50 pages • 1 hour read
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
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Chapters 15-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence and blood.
Dexter is dismembering his killer’s body when he hears the crackle of a radio. There is a security guard whom he failed to notice, and the man is approaching Dexter’s kill site. Dexter flies into a panic, silently cursing himself for going back on his code for this kill: He was unprepared, creating too large of a blood pool because he hadn’t properly cased the area. He never kills so sloppily, and now he worries this carelessness will get him caught. He flies down the stairs, jumps into his car, and flees. He hopes the guard didn’t take note of his license plate, but there is no way to be sure. He is supposed to meet Rita, so he disposes of his tools, cleans up, and heads to her house. Though he expected her to break up with him, she initiates sex instead. He’s not sure why she’s decided that she’s ready, but he goes along with it.
Chapter 16 Summary
Dexter recalls Harry’s death. Harry died when Dexter was 19 and Deb was 17. Dexter was a sophomore at the University of Miami, and Harry gave him copious instructions about how to “blend in” and appear normal to his fellow students. Harry died in hospice after a long illness. One afternoon before his death, Dexter recognized a “Dark Passenger” in Harry’s nurse. With difficulty, Harry explained that the nurse killed patients by overdosing them with morphine and asked Dexter to “stop her” from doing so again. Dexter, happy to indulge his dark impulses, killed her.
Chapter 17 Summary
Dexter often recalls Harry’s nurse. Killing her was the first time he gave in to his Dark Passenger, and Harry sanctioned her death. Dexter reflects on her as he peruses his collection of glass slides; each slide contains one drop of blood from each kill. Suddenly, he realizes he did not collect a slide from his most recent kill. He is filled with anger and frustration. The slides are a critical part of the experience for him. Without a slide, the kill might as well not have happened. He wonders how best to channel his vexation.
The paper arrives, and his kill is splashed all over the front page. The press openly questions whether LaGuerta arrested the right man in the serial killings, but she quickly points out that this new kill does not match the slasher’s pattern. Dexter heads to work, where Vince Masuoka fills him in on the details of the crime scene. LaGuerta stops by his desk and notes his “knack” for analyzing serial killings. She asks him to review the scene and tell her what his instincts say
Chapter 18 Summary
Dexter contemplates LaGuerta’s assertion that he has an instinct for serial homicides. That might spell trouble for him, and it certainly explains why Doakes dislikes and mistrusts him. Dexter wonders if he can somehow use this opportunity to help his sister, perhaps by preparing a report on the crime scene that resuscitates Deb’s theories. After reviewing everything and talking to Deb, Dexter tells LaGuerta there is no way this new killing was committed by their serial murderer. From this, LaGuerta deduces that she has the right guy behind bars. Dexter is sure that the real slasher will strike again and that LaGuerta, having assured the public that Daryll McHale is the slasher, will look like a bad cop. After he gives LaGuerta his findings, she feels him up and tries to kiss him. Not knowing what to do, he says he has somewhere to be and runs from her office.
Chapter 19 Summary
Dexter wakes in a panic from yet another unsettling dream about three lifeless bodies. Deb calls, shaking him from his reverie. She reports that the slasher has struck again. She’s at a crime scene out on the Tamiami Trail, like the others. This time there are three victims, which alarms Dexter. Remembering his dream, he wonders if he is somehow in tune with the slasher. He heads to the crime scene, where he only becomes more upset. The slasher left three dismembered bodies. One’s mouth contains the rearview mirror from a car, one’s head has its ears affixed to its skull with what appear to be drywall screws, and one’s head is placed atop the body of a Barbie doll. Dexter knows these bodies refer to the arena killing, the doll in his freezer, and his own recent crime scene. He wonders if he is somehow behind the killings, if his dreams are real. He has to take a moment to collect his thoughts and breathe, but Doakes interrupts him. In Doakes’s cold eyes, Dexter sees his own reflection. He sees recognition. He wonders if Doakes is a killer and, if so, whether he has recognized Dexter as one of his own kind.
