The cat’s in the cradle and Dexter’s a proud papa in a strong New Blood
The fourth episode of the revival, "H Is For Hero," homes in on Dexter's most potent themes.
TV Reviews Dexter
When attempting to analyze a serial killer, all roads lead back to the old question of nature versus nurture. Are monsters born or are they made? In the case of Dexter Morgan, it’s a little of both. Something changed in Dexter very early on in his life, back when he was a wailing infant all alone in a shipping container as his mother bled out next to him. Harry imbued Dexter with a sense of purpose, and by the end of the first season, Dexter was all too clear on the disturbing direction his life might have taken if not for Harry’s code.
The etiology of a sophisticated monster like Dexter provided the original series with its most intriguing themes, which is why those themes were so thoroughly explored in the first season. Given his choice of siblings, Dexter chose Deb over Brian Moser, convinced that taking the road less traveled by would make all the difference. In slitting his own brother’s throat, Dexter eliminated the only other person who understood what he went through in that shipping container, how it felt to be hungry, wet, and cold and see red in every direction. He thought that no one in his life would ever again understand what that felt like.
At last, Dexter is again in the presence of someone who understands that uniquely traumatic experience now that the father presumed dead is reunited with the son presumed Argentinian. (Sure, it was probably more hospitable in the Morgans’ master bathroom than in that shipping container, but let’s not get started on how much easier the kids of today have it.) The reintroduction of Harrison puts New Blood in a position the Dexter franchise hasn’t been in since the first season. It’s perfectly set up to explore the central theme of whether a monster, with proper care and feeding, can be assimilated into society and at what cost.
By leaning into those ideas, “H Is For Hero” instantly becomes more interesting and more poignant than the episodes leading up to it. The episode’s central mystery grows out of what initially looked to be New Blood’s goofiest storyline. Dexter is alerted to a lockdown at Harrison’s high school, then finds out from Angela that there’s been a violent incident and Harrison’s involved. He arrives to find a bloody scene that instantly feels suspicious to him. In the auditorium, Harrison’s being treated for a slash wound to his abdomen. But most of the blood belongs to Ethan, who according to Harrison, attacked him after Harrison refused to join in his school shooting plan.
Dexter explores his suspicions by going back to his roots in crime scene investigation, but why? Especially when the tidy narrative Harrison provides is so palatable to everyone in Iron Lake. There’s no cost to believing, as the rest of the town does, that Ethan was planning an imminent attack on Iron Lake High School and targeting a list of cool kids that just so happens to include Angela’s daughter. But Ghost Debra has a theory: Dexter is hoping and praying Harrison has taken on his father’s dark urges. Harrison’s story makes him an unambiguous hero, but Dexter can’t relate to an unambiguous hero. There has to be another explanation.
After skulking around the crime scene as only he can, Dexter pieces together the truth. Harrison was the aggressor in the incident with Ethan, and his wound was self-inflicted. In the final frame of the episode, Dexter’s face curls into a satisfied smile as he realizes his son takes after him in the best version of the worst way. Dexter’s reaction is really fascinating considering how little he actually knows about Harrison or the rationale for his actions. On the surface, Harrison went to extreme ends to stop a potential mass murderer from realizing his destructive goals. It’s exactly what Dexter would have done, and it’s his perfect example of the good that can result when Harry’s code is applied. But Dexter’s a fool if he doesn’t share Ghost Deb’s concern that Harrison shares a weapon of choice with the Trinity Killer.
Speaking of Trinity, Harrison gets a moment to reflect on his formative trauma in an episodic arc that suggests he views his dark passenger as a curse rather than a gift. It’s conceivable that someday Harrison might learn to appreciate his knack for ferreting out murderers and mitigating the damage they can cause, much as Dexter did when he invented his “Dark Defender” alter ego. But for now, it’s a bummer, in part because Ethan is to Harrison as Brian Moser was to Dexter. Harrison is the more sophisticated and scrupulous version of Ethan—he’d never leave a notebook of crude murder drawings for someone to find—but he’s a brooding misfit who understands the urge to neutralize the bullies.
