The following article contains spoilers for Dexter: New Blood (2021).Dexter: New Blood marks the grand return of one of the most notorious serial killers ever portrayed on television, Dexter Morgan. After the series finale of the original show, Dexter, ended in 2013, fans were left with a sour taste in their mouths, wondering why the vigilante serial killer would fake his own death and move to a faraway location, abandoning his son and the woman he loved. Now, after nearly a decade, Dexter returns in a new limited series that intends to not only make up for the original series' ending, but to continue the character's journey, and perhaps find a better conclusion for his story.
This new series takes place ten years after the death of Dexter's sister, Debra, while the serial killer/forensic blood spatter expert was believed to have died in a hurricane in Miami. Gone are the warm, sunny days in Miami where Dexter had a job as a forensic investigator who could analyze blood patterns and help the police solve grizzly murders. Now, he lives in a small, cold, and snowy town called Iron Lake, New York, where he has a different name: Jim Lindsay (a nod to Jeff Lindsay, writer of the Dexter novels).
Just like in Miami, Dexter is used to following a daily routine. He hunts for deer in the morning, chops some wood, has coffee and breakfast, greets members of the community (including police officers and a butcher), buys delicious pastries for his coworker, does his job, and mostly keeps to himself. He's also managed to not kill anyone in ten years.
This time, Dexter's girlfriend is a police officer named Angela Bishop (portrayed by Julia Jones), who seems to like Dexter for his sincerity, even though she knows nothing about his past. They enjoy spending intimate time together, and attend public events such as an evening of dancing in the town's tavern. Instead of a blood spatter expert, Dexter now works at a simple but elegant store that sells weapons, including guns and knives, and hunting gear. Tension builds when Dexter crosses paths with an impatient customer named Matt Caldwell (the son of a very important man), who wants to buy an automatic weapon immediately for hunting, but is unable to because his background check needs to be cleared first.
Matt irritates Dexter about how he's a stickler for following rules, and Dex does the best he can to ignore him everywhere he goes. While Dexter's adoptive father, Harry, used to be his conscience, reminding him of his skills and who he is, this time it's Debra who talks to her brother in his mind. Dexter always loved his sister, and Debra talks to him about how he picked a colder place to stay compared to the hot and sunny Miami, and how she's glad that she died before him so that she could watch over her brother. Even when nightmares continue to haunt Dexter, Debra comforts him.
Dexter also notices someone constantly following him around town, and it turns out to be Harrison, Dexter's son (whom he had with Rita, his dearly departed wife from the original series). Initially, Dexter tells Harrison that he's found the wrong man after Debra reminds her brother of the people he's lost in his life. However, after breaking his rule by making his first kill in ten years (goodbye Matt Caldwell), Dexter decides to tell Harrison that he is in fact his father, and intends to take care of his son the same way Harry took care of Dexter.
This new limited series may not be groundbreaking, or offer much of anything new, but for fans of the serial killer genre and of Dexter Morgan, this show is (so far) a return to form for one of television's most treasured and complex characters. As Dexter and Debra, Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter, respectively, return to their roles with such ease and command, it's as if they never left. New characters, such as Angela Bishop and Matt Caldwell, are also intriguing in their own right.
Angela is reminiscent of Debra in the sense that she's an intelligent and caring police officer who appears to like her job very much, even though she lives in a town where not much crime seems to occur. She also shows her humanity when helping to pay for a young woman's dinner, who just showed up in Iron Lake, and offers her help in seeking a place to stay. There's also a glimpse of an investigation Angela is working on involving missing or murdered young women (due to photographs posted in the police station). Angela also has a daughter, who is shown during a protest involving climate change, and refusing a hot cocoa from a wealthy tycoon.
The episode's best (and most sentimental moments) are when Dexter tracks down a white deer each morning, only to hesitate and not kill it. One morning, Dexter also approaches the deer and touches it, recognizing its beauty, and it's the beauty of living a friendlier life and not killing that Dexter has appreciated for a decade, until Matt Caldwell came along. Matt Caldwell, as Dexter tells him before stabbing him in the chest, is not the first selfish and heartless person he's taken down. Not only did Matt kill the deer Dexter was caressing, but he was also responsible for killing a person while intoxicated.
The sadness is that Dexter found some peace and quiet in Iron Lake, until an annoying and disrespectful person like Matt came into his life. After taking down Matt and killing him, Dexter's narration begins again, showing that his dark passenger side can return at any moment when he's threatened or obligated to kill.
After the first episode, many questions remain, such as what happened to Dexter's previous girlfriend, Hannah, who left with Harrison at the end of the original series? Will Dexter be in danger in Iron Lake and potentially face other enemies related to Caldwell? Dexter claims that he may not be a monster but that he's an evolving monster, leading to the biggest question that will linger throughout this series: is Dexter really a changed man, or will he always be the vigilante killer incapable of controlling himself and the lives of those around him?
New episodes of Dexter: New Blood air Sundays on Showtime.