Original ‘Dexter’ Actor Talks Character’s Surprise Return in ‘Dexter: New Blood’
David Zayas is opening up about his participation in the Dexter revival, Dexter: New Blood. For all eight seasons, he played Angel Batista, one of Dexter Morgan’s colleagues at the Miami Metro Police Department. The last time viewers saw him was in the Dexter series finale, when he got the news that his buddy had likely died in the storm. But he made a brief appearance in the latest episode of the revival.
How Angel Batista returned for ‘Dexter: New Blood’
One of the biggest theories after the news of the revival was that Dexter would be tracked down by either Angel or someone else at Miami Metro. But that’s not how it unfolded. Dexter’s girlfriend Angela Bishop actually ran into Angel at a chance work encounter.
She was in New York City attending a conference where Angel happened to be speaking. Impressed by his knowledge and experience, she decided to pick his brain about the missing person case in Iron Lake. The situation reminded Angel of the investigation into the Trinity Killer, which he shared was solved by Debra Morgan. She’s dead now, he revealed, and so is her brother, who also left behind a son, Harrison.
The wheels were still turning in her head when she returned home and learned about the comments Harrison made to Audrey about his father’s identity. She wound up searching around on Google and discovered an obituary for Dexter Morgan with old Jimbo’s face on it.
Zayas on his cameo in ‘Dexter: New Blood’
Zayas spoke about his return to the role in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. He recalled showrunner Clyde Phillips first contacting him about an Angel cameo in Dexter: New Blood and immediately saying yes to the idea.
“I said, ‘of course, great. When do you want me to be there?'” he shared, noting he was “giddy” over the opportunity. “There were a lot of emotions that went into it,” he continued, “but overall I was extremely happy that I was asked to be a part of this reboot, even if it’s in a small capacity.”
When asked whether fans could look forward to another Angel cameo, he wouldn’t confirm or deny anything. But he did offer some updates on Angel’s life, saying he still resides in Miami working as the captain of the MMPD.
Zayas also shared his feelings about the ‘Dexter’ finale
The revival comes almost a decade after the Dexter finale, which was widely panned by audiences. While Zayas isn’t as critical as others, he admitted it was “a little underwhelming” to him in some ways.
“There are always mixed feelings, right? I felt it might’ve been a little underwhelming,” he told EW. “You always want to do more and you always want to be involved more. I didn’t have as much of a problem with the ending as a lot of people did, simply because I thought there was a chance that we could come back. It’s almost like it was left like that on purpose so we could come back.”
“And in the finale, Batista sees Dexter commit something but he just lets it go,” he continued. “I’m talking about when Dexter takes the pen and stabs the guy in the neck. Me and Quinn [Desmond Harrington] see the video, look at each other and we just leave it as self-defense when it’s pretty obvious — when you’re a good cop — that it wasn’t. I tried to negotiate to myself, ‘why he would let it go?’ And then I realized that if it was someone close to me that I respected and loved … I think it could go either way.”
And so Dexter got away with it. We’ll see if he can make that happen another time.
