There’s a lot to unpack here regarding the entire season of Dexter New Blood. I know this show will be super divisive in regards to the ending they chose, but I will say that for me, I think it’s a fitting end. Was it executed perfectly? No. I think the way they went about the ending was less than stellar, which is kind of a bummer because the rest of the season has been really great. Do I believe it improves upon Dexter’s season eight finale? I would say yes. I do think that this final season ties up most loose ends that were left open from the previous finale. There were a few things that I feel could’ve been fleshed out better, but I will discuss more in depth after the photo below. Huge spoilers from here on out.
From the start of the season, I felt like the show was a bit slow to start. I’m not sure if it was me having issue with falling back into the swing of things since the last season had premiered over 10 years ago, but once the show hit the middle mark that’s when it went on the upwards trajectory for me in terms of story pacing. I feel like the story this show told was an improvement over the last season. Clancy Brown who plays Kurt Caldwell is the shows main antagonist. He plays a game of cat and mouse with Dexter all throughout the series and him and Dexter’s scenes are easily one of my favorite dynamics of the show. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the relationship between Dexter and his son Harrison. I think it’s mostly because I was annoyed by Harrison’s character. He did grow on me as time went on, but I feel as if though I wanted a little more out of his character. Harrison became more complex once we were shown his darker tendencies and I feel like that’s when Dexter was truly able to connect with him which made Harrison’s character more interesting after his true nature was revealed.
By the end of the season, Dexter let’s Harrison in on his dark secret. He tells him about his code, and gives him bits of the truth. They both take on Kurt who turns out to be an even bigger serial killer, having hunted dozens of defenseless women who had no place to turn and taking advantage of their unfortunate situation. Kurt fit the code, and was taken care of, but not after getting even with Dexter by having placed an important piece of evidence that would directly link Dexter to the killing of Kurt’s son Matt Caldwell who Dexter had killed at the beginning of the season and that inheritably caused this domino effect of consequences. Things also start spiraling out of control when Dexter’s girlfriend Angela Bishop(who is also the Chief of Police) starts putting all the pieces together. She figures out Dexter’s real identity and learns that he had a dark past in Miami and may be linked with the Bay Harbor Butcher case.
So, with everything falling apart near the end, what is Dexter to do? He is caught and arrested. Angela accuses him of being a murderer and tells him all that she knows, which is the truth. Dexter doesn’t admit to everything, but he does tell her about Kurt’s secret bunker where he kept all the dead bodies of the women he murdered. Dexter is backed into a corner, and this time, there is no way out. He kills an innocent cop to escape, and asks Harrison to meet him in the woods so that they can make a run for it. When Harrison finds out that Dexter had to kill an innocent in order to escape, he realizes that Dexter broke his own code, and that he didn’t just kill people who deserved it. Harrison realized that his lashing out isn’t because he is like his father, it’s because of his father. Harrison is forced to put down his own father and Dexter accepts his face as an act of love. Dexter realizes that he cannot be a part of Harrison’s life because he is a killer, which mirrors the ending of season eight, only now, there is no way for Dexter to come back. Angela Bishop makes it on scene, see what Harrison’s done, but tells him to leave town. Harrison leaves, and the story concludes.
So, the ending. There are many who will be divided on this one for sure. I think I’m content with it because it gave us a proper closed ending. I love Dexter Morgan as a character but I know his fate was to either get caught or to die because realistically, that makes sense. I also think Dexter wasn’t going to allow anyone to kill him, except his own son. Now, I don’t like that the ending was super rushed and that a small time cop like Angela was able to piece together so much evidence against Dexter, which is something all of Miami metro couldn’t do for seasons in the previous Dexter show. That part didn’t really land for me at all. I feel like the final episode as a whole was just super rushed which is bizarre because it just didn’t match the pacing of the rest of the season which was great for the most part. Also, I was excited when they showed us a scene of Dave Bautista saying he was going to fly into New York when Angela had called him talking about Dexter Morgan being the Bay Harbor Butcher serial killer because I thought we were going to get a scene between him and Dexter but nope. It was kind of left up in the air and as it stands, it is a plot hole. Another thing, I don’t know how I feel about Dexter breaking his own code at the end when he killed Logan who was Harrison’s coach and a good cop. They even made it a point for Dexter to call him a “good man” yet he still killed him to escape. I guess the reason they had done this was to show Dexter’s desperation to get back to his son, and that nothing would stop him. It’s in this moment we know that Dexter was too far gone.
Bottom line, I think Dexter New Blood is a great addition to the Dexter series. It stands on it’s own, and I liked the ending more than what we were given previously. It’s actually kind of sad that we won’t be getting more of this. I recommend this as a must watch for all Dexter fans, as I’m sure this will spark all types of discussion.
Dexter New Blood is out on streaming on Showtime
Fandom Lair 