When I learned that season 8 would see the last of Dexter, I was disappointed. See, I've come to love the show, regardless of its ups and downs. The concept of a killer killing killers was nothing like I had ever encountered before. Now when I see shows like Arrow on the TV, I don't bother to give it a second glance, for they seem like rip-offs of Dexter. I love pretty much everything about the show – Dexter Morgan's back-story about the birth of the “Dark Passenger”, the narrating voice inside his head, the villains he had slain, and of course the slaying process. Still a little hung-over on Dexter, here is my take on five of the top Big Bads in the show.
5. Isaak Sirko: Introduced in season 7, Sirko was a high ranking Mafioso of a Ukranian mob-family, who was hell-bent on finding and killing Dexter to avenge his lover Viktor. Not only was this man intelligent and powerful, he had something that other antagonists in the show lacked, and that's class. After a long to-and-fro chase, Sirko ends up befriending Dexter, as Sirko's own gang comes after him for hampering their business. It was a shame to see Sirko being killed off at such an early stage. Personally, I feel he could go on to become the biggest of the bads in the show's history.
4. Brian Moser aka The Ice-Truck Killer: Brian Moser was probably the reason why the show took off to such heights. The Ice-Truck Killer, as it turns out, was none other than Dexter's own brother, who too had witnessed their mother's murder in a container. In his attempts to reunite with his brother after eons, Moser murders several prostitutes, storing their severed body parts in an ice truck, and even dates Dexter's adopted sister Debra under a fake identity, taking the extreme measures that make him one of the best antagonists. His end comes when he tries to lure Dexter into killing Debra alongside himself, but Dexter takes his blood-brother down instead. Even after his death, Moser's soul lingers in Dexter's conscience for a while.
3. Hannah McKay: The only female baddie to make my list, Hanna is the most lovable of all antagonists in the show. With her first kill at a very early age for which she testified against her former beau, Hannah's specialty turns out to be botany. Growing untraceable poisons and using them to kill, Hannah had been getting away from trouble more often than never, until she tried to drug Debra, who happens to be the only thorn in her and Dexter's way. Once off Dexter's kill-table, she was betrayed by Dexter who sold her out to the police. Hannah returns with a bang in the last season for a happily ever after with Dexter. Considering all that, we are left wondering whether to love Hannah or hate her.
2. Jordan Chase: A world-renowned counsellor chanting “Take it!” by day, and a ruthless killer by night, Jordan Chase ran his dirty job with a group of his friends. As it appeared, his group always hunted on young women, raping and abusing them before electrocuting them to death. Chase never got involved in it, but took pleasure being a voyeur instead. After he got involved with Dexter due to Dexter's then-girlfriend Lumen, Chase used his power and popularity to do everything to prevent Dexter. The therapist persona would have been a perfect cover for this dangerous adversary, had Dexter not identified Chase by the latter's famous dialogue, “Tick, tick, tick. That's the sound of your life running out.”
1. Arthur Mitchell aka Trinity: Living a double life for over three decades, Mitchell was dubbed the Trinity for his pattern of killing three at a time: first by bleeding a woman to death in a bathtub, second by forcing a mother of two to commit suicide by jumping off a building, and third by bludgeoning a father of two to death. It later turned out, he would begin this ritual by abducting and burying a young boy alive to preserve his innocence. This ritual was an emulation of Mitchell's own childhood, where he blamed himself for the death of his family. At each of his kill-scenes, Mitchell would leave his sister's ashes as souvenir. As his last act before being killed by Dexter, Mitchell killed Dexter's wife Rita in a bathtub, while the couple's infant son, Harrison, sat there watching and crying. Yes, that was what makes him the most ruthless of all antagonists in the show. The Primetime Emmy and the Golden Globe Award that John Lithgow received for playing Mitchell was indeed rightfully deserved.