Dark Passenger
The insatiable inner voice that demands blood and drives the Bay Harbor Butcher.
The Dark Passenger is the name Dexter Morgan gives to the internal force that drives his compulsion to kill. In the 2007 novel Dexter in the Dark, Dexter begins to question the Dark Passenger, slowly realizing that it is a true entity unto itself, possibly an offspring of the ancient god Moloch. The Dark Passenger had given Dexter an unusual amount of confidence and an almost supernatural awareness of the world around him. When something about a double homicide at the UM campus frightens the Dark Passenger into silence, Dexter is left to solve the crime on his own, feeling vulnerable for the first time in his life.
Without it, he begins to develop sadness and anger, emotions that were once suppressed by the Dark Passenger. At his wedding to Rita Bennett, Dexter falls into a state of depression, thinking about how painful his life is going to be in its banality—until the Dark Passenger returns, brought on by his immense suffering, and Dexter is made whole again in the final paragraphs of the novel.
Quick Facts
- Character
- Dexter Morgan
Lore & Background
In Dexter in the Dark, the Dark Passenger is portrayed as more than a mere psychological urge. The novel is the first in the series to explore supernatural elements, and it reveals that the Dark Passenger may be an offspring of the ancient god Moloch. A mythical, godlike entity called 'IT' (revealed to be Moloch) has existed since the beginning of time and is similar in various ways to the Dark Passenger. IT takes great pleasure in entering creatures as a 'passenger' and making them kill other creatures, and it works to create other murderous entities similar to itself.
Some of IT's remaining children stay in hiding, fearing IT's power. In the novel Dexter in the Dark the Dark Passenger briefly leaves him during the investigation of two female students found burned and beheaded on the UM campus, frightening him into researching where it comes from. The cult that stalks Dexter believes his Dark Passenger to be a threat to them. While attempting to dispatch a killer who had been stalking him, Dexter becomes frightened and is unable to go through with the deed without the Dark Passenger's confidence and supernatural awareness.
Reader's Guide
The process begins with selection, guided strictly by Harry's Code: only those who have already killed and evaded justice are fair game. He wears gloves and works in plastic-wrapped "kill rooms". His trophy is a small blood sample, taken with a scalpel cut to the victim's right cheek and preserved on a microscope slide.
More in The Code & Tools of the Trade
Elsewhere in Dexter
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