Last week’s episode of #DexterResurrection (S2 E02, “Fallen”) made me really uncomfortable to watch, but I wasn’t sure why until today’s new episode (S2 E03, “Live Free and Die”).
For starters, I’m not convinced FBK is any type of #Narcissist but it’s obvious that Framt, the untouchable yet fully exposed New York Ripper, absolutely is. Framt’s entire reaction to being exposed, while unbelievably remaining untouchable by the law, came across like every Narcissist’s dream-come-true. And that stunt he pulled at FBK’s second crime scene? Every Narcissist I’ve ever met has pulled that shit, badgering a target (usually their Supply, but not necessarily) by repeatedly attacking a stressor until they snap, followed immediately by a telegraphed pantomime of victimization, you know, to rub salt in the wound. Everyone is so busy victim-shaming reactivity, the Narcissist doesn’t even have to put effort into their performance.
Now FBK is fascinating, from a purely psychological perspective. The performance and writing screams, to me, of a True Psychopath who followed the rules of society his whole life, only to have everything stolen from him (namely, his wife). All psychopaths see the people in their life as personal property, and that defines their experience of loss.
Since FBK’s kills clearly ritualize anomie in the wake of profound loss framed by detached Narcissistic traits, I expect it will be revealed (once Dexter discovers the identity of FBK) that FBK’s wife was one of Framt’s victims, and the real point of his kill-cycle is that ‘no one cares’ about the victims and collateral, they only care about the killer. A point that is patently untrue, given how ready the average person is to jump on a victim-shaming bandwagon. But it is a distinctly psychopathic thought-pattern.
Of course, in real life, Narcissists are the psychopaths least likely to become serial killers or mass murderers, and when they do, they manipulate others into doing the dirty work for them—just like Hitler and Charles Manson. This last fact is addressed in passing between both episodes, an off-hand comment or two about the kills being secondary to the torment of the victims’ families. That right there is the New York Ripper’s MO to the letter, while FBK is only ritualistically terrorizing New Yorkers as part of his kill cycle as one of the ritual’s frames (or, pillars).
#DexterResurrectionSeason2 #Dexter #TVSeries #Thriller #SerialKillers #CrimeDrama #Psychopathy #ParamountPlus #Spoilers
