The Dexter Character You Are Based On Your Zodiac Sign

According to "Parker's Astrology," the soft science of cosmic analysis was originally a code for astronomers to measure intervals of time via planetary movements. It isn't known exactly when this planetary code began being used to analyze personalities or predict future events, but one of the first known horoscopes was written in 410 BC, and Plato was writing about astrology by 365 BC when the signs of what we now call the zodiac were defined by mythologies of gods and goddesses from Egypt and the Middle East. As a cipher, astrology has come a long way from then and is now based on the Greco-Roman pantheon. 

As we certainly do know, Dexter Morgan, the serial killer of bad guys in Showtime's "Dexter," also has a code that shapes his life. Unlike astrology, we know exactly when Dexter started using his code, courtesy of flashbacks featuring his adopted father, Harry Morgan. While it may seem antithetical that a cop show that depends on hard facts and evidence might reflect a philosophical enterprise like astrology, each of the main "Dexter" characters do, in fact, follow personalities as described by the basics of astrology. Tonight's the night to look up at the stars to find out the "Dexter" character you are based on your zodiac sign.

As the first and emotionally youngest sign of the zodiac, Aries is a jump and ask questions later type of personality. Those born under this brash and impetuous sign often save their thought process until they've already gone ahead and done the thing, much to the chagrin of those around them. Yet, a lively Aries brings a youthful energy that's often contagious in its lust for life, no matter the context. Symbolized by the ram, an Aries' determination is second to none once they set their mind to something. 

Dexter Morgan's pottymouth sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) is a classic Aries, down to her lack of a filter and fierce loyalty toward the people she loves, especially her brother. While Debra is known for her famous trash mouth and colorful phrases, she often doesn't need to say a word for us to see what she's thinking. Aries do not mince words or hide the way they really feel. 

An Aries will travel to Hell and back to protect the people they've chosen, and through Debra's arc discovering her brother's secret identity as the Bay Harbor Butcher, her innate loyalty is tested. Yet, she still finds ways to stand alongside Dexter. When it comes to their professional lives, Aries are often pioneers and trailblazers. Debra also fits this bill as the first woman homicide detective and the youngest ever lieutenant of Miami Metro Homicide. Aries operate without guile or subtext, making Debra a perfect zodiac foil to Dexter.

In classic Taurus fashion, Dexter's boss Angel Batista (David Zayas) brings a powerful, grounding energy that serves as another foil to Dexter's fragmented self. Angel is ambitious (but not at the expense of his colleagues) and steadfast, providing a shoulder for anyone who needs extra support without judgment. Represented by the strength and determination of the bull, a Taurus is someone you want on your side, and Angel constantly proves what a boon he is not just as Dexter's supervisor but also as his eventual friend and confidante. 

However, it's in Angel's romantic entanglements that his Taurus charisma and natural sexual energy fall into the more challenging characteristics of this sign. Angel can be possessive and jealous, fed by some of his own bad mistakes in the past, like cheating on his first wife and ending that relationship in an ugly divorce. While a Taurus craves stability in work and love, when afflicted a Taurus can be their own worst enemy. This results in his terrible encounter with Dexter's ex-girlfriend/AA sponsor Lila (Jaime Murray) as well as his on-again-off-again relationship with his boss, Maria LaGuerta (Lauren Vélez). 

Taurus can be generous to a fault, and we see this over and over with all Angel's interactions at work and outside. This is especially evident for the brief moment he retires from Miami Metro and buys a decadent beachfront bar, where his friends all eat and drink for free, a Taurus MO if there ever was one.

Dexter Morgan is an elegant monster, and he's also a complicated Gemini since he's constantly at war with himself through his Dark Passenger. Gemini is a sign of duality often driven by the conflict between their intellect and emotions, describing Dexter perfectly. Normally, Geminis thrive on change and get bored quickly. However, Dexter forces himself to suppress this aspect of his Gemini-ness, because having a facade of stability and "cultivated affability," as Dexter actor Michael C. Hall puts it, deters people from looking deeper into his life. 

