Heartwarming / Dexter

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Season One

• Dexter singing to Astor and Cody as they fall asleep/are asleep in episode 2, then being an understanding boyfriend to Rita about her hesitation towards sex.
  Dexter: But it needs to be right for the both of us, or it won't be right for either of us. I don't want that, do you?
• In season 1, the morning after Dexter and Rita have sex for the first time. This is the point where all his previous girlfriends left him, sensing something off about him during the act, but Rita doesn't. He's almost like a little boy when he asks in bewilderment "There'll be a next time?"
• Dexters reuniting again with Brian after discovering who he is. It’s oddly heartwarming, even if they both are psychopaths.
• After Dexter and Doakes had a small talk in Ep 4, which ends with Doakes saying "Then what the fucking good are you.", Angel walks up to Dexter, who has his hands on his head, muttering himself, and instantly tries to comfort him. He interpreted the scene as Doakes bullying his friend, and thinks Dexter is upset because he can't deal with the Scary Black Man collegue constantly harassing him. Angel wastes no time telling Dexter that he does a good work, and because of them lab rats the cops are able to work and look good. It is very nice from a real detective. Later, even in the lab, when Angel sees Dexter still fumbling, he assumes it’s again because of Doakes, and tell him keep himself together, because Doakes' contempt for lab rats is well-known but stupid.

Season Two

• In season 2, even though Lila was obviously manipulative and crazy from the moment she showed up, the episode where she managed to talk Dexter down from killing his mother's murderer, thinking that he’s using heroin when we the audience know what his real "addiction" is. Dexter comes back to the hotel, bloody and distraught, and starts to tell Lila that he didn't do what he was about to do, and she responds with "I don't care what you did" and just holds him until morning.
• Angel being unresentful of Dexter or anyone else for Lila's framing of him for rape. So much so it makes hardened sociopath Dexter tell Angel that "If he could anyone, he'd be him".
• Angel hugging Debra after she kicks Lila out of Miami.
• Despite his longtime dislike for Dexter, Doakes actually comforted Dexter when he told him of his plans to turn himself in. For the first time Doakes actually showed Dexter some respect and even told him that they'd face it together.
• Dexter and Debra's talk where Debra is saying how glad she is to have had Dexter during her dealing with all her trauma and how she decided who she was and wanted to be and how she's even stronger for the experience. She then eats some of the steak that Dexter cooked for her and tells him it's worth living for and all Dexter can do is smile as he agrees and narrates to himself that he's not giving up his plans to frame Doakes because Deb is right.
• Deb being there to save Dexter at the end of the season finale by putting out the fire on Dexter's back thanks to a blanket he was wearing while breaking a wall in Lila's loft after she set it on fire. Afterwards they comment on how Debra got to do the saving this time and she snarks that she likes it better that way as they make it clear how much they care about each other as family.
• There's just something oddly heartwarming, ironic, but heartwarming about Dexter attending the funeral service for Doakes, the event only attended by Doakes's family and Laguerta as he was framed for being the Bay Harbor Butcher when that wasn't the case. Sure Doakes was kind of a douche, but he was still a halfway decent man just doing his job and now he's been framed as a serial killer when he only sought to bring the killer to justice and the only one that seemingly cares is the one that put him in the position to be killed.

Season Three

• Dexter not wanting to touch Rita's stomach during the couple's yoga class when the fathers were supposed to "send their positive feelings" to the baby, then apologizing through internal monologue and revealing that he just didn't want to hurt the baby.
• This wouldn't count in any other show but: "Nobody hurts my children."
  • Context is required. Throughout the episode Dexter has noticed a pedophile watching and taking pictures of Astor and he calmly but angrily warns the pedophile to leave her alone, which naturally doesn't happen. Dexter in response breaks his rule of only killing other killers who escaped justice to kill the pedophile to protect Astor and throughout the episode notes to himself that he, Rita and the kids are a family and like a pack of lions.
• Dexter's talk with Spirit Harry in the last episode of season 3. He tells him he's proud of him for having found a wife and trying to find a friend, and teaches again how to put his tie on. It’s a pretty touching moment.
• Episode five, when Dexter rushes to the hospital after Rita has a pregnancy scare. The piano playing in the background makes the scene a combination of Heartwarming and Tear Jerker.
  Rita: I don't know...what I would have done if I'd lost the baby and you weren't here. And nobody could find you.
  Dexter: I'm here now. I'm not going anywhere.
• Dexter conversation with Ramon Prado. He intended to show the mourning Ramon proof that Miguel was a murderer but as the conversation went on, he decided to "soothe the wild beast by removing its thorn." He realised that Ramon was just a victim of Miguel, who'd given his whole life to help his ungrateful brother, and that now Ramon was trying to change his life and help his children, showing strength and selflessness Miguel never had.
• Deb being promoted to detective.
• Dexter's proposal to Rita and the kids, which sounded sincere for him. He ends up saying in his proposal that he knows for a fact that he wants to marry her because if something as simple as pizza night with her and the kids is the best part of his week, then being with them for the rest of his life is what he wants most.
• Dexter telling Debra she's not a fuckup after telling her about Harry and his CI and that she is one of the best people she is one of the best people he knows and he trusts her more then anyone. He then asks her to be his best man and that it should have been her that he asked from the very beginning. She abso-fucking-lutely accepts.
• Masuka had lost his confidence when he was told no one liked him. He gets it back when he finds an important fact in the case and Deb says she'll take it seriously, "in a fucking heartbeat. Do you know how many times Vince Masuka's been published?" Angel adds, "He's our Lead Forensic Investigator, and there's no one better."

