The Dark Defender

List of Dexter episodes

"The Dark Defender" is the fifth episode of the second season of the American television drama series Dexter, which first aired on October 28, 2007 on Showtime in the United States. The episode was written by Timothy Schlattmann and was directed by Keith Gordon. In the episode, Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) investigates a crime scene in a comic book store where he sees a poster of The Dark Defender, a character inspired by Dexter's own crimes under the guise of the "Bay Harbor Butcher", who is currently under investigation in his own police department. After he dreams that The Dark Defender saved his mother's life when he was young, Dexter's Narcotics Anonymous sponsor Lila Tournay (Jaime Murray) encourages him to seek closure by confronting one of his mother's killers, Santos Jimenez (Tony Amendola). Meanwhile, Dexter's sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) suspects that her new boyfriend Gabriel (Dave Baez) is using her to write a book about her engagement to the first season's "Ice Truck Killer".

Schlattmann was inspired to set the homicide case in a comic book store when he realized that an Aquaman snow globe on his desk "could easily be a murder weapon". When he visited comic book artist Tone Rodriguez to draw and render the poster of The Dark Defender, comic book writer Dan Wickline was also at Rodriguez's studio, and so Schlattmann arranged for the two to have cameo appearances in the episode. The episode was filmed in Los Angeles, California though set in Miami, Florida. "The Dark Defender" was praised by critics and Schlattmann was nominated for Writers Guild of America Award for his script. The episode was also submitted as Dexter's sample episode to determine the nominees for Outstanding Drama Series at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards; though nominated, the series didn't win.