Geminis are not a fan of team sports, but Dexter's bowling team is an important part of the veneer that hides the beast within. He even chooses a partner in Rita Morgan (Julie Benz) for the very reason that she isn't intellectually challenging. All of this protects his alter ego, the serial killer of killers, from detection, with the exception of only the more sensitive characters in his orbit like Sergeant James Doakes (Erik King) and Detective Joey Quinn (Desmond Harrington). 

It's when the Dark Passenger takes the wheel where Dexter is in his true element, working alone as he vets and hunts down potential bad guys for his table. As a blood-spatter analyst for Miami Metro Homicide, every day brings a different puzzle for him to solve through trace evidence, occupying the rational side of his brain until his instincts take over. Geminis must learn to stop analyzing love, and Dexter's struggle with this aspect of his humanity remains ongoing.

Cancers are gifted with a powerful intuition that, when honed, becomes a force to be reckoned with. In the case of Joey Quinn, his suspicions about Dexter come close to exposing one of Dexter's aliases, Kyle Butler, and connecting Dexter to the Trinity Killer. While we don't want to see Dexter caught, it's painful to watch Quinn struggle with what he innately knows about his girlfriend's brother. However, like any good Cancer, Quinn abandons this knowledge to try and maintain his relationship with Debra Morgan. For this zodiac sign, a search for love and partnership trumps even the pull of their considerable intuitive powers. 

Cancers' sensitivity in many ways makes them a dedicated partner but also needy in a way that can be off-putting to an Aries spirit like Debra's. Represented by the crab, Cancers often carry their homes with them as they search for that place and person to settle down with. When they feel rejected, they close themselves off entirely, summing up Quinn's character arc after Debra breaks up with him for investigating her brother on the sly. 

When afflicted, Cancers will sacrifice all the work they've done in establishing themselves both personally and professionally. We see this with Quinn again and again with awkward romantic entanglements and work demotions until he and Debra finally get back together. Unfortunately, Quinn is denied the happy ending his soul craves when Debra is murdered. A loss like this can be hard for a Cancer to ever bounce back from.

Where an Aries might inadvertently find themselves in the spotlight, a Leo seeks out center stage. If there isn't one available, they'll use their natural charisma to create a light show for everyone to see. Leos both crave and thrive in leadership positions, where their considerable organizational skills often make them successful. However, with Maria LaGuerta, we see some of the more challenging aspects of the Leo personality emerge in her crushing ambition to work up the Miami Metro chain of command, even if it's at the expense of her colleagues and friends. 

With her striking, colorful outfits and opulent jewelry, LaGuerta is a commanding presence and she often uses her innate sexual energy to manipulate people to further her career goals. She even goes so far as to have an affair with her supervisor Esmée Pascal's (Judith Scott) fiancee, both to sabotage her and to get revenge for Esmée being offered the job Maria felt was hers. 

One of the more difficult aspects of the Leo personality is their belief that they know better than everyone else. This leads to a tragic girl-who-cried-wolf situation for LaGuerta when she figures out that Dexter Morgan is the Bay Harbor Butcher in Season 6 and nobody believes her. The Leo compulsion to dominate ends up alienating LaGuerta from those who might have helped her bring Dexter down, making her arc on the show heartbreaking since she unintentionally sowed the seeds of her demise through her strong personality.

Vince Masuka (C.S. Lee) is Miami Metro Homicide's jokester-in-residence, bringing much-needed — albeit inappropriate — levity to almost every scene he's in. As Dexter's partner in the forensics lab, Masuka is extremely detail-oriented, with an analytical mind to match Dexter's, which makes sense since Virgo and Gemini are both ruled by Mercury. Virgo separates from Gemini in their abundance of nervous energy that they often have a difficult time containing, often spilling out in awkward chatter or physical tics. For Masuka, this excess energy often emerges in his highly sexualized sense of humor, indicating some major Taurus and Scorpio vibes also present in his birth chart. 