There’s a right and wrong way to indulge that urge, and in Harrison’s mind, Ethan went too far across the line. An intimidating chokehold is one thing, but that notebook established motive and intent, and he had the means thanks to his dad’s cache of weapons from Fred’s Fish and Game. Any day could have been the day when Ethan decided he had the right opportunity to combine all the other elements of his would-be crime spree. Harrison, as far as we know, couldn’t let that happen, so he took on the burden of preventing it. And what a burden it is, especially when Harrison comes to check on his victim and finds Ethan’s parents struggling to find the silver lining around Harrison’s proactive solution to the Ethan problem.
And so, like his father before him, Harrison has made the righteous choice even though it’s the one destined to leave him lonely, and it wasn’t easy for him. He seems to have somehow absorbed the same code that had to be manually drilled into Dexter as a child. With Dexter’s tutelage, he could be the greatest serial killer that ever was. You can’t blame a guy for getting overly excited about his child’s potential.
Stray observations
- The season’s villain has finally been confirmed to be Kurt Caldwell, who is revealed to be the proprietor of The Fillin’ Station, Iron Lake’s fuel cafe, as well as The Killin’ Station, Iron Lake’s least reviewed Airbnb. I’m not even sorry for that pun, further proof that sociopaths walk among us.
- Caldwell is still claiming to have FaceTimed with Matt and is avoiding Angela at all costs. Is it because, as Ghost Deb theorizes, he’s trying to take revenge on whoever he thinks Matt’s killer is?
- Angela seems like she’ll be less interested in the Caldwell mystery for a while now that she’s reluctantly teamed up with Molly Park to track down the many girls to go missing in the area.
- Harrison didn’t look like he was learning brand new information when he listened to Molly’s podcast episode about the Trinity Killer. He looked like he was sucking air through a cavity to see if it still hurts. (It does.)
- “He even eats like me,” says Dexter as Harrison eats like a starved wolf, just as Dexter tore up that ham steak in the original opening credit sequence.
- Molly refers to Angela’s photo wall of missing girls as her “Carrie wall,” presumably a reference to another Showtime series that overstayed its welcome and will inevitably be rebooted.
60 Comments
Too Predictable that the son is just like Dexter, still hoping he is wrong and the kid isn’t a killer in training..
This show is better than most reboots because dexter ended badly, it works now because there is actually something new to say. People always are like “ this was rebooted with nothing to say” and this feels like watching the original cast star trek movies compared to something like El Camino or the many saints. Only reboot bad things and make them better!!
This has been watchable. Rebooted 4400 is crap. Waste of time.
Agreed wholeheartedly. This was the first really good Dexter episode since S8 of the original series.But the real star of the show so far has been Harrison. I wonder if they intended it that way?
i don’t know how it’ll end but i wouldn’t be surprised if showtime announced a harrison spinoff.will molly be alive by the end of the season? i’m 50/50 on it. she either gets killed by the new serial killer or dexter or harrison or narrowly escapes death without learning about dexter and harrison (new serial killer has her and dexter and harrison save her but she doesn’t know who they are).
I have a feeling she’ll be staking out Caldwell when Dexter shows up to kill him. She’ll either blow the story wide open or, she’ll be another victim.
And Harrison will kill her to protect Dexter and himself, just like Deb killed LaGuerta to protect Dexter.
As I said elsewhere, I’m 92% sure it’s going to end with Harrison killing Dexter. GhostDex and GhostDeb could be a cute couple for S2.
I’m kinda wondering if this season will end with Harrison putting Dexter on the table. I hope not—-it would be quite a stretch for the writers to create a situation where Harrison feels the need to murder his father, abandonment issues aside.Plus, if this is a setup for a spinoff, how could they go on calling it “Dexter”?
it would be quite a stretch for the writers to create a situation where Harrison feels the need to murder his father
Harrison would probably blame Dexter for his mother’s death. Granted, this would probably be a stretch or at least there has to be a bit more there concerning the background of all that being filled in for Harrison.I still hope they don’t go that route as it feels way too on the nose, which means the writers probably aren’t above using that idea.
Maybe not too much of a stretch, as they’re already laying the groundwork with having him listen to that podcast.
“Fruit of Dexter.”
Dexter 2: Electric Boogaloo
Dex2er
2Dex2Ter
Son of Dexter?
