Warning: The following contains spoilers for all of Dexter: New Blood.
Now that the dust (and snow) has settled on Dexter: New Blood, let's take a look at everything the (redo) finale got right when compared to the show's weak Season 8 finale, which stood as the series finale for close to a decade.
Originally, when Season 8 was underway, spin-off rumors were strong with Dexter as it was still a super hot property for Showtime back in 2013. Thus, the edict was passed down that Dexter couldn't die. There were rumors of a possible Hannah McKay series (where Michael C. Hall could guest star) or a number of other options floating around, but bottom line, despite the series coming to an end Dexter had to stick around. Of course, there were other ways that finale could have gone even if they couldn't take out Dexter. He could have been caught and imprisoned, kept for safekeeping until later, in the inevitable "break glass in case of Dexter spin-off" emergency.
But that's not how Season 8's "Remember the Monsters?" went. It went south, terribly. In lieu of Dexter dying, the show killed off Deb unceremoniously and stupidly. With Dexter once again losing someone close to him (yet never having learned the "big lesson" because of it), he faked his own death. And while Batista and Quinn and those left at Miami Metro wouldn't have pegged him as the Bay Harbor Butcher, they saw, clear as day, him murder Oliver Saxon on video (though Dexter set Oliver up to strike first, making it self-defense).
Despite Dexter coming to the conclusion that he was a danger to everyone around him, which was a good thing (though it didn't make him turn himself in; he just ran away), the original finale still fell way short of fans' expectations and worked to malign the entire eight-season series. Now Dexter: New Blood, essentially the show's ninth season, has course-corrected the nonsense from Season 8... but did it do right by the show in general? And did Dexter's fate feel right for the character's journey? Let's dig in. Here's what went right in the New Blood finale (and a couple of things that were like "wtf?").
Dexter dying is polarizing in and of itself. Despite being a "monster," he's obviously popular. As anti-heroes go, he's made a case for himself over the years as an actual avenger. Someone doing a service that saves lives. But New Blood was going to see if he could pass the final test. The one that the original run's Season 2 cheated its way around (more on that in a bit...).
There will be some fans who never ever want Dexter to die. Or even face dire consequences. There's an alternate timeline out there where Dexter rides off into the sunset with Harrison and they work as a father/son vigilante duo. Maybe Angela's on-board too, given that Dexter helped her solve the case of all those missing girls (and the murder of her close friend) and she sees the value in this type of bloodshed. It's the "born in blood" Brady Bunch.
But, like Walter White, Dexter was seemingly always fated to be found out... and then die. How that all happened though was up in the air. And let's be honest: Dexter, as a series, was never as objectively clear as Breaking Bad was that its main character was doing wrong. And since Dexter never learned the hard lessons he was supposed to learn, season to season -- or in the very least if he did, it didn't stick -- an argument could be made that the series was mostly pro-Dexter's mission. But Dexter was wrong. What Harry did to Dexter was wrong. New Blood was designed to show us that and to make explicit the fact that Dexter's dream of doing the same thing with his own son was diabolically awful. For once, we were supposed to heed his nagging ghost, now in the form of Deb, and not just dismiss it as background noise.
Original series showrunner Clyde Phillips, who ran the show through Season 4 and returned for New Blood, went on the record after the Season 8 finale fumbled the ball and said his original idea was for Dexter to die. Actually, he was supposed to face up to his crimes while awaiting execution on Death Row. Death Row was definitely looming over Dexter in the New Blood finale, "Sins of the Father," but that's not how our "hero" perished. So why did Dexter not just go on the run again? Why did he allow (even want) Harrison to put him down? The answer is for the exact reason it felt so wrong for him to go live a solitary life in the first finale. Life wasn't worth it without his loved ones. If he couldn't have a future with Harrison, and he'd just have to start over as an anonymous schmoe again in some new town, he might as well end it.
