Jeremy Downs is a character in Season One of Showtime's series DEXTER.
He was a young man responsible for the death of another boy when he was fifteen and after his release, Dexter Morgan investigates if he still possesses the instinct of a killer.
Background
At the age of 15 Jeremy was raped by another boy, fueling a desire for revenge. He later led that boy to the pond within a South Miami park under the pretense of watching alligators. It's here where he killed the boy brutally with a knife and robbed him, entering custody shortly thereafter. He was convicted of manslaughter due to the coroner's report that the knife strokes appeared random and impulsive, serving four years in the Dade County Youth Correction Facility. Dexter began tracking the boy when he observed the report, noticing that too many of the knife strokes targeted major arteries including the femoral, brachial and carotid. Unbeknownst to Dexter that the murder was similar to what he himself does, he marked his calendar waiting for Jeremy's release intending to add him to his table.
Summary
Jeremy, now 19 years old, was released after serving his sentence proceeding into a Homestead Halfway House. Dexter is there to witness his release and later hunts him down at a marketplace, observing as he inspects a knife vendor's wares. After paying the man for a blade and while he's retrieving change for it, Jeremy enters a stance and starts slashing it around in the air. He nearly comes in contact with Dexter who catches his hand and the vendor chastises him as he returns the change along with a sheath for the blade. Jeremy leaves the scene while Dexter ponders about his own youth, relating it to his target.
A short time later as Dexter is staking the halfway house Jeremy and another boy named Lucas exit the building heading off towards a nearby swamp under the pretense that they would be watching alligators. Dexter believes he intends to recreate his first kill and follows the two keeping a distance as Lucas becomes increasingly more concerned for his safety. When it becomes apparent that he can't see the alligator Jeremy claims is in the area, Lucas turns his attention to Jeremy who reaches for his knife. Dexter interrupts the boys, who both panic and flee the area while Dexter ends up encountering an alligator who wasn't too far from their location stumbling towards his own safety. When Dexter returns to his car, he finds the window smashed and his wallet missing.
Later that night Jeremy is alone in the halfway house playing on an arcade cabinet when Dexter shuts off the lights and attacks Jeremy. While being pressed against a pillar face first, Jeremy threatens to kill Dexter like "the last guy" who raped him, implying that his first murder was actually self-defense. When Dexter asks why he never told the police about it, Jeremy implies that he was too ashamed. Dexter quickly changes his own story to being that he followed Jeremy just to get his wallet back. Before leaving, Dexter warns him that while his first victim may have deserved to die, the boy Jeremy almost attacked in the swamp didn't, and encourages him to only kill those who deserve to die.
Weeks later, another body is found matching the wounds of Jeremy's first victim, leading Dexter to believe that Jeremy had not taken his advice. When he attempts to track Jeremy down, he discovers that he sells sexual favours to random men in a nearby park. Dexter goes to the park and attempts to confront Jeremy again, but Sergeant James Doakes arrives and arrests Jeremy instead. While he is detained, Dexter talks to Jeremy, who reveals to Dexter that he kills because he is trying desperately to feel something and feels "empty" all the time, just like Dexter. Dexter is sympathetic to Jeremy after this and feels he may have a connection to him. He later visits Jeremy in prison, feeling that he is the only one who can understand him, and vice-versa, but finds Jeremy had taken his advice and killed someone who, in his own mind, deserved to die: himself.
Victims
- Unnamed Classmate - stabbed multiple times slashing several arteries
- School Yearbook Editor
- Jeremy Downs - suicide, made in style of previous murders.
Attempted Victim
- Lucas - prevented by Dexter interrupting the act.
Trivia
- Jeremy is the first killer that compromises Dexter's safety by breaking into his vehicle and stealing his wallet. This action is later rectified when Dexter gets the wallet back.
- He is the first killer Dexter chooses to spare in the series (outside an impulsive desire to kill Carlos Guerrero in "Crocodile"). Dexter feels that due to the circumstances where Jeremy killed someone who deserved to die that they were the same, giving him this chance to make the right choices.
- He is also the first non-main antagonist killer to appear in multiple episodes.
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