True. I’m going, Jaime Chung in a Dexter show can only mean…
Anything interesting that will come out of the show will be in Harrison and Dexter’s relationship, as the Caldwell stuff is already groan inducing. We’ve already seen Dexter try and teach the code to others and fail, so I guess the real question will be what happens when, not if, Dexter realizes his son is beyond saving .
In the short term, I somewhat disagree. Ghost Deb’s content is red hot right now; this might’ve been her best episode yet. Somebody’s having exactly the right kind of fun writing and staging it, and Carpenter seems to be having a blast too. When Hall and Carpenter have scenes together, I’m fully engaged.Of course, Ghost Deb is still in danger of going the same way as Ghost Harry: overused and without anything new to say.I think Ghost Deb needs to die this season, unless the show throws a truly epic twist and has Dexter choosing the path of pure, stubborn, wildly-unrealistic righteousness. Of course that almost certainly ends with Dexter himself dead or in jail, so, you know.
If it goes in one of the more predictable directions, Ghost Deb has to die, telling Dexter that he’s finally finishing the job and killing everything that Deb represented.If they’re married to the ghost conceit, then the next logical step would be for The Dark Passenger to finally manifest. Options abound for actors to play it – hell, they could even do a rotating cast – but the cleanest option would be for Hall to pull a double duty. Maybe include touches of creep-show CGI and audio here and there where the ghost momentarily, partially morphs into Ice Truck or Trinity.
Its time for Ghost Doakes. MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Surprise, m******s! 😀
Surprise, motherfucker.
This motherfucker would indeed be surprised if that were to happen.
The Caldwell stuff is groan-inducing? He’s being set up as a foil to Dexter so he’s EXTREMELY interesting.
The first few seasons had good killers because they entangled themselves in Dexter’s life. Ice cream truck killer is basically what would have happened to Dexter if he wasn’t raised by the Code of Harry. Trinity is a distortion of Dexter’s hope of being a family man. Prado is why he can’t mix business and family/friends/relationships.The issue post-Trinity is that they basically were like “hey let’s get a rando serial killer in Miami and throw shit at a wall.” Colin Hanks was a walking attempt at a plot twist (that was extremely obvious), season 7 had a rando European and Yvonne Strahavski, and who the fuck knows who the killer was in Season 8?So yeah I’m finally excited for them to get back to the dynamic that made the early seasons interesting. Will Dexter be a good dad and raise his son right or will their relationship just be a Caldwell/ Caldwell Jr.?
I think we agree this show’s going to end with Harrison killing Dexter, right? That doesn’t even mean the show has to end, S2 could be focused on Harrison and have GhostDex along with GhostDeb
Best episode of the revival so far, though it’s very convenient how everyone quickly ate up Harrison’s stabbing story, especially Angela, who is in a fast-track to become the worst cop in Dexter’s history since Angel Batista. Also, given his deep knowledge about Trinity, and how he was able to find his dad, I’m now starting to question how much actually Harrison knows about Dexter’s past.
“who is in a fast-track to become the worst cop in Dexter’s history since Angel Batista.”Did you forget about the completely useless Quinn? I wouldn’t blame you if you did.
Yes, the competition is fierce in Miami PD, but at least Quinn didn’t hide the fact he didn’t give a shit. Batista seemed to take himself seriously.
Quinn at least had the right instincts that Dexter wasn’t who he said he was while everyone else handwaved it away… though I guess he did more or less forget that fact by the start of S6.
“Hey Dex, a good third of my scenes this season are shots of me looking at incriminating evidence involving you being a murderer, possibly serial killer …But you got my ass out of the fire for that murder you committed so I’ll let it slide.” Quinn at the end of season 5, basically.
That’s a direction that could’ve been somewhat interesting itself (a crooked cop covering for Dexter or at least having to walk the line between exposing Dexter at the expense of his own corruption)… but yeah, it was a plot point that was basically all but forgotten and not followed up on.
“Plus I would still very much like to have sex with your sister.”
What kills me about how bad Angela is in this episode, is that just one episode ago they had a forensics expert who could apparently give you accurate and minute details of a days-old crime with only a blood pile as evidence, but when you have a live attacker and a live victim and a fresh crime scene, they’re just like “yeah what the kid said is probably true, wrap it up, boys.” Where is the forensics savant this time?
