestler.
- Ascended Extra: After being a minor character as a child in the original, Harrison is now a young adult and is upgraded to the main cast in New Blood.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: In the season 4 finale, sitting in Rita's blood.
- Cheerful Child: He's a normal, pretty happy kid.
- Dead Guy Junior: Harrison is a family name — he was named after Dexter's foster father.
- Enfant Terrible: Dexter worries (needlessly) that he will become this due to witnessing a traumatic event, but he's far too young to be affected. Dexter is merely paranoid. However, New Blood eventually reveals that Dexter's concerns were entirely on the mark as Harrison did end up developing his own Dark Passenger later in life… or rather, Dexter thinks he does.
- Gender Flip: The books had Dexter and Rita's first child as a girl, Lily Anne Morgan.
- Manipulative Bastard: In New Blood, Harrison successfully manages to trick his entire school and most of Iron Lake into thinking he's a hero by attacking his bullied friend and framing him as a school shooter, even stabbing himself to make it look like self-defense. When his father finds out and attempts to confront the kid, Harrison emotionally manipulates Dexter by guilting him for being a deadbeat.
- Morality Pet: Dexter has his issues, but he loves his son dearly.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In "Sins of a Father", he realises that he never had a dark passenger and everything he did turned out to be for nothing, which left him genuinely horrified. After Dexter lets him shoot him dead, Harrison is shown to be relieved to have broken the cycle to start anew, but also accepts that he may have to live with the guilt and remorse of his actions on his shoulders, having difficulty figuring out if he will be able to redeem himself in the future.
- Patricide: In the finale of New Blood, he tries to make Dexter turn himself in. Dexter, realizing Harrison will never be free as long as he himself lives, has Harrison shoot him.
- Put on a Bus: Early in Season 7, Dexter is afraid for his life (specially after what happened with Travis last season), and with Isaak chasing after him, he decides to send Harrison to Orlando for some time with Astor and Cody. He returns soon, though.
- Sadist: Teenaged Harrison is implied to be one, when he admits to Audrey that he thinks about hurting people all the time. The same episode ends with him needlessly breaking his opponent’s arm in a wrestling match, when he had already won.
- Sole Survivor: Of the Morgan family overall.
- Teens Are Monsters: Now a teenager by the time of New Blood, Harrison has grown up to become crass, violent, emotionally manipulative, and even more concerningly, murderous. In the finale, he seems to be growing out of it after killing his father (on the latter's insistence).
- Troubled, but Cute: In New Blood, Harrison admits to Audrey that he has violent thoughts and all of this stems from Dexter abandoning him and then the foster care system just made things worse.
- Two First Names: Either "Harrison" or "Morgan" can be used as a first name.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In order to sell his false narrative to the police, Harrison stabs himself with the same pocket knife he used to attack Ethan so he can claim self-defense. Dexter quickly confirms that he's lying from a brief analysis of the scene.
Laura Moser
Played by: Sage Kirkpatrick
Dexter and Brian's deceased mother, killed in front of them by drug dealers after agreeing to be The Mole for Harry.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: She was chain-sawed to death in a shipping yard container. Her two young sons had to watch it.
- Dead Person Conversation: She talks to Dexter briefly in season 3.
- Death by Origin Story: She was killed by drug dealers, who then left Dexter and Brian sitting in her blood and body parts, serving as an origin story for both of them.
- The Informant: She was Harry Morgan's Confidential Informant. Her drug-dealing friends called her "that bitch who was a fucking snitch and who fucked a cop."
- Posthumous Character: She appears only in some flashbacks. However, they are very important, especially in season 1.
- The Mole: For Harry, who liked to sleep with his female CIs.
Gail Brandon
Played by: JoBeth Williams
Rita's judgmental, controlling mother.
- Abusive Mom: She's emotionally abusive to Rita, and she also puts too much pressure on her grandchildren. Rita even says she ran away with Paul, the abusive asshole, because she wanted to get away from her.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She looks like a dedicated mother and grandmother, and she in fact is, but she's also suffocating and very controlling in her love.
- Control Freak: She needs and demands control over her daughter's life, which prompted Rita to run away from her.
- Evil Matriarch: She seems more interested in controlling Rita than loving her, and refuses to even show up for Rita's funeral.
- Jerkass Has a Point: At first, she thinks that Dexter is hiding something, and of course it's true. Also, her reaction when she believes him to be a drug addict is understandable. Her daughter was married for years to another drug addict who was also a Domestic Abuser, so it's normal she wouldn't want her daughter to be involved with another drug addict.
- My Beloved Smother: To Rita, and also to Astor and Cody. In this case, it meant a great deal of personal control.
- Never My Fault: After she's fired, she places blame on the school as opposed to her own harsh methods.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: She hated Rita's first husband Paul (understandably). She doesn't like Dexter either and is quite verbal about it.
- Stern Teacher: She was fired because she had a disagreement about current teaching methods. She doesn't approve of all children getting a medal when they are not first etc. She's just that tough and she was never accused of being a Sadist Teacher.
- Two First Names: Either "Gail" or "Brandon" can be used as a first name.
Doris Morgan
Played by: Kathrin Middleton
Harry's wife and mother to Dexter and Debra.
- Flat Character: She's never shown in other context than spending time with young Dexter and Debra. She's usually worried about strange, uncomfortable vibes she gets from Dexter.
- Posthumous Character: She died of cancer when Debra was a teenager. She sometimes appears in flashbacks.
- Satellite Character: She only exists in relation to Harry, Debra and Dexter.
- Two First Names: Either "Doris" or "Morgan" can be used as a first name.
Joe Driscoll
Played by: N/A
Dexter and Brian's biological father.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was in prison for a long time, as indicated by his tattoo.
- Disappeared Dad: To Dexter, but he did save his life once by donating blood.
- Mysterious Past: We never find out who he really was, why he was in prison or why he left Laura.
- Pet the Dog: At some point, he gave Dexter a life-saving blood transfusion. He also kept the thank-you card Dexter made him.
- Posthumous Character: Brian kills him before he gets a chance to make any kind of appearance in-show.
- Tattooed Crook: Dexter recognizes that his tattoo of a spider web was made in prison. He also has a flashback memory of him driving a car, while he — a really small Dexter — is watching him.
