[Spoilers ahead for Dexter: New Blood: “The Sins of the Father.”] After 10 nail-biting episodes, the breakout sequel series Dexter: New Blood ended with a shocking bang Sunday — one that can be noted most literally. As fans of the smash hit Showtime series got a chance to stream the episode at 12 a.m. ET on Sunday night via the Showtime app, others are awaiting the network broadcast at 9 p.m ET. But if you don’t want to know what happens in the epic conclusion starring everyone’s favorite vigilante serial killer, turn away now. From this point forward, we are going all in with what happened during Episode 10’s “Sins of the Father,” what’s next for the show and how the stars are feeling and what the showrunners have to say.
While there will be plenty of mixed feelings for the Dexter: New Blood finale, series star Michael C. Hall told the Los Angeles Times earlier this week how “some people will have predicted it, and some will be shocked by it.” Last warning, if you don’t want to know what’s ahead, stop reading now, otherwise, spoilers are starting. (To watch the finale and entire series for yourself, you can get a free trial to Showtime here.)
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Dexter’s fate
In the finale, it feels like things have finally come to a peaceful rest for Dexter as he and his son Harrison (Jack Alcott) are in a good place together. The two are bonding, Dexter feels close to him and they killed their first bad guy together, Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown). With Dexter hoping to start afresh with Harrison after Kurt burned down their house, the excited dad tells his son they should move from Iron Lake, but Harrison is hesitant. After all, he has made friends in the quiet town and found a girlfriend in Chief Angela Bishop’s daughter, Audrey (Johnny Sequoyah). But as Angela (Julia Jones) investigates Dexter’s burned-down residence and suspected arson case, she finds another titanium screw (belonging to the missing Matt Caldwell) amid the rubble — one that perfectly matches the screw she received in the mail from none other than Kurt.
Piecing together the truth about Dexter’s persona as Jim Lindsay and all the evidence she has discovered in the weeks since discovering he is not who he says he is (including the note that wrote Dexter killed Matt), Angela decides to arrest Dexter in her home’s kitchen during the family’s dinner. Distracting the kids to get some items from the grocery store for dinner, Angela confronts her ex-boyfriend, who for a second thinks about killing her after eyeing the knives. After all, his father Harry (James Remar) who instilled “the code,” always said it was about “never getting caught.” However, Sgt. Logan (Alano Miller) pops in just in the nick of time to cover for her and ultimately stops him. With Dexter now arrested and at the station, he is questioned and probed over the murder of Matt Caldwell as the serial numbers on the screws line up with Matt’s surgery report — something Dexter cannot deny any further. As Dexter tries to slither his way out of it, he tells her how Kurt lied about being in New York, the stripped-down cabin he showed her and posits how Kurt could have killed Matt and is framing now framing him as payback for getting Kurt arrested for the missing women murders. Logan tells Angela that the story seems plausible and will be for a jury, hinting she take it easy. While he senses she’s not telling him everything, she says she needs to confirm things before telling him.
It is at this moment that Angela calls Miami PD’s Angel Batista (David Zayas) and tells him about how some of the deaths that have occurred in Iron Lake resemble the Bay Harbor Butcher. She inquires about Sgt. Doakes and Batista tells her about how his ex-wife, Maria LaGuerta, had a theory it was a man named Dexter Morgan. Believing he was long gone and died, Angela sends him a photo of her and Dexter in happier times, leaving him shocked. Stunned, he tells her he is on his way and bringing all his reports with him.
Meanwhile, Harrison meets up with his dad at the station, shocked at what has transpired. Dexter tells him he is safe and none of this has anything to do with Kurt. While he is sure he will get out of it, he tells Harrison they will be on the road in a few days. “We’ll get through this. The world needs us,” Dexter says to him while hugging his son.
As Angela continues questioning Dexter, she stakes her career and family on the fact that he is a murderer and tells him she has figured him out to be the Bay Harbor Butcher after noticing “wheel marks” and ketamine in the victims’ systems through her extensive investigations. Threatening him that she knows it all and he will be arraigned for Matt’s murder, which may or may not stick, he will soon be reunited with his old friend Batista. Not to mention, stand trial in Florida for the hundreds of murders and receive the death penalty — an admission that leaves Dexter visibly concerned. Asking her to turn off the camera, he reveals how Kurt has been active for 25 years as a serial killer, kidnapping all the missing women on her wall by giving her the exact location of the town owner’s creepy hatch.
As Angela goes to investigate, Dexter is haunted by his sister Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) who begins to agitate her brother for getting caught. Anxious to get out and trying his hardest to think up a plan, Dexter asks Logan for some water. However, when Logan brings it over, Dexter attacks him and smashes his head against the cell door bars. Demanding the keys, Logan tries to pull his gun on Dexter and shoots. But as Dexter averts the shot, he inadvertently snaps Logan’s neck. Now out of the cell, Dexter calls his son and tells him where to meet.