I mean, she’s dating a serial killer with a fake name and a cloudy past. She’s been investigating missing girls for decades without any breakthrough, only to be outdone by a podcaster. She was ready to close the Matt Caldwell case until Kurt stepped in, but now refuses to let it go. I want to like her, but she’s the entire Miami PD in a single person.
When you put it that way, she’s even worse than I thought.
I believe the forensics savant was from out of town. He’s available to be called in when they need him, but he’s not sitting at the station eating donuts. He’s in whatever the nearest city is doing his own stuff. They had what they thought was a clear case with an eyewitness and a notebook full of motive. A better cop would have called him in for this, of course.
Yes, I too believe he was from out of town. But why wouldn’t they call him in when they have what could have been an attempted murder and conflicting stories and no evidence that actually disputed the victim’s story? A bunch of drawings does not a school shooter make, especially when the only corroborating evidence is a story from the guy who nearly killed him. Bah. BAH, I say!
I do think one of the points they are making is how the law works differently when rich, white, privileged people are involved. The missing women are poor, many native, with nobody pushing the police to find them. Matt Caldwell was the rich son of a somebody who has influence in the town and was a missing person and no witnesses. With Ethan they had a “victim/witness” claiming self defense.
Certainly true with regard to the missing women, but I don’t think it explains what happened with Ethan. Do they have no forensics people at all in Iron Lake? No doctor who could have examined Harrison’s wound to see if it fit the explanation, or to see if Ethan’s wound matched the knife Harrison claimed to use? They did literally ZERO investigation at all. They saw Ethan’s photos and were like yeah, he’s guilty. Literally zero investigation. I don’t think that level of incompetence is explained away by institutional bias towards rich white men, and it’s in keeping with the writers’ long history of using bad police work to patch over inconveniences in the plot.
I do think one of the points they are making is how the law works differently when rich, white, privileged people are involved. The missing women are poor, many native, with nobody pushing the police to find them. Matt Caldwell was the rich son of a somebody who has influence in the town and was a missing person and no witnesses. With Ethan they had a “victim/witness” claiming self defense.
Indeed. I wonder if Harrison lied and Hannah is still alive and looking for him/them. How many seasons have been planned for New Blood?
Or maybe Harrison killed Hannah?
Angela is usually scarily competent compared to Angel. Not in this instance, admittedly, but it can be argued that she couldn’t have been completely objective about her boyfriend’s son who is also her daughter’s boyfriend in spe.
There’s a right and wrong way to indulge that urge, and in Harrison’s
mind, Ethan went too far across the line. An intimidating chokehold is
one thing, but that notebook established motive and intent, and he had
the means thanks to his dad’s cache of weapons from Fred’s Fish and
Game. Any day could have been the day when Ethan decided he had the
right opportunity to combine all the other elements of his would-be
crime spree. Harrison, as far as we know, couldn’t let that happen, so
he took on the burden of preventing it.
I didn’t read that episode like that. For what I understood from the episode, Harrison framed Ethan to make him look like a potential school shooter because he fitted the profile (long term bullying, macabre drawings, access to guns etc.). But as far as I remember, nothing in the previous episodes hinted that Ethan wanted to kill his classmates. There was motive, yes, but the intent was never shown.I think Harrison will be the real villain of that season. Caldwell is the obvious one, but he is far too ‘simple’ as a serial killer. Every season of Dexter (the good ones at least, so 1,2 and 4) involved a killer that was really close to Dexter, and Caldwell is not that original as a serial killer. He will end on Dexter’s table sooner than later, but I think the real crux of the show will be the conflict between Dexter and his son
Rebooted Homeland? Don’t give me nightmares please.
Definitely a much better episode than the previous few. Still some problems. We’ve gone back to the police being stupid again—chief turning her back on Aubrey around all that evidence and letting her take a picture (and what was the point of that picture, anyway? Apparently the list was no secret since they called everyone into the gym about it, so why did she take the photo?). And Aubrey’s general obnoxiousness is still obnoxious.And about that gym meeting. Why call like 20 kids into a giant gym and set up a podium and everything. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to just have them all meet in an empty classroom? Plus, what was the point of it? The sergeant guy was just like “yeah, it must suck to be on that list.” Thanks, guy. This was useful. I actually thought he’d say some of what Harrison said, which is that you’re all on this list because you were assholes, and you should stop being that way. And Aubrey making a point to stand up for Harrison’s speech was so fake. You participated in this shit, “Aubs.” You don’t get to claim any high ground here.
