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Flashbacks

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List of Flashbacks

List of Flashbacks

In the Showtime series DEXTER. flashbacks mostly inform viewers about Dexter Morgan's origins as a serial killer, his early exploits, and how situations are affected by past events. In some cases other characters have flashbacks to traumatic or important events in their life.

As a narrative device flashbacks are mostly a visual medium device, as visual difference between past and present is more apparent when shown rather than written. Unlike video footage flashbacks are highly subjective and unreliable which explains some inconsistencies in continuity, such as age of the characters.

In psychology flashbacks are a term strongly associated with traumatic events: reliving the moment of a trauma as if you're experiencing it in the moment.

Most flashbacks are from the perspective of Dexter Morgan, unless specified otherwise.

TV Series Continuity[]

Season One[]

  • Main timeframe: September-December 2006
  • Number of flashbacks: 42 (39 previously unseen)
  • "Dexter" (4 flashbacks)
    • While on the family boat, Harry talks to Dexter about a dog named Buddy, who had gone missing from their neighbor's house. Harry mentions that he found the grave and Dexter says that he did it for his mother since she was sick, and the dog's barking was not letting her sleep, Harry replied that there were more than just Buddy's bones in the grave. (Mid-1970's)
      DexterYoungHarry1
    • Continuing the conversation, Harry uncovers that a young Dexter already wants to kill a human being but keeps himself from doing that in order not to upset his foster parents. (Mid-1970's)
    • Dexter briefly remembers a typical pizza night with Rita. (2005-2006)
    • As teenage Dexter works on his skateboard, Harry comes in with the set of bloodied knives he found. After confronting Dexter, Harry discovers that he relapsed into killing animals. Harry proclaims that they will channel Dexter's urges by killing criminals who escaped justice. (1980's)
  • "Crocodile" (2 flashbacks)
    • On a rainy evening Harry Morgan and Dexter are in Harry's car as they're outside a crime scene. A crucial element of Code of Harry is born.
    • Harry rehearses eulogy for the funeral of Davey Sanchez, showing Dexter the importance of funeral ceremonies. (1980's)
  • "Popping Cherry" (6 flashbacks)
    • While they were preparing to hunt pheasants, teenage Dexter asked Harry if he had ever killed a person, and what it felt like to do so. After a short discussion on the topic, Harry decided they would hunt something bigger than a pheasant that day. (1980's)
    • Later, Dexter watched Harry shoot a deer, but it remained alive. Harry then pulled out a knife, saying to Dexter, “For now, this is how we’ll control the urges you feel.” Dexter readily took the knife and stabbed the deer. (1980's)
    • Harry is hospitalized with heart disease. Dexter notices the discrepancies with how Nurse Mary treats him with morphine. (1991)
    • Harry is visited by Debra and Dexter. Harry calls a shot on Nurse Mary confirming Dexter's suspicions that she is a serial killer and needs to be stopped. (1991)
    • Dexter commits his first human kill. (1991)
    • Harry gets better and rejoices with Debra and Dexter at his side. (1991)
  • "Let's Give the Boy a Hand (4 flashbacks)
    • At a Petrie Beach Dexter is urged by Harry Morgan to smile for the photographs because it's a way to fit in. (1980's)
    • At a future Office Park Dexter is among the other soccer teammates bullying Simon, but Harry intervenes and explains that police always remembers bullies as potential lawbreakers. (1980's)
    • At McCaffrey Pumpkin Patch Morgans are riding in a hay wagon, with Dexter faking being happy. All three take a photograph with the help of a Grandfather. (1980's)
    • Two weeks before Angel of Mercy Hospital closes, Harry and Dexter have their photo taken together in front of the building, as Harry's Father worked there most of his life. While there, Harry experiences brief heart pain. (1990)
  • "Love American Style" (2 flashbacks)
    • While mowing a lawn, Dexter completely misses the signals Mindy Taylor is sending while asking him to the prom. Harry Morgan intervenes, suggesting that Dexter should take the offer. (1980's)
    • Dexter returns from the prom, giving Harry a brief on how it came down. Harry is proud. (1980's)
  • "Return to Sender" (9 flashbacks)
    • Dexter remembers taking blood trophies from Valerie Castillo and Jorge Castillo. (2006; as seen in "Love American Style")
    • Dexter then remembers disposing of Valerie's body. (2006; as seen in "Love American Style")
    • Debra begs Harry to go on a hunting trip with him and Dexter, which he sharply declines, sending her for a swim trip with the Logans. (1980's)
    • Dexter remembers Harry Morgan punishing Debra Morgan for target shooting with his gun. (1980's)
    • Dexter remembers apologizing to Debra for snitching about her target shooting. (1980's)
    • From combination of his memories and Oscar's viewpoint Dexter reconstructs what he probably saw. (2006)
    • On a murder table Alex Timmons confesses to his crimes. (2000's; inconsistent date of 2003 provided in an episode of Early Cuts)
    • On a murder table Gene Marshall asks whether Dexter saw anyone burn alive. (unknown; inconsistent date of 1993 provided in an episode of Early Cuts)
    • Cindy Landon promises Dexter a sexual favor in case she's spared. (2004)
  • "Shrink Wrap" (4 flashbacks)
    • Dexter trains ambush on Harry, who discourages him of thinking about it like a game. (Early 1980's)
    • Joshua bullies Dexter. While the latter walks away, he confesses to a proud Harry that he still wants to kill the bully. (Early 1980's)
    • Dexter approaches Joshua with a box cutter, but gets intercepted by Harry. (Early 1980's)
    • Dexter remember a boy (himself) sitting in blood. (3 October 1973)
  • Father Knows Best (4 flashbacks)
    • A young Dexter and Debra are playing when Harry proudly announces that after many hurdles, he received Dexter's new birth certificate. Deb asks what happened to his real parents and Harry vaguely replies that they died in a tragic accident. However, Dexter does not entirely believe it and eventually questions if that is the truth.
    • Dexter is badly injured while trying to climb a fence. As he's rolled into surgery he overhears Doris Morgan urging Harry Morgan to contact his biological father for a blood donation. (1970's)
    • While recovering Dexter makes a thank you card for his blood donor. Upon learning that his donor is away from Harry, Dexter discards the card. Harry changes his mind and says that he will deliver the card to the donor. (1970's)
    • While Dexter is viewing Joe Driscoll's body at the morgue, he notices a web tattoo on the right elbow. Dexter recalls a memory of him as a young boy sitting in a car with a song "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" playing, staring at the driver's elbow with the same tattoo. He later again thinks of that memory while examining his own thank you card and listening to records. (1972-1973)