However, Masuka is firmly in Virgo territory with hypochondria and germaphobia despite his fetishistic after-hours activities, resulting in his office fridge always being stocked with prophylactic antibiotics and other medicines he keeps on hand. Virgos tend to keep their spaces neat and clean, even though Masuka himself takes more risks than your average example of the sign. 

He does, however, have a classic Virgo trait of open self-deprecation. For many Virgos, this can result in a lack of confidence if they end up taking their own negative words about themselves too literally. Masuka does at one point feel like his colleagues don't take him seriously and stops joking around for a strange, but brief, series of episodes. Underneath it all, Masuka is a worrier, and this Virgo quality emerges more and more as the show goes on.

Just as planets are not static, and neither is the zodiac. Each year the zodiac moves one small degree forward, and each zodiac sign is made of 30 degrees. This means by your 30s, your sun sign has moved into the next progressed sign of the zodiac. Dexter's wife, Rita Bennet née Morgan (Julie Benz), is an almost perfect example of a Libra sun progressing into Scorpio. 

Rita starts as the non-confrontational battered woman Debra rescues from her abusive husband. Rita is unassuming and will do anything to keep the peace, even if it means sacrificing herself to her husband's violence to protect her children. She has no needs or demands, making her a perfect girlfriend for the emotionally unavailable Dexter. These are quintessential Libra traits — perceived harmony at whatever cost. 

As Rita heals from her traumas, she begins to enjoy expressing her sexuality, bringing Dexter along for a surprising ride. Rita also moves on from being a pushover and stands up for herself, demanding to be taken into account and even offering ultimatums to Dexter if he can't provide for how she wants her life to be. These are all the makings of a Libra who has moved into Scorpio territory, but with the grounded energy that Scorpio on its own sometimes lacks. If she had lived, Rita truly would have become a force to be reckoned with, making her murder all the more tragic.

In classic Scorpio fashion, Harry Morgan (James Remar) is so powerful and charismatic he lives on long after his death in Dexter's mind. In theory, his memory helps Dexter manage his urges. However, like a textbook Scorpio, Harry is far more layered than he would first appear. 

A defining feature of Scorpio is often their overwhelming sexual magnetism. In Harry's case, he has an intense affair with Dexter's mother, Laura, a confidential informant on a drug bust. Their connection is so strong that Harry adopts Dexter, the younger of her two sons, after her brutal murder. Also with major problematic Scorpio vibes, Harry decides to abandon Laura's older son Brian, the eventual Ice Truck Killer, to the foster care system. He fears that the boy will remember too much and cause more unrest in his damaged home, a decision that will haunt the Morgan family. 

Scorpios can be secretive, with a tendency to bottle up their emotions, making Harry at first an ideal mentor to hide and shape Dexter's dark urges into something more productive. Harry teaches Dexter a code for killing to mitigate Dexter's damaged psyche, although this backfires on Harry when he walks in on Dexter during his first kill, an act that triggers Harry's suicide. 

The Scorpio ego particularly enjoys when their children follow in their footsteps, and Harry would have been proud of his daughter Debra for making it all the way to lieutenant before her untimely death.

Represented by the hunter, a Sagittarius tends to be happy when in constant motion and always seeking a new challenge to solve. A zodiac sign known for its enthusiasm, Sagittarius can be restless and need a lifestyle that has built-in change to keep them happy. Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine) in "Dexter" is the FBI's eminent huntsman of serial killers, finding himself in Miami when a connection to the Trinity Killer brings this long-standing case to its terrible conclusion. 

While the Sagittarius restlessness can often lead to collecting loose ends because the drive to move on is so strong, for Lundy, the Trinity Killer case's unsolved status haunts him, and it's something he's unable to let go of. It's also the thing that tragically gets him killed once he and Debra Morgan get too close to identifying the killer. 

