Dexter: New Blood: Sins of the Father

January 9, 2022 3:15 AM - Season 1, Episode 10

Dexter and Harrison try to live a normal life in a place that they have discovered is not as normal as they thought it was. Will they live happily ever after, despite all the threats coming their way?
posted by roolya_boolya (19 comments total)

Wow, they killed him. So now he takes on the role of the ghost to his son, I assume.
posted by Stanczyk at 11:55 AM on January 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

Wow, they killed him. So now he takes on the role of the ghost to his son, I assume.

I think Harrison is free. He saw where Dexter's code ended up, and he knows that it's ultimately bullshit. After thinking for a while that he was like his father, he realizes now that he's not. He's got abandonment issues and a violent streak that needs to be tamed, but he doesn't have to become a monster.

Overall, I found this conclusion really satisfying. Angela gets all her answers--and so does Angel. Dexter gets what he deserves. Harrison gets a big lesson in what happens when you give into your dark impulses, and now he gets a fresh start. After nine seasons of this character, I really enjoyed watching Dexter finally, ultimately lose. I wasn't sold on the idea of a new Dexter season, but I'm glad they ended his character this way.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 12:49 PM on January 9, 2022 [7 favorites]

I only wanted one thing from a Dexter finale and finally got it. Dexter is a horrible person and he died as monstrously self-righteous as he always was. Plotwise a million goofy problems, but all in Dexter fashion, and Angela's actress sold the emotional side of her character. If I gave the creators more credit I'd say the terrible copping her was an intentional commentary, but it's typical of their style and flaws to be taken as commentary. Regardless, they started where they needed to end up and worked backwards from it in a way that was entertaining even when bad.

Hoping they leave well enough alone now, zero interest in Harrison adventures, let em go into the sunset.
posted by GoblinHoney at 2:55 PM on January 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

I liked the closure, after the non-ending ending of Season 8 and effectively closing the back cover on this story.
posted by porpoise at 3:38 PM on January 9, 2022

I didn't watch this, but for some reason since the very first episode of the original series I was convinced he would be caught in the end, and although the show turned terrible in later seasons, I was always kind of bummed that he wasn't. So...I'm glad they killed him.
posted by praemunire at 4:47 PM on January 9, 2022

TV Line - Dexter EP Clyde Phillips Unpacks That 'Brutal and Intimate' Confrontation: The Finale 'Ends the Way It Has To'
posted by oh yeah! at 7:16 PM on January 9, 2022

Was very happy to see Angela figure it out. Not at all happy that he had Harrison pull the trigger.

I was thinking I'd really love to hear Molly's podcast about the solution to the bay harbor butcher, except they killed her off too!
posted by simonw at 7:33 PM on January 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

What a way to put a guilt trip on your child. If Dexter really wanted to be a good father, he would have shot himself, instead of having Harrison do it for him.

(And did they ever explain why Iron Lake has a public crematorium for murderers to take advantage of?)
posted by ShooBoo at 7:42 PM on January 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think Harrison shooting his father was the final nail locking away his Dark Passenger. He wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone and he find out in the worst way possible. I do not think he will kill again, ever.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:45 AM on January 10, 2022

Cool bit from an interview with showrunner Clyde Phillips:

Figuring out that Dexter killed Logan changed everything for Harrison. Can you speak a bit as to why Harrison chooses to take Dexter down versus escaping with the dad he finally connected with?
Dexter’s code is so irrevocably broken that it feels like bulls–t to Harrison. Harrison subconsciously realizes that Dexter is an addict. Dexter’s a murderer. When Harrison talks about killing, he’s thinking, ‘Look at all the lives we can save if we take out this serial killer.’ Dexter never thought like that. Harrison is thinking like Batman. Dexter’s thinking, ‘My code is I kill people who do bad things.’ Dexter says to Harrison, ‘I want to be a better man. I want to be a better father, and I can do that with your help,’ and Harrison says, ‘I’m not your goddamn caretaker.’ That’s what you say to an addict. It’s too late. You have broken the code, and your code isn’t like taking another drink or another drug, your code is murdering people.

