Debra Morgan (spelled Deborah in the novels) is a fictional character created by Jeff Lindsay for his Dexter book series. In Lindsay's novels, she first appeared in Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004) and was featured in every novel in the series. In the television series based on Lindsay's books, she is mainly portrayed by Jennifer Carpenter in Dexter and New Blood, and as a younger version of herself by Molly Brown in Original Sin.
Debra is the adoptive sister of the series' antihero protagonist Dexter Morgan.
Character history
Early life Debra was born to Doris (Kathrin Lautner Middleton) and Harry Morgan (James Remar) on December 7, 1979. She is the sister to Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), whom Harry legally adopted after initially fostering Dexter immediately after rescuing him from the scene of his mother's murder when he was three years old, several years before Debra was born. A tough, foul-mouthed tomboy, she craved her father's attention and envied Dexter for the amount of time Harry spent with him, unaware that Harry was training him to be a vigilante serial killer.
When Debra was a teenager, her mother died of cancer. From then on, she decided to become a homicide detective, like her father, and took Harry's gun to practice shooting. Dexter found out and told Harry, who punished her. Hurt, Debra told Dexter that she wished that Harry had never brought him home. She was immediately remorseful for saying it, however, and apologized.
Debra was devastated when Harry died of an apparently accidental overdose of heart medicationunaware that he in fact committed suicide, unable to live with having trained Dexter to get away with murder. Soon afterward, she joined the Miami-Metro Police Department, where he had worked. She spent three years in patrol and then another two years in vice before being promoted by Captain Tom Matthews (Geoff Pierson) (a friend of her father), becoming a Homicide officer at the start of the first season.
Debra is characterized as smart and capable, yet unsure of herself, and so she relies upon Dexter's seemingly limitless expertise on murderers to solve difficult cases. Initially assigned to Vice, she is desperate to be transferred to Homicide. After Matthews promotes her, she starts to grow self-confident, relying less on Dexter's abilities and more on her own.
Season one Newly promoted to the homicide department, Debra's first case is a series of murders committed by "The Ice Truck Killer", who preys on prostitutes and keeps their dismembered bodies in refrigerated trucks before dumping them on the streets of Miami. She works hard on the case, but her progress is hampered by her own insecurity and her antagonistic relationship with her commanding officer, Lieutenant Maria LaGuerta (Lauren Vélez).
She starts dating, and eventually falls in love with, Rudy Cooper (Christian Camargo); unbeknownst to her, he is actually the Ice Truck Killer, and is only dating her in order to get close to Dexter. At the end of the season, Rudy proposes to her and she accepts. Rudywho is actually Brian Moser, Dexter's biological brotherthen kidnaps her to reveal himself to Dexter. He binds her to a table in the same manner that Dexter kills his victims, while Dexter and Brian discuss her fate. Dexter ultimately saves her life, and reluctantly kills Brian to keep her safe.
Season two Debra is frail at the start of season two, still recovering from her ordeal with the Ice Truck Killer, instinctively attacking a man at a bar after he touches her shoulder. FBI agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) is assigned to the investigation into the Bay Harbor Butcher, and selects Debra, Sergeant Angel Batista (David Zayas), and forensics technician Vince Masuka (C.S. Lee) for his task force. Debra tries to leave the task force, reasoning that she is not a good detective if she could not tell her fiancé was a serial killer. Lundy says her closeness to one is why he chose her, and she agrees to remain on the task force.
Per Lundy's advice, Debra starts dating again and meets Gabriel (Dave Baez), whom she preemptively handcuffs during a sexual encounter out of fear he might try to kill her. Debra looks through Gabriel's email and finds that he has sent a book titled The Ice Princess to publishers, convincing her he is writing a tell-all book on her. After she breaks up with him, Lundy shows her the background check he ran on Gabriel, who turns out to be an aspiring children's author, and Debra surmises that The Ice Princess is a children's book.
Debra unintentionally reveals to Dexter's nemesis Sgt. James Doakes (Erik King) that Dexter is faking his drug addiction, reigniting his pursuit of Dexter, and becomes jealous of Lundy trying to seek Dexter out instead of her. She comes to terms with Lundy's preference before he explains he just wants to get away from Masuka. Debra and Lundy develop a romantic relationship, which ends when he is called away from Miami. She stays in Dexter's house while she deals with the trauma.
Debra is appalled when she finds out that Dexter is cheating on his girlfriend, Rita Bennett (Julie Benz), with his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, Lila Tournay (Jaime Murray), of whom she is immediately suspicious. Debra eventually threatens to have Lila deported upon finding out that she murdered her ex-boyfriend. In the season finale, "The British Invasion", she helps Dexter rescue Rita's two children from a fire that Lila had started.
By the end of the season, she has regained her confidence, and she is more determined than ever to improve her career and get a detective shield.
Season three As season three begins, Debra has had her hair cut to shoulder length, and has "sworn off men, liquor and smokes". She is working with a new partner, Detective Joey Quinn (Desmond Harrington), but has been approached by Internal Affairs officer Yuki Amado (Liza Lapira), who tells her that her partner is being investigated for corruption. She refuses to assist in the investigation, however.