Season Two[]

  • Main timeframe: January-Spring 2007
  • Number of flashbacks: 17 (14 previously unseen)
  • "It's Alive!" (3 flashbacks)
    • While arguing over a postponed hunting trip, Dexter nearly shoots Harry Morgan. (1980's)
    • He is then fascinated by Harry's heart palpitations. (1980's)
    • Dexter attempts to feel his own heart palpitations while standing on the roof. Harry thinks that Dexter is trying to commit suicide but Dexter replies that he was only trying to fell alive. (1980's)
  • "See-Through (4 flashbacks)
    • Dexter remembers overhearing Harry Morgan arguing with Doris Morgan about how something is off with him and he needs a psychiatrist. (1980's)
    • Harry instructs Dexter on how to fool a psychiatrist. (1980's)
    • Dexter aces at faking normalcy, fooling the psychiatrist and gets praised by Harriy, albeit accidentally also called a "monster". (1980's)
    • Dexter remembers his usual procedure for picking up rocks at Coral Cove Marina to weight down the body parts in the bags. (2005-2006)
1 Rocks at Coral Cove

Season Three[]

  • Main timeframe: 2008
  • Number of flashbacks: 6 (all previously unseen)
  • "Our Father" (5 flashbacks)
    • Dexter remembers stalking Cal Rooney at the carnival, injecting him with M99, collecting a trophy, beheading him with a cleaver and safely securing a trophy in a second box. (Summer 2008)
  • "The Lion Sleeps Tonight (1 flashback combined with a daydream)
    • In a dream possibly reflecting a real event Harry shows Dexter an MRI scan of a convicted mass murderer, that perfectly matches Dexter's in terms of some of the problematic development. (1980's)