And let's not gloss over the fact that Dexter was, deep down, a coward. He vehemently did not want to face police justice of any kind. No incarceration. No media storm. No trial. No facing Batista again. He in no way wanted to be known as the Bay Harbor Butcher. And if he was going to be revealed as such, he didn't want to be around for it. Harrison even suggested that maybe Dexter should redeem himself and pay for his crimes in that exact way. A case could even be made that without the cover of the hurricane in the Season 8 finale, Dexter would have joined Deb at the bottom of the ocean. But we'll never know for sure.
For the ending of New Blood to work, Dexter had to be held accountable for his actions. All of his actions (not just Oliver Saxon and/or Matt Caldwell). And New blood did that. What Dexter then chose to do while facing that problem head-on, with no more ways to weasel out of it at the end, was going to ultimately shape, and stand as the meaning, for the entire series. Dexter's death was the crucial exclamation point the show required to break the Harry/Dexter cycle.
Dexter's Season 2 wasn't bad, of course, but its ending was a cop-out of sorts. Dexter found himself discovered by Sgt. Doakes, who'd suspected bad things about his Miami Metro colleague for a long time. Holding Doakes captive and unsure of what to do, Dexter would ultimately be let off the hook. The question of "Would he kill an innocent person to protect his secret?" was a big moment for Dexter to face (maybe too big for Season 2, even). But, yes, even this early in this series Dexter was seriously considering murdering Doakes if it meant not going to prison.
What did Dexter choose to do? Well, he didn't have to make a choice at all. Lila took care of Doakes for Dexter, eliminating the problem and leaving Dexter's hands clean... for now (or, er, then). It felt cheap at the time and it would be the first in a long line of moments where Dexter is spared having to make hard choices (Trinity's daughter killed Agent Lundy, Deb killed LaGuerta, Deb then got on-board with Dexter's murders instead of trying to take him down, etc).
New Blood changes all that. Panicked about facing justice and not being there for Harrison (and maybe even mostly about seeing Batista again), Dexter had to get out of his jail cell. That meant getting through Deputy Logan: a good man who we'd watched all season be a dutiful and honorable mentor/coach for Harrison. Did Dexter offer Logan a chance to live? Yes. But there was never a moment that Dexter wasn't going to kill him in order to ensure his own survival. And so that's what happened. Dexter finally made the choice he didn't have to seven seasons ago. And with this, the series was able to show who Dexter was in a pivotal moment.
This would also be the moment that split Dexter and Harrison apart -- this willingness to do anything, and hurt anyone, to escape imprisonment. "Don't get caught" didn't just mean "be careful" to Dexter. His Dark Passenger took this particular credo and put a perverse spin on it. "Don't get caught" meant it was okay to kill in order to not get caught.
After Doakes, Lundy, LaGuerta, and Deb failed to bring the Bay Harbor Butcher to light, Angela Bishop (who resembles Deb in certain ways, probably purposefully) was clever, driven, and stubborn enough to solve the nation's biggest mass-murder mystery. Another way the New Blood finale nailed its ending was by having Angela's ongoing police work and side investigation pay off. She got to bring Dexter in and she got to live to tell about it.
Dexter's whole hiding in plain sight M.O. had finally gotten the better of him. In the past, it made sense for him to be part of the Miami P.D. because of his father and sister and just overall affinity for blood work. But it also gave him the inside track on potential victims. And, like a lot of actual real-life serial killers, an obsession with police goes with the territory. Living his new life, however, as Jim Lindsay, Dexter kept himself under the radar by working at a sporting goods store. But he still couldn't help but get mixed up with a cop. If he'd just dated anyone else he'd have slipped under everyone's detection. But dancing too close to the flame is also an addiction for Dexter. Almost getting caught is an underlying drive for him, whether he'd ever admit it or not.
It was important for the show that an honest and well-meaning cop got to save the day -- a police chief, in this example, who managed to crack open two "cases of the century" in the same night.
It's crazy that the original Dexter ended with Dexter's son, Harrison, as a non-character. A kid who was only ever treated as a (mostly) off-screen obstacle to Dexter's own dark desires. Of course, there was the aforementioned Hannah spin-off series, which could have given us something resembling this New Blood arc, but it never happened.
