"All these people working together to help me, Mr. serial killer
Make that Mr. serial killer and son."
Hey guys, Pete here. Today i'm talking about the ending of Dexter New Blood. Episode 10 brought
the limited series to a conclusion and provided an unambiguous ending for the character Dexter
Morgan. I'll be recapping the main points of what happened in the finale which was titled "Sins of
the Father" and then talk about what the ending was trying to convey. we'll be getting into all of
that right after a quick spoiler warning if you haven't watched episode 10 of Dexter new blood
then this video won't be for you and with that out of the way let's get into it. Dexter Morgan is
dead. there's not even really any wiggle room there they, decided to kill him off and it's done.
in order to understand how we got there we do have to look back at the original series finale
the 12th and final episode of its eighth season at the end of that Dexter had abandoned his
son Harrison thinking he was better off with his girlfriend Hannah who was also a killer.
they traveled to Argentina to start a new life knowing that she would never recover
he unplugged his sister Deb's life support after she slipped into a coma he dropped her body into
the ocean and then drove his boat into hurricane Laura and New Blood clarified that he was trying
to end his life here. laura is a reference to his biological mother's name and of course witnessing
her death as a child was the foundational event that defined most of Dexter's life
after he survived the hurricane he explained in a letter that he sent to hannah that the experience
showed him that he had to bear the burden of his urges alone in his mind he would leave everyone
behind live in a self-imposed exile where he wouldn't be in a position to endanger anyone
but himself after the loss of Deb he realized that everyone he cares about that stays close to him
suffers because of what he does they all eventually die and we will come back around
to this letter at the end and discuss how it informs his decisions at the very end of his life
the season 8 finale ended with Dexter alone working as a lumberjack somewhere in Oregon
at the beginning of new blood we learned that his self-imposed exile included remaining
abstinent from indulging his dark passenger he gone almost 10 years without killing anyone and
managed to put together about as normal of a life as he could hope for living under the assumed name
Jim Lindsay and working at the local fish and game store while he still goes to great lengths to try
to look normal and blend in he did decide to enter into a relationship with the local chief of police
the implication is that he wanted to stay close to the action more than he wanted to completely
limit the chances that his real identity might be exposed it's a classic situation where dexter
wants to control everything around him and this time it does come back to bite him in the end
things start to get disrupted in this newfound normal life he's built on routine when two sons
arrive in Iron Lake Matt Caldwell the son of a successful local businessman he'll become dexter's
first kill in a long time in a situation where he bends the code almost to absurdity because
this guy really rubs him the wrong way and his son Harrison also arrives who is fresh off of
an awful experience with the foster care system after losing his adoptive mom hannah who dexter
left him with to cancer initially Dexter tries to turn Harrison away telling him he's made a mistake
that he's jim lindsay and he's not his father but after he kills Matt he decides to tell him
the truth he welcomes his son into his life and they struggle to connect until he realizes that
Harrison struggles with violent urges related to his past he focuses in on the fact that they both
witness their mothers being murdered and decides that he'll come clean and tell him everything
he tells him that he has similar urges and that his adoptive father harry taught him a way to
control them by using a code to kill people who the justice system has failed to catch
being a vigilante sounds good to harrison at first and they do kill Kurt Caldwell together
in the penultimate episode and in the lead-up to the finale dexter thinks he's finally found what
he always wanted someone who knows what he is and what he does and can accept him at the same
time his girlfriend Angela who'd grown suspicious after learning about him faking his death started
to put together the pieces to connect him to the Bay Harbor Butcher killings from his past this
was helped along by kurt sending her surgical screws as evidence that he killed his son matt
and in the beginning of the final episode she discovers another one of the set in the ruins
of dexter's burnt down cabin that will lead to his arrest but before she's able to do that we get our
first glimpse of how the curt kill has changed dexter's mindset he's looking around and notices
how many nice and helpful people live in iron lake and realizes that they'll have to leave in
order to have more victims harrison is reluctant because he finally feels like he fits in somewhere
but dex explains they'll need to satisfy their urges to keep the dark passengers at bay it's in
this moment that you realize that this is more about his desires than what's best for his son
angela takes him into custody and you see the moment when she loses any doubt she might be wrong
as he hears the charges dexter says matt's dead and the effortlessness of the lie seems to confirm
her suspicions he's booked as dexter morgan not jim lindsey and when they sit down for the
interview she says hello dexter morgan which is a nice call back to the trinity killer she presents
him with the evidence she has which to his credit isn't very strong and he does his normal routine
of doing a pretty good job of talking his way out of it he makes a fairly compelling case sinking
on his feet after hearing her working theory and using the fact that kurt had a grudge against her
for his arrest it all ties into him burning down the cabin so the screw would be found and when he
pivots to try to start talking about the problems she's having related to learning about iris he
really pushes a button which prompts logan to come in and break things up when logan and angela talk
he points out that dexter's story is plausible enough to sway a jury and therefore a da will
be hesitant to file charges of course she has a lot more on her mind because of her investigation
into his connection to the bay harbor butcher but she still isn't ready to mention those suspicions
and holds back on this initially because she feels like she needs to be sure this time
dexter is allowed to meet with harrison for five minutes and he explains that he has nothing to
worry about because it's not related to kurt and assures them that he's been in tougher spots
before and that they'll get out of it they hug and he tells him that the world needs us implying that
the world needs this kind of vigilante justice that only they can deliver and you can see that
this doesn't have the intended effect on harrison he looks conflicted about it logan and harrison
have a moment in his room at the tavern and basically he realizes what a good guy he is
angela decides to call batista and ask about the bay harbor butcher case
