Eight full years after the series finale of "Dexter" aired — and promptly became one of the
most frustrating show endings ever for fans — the serial killer-focused drama is making its grand
return. The 10-episode revival, titled "Dexter: New Blood," was officially ordered in October
2020, with Michael C. Hall set to reprise his role as the serial killer to end all serial killers.
Since the announcement, more returns from exciting cast members,
including Jennifer Carpenter, who played Dexter's sister Debra,
and John Lithgow, who played Season 4's Trinity Killer, have been revealed.
Fans of the show, while enthusiastic about the return of Carpenter,
were also a bit confused about what exactly her return would look like.
After all, Deb dies in the show's series finale — it's a major reason that Dexter decides to fake
his own death and start a life as a lumberjack far away from his hometown of Miami, Florida.
Really, there were only two viable options for Deb's place in the revival — either she would show
up in flashbacks or she would take the place of Dexter's father Harry, who often appeared in the
original series as a representation of Dexter's internal monologue surrounding his urge to kill.
In a recent panel at Showtime's Television Critics Association, Carpenter finally revealed the role
her character would play in the revival. Not only is she taking the place of Harry,
who tried to appeal to Dexter's better angels with his moral code of conduct,
she'll also be the manifestation of Dexter's darker urges -- his dark passenger.
Deadline reports that at Showtime's TCA panel,
Jennifer Carpenter confirmed that her character would be taking on the role of Dexter's Dark
Passenger -- the internal manifestation of Dexter's long-held desires to kill.
"I call it my Dark Passenger." "You gave it a name?"
Speaking about her return, Carpenter said,
"I love the concept of the Dark Passenger and being invited into Dexter's psyche. [...] It
was an opportunity not to be an angel or devil on his shoulder, but to jerk the wheel
to the left or right against his will. And to manipulate him, to navigate him, to abuse him,
to save him. I felt like it was something entirely different than some sort of ghost entity."
Michael C. Hall added on to Carpenter's sentiments, noting that because of the way
Deb's death affected Dexter, she was the perfect evolution of the Dark Passenger.
Hall said,
"She's an internalized character for Dexter that represents just how far he's come or how far he's
fallen— internally reeling and without a compass in a sense as much as he'd like to have one."
Showrunner Clyde Phillips added that Deb is actually, quote,
"more than the Dark Passenger." He said,
"She represents a corner of Dexter's mind that we all have in our own heads that says,
'Well, wait a minute, if you do this, then there are consequences.'"
"Dexter's been away for nearly a decade. What kind of monster will he be?"
In case you need a refresher on the history of Dexter and the Dark
Passenger from the original "Dexter" series, everything begins after a
three-year-old Dexter sees his mother viciously murdered with a chainsaw.
Harry Morgan, the biological father of Deb,
finds Dexter at the crime scene and adopts him as his own son. Tormented by his mother's death,
Dexter starts showing the signature signs of psychopathy — mainly killing animals — so
Harry makes the decision to use this urge to kill for a twisted form of justice.
Arguably, Harry is the entire reason Dexter becomes a serial killer,
albeit one who tries to be relatively moral about it. So although his father dies years
before the first season of "Dexter," Harry lives on in Dexter's mind, keeping his son
in line with the set of moral rules they set up long ago called the "Code of Harry."
"He gave me a code."
Throughout "Dexter," it's constantly in question whether or not Harry did
the right thing by guiding Dexter down this path. It seems like Deb will be
following in those ambiguous footsteps in her own role as the Dark Passenger.
It appears that the Dark Passenger is formed from Dexter's most traumatic experiences,
and while it forces him to pause and consider difficult decisions, depending on Dexter's
current state of mind, it might not guide him to make the "right" choice, if there even is one.
As "Dexter: New Blood" will also focus on the relationship between Dexter and his son Harrison,
played by Jack Alcott, with whom he'll be reunited 10 years after they were separated
in the original finale. The main thing fans have been wondering about is if Harrison has inherited
his father's killer tendencies. And if so, will he have his own version of the Dark Passenger?
We can't wait to see how Deb's version of the Dark Passenger plays out in "Dexter:
New Blood" when it premieres on November 7.
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