Of course now, after New Blood, Dexter's final story being with Harrison feels like a no-brainer. But it's nothing we could've imagined at the time Season 8 ended because, barring a time jump, it just couldn't happen. Thanks to the phenomenon of revivals, however, the most natural and fitting end for Dexter could now happen. Season 8 tried to tie everything back to the beginning in a super unsatisfying retcon way that evoked Scream 3's "rules of the trilogy" by introducing the psychiatrist who gave Harry the idea of turning his adopted son into a vigilante sociopath. And then it also introduced her son, who was also a killer, and was meant to act as a mirror image/brother for Dexter (even though Season 1 had already done that concept superbly).
New Blood though would circle everything back to the beginning in a very meaningful and genuine way, both by bringing Harrison in, now as a troubled teen, and having Dexter try to "Harry" him. Once again, let's be clear: This could not be allowed to go right. Did it fail from the outset? No. Harrison found himself intrigued and seduced by it, by the idea of violence being done, supposedly, in the service of others. But it all went sour when he saw the truly selfish and sinister side to it all.
Because what did Harrison do when he was caught holding the rifle near his father's downed body? He held his hands out, accepting Angela's handcuffs. She let him off the hook, but the point was he was willing to face the consequences for his mistakes. It may have taken his father's dark secret to get him there, since Harrison had committed some pretty heinous acts in Iron Lake over the course of the season, but he was now able to see the importance of accountability. Harry's crazy and cruel cycle was done. Broken for good.
Okay, "Sins of the Father" wasn't perfect. But few things are, right?
The threat of Batista's impending arrival in Iron Lake was enough to scare Dexter into some pretty vile actions... but it sure feels weird that we didn't get a face-to-face between the two of them. Or, barring that, for Batista to see a grown-up Harrison (if not just to know the kid was alive... because what did Batista even know about Harrison's fate back in Season 8?).
While we're nitpicking New Blood a bit (because when will we get this opportunity again?), what the hell was up with that billionaire character, Edward Olsen? Remember the oil tycoon who was the bane of Audrey's existence? And then Angela went to him for helicopters during the Matt Caldwell search? Was he only supposed to be a Red Herring for the Sniper Killer? Because, if so, it never worked. Clancy Brown was the known commodity here and always the most likely guest star to be Dexter's adversary.
Regardless of if it worked or not, it was still bizarre that he never appeared again after the first few episodes. Basically, once Kurt came on the scene, Edward vanished.
Okay, it needs to be discussed: There are definitely ways this show could continue (even if there is no official word of a Season 2 at this point). What with New Blood being a ratings hit for Showtime (who's needed one for a while) and EP/showrunner Clyde Phillips saying he'd definitely be on-board for more, we have to entertain that this might not be the end even if it stands as a solid final chapter.
Firstly -- and most obviously perhaps -- Dexter could just still be alive. No one pronounced him dead. We saw his body bleeding out in the snow but all they have to do is say "he lived" and -- voila! -- Instant Dexter: Newer Blood. Maybe it's a new season where Dexter's in prison. On Death Row. Maybe he escapes. Maybe he just gets consulted Red Dragon/Silence of the Lambs-style about a new killer. A copycat Bay Harbor Butcher. Could it be Harrison? Either way, we'd actually get the Batista/Dexter face-to-face we didn't get in "Sins of the Father."
There's an argument to be made for keeping Dexter dead, for sure. But another case can be made for having him face the consequences he so desperately wanted to avoid. The exposure. The public malalignment. Having to sit with his regret.
If Dexter remains dead though, then Season 2 of the show could potentially follow Harrison. And for the many who feel Dexter without Dexter isn't worth doing, then we'd be gifted with... Ghost Dexter, right? As Harrison tries to navigate his own inner darkness, Dexter could still be there, talking him through it all. Though, given the ending of New Blood and Harrison realizing that his anger was born of neglect and not because of an innate evil, you'd hope the young man would give actual ongoing therapy a whirl.
What did you feel the Dexter: New Blood finale got right and wrong? Let us know in the comments...
Continue reading...
Now that the dust (and snow) has settled on Dexter: New Blood, let's take a look at everything the (redo) finale got right when compared to the show's weak Season 8 finale, which stood as the series finale for close to a decade.
