Beware of spoilers, only spoilers from the seventh and eighth seasons are meant to be blacked out. All character sheets contain major spoilers. Proceed reading at your own risk.note
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Travis Marshall
"I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the Beginning and the End."
Played by: Colin Hanks
"You're not going anywhere until you've repented for your sins."
A student of Professor James Gellar and his serial killer protege. It's later revealed that he has a Split Personality and Gellar has been in his mind the entire time, representing his 'Dark Passenger'.
- Anti-Villain: Played with and ultimately subverted. At first, he merely appears to be a weak-willed individual who’s being pressured by his former professor, James Gellar, into performing ritualistic sacrifices under the belief they are demanded by God. However, Gellar is ultimately revealed to be a product of Travis's subconscious embodying narcissistic and violent personality traits exhibited by him since childhood.
- Ax-Crazy: May not be the most evil Dexter villain, but is definitely the most insane.
- Bastard Understudy: Played straight at first, when he seems to be doing the bidding of Gellar. Eventually it's revealed that he was solo the whole time.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of season 6.
- Cain and Abel: He killed his sister, though he was under the delusion that 'Gellar' had done it.
- Expy: He’s Norman Bates with a firm belief that he’s on a Mission from God.
- Heel–Face Turn: After an encounter with Dexter forces him to realize that Gellar is manipulating him, he begins having doubts. After an episode of trying to deal with his conscience, he makes the turn and frees the woman who would have been their next victim.
- And then things went bad for him. Though he promises to help Dexter kill Gellar as a result.
- But then he goes back to "serving" Gellar, or at least his interpretation of him.
- Insane Troll Logic: Travis has to face the fact that Gellar had been Dead All Along: Gellar reminds him how he tried convincing him that they were supposed to be the Two Witnesses, then stabbed him with that sword he stole to show him he won't die; Travis said he didn't die, but he did, and Travis pinned the theft on Gellar. Then he denies he did it, and somehow concludes that 'it was the False Prophet’ (that is, Dexter) who did it. Then he completely embraces his role as the killer in his insane plan.
- Knight Templar: His desire to purify what he sees as a thoroughly corrupt and vile world drives him to commit a series of brutal ritualistic murders that he hopes will bring about the Apocalypse.
- Lack of Empathy: As said in his psych evaluation file.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Subverted. It turns out he's not even a minion.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: David Berkowitz (a.k.a. "Son of Sam"), and Charles Manson. Travis resembles Berkowitz in the first half of the season, when he believes that he is being compelled to commit others by orders from God Himself. In the second half of the season, he begins to more closely resemble Manson after embracing his Dark Passenger as a product of his own twisted psyche and makes the transition from a reluctant killer to a megalomaniacal fanatic who gathers a small cult of "disciples" to assist him in his murderous crusade to bring about the apocalypse.
- Pet the Dog: He genuinely loves his sister. Too bad his other personality doesn't much care for her.
- Sanity Slippage: Not that he was all there to begin with.
- The Sociopath: Lampshaded by his psych evaluation. However, this trope is subverted by his depiction in earlier episodes where his good side exhibits visible discomfort over the torture of another human being and desperately attempts to protect his sister from his Dark Passenger embodied by Professor Gellar..
- Split Personality: He has an alternate personality in the form of his 'Dark Passenger'.
- Tomato in the Mirror: As Travis learns in the season's tenth episode, it isn't Gellar who's been doing the killings...
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wants to end the world because of how corrupt he believes it is. When he tells Gellar he wants out, Gellar responds by telling him about horrific murders and the like to talk him back in.
Professor James Gellar
"Is that what you want, Travis? To hurt me? You see how I suffer for your sins!"
Played by: Edward James Olmos
"We were given free will for a reason, Travis."
A Professor of Religious Studies believed to be the dominant Doomsday Killer. He’s later revealed to have been Dead All Along, murdered by his student Travis and kept in a freezer below an abandoned church. However, he continues to play a role in the Sixth Season as the personification of Travis Marshall's Dark Passenger.
- Dead All Along: Revealed as such in 'Get Gellar'.
- Dirty Old Man: Had a habit of sleeping with younger women.
- Evil Counterpart: To Dexter's own ghost guide, Harry. He takes a more active role than Harry, though.
- Evil Mentor: To Travis, whom he encourages and disciplines.
- Evil Teacher: His basis was Travis' Professor of Religious Studies.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's easy-spoken and gives Travis the illusion of freedom, but kills frequently and brutally.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears a pair of thick-rimmed glasses and no ethics.
- The Heartless: As Travis Marshall's "Dark Passenger", he’s the distilled form of Travis's more violent and megalomaniacal character traits. However, in 'Ricochet Rabbit', this malevolent "Gellar personality" is reabsorbed into Travis's consciousness.
- Knight Templar: He seems to be this, but an episode had a teacher assistant of his reveal that he just likes to stir up trouble, so whether he really believes it or not is up in the air.
- Manipulative Bastard: He harms himself when Travis doesn't follow orders, to better emotionally manipulate him.
- The Mentor: To Travis when he was at college.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: His characters is based on American bible prophecy "experts" like Tim La Haye.
- Posthumous Character: Travis kills him prior to season 6.
- Self-Mutilation Demonstration: A variation of this is how Travis proved to him that the two of them had been chosen by God to bring about the apocalypse. Travis stabbed him with a holy sword, and Gellar became convinced when watched his wound miraculously heal itself. At least, that's how Travis remembers it.
- Split Personality: He's a separate personality manufactured by Travis's subconscious in order to cope with the guilt of murdering the real Gellar.
Steve Dorsey
Played by: Kyle Davis
Steve Dorsey was a frequent poster on Professor Gellar's website, under the name Doomsday_Adam. He and his wife, Beth Dorsey, are taken in as Travis Marshall's disciples, and they aided in the death of Holly Benson aboard Peter Grant's yacht.
- Ascended Fanboy: Started out as a fanatic posting videos on Gellar's blog, then became a disciple to the real Doomsday Killer.
- The Fundamentalist: Willing to die for Travis' religious cause.
- Unholy Matrimony: With Beth Dorsey, a fellow dangerous cultist.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: His appearance is brief before dying.
Beth Dorsey
Played by: Jordana Spiro
Beth Dorsey was married to Steve Dorsey who was a frequent poster on Professor Gellar's website, under the name Doomsday_Adam. She and her husband, Steve Dorsey, are taken in as Travis Marshall's disciples, and they aided in the death of Holly Benson.
- Blood from the Mouth: She spews it after getting trapped in a room with deadly gas.
- The Fundamentalist: Willing to die for Travis' religious cause.
- Suicide Attack: Attempted on Miami Metro, but failed.
- Unholy Matrimony: With her husband Steve, a fellow dangerous cultist.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Her appearance is brief before dying.
