Harry Morgan (Dexter)
| Harry Morgan | |
|---|---|
| Dexter character | |
 |
|
| First appearance |
Book Series: Darkly Dreaming Dexter TV Series: "Dexter" Pilot episode: Dexter |
| Last appearance |
Television: "Monkey in a Box" (episode 8.11) |
| Created by | Jeff Lindsay |
| Portrayed by | James Remar |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Police officer |
| Spouse(s) | Doris Morgan (deceased) |
| Children |
Debra Morgan (daughter; deceased) Dexter Morgan (son, adopted) |
| Nationality | American |
Detective Harrison "Harry" Morgan is a fictional character in the Showtime television series Dexter and the novels by Jeff Lindsay upon which it is based. In the television series he is portrayed by James Remar. Harry is Dexter Morgan's adoptive father, now deceased. For the first two seasons of the series he appeared only in flashbacks to Dexter's childhood, having died 10 years prior to the start of the series. From season three onward, the dramatic device of flashbacks was replaced with Harry appearing to Dexter as a "ghost" who comments on and gives advice on all the problems his son faces throughout the series.
Harry Morgan is a detective and highly respected member of the Miami Police Department, and a close friend of his immediate superior Lieutenant Tom Matthews. In the course of a high-stakes drug case, Harry begins an illicit relationship with Laura Moser, Dexter's biological mother, to gather information and evidence on the drug lords in question. The drug dealers eventually find out she is informing on them, and make an example of her; they brutally murder her and three others with chainsaws in a shipping container. Her sons Brian and Dexter are left in the container for several days, sitting in two inches of blood, until Harry and a police team rescue them. Harry adopts Dexter, while Brian is sent into foster care; Harry believes that the older Brian is permanently traumatized by the event and is "unsalvageable", but that Dexter is still young enough to be "saved". When Dexter is a teenager, Harry discovers that he has been killing neighborhood pets, and realizes that the boy has an innate need to kill.
At first, Harry attempts to manage Dexter's violent urges by only allowing him to kill animals, but he eventually comes to the conclusion that Dexter's pathology cannot be repressed, only controlled. Harry decides to train the boy as a vigilante, to hunt and kill murderers without leaving any clues. Dexter prizes these lessons as a means to satisfy his homicidal urges with his father's approval, dubbing them the "Code of Harry". Harry's relationship with his biological daughter Debra, meanwhile, is more complicated; she craves her father's approval, but feels that he favors Dexter. (Harry keeps her in the dark about Dexter's "training".)
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