Sorry if this is an annoying question, but I personally don’t see the incest between Dexter and Harrison.
Would it be okay to ask if you can kinda pin point moments that are incestual?
I guess I can see the emotional incest? But I can’t see Dexter being “in love” with Harrison imo, so I’m just curious if I’m letting things go over my head lol
Not annoying to me at all! I enjoy talking about Dexter and every element of the show! We all can have our opinions and interpretations and that is okay! - for shipping - I however genuinely 100% believe that the dynamic between Dexter and Harrison is abusive and inappropriate. It is emotional/covert incest 1000% (ill pull this card… i am a victim of covert incest and i can realllly relate and clock this type of behavior…)
This topic is a reallllllly big one and i love to yap and yap so i have a project where i will be writing a paper on their inappropriate dynamic - starting with with canon emotional incest and then dive into the romantic and sexual interpretations.
I will give you a couple of examples that I first think of for both examples.
Emotional/covert incest:
Learn what covert incest (emotional incest) is, how it relates to enmeshment and parentification, common signs, and how mental health care c
1:
I’m not going to go into why or how Dexter groomed Harrison in New Blood in this post, i will just say he did,,, because well: he did.
The first example of emotional incest is in NB 1x02 with the first moment he has alone after bringing harrison back home. -> i need my son emotionally so i do not kill (use) again. He is DEPENDING his mental stability and sobriety onto his son that… he barely knows - and already abused - abandonment is abuse! We as the audience are able to be more sympathetic towards Dexter with his decision because we know that he is right: he gets everyone he loves killed and he thinks that this is the form of love he can provide to keep him safe… but.. Is still abusive and still fucked Harrison up dramatically.
This level of dependency is text book emotional incest and it’s the first thought he has about him being back in his life. Toxic.
(there is also an over arching theme and point that what Dexter is doing to Harrison is in fact child abuse and HE IS AWARE OF IT. Dexter as a show does not operate Dexter’s hallucinations as schizophrenia, they explicitly call him his subconscious and the writers say that they are Dexter's buried thoughts…. So everything Debra tells him throughout New Blood is Dexter knowing what he is doing is WRONG. I’ll bring this up back later.)
2:
The next biggest example that sticks out to me is the RES 1x05 conversation at the end of the episode where Dexter is begging for Harrison back into his life… in a very manipulative and gross way imo.
Harrison has an issue with the fact that Dexter is responsible for so many innocent people dying,,, especially Logan in New Blood where he literally kills him because of it ( well one element but ahh i digress ). Harrison has a very strong moral compass and says to Dexter that he is not like him and that is why he needs Harrison. To check him. To make sure he doesn’t stray far off of the path of sanity and morality. -> Dexter is saying that he has the potential to kill innocent people again IF HARRISON DOESN’T COME BACK INTO HIS LIFE. That is placing so much pressure onto Harrison -> who is also ISOLATED. This is dependency, manipulative emotional incest.
You’re my reason to live. I need you. You’re all I have. -> these are phenomenal narrative and dramatic dialogue for stories and really shows the weight of Dexter’s life and where he is at and why he is even alive and why we are doing resurrection in the first place. BUT this is the craziest shit to tell someone IRL. He is DESPERATE. This is emotional incest!!! He is basically saying here that he will try to kill himself again if Harrison doesn’t come back into his life because he has no other reason or purpose to carry on. And also with the threat looming over that Dexter will just go back to stalking him and interfering with his life: granted in this episode where he intervened was positive and pushed his agenda further.
Sexual/Romantic Incest -
I will say- interpretation is subjective and we all can view a scene in different ways; however the examples I'm presenting are piecing together canonical moments and parallels vs thinking a look is romantic or sexual..
1:
I’m going to establish here that: in the Dexter universe lust killing is a very very censored topic, unfortunately. BUT MURDER = SEX - another topic i could go on for hours about but - it is very highlighted in the RES 1x05 episode ; MURDER HORNY.
We see Dexter get into Prater’s club in RES 1x04 and only have eyes for Mia -> his attention only peaks when they mention that she kills SEXUAL PREDATORS. = has a code… but… we established from the first episode that he is very… very excited over the fact that Harrison killed a person who: was a sexual predator. -> this is also an example of extreme desperation because he describes this as following the code when,,, it does not.
They compare Mia and Harrison throughout the episode and they hold the same spot in his life…
Dexter is ride sharing and is hosting a couple behind him, and his first thought is his son, they couple then proceeds to kiss. And says this:
Dexter is upset with the fact that Harrison does not want him in his life and then copes by trying to fill that void by asking out a woman, who reminds him of Harrison, out on a date.
