Click here to take a fun quiz about the original run of Dexter! Maria LaGuerta: Ambitious Manipulator. She led almost every investigation in the series, with Sergeant James Doakes and Angel Batista supervising the crime scenes under her. She handled the political side while her detectives did the dirty work. It wasn't until Season Seven that she began to display her own investigative work.
While initially being one of the Main Protagonists, she was the second and last Main Antagonist of Season Seven after Isaak Sirko , following her investigation into the Bay Harbor Butcher Case , while trying to clear the framed Sergeant James Doakes of the crimes committed by the Butcher. Maria can be seen as a tough, determined woman fighting for power in the political game among law enforcement. Often having a friendly and sometimes antagonistic relationship with former-superior Thomas Matthews , she always stood out as cold in her rise through the ranks.
Putting her work before her life, she kept most of her emotions bottled inside which led detectives such as Debra Morgan to be convinced that she was out to destroy her out of a personal grudge. She does however display a sympathetic side, one often shown in the shadows as she is forced to do less than honorable acts to push herself further into power.
In her early days she was partnered with Sergeant James Doakes and the two developed a close relationship, at one time being lovers and staying close friends for many years. Even as the rest of the Miami Metro Police Department and even the FBI closed in on him as the suspect behind the Bay Harbor Butcher Case , she refused to believe he was guilty and strove to support his innocence though it was in vain. This relationship she shared with Doakes was powerful enough that despite several years passing since his death, a discovery of a blood slide at a crime scene led her into investigating the Bay Harbor Butcher again in hopes of clearing his name.
It is strongly implied the two were in an intimate relationship, as Doakes was married at one point but it was never stated who he was married but it was Doakes' anger that drove her away. LaGuerta has proven to come closer than anyone before her in investigating Dexter Morgan , having uncovered his past and relationship to The Ice Truck Killer as well as strong evidence to support him being the Bay Harbor Butcher.