she asked him if he believed that dokes really did it which he did at the time but he also
brings up that his ex-wife maria laguerta thought that it was dexter morgan only he died years ago
she sends him a picture of them together to show that he's still alive and he immediately
says that he'll be there first thing tomorrow morning and he'll be bringing everything he has
with this new information angela returns to interview dexter again she brings up the ketamine
and then shows him everything she's got that makes her believe that he's the bay harbor butcher
there's a point where i think she lets her emotions get the best of her telling him
that batista was coming there the next morning it's here where you see him change his strategy
instead of riding it out and hoping that her weak evidence won't hold he decides to try to get her
out of the station so he can try to find a way to escape he tells her to turn off the camera and
when she eventually does he tells her about kurt's underground bunker this really serves no purpose
for him except buying a little time and in that that makes her only appearance before the very end
over the course of the season we had been seeing less and less of deb in each episode as dexter
started to embrace his old self and decided to expose everything to harrison he stopped
allowing that voice of doubt that comes through deb to influence his decisions he or she reminds
him about how earlier in the season he started thinking that not killing might be the problem
and when she doubts his ability to get around angela he gets angry and then calls for logan to
bring him some water he uses this as a chance to try to force him to let him go he smashes his face
against the bars and then he gets him in a choke hold he gives him the opportunity to unlock the
cell and just let him go so he can go see harrison but logan makes the decision to go for his gun and
tries to shoot dexter who then snaps his neck killing him this is a point of no return there
isn't much he can do besides take his keys and try to leave and he calls harrison with logan's phone
and tells him to get his truck and meet him where they found the white deer at the same time angela
arrives at kurt's cabin and finds the bunker she goes inside and discovers all the bodies in the
trophy cases and after putting everything together and seeing molly park's body there she comes up to
call for backup she obviously can't reach logan so she calls teddy and finds out that he hasn't
talked to him in the last hour she rushes back to the station to find his body and learns that
dexter escaped when he meets up with harrison covered with blood in the woods his son wants to
know where it came from he realizes that it came from logan because he called him from his phone
and dexter tries to tell him there was no other way he goes further to try to make it about him
saying it was the only way i could get back to you and goes as far as saying that i need to be with
you none of this is really landing because of what happened to get them to that point harrison really
begins to question if they're the same after all he was on board because he thought about
it as saving innocent lives but here he sees the failings and how innocent people can get swept up
in it too he decides that he doesn't want to leave town together he wants it to end and he thinks
that his father needs to turn himself in dexter explains that he would get the death penalty
which means he won't do that and his son says maybe that's what you deserve realizing that he's
running out of time dexter tells harrison that he doesn't have to come along but that he can't stay
there anymore as he's walking away harrison pulls out his rifle and demands to know if his mother
and his aunt deb would still be alive if it wasn't for dexter and when he says open your eyes and
look at what you've done saying the same words that dexter said in the very first kill that we
saw in the first season it finally hits dexter and he thinks of some of the innocent people that died
as a direct result of his inability to stop killing in that moment he decides to make
the ultimate sacrifice for his son he tells him that he's sorry for everything he's done
that he deserved better a better life a better father and realizing that he was about to walk
away from the son that had waited to be together for so long and had felt abandoned for all these
years he breaks down and he tells him that he has to take the safety off just like i showed you and
assures him that this is the only way out and they both understand this they understand that they're
trapped in this cycle and this is the only way it can come to an end he guides him to shoot him
in the heart and just before that happens we hear in voiceover i've never felt real love until now
meaning this one selfless choice made for his son felt right and you hear him say you did good as he
expires with his sister deb holding his hand as he goes angela shows up and tells harrison to get out
of there she gives him some cash tells him to take the truck gives him directions and tells him never
to come back she cleans off his prints and calls it in to take responsibility for it herself we
see that he has kurt's cash and when he's getting ready to leave the scene he sees the letter that
dexter sent to hannah this reminds the viewers that he had already come to this conclusion before
harrison re-entered his life as we hear him read it in voiceover we understand that he went against
his own plan and welcomed harrison back into his life because he couldn't bear to send him away in
that moment he hoped that he could make it work in spite of the fact that he was already picking up
on his old behaviors when the prospect came up to be himself and bring harrison along for the ride
he jumped at it and in the end he was ready to abandon him again if he wasn't willing to accept
character and the letter reinforces that he always knew that harrison would be better off without him
he did what he thought he had to do to give him a chance and he accepted that it was his sacrifice
to make it's not the kind of end that will satisfy everyone who wanted the story to continue
but it's the one that they set up and delivered let me die so my son can live he went out on his
own terms and i think that's a good place to leave things let me know what you think about it in the
comments it's certainly divisive i knew a lot of people were going to be disappointed and not like
the finale if he died based on the feedback to my last couple of videos where i said that i thought
that was the most likely outcome and it wasn't a perfect season or finale it had its issues i think
that's pretty standard for dexter and i think everyone has their own limits on what they're
willing to overlook and if they would have got the ending they wanted they would have been happy to
overlook those things i think they rejuvenated the character they brought back the excitement
and the tension from the early seasons and i think we saw some of michael c hall's best acting from
the entire series so i'm not mad i decided to watch it dexter dying was inevitable and it looks
like clyde was right it did break the internet please like this video if you enjoyed it please
subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and thanks for watching i'll talk to you soon