Originally, when Season 8 was underway, spin-off rumors were strong with Dexter as it was still a super hot property for Showtime back in 2013. Thus, the edict was passed down that Dexter couldn't die. There were rumors of a possible Hannah McKay series (where Michael C. Hall could guest star) or a number of other options floating around, but bottom line, despite the series coming to an end Dexter had to stick around. Of course, there were other ways that finale could have gone even if they couldn't take out Dexter. He could have been caught and imprisoned, kept for safekeeping until later, in the inevitable "break glass in case of Dexter spin-off" emergency.
But that's not how Season 8's "Remember the Monsters?" went. It went south, terribly. In lieu of Dexter dying, the show killed off Deb unceremoniously and stupidly. With Dexter once again losing someone close to him (yet never having learned the "big lesson" because of it), he faked his own death. And while Batista and Quinn and those left at Miami Metro wouldn't have pegged him as the Bay Harbor Butcher, they saw, clear as day, him murder Oliver Saxon on video (though Dexter set Oliver up to strike first, making it self-defense).
Despite Dexter coming to the conclusion that he was a danger to everyone around him, which was a good thing (though it didn't make him turn himself in; he just ran away), the original finale still fell way short of fans' expectations and worked to malign the entire eight-season series. Now Dexter: New Blood, essentially the show's ninth season, has course-corrected the nonsense from Season 8... but did it do right by the show in general? And did Dexter's fate feel right for the character's journey? Let's dig in. Here's what went right in the New Blood finale (and a couple of things that were like "wtf?").
The Death of Dexter Morgan
Dexter dying is polarizing in and of itself. Despite being a "monster," he's obviously popular. As anti-heroes go, he's made a case for himself over the years as an actual avenger. Someone doing a service that saves lives. But New Blood was going to see if he could pass the final test. The one that the original run's Season 2 cheated its way around (more on that in a bit...).
There will be some fans who never ever want Dexter to die. Or even face dire consequences. There's an alternate timeline out there where Dexter rides off into the sunset with Harrison and they work as a father/son vigilante duo. Maybe Angela's on-board too, given that Dexter helped her solve the case of all those missing girls (and the murder of her close friend) and she sees the value in this type of bloodshed. It's the "born in blood" Brady Bunch.
But, like Walter White, Dexter was seemingly always fated to be found out... and then die. How that all happened though was up in the air. And let's be honest: Dexter, as a series, was never as objectively clear as Breaking Bad was that its main character was doing wrong. And since Dexter never learned the hard lessons he was supposed to learn, season to season -- or in the very least if he did, it didn't stick -- an argument could be made that the series was mostly pro-Dexter's mission. But Dexter was wrong. What Harry did to Dexter was wrong. New Blood was designed to show us that and to make explicit the fact that Dexter's dream of doing the same thing with his own son was diabolically awful. For once, we were supposed to heed his nagging ghost, now in the form of Deb, and not just dismiss it as background noise.
Original series showrunner Clyde Phillips, who ran the show through Season 4 and returned for New Blood, went on the record after the Season 8 finale fumbled the ball and said his original idea was for Dexter to die. Actually, he was supposed to face up to his crimes while awaiting execution on Death Row. Death Row was definitely looming over Dexter in the New Blood finale, "Sins of the Father," but that's not how our "hero" perished. So why did Dexter not just go on the run again? Why did he allow (even want) Harrison to put him down? The answer is for the exact reason it felt so wrong for him to go live a solitary life in the first finale. Life wasn't worth it without his loved ones. If he couldn't have a future with Harrison, and he'd just have to start over as an anonymous schmoe again in some new town, he might as well end it.
And let's not gloss over the fact that Dexter was, deep down, a coward. He vehemently did not want to face police justice of any kind. No incarceration. No media storm. No trial. No facing Batista again. He in no way wanted to be known as the Bay Harbor Butcher. And if he was going to be revealed as such, he didn't want to be around for it. Harrison even suggested that maybe Dexter should redeem himself and pay for his crimes in that exact way. A case could even be made that without the cover of the hurricane in the Season 8 finale, Dexter would have joined Deb at the bottom of the ocean. But we'll never know for sure.
