Dexter’s Dark Return: What You Must Know Before ‘Resurrection’ Hits Screens!

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Dexter goes down in history as one of the best shows with a terrible series finale. But that’s OK, because the series’ reputation was partially saved by the continuation series Dexter: New Blood, along with the prequel Dexter: Original Sin. Now, in April 2025, there will be Dexter: Resurrection, a direct continuation of Dexter: New Blood that brings the fan-favorite vigilante killer back to life – literally.

The series has fans giddy about what’s to come for Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall). Tons of big-name actors have been named among the cast, including Peter Dinklage, Krysten Ritter, Uma Thurman, Neil Patrick Harris, and Eric Stonestreet. Along with Hall, James Remar will reprise his role as the late Harry Morgan, who serves as Dexter’s ghost guide, as well as David Zayas as Detective Angel Batista and Jack Alcott, who appeared as the grown son Harrison in New Blood. As fans gear up to watch, it’s worth revisiting what happened in New Blood.

Where Has Dexter Been All This Time?

Dexter ended with the character leaving his son with Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski), faking his death, and moving to an undisclosed location where he was seemingly working as a lumberjack under an assumed identity. Dexter: New Blood picks up years later. Dexter is in upstate New York and living under the fake name Jim Lindsay, a nod to the author of the novel series on which the show is based, Jeff Lindsay.

He has been controlling his Dark Passenger and urges to kill by keeping himself busy with a rigid routine. He exercises daily. He works at a local outdoor and gun shop. He tends to his rural home by driving an axe through wood instead of human bodies. And he’s oddly dating the local police chief Angela (Julia Jones). In place of Harry, he sees the ghost of his deceased sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) from time to time, who helps him control his urges when they become too much to bear.

But his new seemingly boring life is upended when a young man shows up in town. He reveals himself to be Harrison, the toddler son Dexter abandoned when he took off. Harrison has been living in Europe with Hannah all this time. But she died of cancer years ago, and he was put into the foster system. In searching through her things, Harrison found letters from Dexter and learned who his biological father is. He tracked him down and wanted answers.

At the same time, Dexter has a victim delivered to him on a silver platter in the form of a local named Matt Caldwell (Steve M. Robertson), who he is certain is responsible for killing at least five people and covering it up. When he sees Caldwell kill an innocent deer for sport, the Dark Passenger begins to bubble to the surface again.

Dexter’s Journey as a Father and a Killer

While trying his best to be a father figure to Harrison, Dexter is planning his first kill in a decade. He promises himself (and Debra’s ghost) it will be a standalone kill. But after the deed, he ends up growing suspicious of Matt’s father Kurt (Clancy Brown), a local pillar of the community, and his potential connection to a rash of young women disappearing from the area.

In the light of the recent incidents, Dexter ponders if he might have unintentionally imparted his Dark Passenger to his son, Harrison. This is because, just as Dexter was abandoned and exposed to his mother’s blood at a tender age, baby Harrison witnessed Rita’s (Julie Benz) gruesome death in the bathtub.

Dexter’s ears perk up at the case of the missing young women, which Angela discusses with him. Viewers know at this point that Kurt is the perpetrator, and Dexter has a sneaking feeling as well. He might not be able to uphold his desire to be “one and done” with Matt, even given the deep love he feels for his son and desire to protect him. In fact, that very love leads Dexter to another kill, wanting to go after a drug dealer who sold party drugs that Harrison consumed and overdosed on.

Angela starts to connect the dots and realizes Dexter is the man she’d spoken to about a Miami police officer named Angel Batista, even though she only knew his real name and previous occupation, not that he was a killer. Despite her suspicions towards him, when she discovers the remains of a friend who had vanished years ago, she now seeks his assistance because of his expertise in crime scene analysis.

Angela aside, the cat and mouse game heats up when Kurt alerts Dexter to a titanium screw that was in Matt’s body, all but confirming that he knows Dexter killed his son. Now he has leverage, which means Dexter can’t rely on the long arm of the law to step in and convict him. His Dark Passenger is now out in full force. Angela isn’t completely off the scent, either. She is starting to suspect that Dexter killed two drug dealers when she notices similar needle marks on their necks.

The Complicated Father-Son Relationship

Knowing that he must kill Kurt and growing more convinced that Harrison has his Dark Passenger, Dexter is torn. It doesn’t help when Harrison admits that he remembers what happened to his biological mother, and he decides to leave town. Dexter makes a tough decision after Harrison is kidnapped by Kurt: he rescues him and reveals the details of his Dark Passenger. It gives the young boy solace in knowing that he’s not alone.

Dexter goes all in, explaining the details of The Code to Harrison and what he has been doing his entire adult life. As the pair investigate Kurt’s bunker, they find sickening trophies of the women he has tortured and killed. Harrison seems horrified by the scene, suggesting his Dark Passenger may not be at the same level as Dexter’s.

Following Kurt’s murder, which further traumatizes Harrison, Angela gets confirmation from a posthumously sent letter with the aforementioned titanium screw, alerting her that Dexter, a.k.a. Jim, is Matt’s killer. She reluctantly arrests her boyfriend and reaches out to Batista for assistance, who doesn’t yet know she has clued in to Dexter’s real identity. This shocks Dexter’s former co-worker, who had no idea Dexter was still alive. What’s more, he realizes that everyone suspected the Bay Harbor Butcher was a member of Miami Metro and no one believed it was actually Sergeant James Doakes (Erik King). Dexter’s past is about to come back to haunt him as Angel starts to reconcile that maybe it was Dexter all along.

It’s when Dexter kills Logan (Alano Miller), however, an innocent police officer, so he can escape and get back to his son that it’s clear he has completely broken from the code and there might be no turning back. This murder is what turns Harrison against his father. While Harrison could stomach the idea of his father being a vigilante killer, ridding the world of bad guys, he couldn’t process the fact that his father murdered an innocent man, and someone he befriended.

Harrison realizes in this moment that he isn’t like Dexter after all. Dexter agrees and believes that the only way Harrison will ever be able to live a normal life is if his father is not in it. He tells Harrison to shoot him with a rifle, ready to die to atone for his sins as a man but mostly as a father. Here, Dexter reveals, through his inner narration, that he is feeling actual love for the first time in his life.

Harrison pulls the trigger and Dexter falls into the snow in a pool of blood, seemingly dead. Just then, Angela arrives. She gives Harrison money and tells him to leave and never come back. She is going to take the fall for Dexter’s death, likely believing it will be easy for her to claim self-defense once she reveals his true nature. As fans know from Dexter: Resurrection, however, she saves his life. He is transported to the hospital where doctors work furiously on him. It’s inferred that the snow and the cold helped slow the bleeding. Since Angela arrived so quickly after, Dexter managed to survive.

What happens next is what fans will get to see in Dexter: Resurrection. It will likely involve more heinous victims who make their way to Dexter’s table, and the walls closing in on Dexter as the man who once called him a best friend, Angel, arrives to see Dexter alive and well with his own eyes. What happens to Angela, Harrison, and others remains to be seen. But fans are gearing up for a wild ride that harkens back to the old days of the Dark Passenger.

Stream Dexter: New Blood on Paramount+.

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2025-03-16 04:11