Doakes Was the Bay Harbor Butcher
Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for the television series Dexter; read at your own caution.
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About
Doakes Was the Bay Harbor Butcher refers to a series of memes that double down on the in-universe plotline in the television series Dexter in which the character Sergeant James Doakes (played by actor Erik King) is set up as a serial killer known as Bay Harbor Butcher. Used as the I Can't Believe X Was the Bay Harbor Butcher phrasal template, memes frequently imagine characters from other media as the killer.
Origin
In the American crime drama television series Dexter, the main protagonist Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is a criminal expert with the Miami-Metro Police Department who lives a double life as a vigilante serial killer known as "Bay Harbor Butcher." In the season two of the series, Sergeant James Doakes discovers Dexter's identity and confronts him, but Dexter ultimately gains the upper hand, kidnapping Doakes and setting him up as the serial killer.[1]
On September 18th, 2020, Redditor donvito00 made the earliest notable post that doubled down on the in-universe plotline where, from the perspective of an outsider, Doakes was the Bay Harbor Butcher. The post gained over 640 upvotes in the /r/Dexter[2] subreddit in four years (shown below).
On August 24th, 2024, Redditor delsinson made a similar post in /r/okbuddymotherfucker,[3] a shitposting subreddit dedicated to the series, where it gained over 210 upvotes in two months (shown below).
Spread
In the following weeks, posts that imagined that Doakes, as well as other characters from Dexter and other shows, were actually the Bay Harbor Butcher achieved viral popularity in the subreddit.
For example, on August 29th, 2024, Redditor[4] TheRealAJ420 made a post that received over 150 upvotes in two months (shown below).
In September 2024, the memes saw further spread to other subreddits and beyond the platform. For example, on September 21st, 2024, Redditor[5] Croft7 made a post in the /r/Chainsawfolk subreddit that received over 20 upvotes in three weeks (shown below).
On September 22nd, 2024, Redditor ihave3apples inquired about the meme in the /r/OutOfTheLoop[6] subreddit.
The format maintained a presence on Reddit and other sites in October 2024, with the memes often using the "I Can't Believe X Was the Bay Harbor Butcher" phrasal format.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Dexter Wiki – James Doakes
[2] Reddit – Guys, i think Doakes was innocent, and that he wasn't actually the Bay Harbour Butcher.
[3] Reddit – Fan Theory: What if Doakes wasn’t the Bay Harbor Butcher and it was all a setup to frame him?
[4] Reddit – The Bay Harbor Butcher in his early twenties
[5] Reddit – I can't believe Dennis was the bay harbor butcher
[6] Reddit – What’s up with all the references to the 'Bay Harbor Butcher' in comments?
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