She is originally part of the team investigating the murder of Miguel Prado's (Jimmy Smits) brother Oscar (Nick Hermz), but because of her lack of tact and people skills she is removed from the case by the newly promoted Batista. The case she has been assigned to, the murder of a young woman, is eventually found to have been connected to the ongoing case of a serial killer called "The Skinner" (Jesse Borrego), which she solves with the help of confidential informant Anton Briggs (David Ramsey). The two begin a relationship after she saves his life. Because of her success on the Skinner case, Debra receives her detective shield at the end of the season. She also serves as Dexter's best man at his and Rita's wedding.
Season four
At the beginning of the season, Dexter tells Debra that Harry slept with one of his confidential informants. She investigates the files on Harry's informants and interviews them, hoping to find the one Harry slept with. One of the files is shown to be Laura Moser (Sage Kirkpatrick). Her relationship with Anton begins to suffer at this point, especially when Lundy returns to Miami to hunt the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow). They sleep together and renew their relationship, but the very same night they are both shotLundy fatallyby an unknown assailant. Debra blames herself, and laments to Dexter that she is "broken". She puts aside her grief when she comes to suspect that the Trinity Killer was the shooter, and opens an investigation.
After consulting with forensics technician Vince Masuka (C. S. Lee), however, Debra deduces that Trinity could not have been the shooter. During a Thanksgiving dinner with Dexter's family, Debra remembers a conversation she had with reporter Christine Hill (Courtney Ford), and realizes Hill has knowledge of the shooting that no one outside the police department knew about, and concludes that she was the shooter. This is proven true in a later episode revealing that Hill is Trinity's daughter. Hill confesses to Debra that she killed Lundy, moments before she commits suicide. Debra then renews her search for Harry's mistress, and finds out about Laura Moser, and the fact that Dexter and the Ice Truck Killer are brothers. She tells Dexter the news (which he already knew), and then tells him that he is "the one consistently good thing" in her life.
Season five Debra arrives at the scene of Rita's murder and arranges her funeral in lieu of Dexter becoming distant. While cleaning the crime scene, she and Quinn become intimate. She later calls Dexter when he avoids a meeting with the FBI, and attends Rita's funeral. Dexter, Astor, and Cody move into Debra's home, and Debra becomes frustrated with not having much space and goes to Quinn's house, who tries getting her to admit they had intercourse. Miami Metro begins investigating the Santa Muerte cult murders following the discovery of a woman's severed head. Debra works with Cira (April Lee Hernández) on the case, the pair questioning a store owner that sells the Santa Muerte items found at the scene. They later find his severed head and corpse, and Debra consoles Cira after she blames herself for his death. Debra gets Dexter to help investigate the Santa Muerte case, and is part of Batista's unit to catch their primary suspect Carlos Fuentes. In a standoff with Debra, he slits the throat of his hostage. Debra and Batista visit the hostage in the hospital, learning of a tattoo connected to the Santa Muerte gang. Debra and Cira discovers two corpses in a house, concluding Fuentes and his brother committed it. Debra also discovers that the logo was really referring to the nightclub Club Mayan. Debra mistakes Quinn for having an affair, and he introduces her to Stan Liddy (Peter Weller), leaving out that the latter is investigating Dexter. Debra and Angel stake out the Club Mayan until Debra leaves to investigate a crime scene at a warehouse, arriving with Masuka just after Dexter finishes arranging the crime scene.
Debra arrives on the scene after a truck carrying barrels with dead women inside is found. Debra disagrees with LaGuerta on Cira getting close to the Fuentes brothers during their sting operation at Club Mayan, and kills Carlos after he takes another hostage. Debra argues with LaGuerta after the latter tells her that she intends to blame Cira for the shooting, offering herself up to take the fall. LaGuerta later announces Debra's culpability to the press, and an enraged Debra confronts her for not telling her in advance. She deduces that Cira was the one who backed LaGuerta. Debra is demoted to the file room, where she finds evidence in the closed Barrel Girls file indicating the involvement of multiple other perpetrators. She helps Dexter find Astor, and meets Lumen Pierce (Julia Stiles), who Dexter claims is just his tenant. Debra confronts LaGuerta over her reluctance to reopen the case, convincing her to reopen the case, and learns from her that Quinn was suspended for trying to investigate Dexter. Debra confronts Quinn, who admits to having thought Dexter was Kyle Butler, and she breaks off their relationship for his lack of honesty. The police find DVDs the killers recorded of the crimes, and Debra is assigned to study them. She figures out that Jordan Chase (Jonny Lee Miller), a prominent public speaker, is involved with the group of men killing the girls, but cannot prove her suspicion because he never appears on the DVDs. However, she is able to track him down by the end of the season, and finds his body, moments after Dexter and Lumen have killed him. She sees them at the crime scene through a wall of plastic sheeting, and tells them that she needs to call in the crime scene. She gives them an hour head start because she sympathizes with Lumen, but she never finds out that Dexter was involved.
Season six