And re the review, “There’s no cost to believing, as the rest of the town does…” Of course there is, and it has nothing to do with Deb’s theory that he’s happy about Harrison’s dark passenger (which he is, but that’s not the point). Whether he’s happy about it or not, he can’t let Ethan go around attacking innocent people, if for no other reason than he’ll eventually get caught, so he has to confront him to teach him how to be better at it.
I can’t tell if they’re writing Aubrey so poorly so we won’t care too much when she dies, or the writers are just that incompetent at writing a believable teenage girl. She’s the woooorrrssst.
She’s the absolute worst. The writers are incompetent. lol She’s not the only evidence of that. If she is placed in peril (as surely she will be) they’re gonna pull out all the stops to make us care rather than reaching for the popcorn to merrily watch her die.But as I said in the comments of one of the other episodes, this is a common thing with teenage girls in television. Writers just don’t know what to do with them, so they make them obnoxious and unnecessarily pushy because that’s what they think depicts “strong girl power.”
no troll, BTW you have serious issues with women clearly, you one of those incel types?
nah she’s fine chill
no she didn’t participate in the bullying against Ethan.
That was the best creepy smile since Ted Danson in The Good Place season 1 finale.
I’m not as certain as the review that Ethan posed some imminent threat. Did I miss something? Ethan showed Harrison the drawings, but was there something more? Those drawings merit some intervention, but I’m struggling to see how anyone could seriously think he did something righteous here.
Came here to say that. The only motivation the episode gives us (apart from Harrison’s lie) is Dexter’s guess: “to see what it feels like”.Remember, teen-Dex started by mutilating animals. As far as we know, Harrison just skipped ahead to slashing people, and chose his first victim because of the built-in cover story.
“hones” not “homes”*
“On the surface, Harrison went to extreme ends to stop a potential mass murderer from realizing his destructive goals.”Nah, Harrison’s a straight-up psycho. The moment he saw Ethan’s drawings he was like ‘I can use this’. And taking a straight razor to his victim’s femoral artery suggests that, if anything, he’s taking after Trinity more than Dexter. I’m guessing that if/when Dexter looks into Harrison’s past, he’s going to find a few more bodies.
I think that we all have to acknowledge how much better this is than the last few seasons of the show before we launch into our criticisms. The parallel between Kurt and Dexter, Matt and Harrison, is pretty well set-up; even if it sounds a bit pat we don’t know where Harrison is actually going to go…they could go to him being a superhero, they could reveal he killed his stepmom…at least we have moved mostly past them trying to make him James Dean (he achieved closer to Mutt in Indiana Jones 4). I had a few points that upset me because they were lazy: I understand Kurt calling off the search (unconvincingly) to get the eyes off himself so he can keep on killing, but then Kurt lets himself be seen several times talking to a girl who he is about to disappear. The smart blood spatter guy is nowhere to be seen after Harrison’s attack. Aubrey is still being positioned as a hero despite that she was fine with Ethan being tormented and her friends are jerks…then we’re supposed to think she’s Veronica Mars. I understand Deb’s role but she’s kind of shouty dire and annoying, it would be nice if they could bring her back in some tiny bit of the fun she was rather than just having Dexter and Harrison talk about it. They need to do something to show us the police chief isn’t completely incompetent…her teaming up with the podcaster is not smart.Other than that it is a pretty good show, particularly given that there were no onscreen kills this episode so it is really doing the heavy lifting with its plot, something it didn’t have the confidence to do in the latter seasons. Plus if the podcaster puts a picture of Dexter up somebody might recognize him. I am also looking forward to Clancy Brown getting to bust out all-in villainy at some point.
Are they really not going back to Miami? The setting was very important to the feel of the original.
so we don’t know if Ethan actually told Harrison he wanted to commit a mass murder. maybe he just fantasized about it and that’s it. Maybe Harisson just exploited the situation as he had seen his picture book.
“Speaking of Trinity, Harrison gets a moment to reflect on his formative trauma in an episodic arc that suggests he views his dark passenger as a curse rather than a gift.”I’m calling it now; Harrison is Trinity’s son, not Dexter’s.