How the ‘Dexter: New Blood’ Finale Mirrors the Alternate Ending for the Original Series
Dexter: New Blood came and went fast. The show kicked off in November of 2021 — eight years after the Dexter series finale — and followed its titular character after he faked his death and went into hiding. Dexter Morgan had built a new life in Upstate New York under the name Jim Lindsay, but a series of events left him exposed.
The finale of Dexter: New Blood is not the one creator Clyde Phillips imagined when he was part of the original series, but he did find a way to include certain elements he had in mind. Here’s how.
What happened to Dexter in ‘Dexter: New Blood’
In Dexter: New Blood Episode 10, Dexter was preparing to go on the run with Harrison Morgan as police were zeroing in on him for murder. When he went to meet Harrison, Harrison was puzzled by the blood on his sweater and questioned him about what happened. Dexter was forced to tell him he killed Officer Logan, who was also Harrison’s wrestling coach, resulting in Harrison pulling a gun on Dexter.
Harrison called B.S. on Dexter’s code and confronted him about all of the innocent people he hurt, from Rita Bennett to Debra Morgan. Images of all those people began flashing through Dexter’s mind, causing him to finally understand the impact of his actions. He told Harrison to pull the trigger and was shot and killed.
The finale shares similarities to Phillips’ alternate ending idea for ‘Dexter’
The events at the end of Dexter: New Blood were seemingly inspired by the alternate ending. Phillips, who showran the original series through Dexter Season 4, initially planned for Dexter to die at the end of the first show. He told E! News that Dexter would’ve been awaiting execution when he looked out into the viewing gallery and saw the faces of some of the innocent people he got killed.
He explained: “They’re just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery. And in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed—including the Trinity Killer and the Ice Truck Killer (his brother Rudy), LaGuerta who he was responsible killing, Doakes who he’s arguably responsible for, Rita, who he’s arguably responsible for, Lila. All the big deaths, and also whoever the weekly episodic kills were. They are all there.”
“That’s what I envisioned for the ending of Dexter. That everything we’ve seen over the past eight seasons has happened in the several seconds from the time they start Dexter’s execution to the time they finish the execution and he dies. Literally, his life flashed before his eyes as he was about to die. I think it would have been a great, epic, very satisfying conclusion,” Phillips added.
His departure at the end of Dexter Season 4 effectively put the kibosh on that. But in hindsight, Phillips told Screen Rant, he’s glad that didn’t happen because then there would be no Dexter: New Blood. The show exploded after its November premiere, smashing viewership records and becoming the most-watched show on Showtime. It ran for 10 episodes and concluded on Jan. 9.
Will there be more of ‘Dexter: New Blood’?
Although Dexter’s story is complete, a Harrison spinoff seems possible. Phillips said he be open to the opportunity but acknowledged that it’s Showtime with the final say.
“It’s all in Showtime’s hands,” he told TVLine. “If they were to call me and say, ‘We want to do Harrison. We want you to figure it out,’ I’m pretty busy, but I would drop everything I’m doing and jump right into it. I would love to do it, but it’s really up to Showtime.”
Until we know more, check out the first season of Dexter: New Blood now on Showtime.
