Profile

Debra was born to Doris Morgan and Harry Morgan and later became foster sister to Dexter Morgan. A tough, foul-mouthed tomboy, she craved her father's attention, and envied Dexter for all the time that Harry spent with him — unaware that Harry was teaching him how to get away with murder.

When she was 16, her mother died of cancer. From then on, she wanted to become a detective like her father, and started learning to shoot a gun by taking her father's. 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.

She was distraught at her father's death and, inspired by his legendary police career, she followed in his footsteps and joined the police and yearned desperately to become a Homicide Detective. She spent three years in patrol and then another two years in vice before being promoted by Captain Tom Matthews (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.

Debra starts dating, and eventually falls in love with, Rudy Cooper; 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. Rudy — who is actually Brian Moser, Dexter's biological brother — then kidnaps her to reveal himself to Dexter. She is bound 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.

Debra is frail at the start of season two, still recovering from her ordeal with the Ice Truck Killer. She feels that she is not a good detective because she didn't spot that her fiancé was a serial killer, but FBI agent Frank Lundy reassures her otherwise and they, mid-season, 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, with his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, Lila Tournay, of whom she is immediately suspicious; Debra eventually threatens to have her deported upon finding out her true identity. In the season finale, 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.

As Season Three begins, Debra has had her hair cut to shoulder length, has "sworn off men, liquor and smokes". She is working with a new partner, Detective Joey Quinn, but has been approached by an Internal Affairs officer 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 brother Oscar, but because of her lack of tact and people skills she is removed from the case by the newly-promoted Angel 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", which she solves with the help of Anton Briggs, a confidential informant with whom she starts a relationship after saving his life. Because of her success on the Skinner case, Debra receives her detective shield at the end of the season.

At the beginning of the season, Dexter tells Debra that their father 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. Her relationship with Anton begins to suffer at this point, especially when Lundy returns to Miami to hunt the Trinity Killer. They sleep together and renew their relationship, but the very same night they are both shot — Lundy fatally — by an unknown assailant. She eventually decides that the Trinity Killer is the shooter, and opens an investigation.

After consulting with Vince Masuka, 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, 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 later 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.

Debra begins an intimate relationship with her partner, Joey Quinn. She and Quinn are assigned to the "Barrel Girls" case, the main case of season five. Debra is deeply affected by the case, in which 13 women were raped, tortured and murdered by a group of men, and left in barrels in a swamp. The police find DVDs the killers recorded of the crimes, and Debra is assigned to study them. She figures out that Jordan Chase, 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 Pierce 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, but gives them an hour head start, because she sympathizes with Lumen, the surviving victim. She doesn't find out that it was Dexter and Lumen who were responsible for the deaths of the Barrel Girl killers.

In the middle of the season, Debra finds out that Quinn, who believes that Dexter was involved in Rita's murder, has been investigating Dexter behind her back. Debra is very upset at Quinn and confronts him. Quinn decides that his relationship with Debra is more important than his (supposedly) unfounded suspicions about Dexter, and stops his investigation. At the end of the season, they have reconciled, and attend Dexter's son Harrison's birthday party together.

At the start of the season, Quinn proposes to Debra, but she rejects him and eventually ends their relationship. The ensuing awkwardness is only made worse when she is promoted to Lieutenant, thanks in part to LaGuerta's political machinations. Debra generally seems to earn the respect of the office, but struggles with the idea of some people not feeling 'open' to her anymore because of her new job level. The job is also very stressful in itself, and she comes to doubt whether she can handle the responsibility. Her work and personal troubles weighing down on her, she eventually begins to attend therapy sessions. Matthews attempts to make a deal with her about covering up his involvement in the death of a prostitute, but before she can take any action, LaGuerta tells Matthews' superiors about his indiscretion and lets Debra take the fall for it. At the end of the season, her therapist helps her discover/leads her to believe that she's been in love with Dexter all along. She finally makes peace with the idea — on the same day that she catches Dexter in the act of murdering "Doomsday Killer" Travis Marshall.

At the beginning of season 7, picking up at the end of season 6, Debra witnesses Dexter murder Travis Marshall. Dexter claims that he went to collect evidence, and was surprised by Travis. At first Debra reluctantly believes him, but is still skeptical. Later, Dexter comes home to Debra, sitting in the chair in the corner of his apartment, surrounded by Dexter's victim's blood slides, a pack of knives, and other tools that Dexter uses to kill. Debra, visually distraught, casually, but reluctantly asks Dexter if he is a serial killer. Dexter, taken aback, replies yes. Debra runs out of the apartment, and vomits on the ground. Dexter asks her to come inside, and she does. Dexter explains his, 'situation', and Debra is extremely surprised. She leaves the apartment. A few days later, after reading serial killer reports by Frank Lundy, Debra says she wants to help Dexter, and make sure he doesn't kill again. Dexter agrees, even though he didn't have a choice, as Debra (probably) would have arrested him.

As of the end of the final season, I will be playing Deb as though she survived her gunshot wound and is on leave from the force as she decides what to do with her life. Dexter is gone, and she's left in Miami, figuring out her next moves.

[mun and muse are 18+. Not Debra Morgan, not Jennifer Carpenter.]