This article is about the Comic Series character. You may be looking for his TV Series or Road to Survival counterparts. |
“ | I'll make this really simple for you, farm boy. We were here first--and you wore out your welcome real quick. Get the FUCK out of my HOUSE.
―Dexter to Rick Grimes.[src]
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Dexter is character and an antagonist first encountered in Issue 13 of Image Comics' The Walking Dead. He is a towering, physically intimidating inmate who survived the outbreak trapped in the prison cafeteria, along with Axel, Andrew, and Thomas. He served as the secondary antagonist of Volume 3: Safety Behind Bars and the primary antagonist of Volume 4: The Heart's Desire.
Overview
At first, Dexter seems like a friendly and welcoming individual, despite the fact that he is a convict. He is quick to share food with the survivors and even gives them a tour of the prison. He is also quite honest with the survivors, freely admitting to being a convicted murderer. Despite his openness, the other survivors don't trust him, and consider him to be the most dangerous of the prisoners, so much so that he is their prime suspect when it is discovered that Rachel and Susie have been murdered. Upon being imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, Dexter's attitude towards the survivors sours, and he begins to distrust them immensely. After he is released, Dexter plots with Andrew and Patricia to kick the other survivors out of the prison. Ironically, Dexter considers the survivors too dangerous to be around, as he thinks the apocalypse has made them insane.
Pre-Apocalypse
Meriwether County Correctional Facility
Before the outbreak, Dexter was convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, but promised the survivors that their murders "were the last". While incarcerated, he began a "romantic" relationship with Andrew, a fellow inmate, though Axel believes Dexter was just using Andrew for sex.
Post-Apocalypse
Safety Behind Bars
Dexter is first seen alongside his fellow inmates in the prison's cafeteria. When Rick Grimes and Tyreese burst through the cafeteria doors looking for food, Dexter offers them some of the cafeteria's left over meatloaf. After the rest of Rick's group move into the cafeteria, they inform Dexter and the other inmates of the apocalypse outside, Dexter and the others not knowing that the government had fallen. Along with this shocking news, Dexter reveals his own form, telling the group he was convicted of murder and sentenced. This causes many members of the group to instantly become suspicious of him, but, Dexter assures them that unless they are his wife or boyfriend, they have nothing to worry about. After this, Dexter takes Rick and Dale on a tour of the prison, showing them to a few unoccupied cells they can sleep in.
A few days after Rick's group's arrival at the prison and the Greene family's arrival shortly afterwards, Susie and Rachel Greene are both murdered via decapitation. Lori Grimes then led the group to wrongly lock Dexter up on account of being the only prisoner convicted for murder, believing him to be the killer of the two girls. Rick later pays Dexter a visit and proclaims that if he finds out Dexter killed the girls, he will beat him to death personally. Dexter quickly responds to this, daring Rick to face him without the bars in front of their faces. Rick does so, but Dexter backs down, telling Rick that he and his whole group are crazy.
Dexter is later visited by Andrew in his cell and Andrew tells him that he wants to help him escape his imprisonment by Rick's group. Dexter tells Andrew to get into A-block and find the armory inside, securing any guns and armor he can find, declaring that the only way they will be safe, is forcing Rick and his group out of the prison.
After Thomas Richards was revealed to be responsible for the murders and his following beating by Rick, Dexter is freed from his cell by Rick himself, who refuses to apologize for locking Dexter up. As Dexter is walking away from Rick, he snidely comments that he does not trust a lot of people after his imprisonment, hinting at future aggression towards Rick.
After Thomas' death at the hands of Maggie Greene, Andrew brings the guns and armor he found in A-block back to Dexter and Patricia, who has also had enough of Rick's leadership. Dexter, Andrew, and Patricia then confronted Rick and the rest of the group in the prison's courtyard, fully armed with guns. Dexter bluntly tells Rick that he and his group have overstayed their welcoming, telling them to get out of his house.
The Heart's Desire
Dexter is seen still demanding Rick and his group leave the prison at gunpoint, even forcing his fellow inmate Axel to go with them because he sided with them. However, Rick deduces that Dexter got his guns from A-block and as such, accidentally released a massive zombie horde from there, which quickly bursts out of the block and into the prison's courtyard. Still trying to stick to his original goal, Dexter tries to keep Rick and his group defenseless. However, Dexter realizes the situation is far too dire and starts to work alongside Rick to clear out the oncoming zombies. This, however, would prove to be a fatal mistake for Dexter.
While fighting off the zombies released from A-block alongside Rick and many others, Dexter is almost bitten by a zombie, but Rick saves him at the last moment. Dexter still refuses to cooperate with Rick, saying a smart man would have let the zombie get him. Rick then uses the chaotic situation to shoot Dexter through the head seemingly unnoticed, only Tyreese noticing Rick's murderous actions.
Death
- Killed By
- Rick Grimes
- Himself (Indirectly Caused)
While fighting off the walkers released from A-block alongside Rick and many others, Rick decides to use the chaotic situation to shoot Dexter through the head.
Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Dexter has killed:
- His wife (Pre-Apocalypse)
- An unnamed man (Pre-Apocalypse)
- Himself (Indirectly Caused)
- Numerous counts of zombies
Relationships
Andrew
Rick Grimes
Patricia
Lori Grimes
Dexter didn't really talk to Lori, until she blamed him for the murders of Susie and Rachel Greene and locked him in his cell. Dexter hated Lori, and the rest of her group, apart from Patricia. Allen
Axel
Thomas Richards
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Appearances
Issues | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
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Book One | |||||||||||||
Book Two | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||
Book Three | |||||||||||||
Book Four | |||||||||||||
Book Five | |||||||||||||
Book Six | |||||||||||||
Book Seven | |||||||||||||
Book Eight | |||||||||||||
Book Nine | |||||||||||||
Book Ten | |||||||||||||
Book Eleven | |||||||||||||
Book Twelve | |||||||||||||
Book Thirteen | |||||||||||||
Book Fourteen | |||||||||||||
Book Fifteen | |||||||||||||
Book Sixteen |
✔ | Appears | ✔ | Voice is heard |
👁 | Appears with no lines | ✔ | Appears in a flashback |
✔ | Appears as a walker | 🖼 | Appears in a photograph/video |
✔ | Appears as a corpse | ✔ | Appears in a hallucination/dream |
Trivia
- Dexter is the first living character confirmed to have been directly killed by Rick.
- He and Andrew were originally going to leave the Prison after Rick and the others settled in. However Kirkman thought "they wouldn't just leave" and made them threaten Rick and the others instead.
- Dexter and Andrew are the first LGBT couple introduced in the Comic Series, although Dexter's sexuality is questionable, since it's implied that he was in a relationship with Andrew only because he had no female alternatives.