Hi there, welcome to another PG proposal of mine. This is my first time proposing a TV series character, who is a very beloved and underrated character from Dexter, which not many heroes were morally scaled, aside from Dexter himself. Please welcome Frank Lundy!
What's The Work?
Dexter is a crime drama-thriller TV Series created by Showtime, inspired by Jeff Lindsay's novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter. It tells the story about an anti-heroic serial killer named Dexter Morgan, and his journey of defeating and killing other serial killers and criminals who were even more villainous than him. The series expanded into a franchise with the sequels Dexter: New Blood and Dexter: Resurrection; as well as the prequel Dexter: Original Sin.
Who is He?
Special Agent Francis "Frank" Lundy is the major character of the series. He is a very cunning, dreaded and high profile FBI agent who has captured a lot of notorious serial killers in his career all by himself. In the events of the game, he played a crucial role in catching other villains, as well as being the police's ultimate role model.
What Has He Done?
Background
Before his first appearance, he has solved a lot of serial killer cases, taking down those monsters and protecting a lot of people from being killed. With some of those killers are the fictionalized versions of infamous real-life killers, such as Green River Killer, or DC Sniper, with his high profile and reputation, many people wanted to rely on him and requested him when a difficult case occurs. Even many noble and admirable detectives like Debra Morgan and Angel Batista considered him a role model and wanted to learn from him to become more admirable.
For many decades, he has been pursuing the infamous Trinity Killer, who had killed hundreds of helpless innocent people for decades, he also did a lot of very important research as long as they are enough to get him close to Trinity. Those efforts he did were important resources for the police in the modern day.
Season 2
Upon joining Miami Metro, he started to research to help finding the Bay Harbor Butcher case. He then assigned suitable officers to dig deeper into the Ice Truck Killer case to differentiate his and Bay Harbor Butcher's Modus Operandi. He then approached Debra Morgan, a very admirable and potential police detective, which he tried to talk to her and acted as her mentor. Knowing she had endured a severe trauma caused by Brian Moser/Ice Truck Killer, he spent time with her and did his best in suppressing her trauma, making her much easier to cope with it to focus on her heroic deeds, which he succeeded.
While pursuing James Doakes, who was widely believed as the Bay Harbor Butcher, he constantly mentored Debra and always motivated her to do heroic deeds her own way, as he believed she was fully capable of reaching her full potential. After that, he then did a research to catch the notorious criminal named Lila Tourney, also known as Lila West, in order to help Debra and other detectives. After getting the job done, he went to Oregon to find and sucessfully defeated an infamous serial killer in the state.
Season 4
After successfully taking down the Oregon serial killer, he retired from FBI and still went back to pursue the Trinity Killer, whom he tried to catch for decades and did a lot of important research of it. He then used everything he had to help the Miami Metro in stopping and exposing Trinity once and for all. When Debra interviewed an ex-convict named Eddie Noonan, who was believed to be the suspect, he went to the interrogation room and motivated her. When he immediately knew he wasn't the Trinity Killer, he successfully convinced Deb to spare him.
He then kept research and collect evidences about Trinity by himself, and as a result, various evidences from eight different cities were collected, which greatly helped the Miami Metro in getting further in catching this notorious enigmatic killer. After knowing Trinity was Arthur Mitchell, a middle aged family man, he approached him and pretended him and Trinity never knew each other. He then pretended to know nothing about him so that he could bump on him intentionally, after the face-off, he then locked on him and informed the department to aim at him as much as they could.
After his sudden death due to the assassination done by Christine Hill, Trinity long lost eldest daughter, his posthumous heroism was still very significant as his researches were used by both the Miami Metro and even Dexter himself, therefore, they largely succeeded in defeating the notorious Arthur Mitchell and stopped his very brutal killing spree, due to his unresting effort for decades. Even in later seasons, he was many times mentioned, proving his posthumous heroism was still extremely relevant and he was an undying role model to other police officers and detectives in catching notorious criminals.
Admirable Standard
Although the admirable standard of the series is significantly lower than the heinous standard, he still needs to compete with many major characters, as many of them tried to take down serial killers and protect innocent people, ranging from officials to vigilantes, here are some of the most admirable characters in the series:
- Dexter Morgan, a man who probably did the most admirable acts on screen, despite having villainous traits. He has caught and killed a lot of infamous criminals, ranging from brutal killers like Arthur Mitchell or Oliver Saxon, to rapists like Jordan Chase. Hundreds of people were safe thanks to the effort of this enigmatic Bay Harbor Butcher.
- Debra Morgan, our favorite cop who likes to swear, who proved herself to be the most admirable cop in the Miami Metro Police Department, as she had unstoppably pursued and defeated a lot of notorious villains, even though she had to cope with her trauma in her journey. She was truly a role model of the department, despite some of her questionable acts.
