Showrunner Confirms Main Character’s Death in Dexter: New Blood Finale

The bloodthirsty avenger Dexter Morgan has met his end. Showrunner Clyde Phillips confirms the same while talking about the show’s future.

Let’s set up the scene: This reboot had given Dexter a second chance at not repeating his mistakes. The stakes rise higher than ever when his son Harrison enters the picture. Dexter must be an ideal father now, so that his murderous instincts don’t influence his son.

Harrison, who harbors a dark passenger of his own, finally connects with his father, believing they can be a team and follow a moral code. 

Sadly, although Dexter’s first kill (Kurt Caldwell) starts off with noble intentions, it gets him tangled up in a web that ultimately leads him to killing an innocent man. It is Logan’s death in the finale, that makes the father-son duo realize that Dexter is beyond saving.

As atonement, Dexter willingly dies at the hands of his son, Harrison.

While the camera does not confirm Dexter’s death, showrunner Phillips has gone on the record to say that Dexter is indeed dead. In fact, Dexter’s death was planned all along, about two and a half years ago when New Blood was conceived:

We knew this had to happen, and I think it had to happen for the audience as much as for the character. To see him get caught time and time again and get out of it at a time and time again is a disservice to the audience. And I think there’s a certain truth in this storytelling, in authenticity in the storytelling.

Clyde Phillips 

Michael C Hall was also aware of the same from the get-go and was enthusiastic about being on board and giving the story its deserved ending.

Dexter evading getting caught did make him seem larger than life. But after nine seasons of the same cycle, his story could also come across as lackluster and one-dimensional.

His death then is not just redemption for the character but also for the writing.

But does Dexter’s death bring an end to the franchise? That’s for Showtime to decide, says Phillips, who is ready for season 2 if the network is.

What will Dexter: New Blood season 2 look like? (Other than possibly dropping Dexter from the name.) Phillips has stated that Harrison’s vigilantism is quite different from Dexter’s and unique in its own way. That moral compass, with its struggle against the dark passenger, will definitely make for an interesting tale.

It seems like Phillips already has a new season penned down. Showtime make that call now!

About Dexter

Dexter is a cult classic crime drama series that first aired on Showtime. The show’s first season was derived from the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004), the first in a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay. It was adapted for television by James Manos Jr., who wrote the first episode. Subsequent seasons evolved independently of Lindsay’s works.

Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is introduced as a serial killer who kills other killers who have escaped from, or haven’t been found by the justice system. By day he is a blood spatter analyst who works for the Homicide Department of the Miami Metro Police.

Source: Deadline