Harry Morgan

Harry found Dexter as a small boy, sitting in his mother's blood inside a shipping container, and adopted him. Seeing the signs in the kid, he chose to teach him control: kill only the guilty and never get caught. He also hid from Dexter what happened that day. His lessons show up in flashbacks throughout the series.

The Code has clear rules: the target must be guilty, with proof, and Dexter has to learn to blend in, fake feelings and never leave a trace. Harry died years before S1, but his son still hears his voice with every choice.

In 1991, Harry is a Miami Metro detective keeping a close eye on the first kills of Dexter, then an intern. He teaches his son to choose targets, clean the scene and lie to the police, while trying to be a father to Debra too, who feels forgotten.

Harry knows he's raising a killer and tries to convince himself the rules are enough. After every kill, he drills the same steps into his son: proof, care and silence. At home, he pretends everything is fine.

Dexter learns Harry was hiding more than it seemed about his mother's death. He also learns his father didn't die of illness: he overdosed on purpose, ashamed of what he had made. It shakes the way Dexter sees his father and the Code itself.

Psychiatrist Evelyn Vogel reveals she helped Harry put the Code together, studying Dexter since childhood. It hits Dexter hard: the Code he saw as his father's alone had a co-author. Vogel treats Dexter as a success story and wants his help finding a killer.

Throughout the original series, with James Remar in the role for all eight seasons, Harry appears to Dexter as a figure only he can see. In Resurrection, after years when that voice belonged to Debra, James Remar returns as Dexter's conscience in New York. He questions his son's choices and tries to keep him true to the rules while Dexter protects Harrison. For Dexter, it's as if his father never left at all.

In Jeff Lindsay's books, Harry is also the cop who adopts Dexter and writes the code that guides him.