Season Four[]

  • Main timeframe: 2009
  • Number of flashbacks: 7 (1 previously unseen)

Season Five[]

  • Main timeframe: 2009-2010
  • Number of flashbacks: 3 (all previously unseen)
  • "My Bad" (2 flashbacks)
    • Dexter remembers stalking Marcetti while on his first date with Rita. (2005)
    • As Dexter disposes of Marcetti's body, Rita calls him and they decide to date further. (2005)

Season Six[]

  • Main timeframe: 2011
  • Number of flashbacks: 1 (previously unseen)

Season Seven[]

  • Main timeframe: 2011
  • Number of flashbacks: 5 (4 previously unseen)
  • "Are You... ?" (2 flashbacks)
    • Harry forces young Debra to give up her puppy, Banjo, in fear that Dexter would kill it. (1970's)
    • Debra remembers her kidnapping by Brian Moser in specific detail. (2006; as seen in "Born Free").
  • "Surprise, Motherfucker!" (3 flashbacks)
    • Dexter is in his lab working on his cases when Sergeant James Doakes announces himself by saying "Surprise Motherfucker!" while strangely smiling. This marks the first chronological instance in which Doakes uses the catch phrase. As Maria LaGuerta hands Doakes the keyes from her apartment, Doakes notices Dexter nearby and wonders how one remains virtually invisible. (2004)
      DoakesS73
    • Later, Dexter continues to work with Doakes on the Prostitute Killer Investigation. Doakes is puzzled by Dexter's enthusiasm. (2004)
    • An accidental quote from Walter Munro uttered by Dexter makes Doakes especially suspicious of him as Doakes readily cross-checks it with Munro's diary. (2004)

Season Eight[]

  • Main timeframe: 2012
  • Number of flashbacks: 2 (1 previously unseen)
  • Remember the Monsters?
    • Dexter recalls the date that Harrison was born and Deb stating that Dexter would be a "great father" because he had been a "great big brother." (2010)

Dexter: New Blood[]

  • Main timeframe: 2021
  • Number of flashbacks: 24 (10 previously unseen)
  • "Runaway" (1 flashback)
    • Dexter remembers Rita bleeding out in a bathtub. (2009)
  • "The Family Business" (6 flashbacks)
    • Dexter remembers and recounts to Harrison how he stalked, proved guilty, subdued and confronted Wiggles the Clown (stopping short of telling that he killed Wiggles, although himself remembering it). (2000's)
    • Seeing Dexter dismember Kurt Caldwell triggers a flashback to Rita's murder in Harrison again. (2009; as seen in "Skin of Her Teeth")

Dexter Early Cuts[]

  • "Alex Timmons: Chapter 1" (1 flashback)
    • While comparing himself to Alex Timmons, Dexter has a minor flashback from the days in which he and Harry went hunting, and remembers how Harry never let him take his trophies home. (1980's)
  • "Dark Echo: Part One" (1 flashback)
    • Brief reiteration of Harry walking in on Juan Ryness murder. (1992)

Novel Continuity[]

Dexter Comics[]

Dexter and steve
  • Volume 1: Issue 1 (1 flashback)
    • Dexter remembers his first confrontation with Steve Gonzalez and how he almost killed Steve if it wasn't for the janitor of the school stepping in. This situation led Dexter to Mr. Bartlett's office who called Dexter's adoptive father, Harry, to pick him up.

Notes[]

  • Overall, Dexter features 83 flashbacks, of which 69 were not previously seen.
    • Additionally, Dexter: New Blood features 24 flashbacks of which 10 were not previously seen.
    • So far, counting in both series we had 107 flashbacks, of which 93 were not previously seen.
  • Although "Sins of the Father" holds a record for most flashbacks per single episode (11), none of them are original flashbacks, being recycled from previous episodes of Dexter and Dexter: New Blood.
  • As well as being a record holder for featured flashbacks in the original series (9), "Return to Sender" also features the most previously unseen flashbacks in the franchise (7).
  • Dexter's flashback of Maria LaGuerta is from a scene in "It's Alive!" which doesn't feature Dexter himself and is a reaction shot from her dialogue with Esmée Pascal. That makes the use of that particular footage a continuity error.
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