Chapter 20 Summary
The latest crime scene fills Dexter with awe and delight. He is fascinated by the tableau of human heads and notes the absence of neatly wrapped body parts. The slasher is indeed evolving. LaGuerta has invited several members of the press, off the record, to the scene. She hopes to prove this is a new murderer and reassure the public that she arrested the real serial killer. Furious, Captain Matthews loudly says that if she continues to break protocol, she’ll be off the case. Deb pulls Dexter aside to ask for his help. She is concerned that the department is so concerned with proving they haven’t arrested the wrong man that no one will be doing “real” police work. The two discuss the patterns of the case so far, and Dexter realizes the slasher will stage another killing in an arena to show he is still on the loose.
Chapter 21 Summary
Dexter and Deb return to the ice arena, hoping to find the missing body parts from their other crime scene or at least some evidence that the serial killer has struck again. The security guard is hesitant to let them in, but when they suggest there might be a stack of body parts on the ice, he relents. At first look, they don’t find anything unusual. However, Dexter hears the laughter of his Dark Passenger and knows that something is there. When the security guard enters one of the arena’s closets and begins screaming, he is sure he is right.
Chapters 15-21 Analysis
This section opens with the conclusion of Dexter’s latest kill. He is interrupted by a security guard and unable to clean up as carefully as usual. The Importance of Moral and Behavioral Codes is a key aspect of Dexter’s work as a serial killer, and he adheres to Harry’s strict guidelines not just to honor Harry but also to avoid being caught. When he is forced to flee the kill site, this scene becomes one of Dexter’s few true moments of panic in the novel. He is typically calm and relaxed because he lacks the full range of human emotions that cause stress, anger, and anxiety. Here, however, self-preservation kicks in.
Dexter knows he left behind a mountain of evidence. He is furious with himself because in breaking Harry’s code, he has put himself at risk of being targeted by the police, which worries him. Abandoning the kill site before completing his work also leaves him unfulfilled. He notes, “I hate to rush the conclusion. It’s such an important moment for both of us, the Dark Passenger and I” (150). Though Dexter imagines himself a vigilante, if a monstrous one, the act of killing slakes a dark thirst within. For him, killing is a ritual, and he savors every stage, including the cleanup and disposal, which mark the ritual complete. His resentment at being interrupted shows that his desire to kill is not wholly selfless. It doesn’t just soothe the Dark Passenger; it soothes Dexter too.
These chapters also flash back to Harry’s death, providing key context for his beliefs in Vigilante Justice and the Nature of Good and Evil. Harry died in hospice after a long illness, and it was in his final moments of life that he officially sanctioned Dexter’s career as a vigilante. Dexter could sense the nurse’s homicidal impulses because he has them too. He can recognize evil in other people and tells Harry that she kills her patients with morphine overdoses. When he asks his dying father what he should do, Harry replies, “Stop her” (163). The scene frames the nurse as a criminal who commits evil acts and Dexter as a harbinger of justice, a vigilante for good.
Dexter’s dreams become increasingly important, both foreshadowing the novel’s conclusion and heightening the atmosphere of suspense. Dexter, who does not typically dream, is plagued by dreams about the Tamiami Slasher’s kills that contain details only a witness would know. Dexter worries that he is somehow committing these crimes in his sleep; he does, on occasion, sleepwalk. The narrative never explicitly states that Dexter is not the slasher, leaving readers to ponder his potential culpability too.
Dexter’s colleagues also begin to treat him with growing suspicion, creating further narrative tension. Here, the suspense centers around the possibility of Dexter being arrested for the slasher’s crimes, thereby ridding Miami of one of its most active vigilantes. Because the author has portrayed Dexter in a sympathetic light, this prospect sparks anxiety. Dexter notes one officer in particular, Doakes, who has always suspected him of being someone other than who he claims to be. Doakes is a flat character; readers know little about him besides his deep mistrust of Dexter. However, because Doakes is friendly with LaGuerta, it seems probable that Doakes could share his suspicions with LaGuerta, and she would listen.
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