While the mini-series concluding the fate of the famous serial-killer ended last night on Canal +, showrunner Clyde Phillips returns to the final episode which divided the public, and says he is open to the possibility of continuing the ‘adventure.
Warning, this article contains spoilers!
Last night, Canal + broadcast the final episode of Dexter: New Blood, a mini-series launched in December 2021 and which offered an icy and melancholy conclusion to the journey of the favorite serial-killer of series enthusiasts. Almost ten years after the broadcast of the eighth and final season of the series Dexter produced by the Showtime channel, the original showrunner of the first four seasons of the series, Clyde Phillips, wanted to give a second chance (or rather a second end) to his hero.
After pretending to be dead during a hurricane, Dexter Morgan, played by Michael C. Hall, had left Florida to start a new life far from everyone, now alone with his Dark Passenger after the tragic death of his half -sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter).
In Dexter: New Blood, the public found our chastened hero, now living under a false identity in the small snowy town of Iron Lake in upstate New York, sticking to a strict routine in order not to fall back into his murderous quirks.
In love with Angela (Julia Jones), the chief police officer of the local police station (our risk-loving man), he longs for an almost normal blended family life when Harrison (Jack Alcott), his son who has been lost to sight since he entrusted him to the care of his former accomplice Hannah, appears in Iron Lake after the latter’s death to renew ties with his father.
This final episode, entitled “The Sins of the Father”, precisely finds its outcome in the heart of the filial relationship between Harrison and Dexter. While Angela, increasingly suspicious of Dexter’s actions, finds a clue suggesting that he was responsible for the death of Matt Caldwell, she arrests her companion and places him in custody.
During a high-tension interrogation, Dexter manages to convince Angela to go and inspect Kurt Caldwell’s property by revealing to her that he was the serial-killer she had been looking for for twenty years, having killed dozens of young women, to distract her from him.
But when Angela reveals to him that she discovered her modus operandi (ketamine shots to put her victims to sleep) and made the connection to the Bay Harbor Butcher murders that raged in Florida years earlier thanks to the help of her former colleague , Sergeant Batista (David Zayas), Dexter understands that he will not get away with it this time, and risks capital punishment during his extradition to Florida.
Breaking the “code” established by his father (only the guilty are murdered), Dexter kills Sergeant Logan (Alano Miller) to escape from the police station and tries to drag Harrison into his escape. But realizing that his father killed an innocent man, Harrison confronts him with his own crimes: through his fault, many innocent people died, starting with his mother Rita (Julie Bowen) and his aunt Debra.
As he asks him to surrender by threatening him with a gun, Dexter understands that there is no other way out. Signaling to his son to aim for him in the heart, he dies shot dead, freeing him from his heavy legacy as a serial killer and allowing him to make a new start by leaving Iron Lake, with the complicity of Angela who accepts responsibility for the murder.
show time Michael C. Hall and Jack Alcott
“Is a series often entitled to a second finale? I believe that never happens. With the bitter taste left in everyone by the original finale, we had this rare opportunity to redeem the series and give audiences the respect and authenticity they deserve, as well as the gratitude for sticking with us until at the end“comment Clyde Phyllips in an interview at the site Deadline.
If this ending turns out to be shocking, even frustrating for many fans who expected to see Dexter finally brought to justice to pay for his crimes, or a tasty confrontation with Sergeant Batista (shocked to discover that his former partner was alive and well), it brings a logical conclusion to the frantic race of the hero, whose first rule of the Code was not to get caught.
Asked about the fact that some fans have doubts about the fate of the hero at the end of the finale, the showrunner is formal: “Dexter is dead. I wouldn’t do that to the public, it would be dishonest.As for the choice to make Harrison responsible for his death, Phillips explains that this one allows Dexter to understand his mistakes. Worse still: that he has become the Evil he sought to fight.
“He helps her see that he is the bad guy. When he yells at her ‘open your eyes and look at what you’ve done!’ (a reference to the line that Dexter said to his first victim in season 1, editor’s note), he has flashbacks of all the innocent people who died because of him, like Doakes, Deb, and LaGuerta. People who would still be here today if Dexter wasn’t who he is. It is addressed to a drug addict, in short.“
For the showrunner, if Dexter had chosen to flee, Harrison would still have killed him by shooting him in the back. But when Dexter dies and we hear him say in voice-over that he has never felt true love until this moment, it is a real revelation for the serial-killer.
“Remember when he addresses Debra in season 2 telling her that if he could love anyone, it would be her. But now he can feel love. It was his half-sister, he’s his son. It’s a real realization for him. He gives Harrison permission to kill him, and tells him where to aim. After being shot, he said to her with a last breath: ‘You have done well.’ He forgives Harrison for what he did.“
Harrison, now freed from his serial-killer father and his secrets, will he however continue the Code that his father had started teaching him in order to channel his murderous impulses – and give rise to a sequel to Dexter: New Blood at the same time? Could the title of the series, which means “new blood”, be a clue?
“It’s up to Showtime to decide if they want more. I would say yes if they asked me to do an extension of this story. I have a lot of projects going on but I would drop everything and say yes in a second for that.“
In view of the success of the ratings of Dexter: New Blood on Showtime in the United States, which broke a historic record for American television by bringing together more than 8 million viewers each week on average, this option seems beautiful and indeed possible. What was a Dexter sequel like?
“Harrison is a really complex character, and he carries the seeds of the Dark Passenger within him. He is able to do things. Watch the way he takes down Dexter at the end. He has in him this need to kill him“, replies Clyde Phillips.
“Also, Harrison brings a different perspective to the “vigilante” side that Dexter had, which is rather a surprise to Dexter himself. He brings a youthful and optimistic innocence, as if he and his father were Batman and Robin! (…) Dexter had never seen it that way. He only killed bad guys because it was his code.“
While waiting to find out if this idea of a sequel around the son of Dexter will see the light of day, and to recover from your emotions after this stunning finale, you can rediscover the eight seasons of Dexter and the Dexter: New Blood series in full on myCANAL and Canal+ Series!