[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Dexter: Resurrection Episodes 1 and 2.]
Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is back. The first two episodes of Dexter: Resurrection have premiered, and, as showrunner Clyde Phillips told us ahead of Dexter: Original Sin‘s debut last fall, the serial killer of serial killers narrowly survived being shot by his own son, Harrison (Jack Alcott), thanks to the freezing outdoors slowing his body from bleeding out. Here’s a look at everything that happened, along with some exclusive quotes from the cast!
“A Beating Heart”
The first episode of the new series picks up right where Dexter: New Blood left off as local doctors race to save his life. It then flashes forward 10 weeks to Dexter, still in a coma, experiencing dream visits from some of the biggest rivals of his past.
First, it’s Arthur Mitchell a.k.a. The Trinity Killer (John Lithgow), who taunts him about also having a son who wanted him dead. “Almost being killed by someone you’re fond of has a particular sting, hey, Dexter?” he teases.
Then, it’s Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits), who reminds him that while his lifelong pursuit of vigilante justice saved lives, his desire to still lead a normal live in the daylight cost others — pointing to the headstones of Debra Morgan, Maria LaGuerta, James Doakes, and Rita Morgan as proof. “Yours is a lonely path, my friend,” Prado warns.
His third fever dream visit is from his father, Harry (James Remar), who combats Prado’s suggestion that Dexter has done more harm than good; he assures his son it wasn’t a mistake to save him from the shipping container all of those years ago and that it was the right decision to give guidance to Harrison.
The fourth visit? “Surprise, motherf**ker!” It’s James Doakes (Erik King), who arrives with some surprising advice: Continue helping Harrison so he can find that “kernel of good” inside of him and so he doesn’t become “just some creepy motherf**ker.” Gotta love this guy’s no-nonsense verbiage, even beyond the grave!
Of the chance to reconnect with his former costars for these moments, Hall told TV Insider, “It was awesome. I mean, it was fun for me, as an actor to see those guys, to reconnect with them, to work with them. For Dexter, I think it was a really fantastic launch pad for this new life that he has to sort of till that rich interior soil of his mythology and illustrate just what a sort of richly populated interior landscape he has. It was awesome. It was a perfect way to start.”
The story then takes us to New York City, where Harrison has taken up his own prototypical existence as a hotel bellhop. He’s just passed his GED and has a best friend on staff and a rich guest who trusts him enough to hand over his expensive watch for a repair. Things are going well, but like his father, the bloodlust is always there, just beneath the surface.
It doesn’t take long for Harrison’s “born in blood” nature to take hold again after he witnesses his favorite client using a roofie on another guest and attacking her in his room. Though he initially intends to walk away, her screams draw him back, reminding him of the many women who were murdered by Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown) in New Blood, and soon, his dark passenger takes over. He then gets his own apparition visit from his father, who guides him through the process of cleaning up the scene, chopping up the body in the hotel kitchen, and disposing of them in garbage bags.
When asked whether Harrison is more afraid of getting caught or becoming evil, Alcott said, “I mean, I guess to an extent, they go hand in hand. But I would say becoming evil… For Harrison, for somebody who’s sort of gone through the process of loss and grief so many times, there’s just not much you can take from a person like that. And obviously, Harrison’s freedom would be one of the things left. But I think there’s nothing scarier to Harrison than the idea of becoming a monster or realizing that he has been a monster this entire time.”
Unfortunately, it’s Harrison’s technique that may give him away. After a sanitation worker sees body parts falling from a bag, a uniquely observant detective, Claudette Wallace (Kadia Saraf), arrives on the scene and easily finds the other bags, based on the way Harrison sealed the tops of his trash bags by tying the fastener around them like a hair bun. She uses the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” to focus, and of the song choice, Saraf told us, “[It’s] such a timely song for where we are today and where the show is taking place. I think that the ’70s disco requires a lot less engagement. There’s a flow to it and a rhythm where [she] can just do her thing, and that rhythm really helps her tune out all the other noise.”
Back upstate, the real Dexter is struggling with physical therapy and to understand how he hasn’t been arrested. After all, Angela (Julia Jones) discovered the truth about him. However, a visit from Teddy Reed (David Magidoff) tells him all he needs to know. He comes bearing a gift from Angela: a note, which reads, “We’re even. Now get the hell out of Iron Lake.” It turns out Angela covered for Harrison after the shooting and the police determined the bullet in Dexter’s/Jim Lindsay’s cell meant Logan (Alano Miller) was the aggressor.