Angela arrives at the cabin and finds all of Kurt’s “trophies,” missing women she has been searching for since the start of her policing career, including his most recent prize — Merry, F–ing, Kill podcaster Molly Park (Jamie Chung). Shocked, she attempts to call Logan who is not answering and asks fellow officer Teddy to get backup and bring the FBI to Kurt’s hatch. Inquiring about Logan’s whereabouts after he failed to respond, Teddy admits he hasn’t heard from him for an hour. Knowing exactly what has happened, she races to the station to find Logan dead.
When Harrison finally meets his dad in the woods, he asks him whose blood is on his face and realizes his father had called from Logan’s phone. Piecing together the facts, Dexter states “there was no other way,” but Harrison is not a fan of such news and is rather pissed. Sharing how it was the “only way” he could get back to Harrison, the teenager’s feelings of abandonment and anger resurface. Dexter then tells him “I need to be with you,” to which Harrison tells his dad to turn himself in. As Dexter replies he will receive the death penalty, his son replies, “Maybe you deserve it.”
Telling Harrison he doesn’t need to come with him, Dexter begins to walk away but then Harrison pulls out his rifle and aims it directly at his father. Blaming him for what happened to his mom Rita (Julie Benz) and Aunt Deb, Dexter admits his son is “right” and apologizes for everything he’s done to him. “You deserve better. A better life. A better father,” he said. With tears in his eyes, he reminds his son that the safety is on, acknowledging that death is the only way out of this cycle. As he coaches Harrison through the shot, his signature voiceover notes how he’s “never really felt love, real love until now.” With Dexter now shot by Harrison, he mumbles to his son that he “did good” as the spirit of Debra holds her brother’s hand as he takes his last breath.
Angela shows up, screaming at Harrison to drop the rifle. Holding his hands out in the assumption she will arrest him, she hands him cash and tells him to take the truck and head to the highway and never come back. Hugging him tightly, she sends him away where the distraught teenager is on the road, reading the letter that Dexter wrote Hannah. “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,” Dexter’s words read as The National’s “I Should Live in Salt” plays as the outro as state troopers and FBI patrols drive-by. “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. That’s my fate. So, unless Harrison starts showing any dark tendencies, I beg you. Let me die, so my son can live.”
What’s Next?
While it is confirmed from showrunner Clyde Phillips that Dexter Morgan is in fact dead and there will be no return for the character, he told Deadline after monster ratings raking in more than 7 million total viewers on average that he has been thinking a lot about what comes next for Alcott’s Harrison and wouldn’t be opposed to more New Blood if Showtime would want to continue. Recognizing how the show is a “huge asset,” he is confident the numbers will continue to go up for the show if they were to go on.
“Harrison is such a complicated character and he has within him the seeds of the dark passenger. He’s capable. Look at that takedown of Dexter in the end, what’s in Harrison is that he has to kill this man,” he said of what a continuation could look like. “Harrison brings a different perspective to the vigilantism of it all than Dexter did, which was kind of surprising to Dexter. He brings this youthful, optimistic innocence, that he and his dad are basically Batman and Robin. Think of every time we take out one of these bad guys how many lives we’re saving, that this bad person is not going to kill. Dexter never thought of that. Dexter was only taking out bad guys because that was his code.”
Did Dexter Morgan really have to die?
Phillips told The Hollywood Reporter that Dexter’s end at the hands of Harrison was “always the intention” for the creative team. “There’s a phrase, not in a dangerous way, that I’ve learned from decades of therapy: ‘A son has to kill his father so that he can be his own man,’ whether in it’s in business or in relationships or how you talk to your dad as you become a young adult,” Phillips told THR. “I had a pretty lousy father and fathers and sons [are] the theme of the season and the title of the last episode is ‘Sins of the Father.’ Dexter finally understands that he indeed is a criminal. He’s a killer. Harrison brought this sort of teenage optimism to it in the previous episode where he says, ‘If we kill all these people, think of the thousands of lives that we’re saving.’”
Adding how “Dexter never thought of that” because he was wrapped up in the code he learned from Harry about “don’t get caught, kill for good,” Philipps adds that “Harrison, in his youthful optimism, comes up with the superhero part of that and that pleases Dexter but it also shows Dexter that there’s a way to bring Harrison on board.”
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times last week, Hall admitted that though some fans would have predicted it, a few will also be shocked by the events of Sunday night’s conclusion. “Some people will accept it; some people will reject it. I think it will be difficult for people to grapple with his fate given that he is someone that they have spent a lot of time with and have a lot of affection for — at least in some cases,” he said. “The way the season concludes is one that resonates with me. It feels justifiable. As upsetting as it may be, I hope audiences will appreciate the resonance of Dexter dying this way at the hands of his son.” Further sharing how he knows “people moaned” about the ending that was “admittedly open-ended and without any sense of closure,” Hall grins while chatting with the Times, stating at best, “be careful what you wish for.”
Dexter: New Blood airs its finale Sunday night on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET. For more on the Dexter franchise, Michael C. Hall and all things Showtime, keep it locked to PopCulture.com for the latest.
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