Thu
Jan 12 2012 5:49pm

Squick or Maybe? Adoptive Brother Lovin’

Dexter and Deb in Dexter Heroes and Heartbreakers has covered everything from triangles involving brothers to cousin lovin’ to twincest, but this may be entering into a whole other level of weird. Welcome to the brother-and-sister love of Dexter and Deborah Morgan.

Sure, Game of Thrones’s Cersei and Jamie are brother and sister, but that series is comfortably set in the dark ages and in a fantasy world. It might skeeve us out, but really it’s OK because it’s not real. But the love between adoptive siblings that have been raised as brother and sister in a contemporary world hits a little too close to home for a lot of viewers.

If you missed it, the recent season finale episodes of Dexter had Deb dreaming of kissing her brother and then admitting that she loves him to a therapist right before finding out a little more about her brother’s hobbies. Needless to say things have not been easy for the Deb/Dex camp since the event. Apparently, the fan outrage has managed to get the network chief to defend the decision.

Honestly? I’m not all that bothered. Mainly because ol’ Dex has said from the beginning that Deb is the only girl he has ever truly loved. And Deb, to borrow a phrase from a certain book, is just fifty shades…OK, maybe they both are, I guess.

What do you think, is Showtime taking the bond between brother and sister too far? Can you think of any other incestuous romances that may have worked? (Only thing I got is Flowers in the Attic and I’m not ready to call that a success.) How far is too far with inter-family romance?

contemporary

Family | Television

1. BrittanyMelson

view all by BrittanyMelson | Thursday January 12, 2012 05:11pm EST

When adopted siblings are raised together from a young age and fall in love with each other, then I think it's incest--plain and simple. Even if it's not biological incest, it's emotional incest. I was horrified when the therapist said, "You're not biologically related."--as if that made it okay! If adopted siblings (or step siblings) both meet each other after puberty, though, then it seems like more of a legal issue than an incest issue. All that being said, I think that the incest storyline is an interesting twist and not totally unexpected for Deb's character, since she's pretty nutty. We don't know if Dexter feels the same way about her, but if he does, I wouldn't believe it. He's a sociopath. I question whether or not he can love anyone, aside from his child who is a part of him. I can't wait to find out what happens next season.

2. WickedLilPixie

view all by WickedLilPixie | Thursday January 12, 2012 11:09pm EST

The Dexter thing totally irritated me. I'll see how it plays out, but it just came out of nowhere. I'd love to know what Jeff Lindsay thinks about it

3. CindyS

Friday January 13, 2012 05:18am EST

I've picked up on chemistry between Deb and Dex for years but when I heard they were married in real life (not now) I thought maybe it was coming through in the acting.

That said, I'm not weirded out only because I don't know enough about their 'youth' relationship. It is often talked about how Deb's dad took Dex under his wing - in fact, so much so that Deb didn't feel like she was his daughter. Dex and Deb almost never share any stories of when they were younger and it makes me wonder how involved they were in each other's lives at that time. I would imagine Deb's dad would have tried to keep as much distance as possible between the 2 when they were younger for maybe safety reasons.

Also, I do think he loved Rita as more of a princess and Leamon as more of a soulmate (in fact I thought if they went to end the series she might show back up). Anyways, it looks like Deb is about to find out everything Dex has ever hidden from her so we'll see if it's a 'save herself' moment or if it turns out she's the one (and her dad figured that all along - sorry, that's the romantic side in me coming out)

As for incest - I have never read VC Andrews and don't think I have read or watched anything that was close to this. I can get weirded out by cousins in books so I'm surprised this didn't totally creep me out. But then like I said, I saw something there real early on.

Interested to see where it all ends up.

CindyS

4. cmorgan

view all by cmorgan | Friday January 13, 2012 09:04am EST

I thought he legitimately cared for Rita as well. Honestly I think that his dad is the one that created the "dark passenger" and it wasn't really an innate thing. Of course I'm one that thinks no one is born bad, despite loving The Lord of the Flies.

I half expected Rita to show back up as a counter to ghost Harry, but that didn't happen.

As to Dex and Deb, Im with Cindy and kinda felt it coming, but I can see why some folks are angry. And still not sure how you can make incest sexy...

5. bungluna

view all by bungluna | Saturday January 14, 2012 04:09pm EST

I'm upset about this turn, but more because I see it as a bit of 'jumping the shark'.

As for 'sibling' romances, the central couple in Charaline Harris' Grave series are step-sibs who come to love each other in a romantic way by the end of the series. I wasn't sqeeked out by this, but the author made it a point to show how they had come together as teens, not little kids.

6. Jennifer R

Wednesday January 18, 2012 04:29pm EST

Spoilers for the Newsflesh series by Mira Grant within...

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Adoptive siblings Georgia and Shaun Mason (it is definitely clear that they are in no way related biologically) are super close. It's eventually revealed in Deadline that yes, it was also sexual.

I find this weird, but we don't have to worry about incest babies, so it's not quite as bad. And while I wonder about the Westermarck effect not working here, they both come from a society where most people have very limited contact with other people. They grew up less isolated than most, I suspect, but it was the two of them against their fame-seeking, screwed-up parents who didn't give them any affection that wasn't on camera. I do kind of think growing up in a world of zombies and people mostly being locked in all the time + no affection at home otherwise probably had something to do with it. Like the Westermarck effect had to not work because otherwise people wouldn't breed, because they're too afraid to leave their homes to look for suitable mates.