For the ending of New Blood to work, Dexter had to be held accountable for his actions. All of his actions (not just Oliver Saxon and/or Matt Caldwell). And New blood did that. What Dexter then chose to do while facing that problem head-on, with no more ways to weasel out of it at the end, was going to ultimately shape, and stand as the meaning, for the entire series. Dexter's death was the crucial exclamation point the show required to break the Harry/Dexter cycle.
Redeeming the Original's Doakes Story: Getting Caught and Killing the Witness
Dexter's Season 2 wasn't bad, of course, but its ending was a cop-out of sorts. Dexter found himself discovered by Sgt. Doakes, who'd suspected bad things about his Miami Metro colleague for a long time. Holding Doakes captive and unsure of what to do, Dexter would ultimately be let off the hook. The question of "Would he kill an innocent person to protect his secret?" was a big moment for Dexter to face (maybe too big for Season 2, even). But, yes, even this early in this series Dexter was seriously considering murdering Doakes if it meant not going to prison.
What did Dexter choose to do? Well, he didn't have to make a choice at all. Lila took care of Doakes for Dexter, eliminating the problem and leaving Dexter's hands clean... for now (or, er, then). It felt cheap at the time and it would be the first in a long line of moments where Dexter is spared having to make hard choices (Trinity's daughter killed Agent Lundy, Deb killed LaGuerta, Deb then got on-board with Dexter's murders instead of trying to take him down, etc).
New Blood changes all that. Panicked about facing justice and not being there for Harrison (and maybe even mostly about seeing Batista again), Dexter had to get out of his jail cell. That meant getting through Deputy Logan: a good man who we'd watched all season be a dutiful and honorable mentor/coach for Harrison. Did Dexter offer Logan a chance to live? Yes. But there was never a moment that Dexter wasn't going to kill him in order to ensure his own survival. And so that's what happened. Dexter finally made the choice he didn't have to seven seasons ago. And with this, the series was able to show who Dexter was in a pivotal moment.
This would also be the moment that split Dexter and Harrison apart -- this willingness to do anything, and hurt anyone, to escape imprisonment. "Don't get caught" didn't just mean "be careful" to Dexter. His Dark Passenger took this particular credo and put a perverse spin on it. "Don't get caught" meant it was okay to kill in order to not get caught.
The Cop Who Got It Right
After Doakes, Lundy, LaGuerta, and Deb failed to bring the Bay Harbor Butcher to light, Angela Bishop (who resembles Deb in certain ways, probably purposefully) was clever, driven, and stubborn enough to solve the nation's biggest mass-murder mystery. Another way the New Blood finale nailed its ending was by having Angela's ongoing police work and side investigation pay off. She got to bring Dexter in and she got to live to tell about it.
Dexter's whole hiding in plain sight M.O. had finally gotten the better of him. In the past, it made sense for him to be part of the Miami P.D. because of his father and sister and just overall affinity for blood work. But it also gave him the inside track on potential victims. And, like a lot of actual real-life serial killers, an obsession with police goes with the territory. Living his new life, however, as Jim Lindsay, Dexter kept himself under the radar by working at a sporting goods store. But he still couldn't help but get mixed up with a cop. If he'd just dated anyone else he'd have slipped under everyone's detection. But dancing too close to the flame is also an addiction for Dexter. Almost getting caught is an underlying drive for him, whether he'd ever admit it or not.
It was important for the show that an honest and well-meaning cop got to save the day -- a police chief, in this example, who managed to crack open two "cases of the century" in the same night.
Harrison: Knowing His Father and Breaking the Cycle
It's crazy that the original Dexter ended with Dexter's son, Harrison, as a non-character. A kid who was only ever treated as a (mostly) off-screen obstacle to Dexter's own dark desires. Of course, there was the aforementioned Hannah spin-off series, which could have given us something resembling this New Blood arc, but it never happened.