The Sagittarius lust for life is compelling at any age, which helps Lundy and Debra's romance make a lot of sense astrologically. Both are fire sign representatives, creating a powerful flame between their two energies. However, in true Sagittarius fashion, instead of retiring as he hoped after solving Trinity, Lundy signs on for another case and leaves Debra with yet another heartbreak as his wandering spirit can't be contained, even by love.

The phrase "all work and no play" reflects a very Capricorn way of life. They tend toward the conventional and stick to their guns in the ways they think that achievement should be attained in life — following the rules and getting promoted when it's your turn. Capricorn is a rare sign that enjoys a desk job and has the organizational skills to flourish in this kind of rigid environment. 

For Dexter's boss Captain Matthews (Geoff Pierson), his own personal ambition is at war with Maria LaGuerta's more shrewd method of advancement, which only forces Matthews deeper into his traditional perspective. As loyalty is of utmost importance to a Capricorn, we see Matthews often helping Dexter and Debra because of his close relationship with their father, Harry. However, we also see quiet revenge playing out with Matthews when, for example, he promotes young Debra to lieutenant instead of LaGuerta's more experienced husband, Angel Batista. A Capricorn requires and demands respect, sometimes more than they do love, and in this aspect, LaGuerta is constantly at odds with him. 

Breaking with their innate conventionality often has terrible consequences, like when Matthews is involved with the accidental overdose of a sex worker he'd hired. This out-of-character move ends with Matthews briefly disgraced and forced to retire from his job with Miami Metro, which was the actual love of his life and something he never gets over.

Unconventionality displayed as a quirky personality is a cornerstone of an Aquarius, for better or worse. In the case of Dexter's nanny and his boss Angel's sister Jamie Batista (Aimee Garcia), this Aquarius is a friendly and capable caretaker for young Harrison. While Aquarians live for their independence, this is also a humanitarian-minded zodiac sign that looks for collective solutions for social and cultural problems. Studying child psychology at a local Miami university, Jamie's work with Harrison serves several functions. These include a source of income, helping a family friend, as well as furthering her hands-on experience with childcare for her degree, just as this natural multi-tasker sign would like. 

An Aquarius absorbs their environment, so it's important they surround themselves with the energy they want to put forward. This becomes problematic for Jamie over the course of the show when her awkward romantic entanglements with Masuka's creepy intern Louis Greene (Josh Cooke) and Joey Quinn throw off Jamie's usual balance. An Aquarius will not settle for less in the relationship department — their fierce independence requires it — so it's not long before Jamie moves on and refocuses her drive to the things that ultimately matter to her, like her education and future job prospects.

As the final and most spiritually mature sign of the zodiac, Pisces has the blessing and curse of powerful intuition, gut feelings that often prove themselves correct. From the start of "Dexter," Sergeant James Doakes is onto the title character and his double life. While he doesn't know the full extent of Dexter's alter ego until Season 2, Doakes' instincts that Dexter is hiding terrible things are on point. In Doakes, we unfortunately see this innate knowledge exploding his life. 

Due to their heightened sensitivity, Pisces make fantastic actors. In Doakes' unconventional case, he uses this skill in military operations when he works undercover, often to overthrow paramilitary groups. It's likely these experiences also help Doakes fundamentally feel Dexter's wrongness, but due to his surly outward persona, Doakes is written off by the majority of his colleagues, becoming Dexter's perfect scapegoat. 

While Pisces tend to be friendly and approachable, it's possible that Doakes fit this aspect of the sign before he joined the military. We don't see younger Doakes in action, we only know that Maria LaGuerta holds a deep and special love for the man, suggesting she's seen his softer side enough times to know there's more to him than meets the eye. Had Doakes lived, he could have married his Pisces intuition about Dexter with mountains of evidence and been Dexter's undoing. Instead, he's another of Dexter's many sacrificial lambs, as he's framed as the Bay Harbor Butcher, a reputation that haunts Doakes' death.