TV Romances
A Date With Death: 8 of Dexter’s Love Interests, Ranked
Dexter Morgan doesn’t know how to love. He’s been upfront about that little fact, at least through his inner monologue, since audiences first met the forensic investigator and serial killer in 2006.
Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is a do-good vigilante killer who cleans up after the police by killing the criminals who fall through the cracks or evade arrest. But even he needs love, or rather, he learned over time that if he is to keep up appearances and conceal his Dark Passenger (aka his insatiable urge to kill), then he needs to be normal.
Finding love is one of the most normal human acts, and it’s forced Dexter to open himself up to partnership and companionship to various degrees over the course of the original series (2006-2013), the revival Dexter: New Blood (2021) and the New York City-set continuation series Dexter: Resurrection (now streaming on Paramount+). Fans even met young Dexter in the prequel series, Dexter: Original Sin, earlier this year, during which he pondered his first attempts at love.
But across the Dexter universe, which of the women who came into Dexter’s life left a mark — and not the kind he usually leaves? Here are a few of Dexter’s love interests, ranked from worst to best. However, by the nature of the series, everyone on this list (except for two) is dead due to murder or natural causes, so don’t get too attached.
Dexter: Resurrection, Season 1, Fridays, Paramount+
8. Deb Morgan
Love interest is a loose term here, but the sheer insanity of this storyline must be acknowledged. There was always something a little icky about Dexter’s relationship with his sister, Debra (Jennifer Carpenter). It was certainly colored by the fact that Hall and Carpenter were married off-screen while they were playing siblings. But to be fair, they weren’t blood-related onscreen, as Dexter was adopted by Harry Morgan (James Remar) after he got his mother killed by a drug lord. Yet, the Season 6 twist that Deb is in love with Dexter (a realization she discovered through therapy) was just silly. It proved the show needed to put down the knife and take a long, hard look at its choices.
7. Cassie Jollenston
Did you remember that Bethany Joy Lenz played a fleeting love interest of Dexter’s in Season 8? We didn’t either, but that’s because Cassie wasn’t around long. As Dexter’s next door neighbor and friend of his kids’ nanny, Cassie was a brief glimpse at what a real, boring relationship might look like for the single father. But Dexter didn’t pursue the relationship, sending her into the arms of Oliver Saxton (Darri Ingólfsson), himself a serial killer. After Oliver murders Cassie, Dexter feels guilty for pushing her away. But that’s kind of his MO, so who was shocked?
6. Angela Bishop
When it comes to ranking best or worst, that is subjective for Dexter. In the case of Angela (Julia Jones), the Iron Lake police chief in New Blood, she was such a capable and principled addition to the cast (a breath of fresh air compared to the Miami police who repeatedly fumbled investigations). We would put her in the best category for that reason alone. However, she became one of the most ill-suited love interests for Dexter because she wasn’t moved or lenient when she learned his bloodthirsty means of handling his darkness. She was ready to ship him back to Miami to be tried for his Bay Harbor Butcher crimes, but the fallout of New Blood ultimately left her no choice but to let Dexter go. In the end, law and order have no place in Dexter’s life, and neither did Angela.
5. Lady Vengeance
The newest addition to Dexter’s little black book is another flirtation more than a real relationship, but it was nevertheless thrilling to watch Hall succumb to the twisted temptation with fellow killer Mia LaPierre (Krysten Ritter), aka Lady Vengeance. Dexter initially believes he has found a kindred soul in the woman best known for killing sexual predators. But when the two meet up to explore their shared passion and maybe the burning embers of a new one, he quickly learns her rules aren’t as resolute as his. Sure, she kills the worst of the worst, but she has no problem killing the random bystander just for the hell of it. When Dexter realizes this, he cuts ties with any feelings he has for her and feeds her to the police, setting in motion a chain of events that will end with her hanging in a jail cell.
4. Lila West
After meeting in Narcotics Anonymous, Lila West (Jaime Murray) was the first real romantic threat to the life Dexter was building for himself. To be fair, he got himself into this mess when he began an affair with her. But Lila’s volatile nature (she loved setting a fire!) cancelled out what he initially found captivating about her, which was an acceptance of or at least an intrigue in his darker tendencies. By the time he put a knife in her heart, this relationship was in desperate need of damage control. But it was fun to watch the roller coaster go off the rails.
3. Hannah McKay
The later seasons of Dexter are hit or miss for most fans, but there is no denying that when Dexter got murderer Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) on his table, only to cut her loose and have sex with her in what was essentially his sanctuary, was a turning point. Hannah and Dexter were on again, off again for the final seasons of the OG series, but the reason she ranks so high is because he came to trust her enough to leave Harrison with her at the end of Season 8 (you know, when he entered his lumberjack phase). Hannah remains one of the only people to survive Dexter’s table in such spectacular fashion, and Strahovski made her a great co-conspirator when they were together.
2. Lumen Pierce
Lumen Pierce (Julia Stiles) is, perhaps, the only character Dexter would consider the love of his life. But as with anything involving Dexter, it was a relationship baptized in blood. He first met Lumen under the worst circumstances. She’d been kidnapped, raped and nearly killed by the Barrel Girl Gang. With Dexter as her mentor, Lumen learned how to seek revenge on those who nearly destroyed her life. In doing so, Dexter opened up his life, his heart, and his Dark Passenger to someone for the first and really only time in his life. Stiles was incredible in the role, making her kind-hearted rebuke of Dexter in the Season 5 finale (after she completes her revenge) sting even more because she left a void in the series.
1. Rita Morgan
Some fans may take issue with Rita sitting atop this list, but no one altered the trajectory of Dexter’s life — or the series as a whole — more than his wife, Rita (Julie Benz). Her own tragic background made Rita the perfect girlfriend for Dexter because she kept him at a safe distance, where he preferred to be. But in time, they softened to each other in equal measure. They had their own son, Harrison (played by Jack Alcott in New Blood and Resurrection), and Dexter came to be a real father to her sons, Cody and Astor. But for all the reasons why Rita and Dexter were the best for each other (if you forget the murder and everything), she made her greatest contribution to his life when she died at the hands of the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow). It reminded Dexter how much he had to lose in life, having spent most of it building the bare minimum to pass as your average guy. Thanks to Rita, he built a life, and he had reasons to protect it. Her sacrifice (without her consent, of course) has propelled every good, bad, and bloody thing Dexter has done since. There’s a reason why Trinity still haunts Dexter. He stole the one thing Dexter didn’t know he needed.