Then he yells at him, which is an Easter egg from the pilot, he says, ‘Open your eyes and look at what you’ve done,’ and then we do the flashback to Logan, Lundy, Doakes, LaGuerta, Rita and Deb, and that’s when Dexter realizes he’s right. Then there’s this long, long pause, and Dexter says to Harrison, ‘You have to take the safety off, just like I showed you,’ giving him permission to do this. Urging him, almost, to do it. Harrison’s weeping, he does it, Dexter falls and says, ‘You did good.’ He’s absolving him.

posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:49 AM on January 10, 2022

I mostly loved it except for the fact that the Batista and Dexter never got to have a scene together. Maybe the actor couldnt make it to location, or whatever, but I was literally waiting for that to happen all season and it just....didn't.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 9:38 AM on January 10, 2022 [3 favorites]

I got really excited for Batista to arrive and try to take Dexter back to Miami. I also think there could have been a final arc to the story with Dexter on the run, "dark passenger" set free. Maybe Rudy (Brian) back as his guide, full murder Dexter, before he met his end. But this was not unsatisfying.
posted by dis_integration at 11:50 AM on January 10, 2022

100% enjoyed (although a Batista-Morgan showdown would have been superfun). Bye Dex.
posted by whatevernot at 12:11 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I was a bit underwhelmed with this episode, to be honest. I don't mind that Dexter died in the end, but something about it just seemed off to me. I guess he was just rattled by the thought of having to talk to Batista?

Maybe it's just that I know enough about the real state's attorney in Miami to know that there's zero chance she'd dredge up a decade old case that was thought to be solved without incontrovertible proof that doesn't seem to exist and it seems like after Kurt's bullshit the feckless DA in New York would be incredibly unlikely to charge him with anything either.
posted by wierdo at 4:19 PM on January 10, 2022

I’m sad that Logan and Molly had to die, but glad that Angela got closure on her missing person cases.

Angela’s reaction to Harrison killing Dexter was strange. He could have easily claimed self defense. Why send him - a kid - away in exile? And he’s the only one who knows Kurt is dead. Best not to overthink it, I guess. The whole season and especially the ending were very silly, plot wise, but the writers executed the patented Dexter formula deftly and it hit all the right emotional buttons.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 10:11 PM on January 10, 2022

I had a feeling the show would end with Harrison killing Dexter. Angela killing him was my second guess. What I would not have wanted to see, was Dexter and Harrison riding off into the sunset as, oh, I don't know, wannabe Batman and Robin, but armed with big knives. Such an ending would have made me nauseated. I wasn't happy with the way Walter White died, if we're talking about antihero deaths - it seemed like he got everything his way before conveniently being hit by a bullet and getting to expire with his hands pressed to his beloved equipment, avoiding both prison and painful death by cancer. I appreciate that Dexter concluded by putting away this dangerous protagonist without rock fanfare and at the hands of the kid he traumatized through his selfish actions.

Incidentally, did anyone else notice that Dexter told Harrison he killed Trinity in revenge for murdering Rita? I don't know if the writers missed that, or it was written to show how Dexter distorts the truth in his own mind. Viewers may recall the finale of Season 4, with its sad twist, and remember that Dexter's murder of Trinity occurred prior (spoiler) to him realizing Trinity had murdered Rita. He could never have been anything useful to Harrison without being honest about that. So yes, there were a bunch of plot hangnails, the most annoying being, what happened to Cody, Astor, and Rita's parents, in regards to Harrison's custody? - but, I am glad that Dexter, fascinating character though he was to watch, is finally dead, and his twisted, narcissistic image along with him.
posted by Crystal Fox at 10:22 PM on January 10, 2022

Logan's death was contrary to the code, but Miami Dexter killed a few people outside of its tenets as well, e.g., the photographer who turned out to be innocent (his assistant was the perp), some dude in a park rest room around the time Dexter found the bodies in the barrels, the brother of the DA played by Jimmy Smits, when Dexter was looking for some other guy, and probably others, arguably including Doakes unless he gets a pass on that under the "Don't Get Caught" clause.

On the other hand, Harrison slaying Dexter followed the code: no more innocents, like Logan, would die.
posted by carmicha at 11:01 AM on January 12, 2022

I just realized I'm still mad about Doakes. Nice work, Harrison.
posted by praemunire at 1:00 PM on January 12, 2022

I'm not sure what I wanted as an ending for Dexter. Certainly this ending felt more satisfying than the original series finale, where it seemed as if Deb had to pay the price for Dexter's crimes, so I'm glad for this season's existence.

I do feel some sadness over Dexter's death though. I know it's the only way things could have ended; he'd proven time and again that the "don't get caught" part of The Code took precedence over the "only kill bad guys" part, even if he didn't pull the trigger himself in every case, the collateral damage was on him.

But for as much of a literal monster Dexter was, I didn't always take the serial killing literally when watching it. Like, there was a metaphorical level to it, that it was about feeling alienated from normalcy, about dysfunctional relationships and imposter syndrome. There were moments of great intimacy in some of those kill-room scenes, and I still rank that first sex scene between Dexter & Julia Styles' character as one of my all-time favorite love scenes. So, there was a part of me that wished he could get redemption or a happy ending. But I know that this ending was as much of a redemption as he could get. And I wouldn't really have wanted him to get to ride off into the sunset with Harrison. But still.
posted by oh yeah! at 3:53 PM on January 13, 2022 [3 favorites]