‘Dexter: New Blood’ Sees Major Original Character Return in Episode 5

Dexter: New Blood Episode 5 was full of shocking twists and developments, with maybe none more surprising than the return of a major character from the original series. During the newest episode, Iron Lake Sheriff Angela (Julia Jones) took a trip to New York City with true crime podcaster Molly Park (Jamie Chung). The pair went to look for Matt Caldwell, who’s been “missing” since Dexter (Michael C. Hall) — now going by Jim Lindsay — killed him and hid his body. Spoilers ahead for Dexter: New Blood Episode 5, “Runaway.” (To watch the show for yourself each Sunday, you can get a free trial to Showtime here.)

Since they had to wait, Angela decided to attend a law enforcement conference for “finding patterns in seemingly unrelated cases,” held the same day in the city. As the two women pick up their credentials and head inside, we see that one of the keynote speakers is none other than Angel Batista (David Zayas), who is now the Miami Metro Homicide Captain. Batista was a Miami Metro Police Homicide detective who worked alongside Dexter in the original series. During his talk, Batista refers to the Bay Harbor Butcher, who he doesn’t know is actually Dexter. He later points out that the Miami homicide detectives eventually cracked part of the case, when they discovered that all the Butcher’s victims had “committed crimes they’d gotten away with.”

Afterwards, Angela sits down for a drink with Batista, to discuss her ongoing multiple-missing-women case. She shares what little she has to go on, and gets his input. At one point, Batista seems to flirt with Angela, prompting her to let him know that she has a boyfriend. “Can he handle you?” Batista replies, to which Angela brags, “He chops his own wood.” Batista, caught off guard but not shaken, notes how “cool” that is.

Near the end of their chat, Batista brings up the Trinity Killer case, and points out how Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter), Dexter’s now-dead detective sister, was the one to crack the case. After mentioning that Deb and “her brother” both died in a “tragic situation,” Batista brought up that the brother has a “little son,” but he couldn’t remember the boy’s name. Then, as he walks off to get another drink, Batista turns back around and says, “Oh yeah, Harrison. Cute kid.” This leaves Angela visibly curious, as she knows Jim (Dexter) has a son named Harrison (Jack Alcott), whom he casually seemed to forget to mention for years…

To see how Batista’s return impacts Dexter’s life, tune into Dexter: New Blood airs via Showtime on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. However, if you can’t wait that long, Showtime makes each episode available online beginning each Sunday at 12:01 a.m. ET. All episodes of Dexter’s original run are streaming there, as well. Click here for a free trial.