- Harrison Morgan, despite being a young kid (now teenager), he seemed to be passed the torch by his father, which he had caught many notorious villains just like his dad, protecting many people. He played a major role in defeating Kurt Caldwell, the Runaway Killer, and he will likely become more admirable as Resurrection progresses.
- Angel Batista, who, alongside Debra, proves himself to be the most noble and admirable officer of the Miami Metro Police, as he actively participated in catching criminals, as well as mentoring other officers, such as Joey Quinn. He was very vital in neutralizing such Ice Truck Killer, Trinity Killer or Doomsday Killer, protecting innocents from being harmed.
For Lundy, I think he definitely stands out for some reasons below:
- Admirableness Competition: First of all, it is absolutely unfair to compare him to Dexter. Although Dexter caught a lot of villains in his journey, he has nearly superhuman capabilities which he could easily do the jobs quickly and subdued a lot of strong enemies (some are very strong like Little Chino) easily, while Lundy was just a physically inferior man who solely relied on his intelligence to solve cases and catch criminals. Therefore, it's unfair to compare him to Dexter. It also helps that his way of defeating killers is way more ethical than Dexter's. However, he may need to compete with other noble cops, such as Batista and Debra, though he still easily stands out from them as he was the reason why they became more noble as the series progresses, with not just them, but the entire police department considered him as a big role model whom they could rely on and always demanded help when he was available. Especially for Debra, which he had a great amount of personal heroism towards her, as he managed to suppress her trauma from Brian Moser and let her cope with it easier, so that she could continue doing heroic deeds. Therefore, he is a very influential hero who went beyond the call of duty to not just do heroic deeds himself, but also motivated and inspired others to become more admirable.
- Goodness Zone Feats and Personal Heroism: We know that he had a very rich background of catching a lot of notorious serial killers, with some of them being the fictionalized versions of the real life serial killers, who are, of course, as vile as the real life counterparts, as well as his pursuit of a notorious serial killer in Oregon after season 2. Although those background deeds were done off-screen, they left a very significant impact in the story and on-screen. This is proven every time he shows up, the heroes always praised him as the expert serial killer hunter and wanted to learn from him, as well as the major villains genuinely feared him and clearly knew them getting defeated and caught were just a matter of time. That is why Christine Hill, Trinity's first daughter, assassinated him, as an attempt to protect his father. Even Arthur himself were afraid of him, as seen when he intentionally bumped into him just to make sure he didn't know his true identity, in order to avoid getting caught, as he knew getting caught by Lundy was just a matter of time. Even Dexter himself had a mixed feelings of fear and admire towards him, as he admired him for how dedicated he was in catching serial killers, and feared that he may be his target sooner or later. He also had several on-screen admirable acts, as he was the key player, if not the most important one, in catching and exposing Arthur Mitchell, as he had done a lot of researches throughout his career and used them to help the police catch and expose Trinity, which he posthumously succeeded.
- Resources and Screen time: For resources, despite being a well-known FBI agent, he never and never even needed to use his backup or other men to do his heroism, proving that he was always capable of defeating villains by himself and never or rarely shared with or relied on others. His resources also got much lower in season 4, as he retired from FBI yet still greatly contributed in exposing Arthur Mitchell, the Trinity Killer, whom he pursued for many decades, as a regular guy who simply rejoined the department not for duty, but for pure heroism. Not just resources, he also stands out for his minimal screen time, as he only played a supporting role in two seasons. Despite the minimal screen time, he still proved himself to be admirable every time he appears.
Possible Mitigating Factors?
The first "mitigating" factor which he had was his romantic relationship with Debra Morgan. Although their big age gap seemed to be pretty weird, nothing was implied this was a bad relationship and Lundy never mistreated her, even by one bit. In reality, this was a very healthy relationship, Lundy himself even used this chance to suppress Deb's trauma and made it less severe, so that the latter could focus on her heroism. If anything, this made him more noble than corrupting. Therefore, this was never considered a corrupting factor and was merely exaggerated.
The second false corrupting factor is about him taking part in pursuing James Doakes, who was falsely accused as the Bay Harbor Butcher. This is definitely not corrupting because he genuinely believed it was true and only wanted to catch a killer for people's sake; and it was Doakes who brought it upon himself due to his selfish obsession of catching Dexter anyway. It also helps that just like Dexter, Doakes wasn't inherently a good person either, so the narrative only framed Dexter and Doakes for the false accusation. Therefore, it doesn't make him more corrupting as he did heroic deeds with genuine intent. It also helps that he never used any unethical methods. Just like the first one, this also makes him more noble rather than corrupting.
Anything else? Nope, Lundy always proved himself to be a very calm, understanding, easy-going agent who sympathized with everyone and wanted to make other heroes more admirable. His heroic journey never stopped until his sudden death.
Final Verdict
A yes to our beloved FBI agent. I wish he had more screen time though, he is always satisfying to watch.