Of course now, after New Blood, Dexter's final story being with Harrison feels like a no-brainer. But it's nothing we could've imagined at the time Season 8 ended because, barring a time jump, it just couldn't happen. Thanks to the phenomenon of revivals, however, the most natural and fitting end for Dexter could now happen. Season 8 tried to tie everything back to the beginning in a super unsatisfying retcon way that evoked Scream 3's "rules of the trilogy" by introducing the psychiatrist who gave Harry the idea of turning his adopted son into a vigilante sociopath. And then it also introduced her son, who was also a killer, and was meant to act as a mirror image/brother for Dexter (even though Season 1 had already done that concept superbly).
New Blood though would circle everything back to the beginning in a very meaningful and genuine way, both by bringing Harrison in, now as a troubled teen, and having Dexter try to "Harry" him. Once again, let's be clear: This could not be allowed to go right. Did it fail from the outset? No. Harrison found himself intrigued and seduced by it, by the idea of violence being done, supposedly, in the service of others. But it all went sour when he saw the truly selfish and sinister side to it all.
Because what did Harrison do when he was caught holding the rifle near his father's downed body? He held his hands out, accepting Angela's handcuffs. She let him off the hook, but the point was he was willing to face the consequences for his mistakes. It may have taken his father's dark secret to get him there, since Harrison had committed some pretty heinous acts in Iron Lake over the course of the season, but he was now able to see the importance of accountability. Harry's crazy and cruel cycle was done. Broken for good.
Batista Didn't Get to See Dexter? Or Harrison?
Okay, "Sins of the Father" wasn't perfect. But few things are, right?
The threat of Batista's impending arrival in Iron Lake was enough to scare Dexter into some pretty vile actions... but it sure feels weird that we didn't get a face-to-face between the two of them. Or, barring that, for Batista to see a grown-up Harrison (if not just to know the kid was alive... because what did Batista even know about Harrison's fate back in Season 8?).
What Happened to Edward Olsen?
While we're nitpicking New Blood a bit (because when will we get this opportunity again?), what the hell was up with that billionaire character, Edward Olsen? Remember the oil tycoon who was the bane of Audrey's existence? And then Angela went to him for helicopters during the Matt Caldwell search? Was he only supposed to be a Red Herring for the Sniper Killer? Because, if so, it never worked. Clancy Brown was the known commodity here and always the most likely guest star to be Dexter's adversary.
Regardless of if it worked or not, it was still bizarre that he never appeared again after the first few episodes. Basically, once Kurt came on the scene, Edward vanished.
Will There Be a Dexter: New Blood Season 2?
Okay, it needs to be discussed: There are definitely ways this show could continue (even if there is no official word of a Season 2 at this point). What with New Blood being a ratings hit for Showtime (who's needed one for a while) and EP/showrunner Clyde Phillips saying he'd definitely be on-board for more, we have to entertain that this might not be the end even if it stands as a solid final chapter.
Firstly -- and most obviously perhaps -- Dexter could just still be alive. No one pronounced him dead. We saw his body bleeding out in the snow but all they have to do is say "he lived" and -- voila! -- Instant Dexter: Newer Blood. Maybe it's a new season where Dexter's in prison. On Death Row. Maybe he escapes. Maybe he just gets consulted Red Dragon/Silence of the Lambs-style about a new killer. A copycat Bay Harbor Butcher. Could it be Harrison? Either way, we'd actually get the Batista/Dexter face-to-face we didn't get in "Sins of the Father."
There's an argument to be made for keeping Dexter dead, for sure. But another case can be made for having him face the consequences he so desperately wanted to avoid. The exposure. The public malalignment. Having to sit with his regret.
If Dexter remains dead though, then Season 2 of the show could potentially follow Harrison. And for the many who feel Dexter without Dexter isn't worth doing, then we'd be gifted with... Ghost Dexter, right? As Harrison tries to navigate his own inner darkness, Dexter could still be there, talking him through it all. Though, given the ending of New Blood and Harrison realizing that his anger was born of neglect and not because of an innate evil, you'd hope the young man would give actual ongoing therapy a whirl.
What did you feel the Dexter: New Blood finale got right and wrong? Let us know in the comments...
Continue reading...