It seems like he’s in the clear until he gets another blast from the past — this time, not one of his imagination. It’s Angel Batista (David Zayas), armed with a Cuban sandwich from back home, just like Dexter used to love. The visit starts as a warm reunion, but Angel has some official business-style questions: What happened to Debra’s body? Why go by the alias? And why did Angela call him and tell him he’s the Bay Harbor Butcher, just like Maria once did? Dexter has convincing answers for each of them, but is Batista really convinced? We’ll see.
Like Reed before him, Batista also comes with a critical gift. He has filed the paperwork to legally resurrect Dexter from the dead, so now he can use his true identity again. “You’re officially alive,” he says. But Dexter wonders if that friendly action is just a move to get him ready for an eventual prosecution.
He soon learns from a nurse that there’s been a murder in the Big Apple, with the body chopped up into pieces and bagged. He knows right away that it’s Harrison. He’s already got one foot out the door thanks to Batista’s presence in town, but now he’s doubly sure. Dexter fakes a long shower and makes a break for it, heading straight for Harrison.
Elsewhere, we get our first introduction to Charley (Uma Thurman), who sneaks into an apartment and discovers a collection of driver’s licenses, hidden away in the ceiling like a serial killer’s tokens. She then delivers an “invitation,” whatever that means.
Zach Dilgard/Paramount+
“Camera Shy”
The second episode begins on a very different note. A man, who looks very much like Dexter in size and shape and goes by the name Jack, attacks a rideshare driver after asking about his kids, saying, “Are they good kids? I was a good kid, too, me and my brother. Didn’t help us any. We still lost everything because of you f**ks.” Later, a decapitated body is found by the pier.
Meanwhile, Dexter is on a mission to help Harrison. He sneaks into the hotel and observes as the new detective evaluates the bathroom and rightly determines the murder weapon was the toilet tank lid. “Just what Harrison needs, a good cop,” Dexter notes.
After Dexter gets a rideshare and learns about the Dark Passenger Killer that’s been targeting drivers, he’s furious. Sure, he’s here to help Harrison cover his tracks, but now he’s got an identity thief to grapple with. As for whether that’s really his motive for tracking down the Dark Passenger, Hall said, “Well, I don’t think the name is the reason he’s gonna take him out, but, yeah, I think it bugs him. I think Dexter is a very isolated, lonely person, in a way, and he’s someone who has never been recognized or lauded or appreciated or condemned for all the stuff he’s done. He’s still in the shadows, and this shadow alias emerged, and for someone else to claim it or being given, it’s sort of petulant, childish, petty human of him to get his back up about it, but I kind of like that little detail.”
Dexter ultimately befriends the driver, Blessing Kamara (Ntare Mwine), and soon he’s able to interview the driver from the first episode, who actually survived the Dark Passenger by stomping on the brakes in the middle of an intersection and sliding out of his neck restraint. He also finds out that a dashcam capture of the attack didn’t get the killer’s face because he has special lights in his hoodie that blur the camera’s capture.
It doesn’t take long for Dexter to be given an offer to rent Blessing’s basement apartment and dine with his lovely family, and he takes it after some hesitation — and a consult with his ghost dad-slash-shoulder angel — and plans to get into the rideshare driving gig business to find his new mark.
Of Blessing’s willingness to trust Dexter, Mwine guessed, “Maybe he sees he needs a friend. It could be that simple. Really, Blessing is good for people and reading people, and he knows that from that first meeting with Dexter, that he’s a fish out of water and he needs some help, and so he offers that help and guidance and literally a roof over his head.”
Zach Dilgard / Paramount+
He later identifies a suspect as Ronald Schmidt and narrowly stops him from getting into another vehicle. He doesn’t have the strength to chase the guy down, though, as his wounds are still very, very fresh.
Still on Dexter’s trail, of course, is Angel, who interviews Reed about “Jim Lindsay.” This is the first time that Zayas has gotten to play Batista as someone who’s fully onto Dexter, and the actor said of the opportunity, “It’s fun because you get to explore parts of that character that you know didn’t appear in the first eight seasons of the show. So it’s new to the audience how he’s going to deal with that and how he handles that information and in a space outside of Miami: New York City. So yeah, it was just a wonderful experience trying to find different things in the character based on the information that he has now.”
Meanwhile, our intrepid NYC detective has tracked down the girl Harrison saved from certain doom and wants to have a word with him.
And we’re off! What did you think of the two-part premiere? And where do you think things are heading next? Hit the comments below with your thoughts on Dexter: Resurrection‘s first episodes.
Dexter: Resurrection, Fridays, Paramount+