-> rejection of Harrison -> projection onto Mia ->flirting and feeling a deeper connection because they can bond with being who they truly are. Which he thought he was granted and was able to have with Harrison in New Blood. Direct parallel with a love interest. And this is not the first time Harrison is directly Paralleled to a love interest. Him and Lumen and practically carbon copies of each other, not only in personality and what they have been through - being a runaway - but they have 1:1 scenes with the same dialogue.
Here are edits where i showcase this:
So establishing that Dexter is projecting his desires of wanting a relationship with his son - onto Mia.. this is not just oh hah this could be read this way -> they then explicitly say it.
Mia was never the answer. Harrison is. Your desire to connect with a person you wanted to fuck was misplaced because you actually desire your son.(they explicitly have a scene in RES 1x04 they show his desire to get into the shower with her but denys himself to replace it with killing, murder = sex yayayay) Then- right after that- Dexter says that them stalking for a person to kill together would be romantic - IF IT WAS HUNTING A BAD PERSON. Which the last person he did this with and in the way he desires was WITH HARRISON. HIS SON. Then Mia describes the desire to murder as being horny. -
I can also dive deep into how every single side character in the Dexter show is just a showcase of what Dexter is thinking or going through - that he relates to this person and they say that murder is like sex to them… Dexter gets aroused and horny for sex. This then highlights every single interaction between Dexter and Harrison’s violence in New Blood as him being turned on. The end of NB 1x04 is a phenomenal example of him being aroused and excited. He sees directly his son’s murder weapon (i can insert an interpretation here too, that a serial killer kissing the weapon of choice of another killer is very,,, romantic.) and face to face with the fact Harrison is just like him and that he is no longer lonely anymore - not even angela his sexual partner could fill that void for him -> and then kisses this symbolic object of Harrison, closing his eyes and picturing him. Picturing being happy with him that he can now kill with him.
This also happens in a way in RES 1x05 in the harrison is the answer scene, he is looking longingly at Harrison’s first trophy and thinking of Harrison, thinking of his desires thinking of his violence thinking of how he is a better person than Mia, and then immediately compares what they did to kurt as - ROMANCE.
Honorable mention of Dexter knowing what he is doing despite being desperate: NB 1x01 - NB 1x09 - NB 1x05 - NB 1x09
Fucking gross. -> we can dive into the narrative and interpretation deeper with murder = sex by getting rid of murder in the narrative completely. What is left? The very realistic cycle of sexual abuse. That Dexter was sexually abused by Harry and what he views as a relationship with his son is clouded and tainted by how that trauma rewired his brain. Because, in this show we are diving into the idea of Murder being the replacement of drugs and sex. That it is an addiction or a tool for abuse. We do this all the time! How we can relate to Dexter's trauma and hiding and repression for queer identities yayaya etc etc etc… this is the area where interpretation lives but i do think if you would like to engage in pieces of media past what they spoon feed you then you should at least consider and think about this idea deeper! It is very fun to do and you discover new connections: I have gained a deeper appreciation for the show and characters by doing this.
More food for thought: NB 1x10 his last internal monologue:
Now i interpret this as : I have never felt love from another person where they offer me and give me what i truly desire = DEATH. Michael talks about this in a podcast too: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2BcXxbIpB4k1OiGW2yQwM9?si=976c3f0129f5412f
However: its fun to interpret as he has never felt genuine romantic love until his son :)
Dexter and Harrison’s dynamic is without a doubt emotional/covert incest (as you could also argue some of my romantic points are just also, emotional/covert incest without the arsoual interpretation) - It all comes down to how you think Dexter is internalizing this relationship.
I didn’t include the visuals of how.. He looks at harrison… there are cases where he looks him up and down and looks down (NB 1x04 after Harrison makes the shake) at his lips (NB 1x09 in the truck, RES 1x07 before talking about love) and has lingering touches on his waist.. (NB 1x10 hug in police station) rewarding Harrison wanting to kill Kurt by kissing him on the forehead and cradling his face in nb 1x09-There's more yayaya but— if you’d like to see how I piece together these narratives into a romantic and sexual light I recommend checking out my edits on youtube!
Canon no manipulation edits i recommend to enjoy their story -
https://youtu.be/4jTfwR0h7yE
https://youtu.be/Ak3v8iZ1C2Y
https://youtu.be/_Mcn3u9Qmvk
https://youtu.be/8nIrD0W5PKo
https://youtu.be/rbfxEUyNeB8
Here are some that i manipulated heavily for a sexual narrative -
https://youtu.be/xl93Q0a6MN4
https://youtu.be/afWSYG4KXoI
https://youtu.be/hiRk1Kfk8TI
https://youtu.be/OZChN_VCrU0
I have a lot of dexson edits! Here is the playlist where i have most of them uploaded ATM : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs4b0KYx8zs2nNpfkBZaiSETLvZ1YrsFx
Thank you for the ask! If you have any points in you’d like me to dive deeper into or you have general questions about do not be afraid to shoot me another ask!
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