SPOILER ALERT This story includes details from the finale of Showtime’s Dexter is the New Blood
It’s truly the end of an era as the fate of Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) has been sealed in the final episode of Showtime’s New Blood: Dexter. And whether or not fans like the ending this time around, there’s no going back.
“Dexter Morgan is dead,”Deadline was informed by Clyde Phillips, series showrunner. A conversation will follow this recap.
Nearly a decade after America’s favorite fictional serial killer disappeared into a Miami hurricane in the original series finale, in New bloodIt was revealed that Dexter, who went by the alias Jim Lindsay, was still alive and well in Iron Lake.
He had changed his entire life, and had left behind all of his previous life. Until someone from his past discovered him. Harrison, his wily child (Jack Alcott), was left with Hannah McKay, his ex-fellow serial killer girlfriend. In the original finale, Yvonne Strahovski portrayed Hannah as Harrison. After Hannah’s death of cancer in 2005, Harrison began to search for his last surviving parent.
After a difficult start, the couple became closer towards the end. New bloodDexter shared with his son the secret he could never share: He murdered serial killers to be a good-guy vigilante. Dexter finally comes to realize this at the end. New bloodHe had turned into the evil he claimed to eradicate from the world.
And the only person that could save him from himself is Harrison, who had also inherited layers of Dexter’s darkness. Both were born in blood.
The final, titled “Sins of the Father,” opens with a worried Angela Bishop (Julia Jones), the police chief and Dexter’s girlfriend, arriving at Dexter’s house—at least what was his house before Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown) burned it down in Episode 8. She asks for an APB to be put out on missing podcaster Molly Park (Jamie Chung), having no idea Molly had already become Kurt’s final trophy after he murdered her.
As Dexter ponders all the good people he’s met in Iron Lake, his peeved girlfriend reveals there’s a high probability his house was burned down intentionally and the ashy remains are now part of an active crime scene.
Dexter and Harrison are already planning to move to a different city to start a new life. This was going to require some convincing.
Harrison also isn’t convinced about what their fresh start would look like. What if they decided to continue their quest to stop bad guys?
While the pair make plans, Angela has discovered something in the ashes that kicks off a series of events leading to the demise of dear ol’ Dex. After sending Harrison (Johnny Sequoyah), Audrey and Logan (Alano Moller) to the shop, she went back home and seized Dexter (with her gun pointed at him) at her home. The jig was done.
“Dexter Morgan, You are under arrest for the murder of Matthew Caldwell [Steve M. Robertson],”Angela tells Dexter about Matt’s death, but he pretends not.
Radiohead’s “A Wolf at the Door”Plays in the background while Dexter is taken away to jail. The lyrics provide insight into Dexter’s thoughts.
Let me go. Let me go. I promise to do my best/
Don’t look in the mirror at the face you don’t recognize/
Please, help me.
Place me in.
He has a logic explanation for everything, in true Dexter fashion. Although Angela isn’t sure what to believe, she is certain her boyfriend is guilty of many things, and whether or not he was behind Matt’s murder is irrelevant.
Angela is doubting herself, so she contacts Angel Batista (David Zayas), digging into Dexter’s past—specifically the Bay Harbor Butcher case— who confirms her instincts are right.
“Madre de Dios!” exclaims Batista as he sees photographic proof that Dexter is still alive and that LaGuerta’s (Luna Lauren Velez) suspicions about him were spot on. Angela’s Miami Metro connection is headed to Iron Lake with all his old files in hand to ensure justice is served for the victims.
Angela confronts Dexter again when he comes face-to-face with her. She reveals all of the evidence against him and tells Dexter that Batista is on its way. There’s no way out of this one—until Dexter goes for the Hail Mary. He gives Angela information on all of Kurt’s crimes and the location where the elder Caldwell has hidden the bodies of countless women he’s killed.
She rushes to find everything Dexter promised and more, and she does. In the meantime, Dexter kills Logan—collateral damage—to gain access to the keys that would eventually free him from his cage.
He uses a different key to access his escape vehicle, Logan’s police car, in a mad dash to reach Harrison. Dexter convinces Harrison to flee, and he does so until Harrison discovers that his father, Logan, has been killed. None of this made sense to him — killing a good man isn’t part of this code Dexter lives by.
Right there, in the freezing cold surrounded by fresh snow, Dexter realizes he’s become the kind of man he’s put down like rabid dogs. His son is better than his father, with all of his shades of dark-light.
“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to you. You deserve better, a better life, a better father,” Dexter tells Harrison, who is now holding his gun locked and loaded and pointed at his father, which whom he’s craved a relationship for so long.
He continues to cry, his eyes filled with tears. “You have to take the safety off, just like I showed you. This is the only way out.”
Harrison is also included. “For both of us.”
Just before Dexter takes the bullet to his chest, a voice-over states, “I’ve never felt real love until now.”Just after the shot, he adds: “You did good.”
Angela drives up to find another crime scene and Dexter lies dead in the cold snow. Angela takes Harrison’s wrists and sends him off, telling him never again. The officer-involved shooting is then reported to her. Dexter will be shot by the sheriff in self defense. No witnesses are available.
Harrison finds in the truck a letter Dexter wrote Hannah, expressing his love and explaining why he kept Harrison far from him for so many years. Dexter loved his child and gave him a better future.
“I want what every father wants: for his child to be happy, to live and love without fear, to share his gifts with the world,” the letter reads as The National’s “I Should Live in Salt”The outro plays. “But we both know that with me around, a normal life for Harrison won’t be possible. This is not an easy decision. Sometimes I wish the hurricane had taken me, released me from the burden of my own urges. Instead, it showed me I have to bear them alone.”
What Harrison’s life will be like in the wake of all this tragedy is unknown. But Phillips teases he’s been thinking a lot about what comes next and that he wouldn’t say no should Showtime want to continue after New blood.
You can read Phillips’ interview here.