Season Four

• Dexter's reaction to Debra being shot in season 4.
• Cody interjecting he's thankful for Dexter after the Mitchell family's slipping mask of wholesomeness got shattered against a wall when no one was thankful for Arthur at their Thanksgiving dinner.
  • Prior to that, Dexter convincing Deb to come over for dinner, and Deb inviting Masuka, who was at work alone on a family holiday.
• Debra is investigating the CIs Harry was sleeping with and one of them was Dexter's mother. Dexter tries to dispose off all the details in his mother's file via a shredder but pulls her photo just before it’s shredded because he won't let her get "cut up" again.
• Deb telling Dexter he's been the one consistently good thing in her life in the season four finale.
• Dexter punching Elliot in the face after he found out he kissed Rita. It just seems so out of character for him, which really shows how much he cares about her.

Season Five

• Harry's So Proud of You after Dexter's beats up Olivia's stepfather, followed by Dexter and Astor mending fences.
  • And Dexter telling Astor that he loved her.
    • 5.9. Period.
• Lumen and Dexter having sex for the first time after Lumen's rape.
• Lumen and Dexter's interaction in general, as they slowly start to develop feelings for each other.
• In the season 5 finale, Lumen smiling for the first time after dumping Jordan's body, having finished her revenge and not feeling her Dark Passenger anymore.

Season Six

• Angel being perfectly okay with Deb being promoted over him, and just being happy for her.
• Dexter's relief at Harrison's appendix being successfully removed, even hugging the doctor.
• After a whole episode of Dexter's dark passenger taking the form of Brian and urging him to kill anyone he feels like, Dexter realizes that he truly doesn't want to, hits the imaginary Brian with his car, and picks up a hitchhiking Harry as he enters Miami. "Welcome home, son."
• In season 6, right before Harrison and Dexter are about to go on stage as the lions from Noah’s ark, Dexter says, ‘We've got an ark to get on, and that boat has room for all the animals. Not just the sheep and the zebras, but the lions too. And Dexter is a lion.’ After you consider the final scene in season 1, in which Dexter actually showed how he longed to fit in and be open, and after his agonising soul-searching throughout season 6, it’s truly heartwarming to see he’s started finding his place. Later, when he kills Travis, he gives a speech, saying ‘Light cannot exist without darkness. Each has its purpose. And if there is a purpose to my darkness maybe it’s to bring some balance to the world. Because, let’s face it, the world is going to be a better place without you.’ If you’ve managed to really relate to Dexter so far, this scene would probably bring you some sweet, sweet catharsis.
• Quinn telling Deb she forced him to take a hard look at himself, which made him a better person.
• A big one where Dexter talks to Brother Sam at Dexter's house. Sam arrives as Dexter puts his son to bed. Sam had also been with and kept Dexter company when his son had been hospitalized with a ruptured appendix. After Dexter's son is asleep they head out front and have a few beers while looking at the ocean. Sam asks Dexter about how he can handle homicide everyday. Dexter tells Sam about the circumstances surrounding his mother's death (one of the VERY few times Dexter has talked to someone about it. After Sam tells Dexter that all he needs is a little bit of light to keep the darkness at bay and says that Dexter's son is that light for Dexter.
• After Dexter stops the gas attack on the station, Debra is thanking him for saving her life and countless other. His response is an unusually sincere, "I'd never let anything happen to you."

Season Seven

• Dexter acting like any addict who wants to recover after Deb discovers his secret. He actually makes himself call her shortly before he was going to give Lewis his usual treatment, asking her to stop him, and she replies that this shows he can change.
• In the season finale, when Dexter is arrested, Angel never stops defending him from the time he arrives at the station until the end of his interrogation.

Season Eight

• Deb and Dexter finally reconcile after she tries to kill them both. Just before Dexter leaves, they share a hug. And in the series finale, she pleads with Dexter not to blame himself. Of course, he still does, and is responsible for what happened to her, and it ends on a sour note, but considering that almost all of the past season involved them butting heads, it's touching, if sappy.