Dexter: New Blood S1.10 — The ending we’ve been waiting for

Spoilers below for Dexter: New Blood S1.10 — The Sins of the Father

Seriously, there are spoilers. Do not read if you haven’t watched the finale of Dexter: New Blood.

Wow, what an episode and what an ending. It’s clear that the showrunner was given a chance to redeem his show and his character and he took it! This episode had me on my toes and even though I am truly so upset by the ending, it is the only ending that could have happened. Let’s get into it.

At the wreckage of Dexter’s cabin, Dexter and Harrison make a plan to move to LA when everything cools down in Iron Lake. Harrison is reluctant but Dexter convinces him that they can’t “be themselves” in Iron Lake. Harrison likes the idea of helping people not get hurt, Dexter obviously likes the idea of murdering (bad) people.

Meanwhile, Angela is very suspicious of Dexter and so she’s looking for something to confirm the note left in her mailbox. Bingo — she finds the titanium pins because, yep, titanium doesn’t melt. Dexter really ought to get that tattooed on his forehead.

Angela and Logan arrest Dexter and Angela interviews him. She tells him what she thinks happened (she is spot on) but then Dexter suggests that Kurt killed Matt and tried to frame Dexter. She doesn’t believe him, but Logan sort of does. They put Dexter in the jail cell and send Harrison to the inn across from the police station to eat. Logan goes over to eat with Harrison and asks if Harrison can help prove his father is innocent. In Harrison’s mind, we see that he actually saw Dexter kill Matt originally. Ooh — interesting!

Then, Angela returns to the station and has a bright idea. She calls up our old friend Angel in Miami and asks him about the Bay Harbor Butcher. Angel says he doesn’t believe it was Doakes anymore and mentions that LaGuerta thought it was Dexter. Angela sends him a picture of her and Dexter and Angel freaks out (rightfully so). He tells her he’ll be on the next flight out to New York.

With the knowledge that she is almost certainly correct about Dexter, Angela brings him into her office for another interview. She shows him the needle marks on the drug dealer and drug maker and how it matches the needle marks on all of the BHB victims. Likewise, Angela tells him that she knows he got ketamine from the vet the day he attacked the drug dealer and all of the BHB victims had ketamine in their systems too.

Dexter is a little bit floored but he’s trying to remain composed. Damn this police chief from bumble fuck Iron Lake has now solved the most prolific serial killer cold case. A case that neither the Miami Metro PD or FBI could solve when Dexter was right under their noses the whole time! He tries to talk his away out of it. It doesn’t work until he tells her to turn off the camera. When she does, Dexter explains where Kurt’s underground dead girl lair is and sends her off to solve another prolific serial killer case.

Leaving Logan alone in the office with Dexter. Ruh roh. After a brief yelling match with Deb in the cell, Dexter calls Logan over for water and attacks him through the bars. He tells Logan not to be a hero, but Logan tries to shoot Dexter and Dexter kills Logan. He calls Harrison from Logan’s phone and tells him to get his stuff and the truck and meet him in the woods.

Angela comes up from air and tries to radio Logan, who of course, doesn’t answer. He doesn’t answer his cell phone either. Huge red flag here, of course. She calls Teddy and tells him to get the state troopers, CSI, CIA, and FBI to Kurt’s bunker because there are 30 dead bodies there. Then, she runs back to the station and finds Logan murdered.

At this point, it seems unlikely that Dexter is going to get out of this alive. He meets Harrison in the woods and tries to get him to run with him. Now. But, Harrison starts asking questions when he sees the blood on Dexter’s face. When Dexter says he had to kill Logan because he was in the way, Harrison sees that Dexter actually broke the code. A lot. He also sees that Dexter does not kill to “save innocent people”, he kills because he likes killing.

In fact, Dexter has singlehandedly ruined so many lives. Harrison asks, “Would my mom still be alive if it wasn’t for you? Or Aunt Deb?” and in his head, Dexter sees many more lives taken because of his actions: LaGuerta, Lundy, Doakes, Harry, Rita, and Deb. It’s really a beautiful ending for this character because you realize that he’s actually been a bad guy this whole time. Yes, he kills bad people, but a lot of innocent people die too. And he really does love killing people. He shouldn’t get a happily ever after, riding off into the hurricane just to start anew somewhere else.

And like they tried to show you at the end of the original series (albeit very sloppily), the Dark Passenger isn’t even a real thing. Harrison doesn’t have a Dark Passenger, he just has anger. He’ll definitely need to work that out, but it’ll probably be better without Dexter in the picture.

So, Harrison needs to kill his father with the gun Dexter gifted him. It’s the only way…for both of them. He coaches Harrison on where to aim and reminds him to take the safety off and then Harrison shoots. Dexter falls to the ground and we see him holding Deb’s hand while he tells Harrison “you did great.” It is honestly heartbreaking, but such a fitting end.

Angela arrives and tells Harrison to drop the weapon. He drops it and goes to the ground, quickly explaining that he did it because Dexter killed Logan. Angela says he can get up and Harrison goes over to be handcuffed. Instead, she pulls money out of her pocket and tells him to get in the truck and never come back. He asks her to tell Audrey goodbye but she says no because she “never saw him.” Then, she calls in a police kill.

Harrison gets in Dexter’s truck and sees the letter from Hannah. As he drives through Iron Lake and onto the highway, past a stream of speeding cop cars, voiceover of Dexter reading the letter plays. Basically, he told Hannah how much he loves Harrison, but if Harrison doesn’t develop any dark tendencies, “please just let me die.”

Wow. Just wow. What an ending! Truly the ending that Dexter deserves and it really could not have been more perfect. I highly doubt they are going to do another show with just Harrison, though I guess they could if they wanted to, but I don’t know what it would be because the whole point was that Dexter’s way of life was bad and Harrison shouldn’t actually do that. It’s fine if they don’t renew or revive it again because they really did end it perfectly.

Except for the fact that the oil baron never came back, which was kind of weird, but I’ll let it slide because this season was everything I wanted and more. Incredible job, team! I’ll always love you, Dexter, even though you really aren’t that good of a person.

Originally published at http://lizziekreitman.wordpress.com on January 9, 2022.