Detective Angel Batista was a prominent figure at Miami Metro, but Dexter season 8 secretly replaced David Zayas without the audience noticing. Actor David Zayas is best known for his appearances in crime dramas, particularly his role as Osbourne the cop in Rounders, inmate Enrique Morales on Oz, and Detective Angel Batista in all eight seasons of Showtime’s Dexter. Dexter’s flirtatious homicide detective even made a triumphant return in the Dexter: New Blood reboot, though this time around he was only portrayed by Zayas.
By Dexter season 8, only a select few characters had survived the slew of serial killers and Dexter Morgan’s own hobby to make it to the show’s final installment. Alongside Dexter Morgan himself, Debra Morgan, and Vince Masuka, Angel Batista was one of the only main characters from Dexter season 1 to survive through the original show’s ending. David Zayas was featured in all 96 episodes of the show’s original run, but he wasn’t the only one playing Batista in the final season.
In Dexter season 8’s behind-the-scenes extras, David Zayas revealed that when it wasn’t necessary to have him speaking or featured on-screen, Dexter's Angel Batista was portrayed by his son, David Zayas Jr. At the time, Zayas and his son had exactly the same build, with the younger Zayas looking like the spitting image of his father. When David Zayas Jr. was dressed up in Batista’s classic fedora and Hawaiian shirt, it became nearly impossible to discern that Dexter season 8's Angel Batista wasn’t the older Zayas when the shots were out of focus. As such, several shots in which Angel Batista is featured in the background aren’t played by David Zayas, but his son as a clone-like stand-in.
Since David Zayas and his son look remarkably alike, it seems Dexter missed the perfect opportunity for a flashback to a young Batista at Miami Metro, where the series could have easily had David Zayas Jr. step up in the role. However, Angel Batista's appearances were much less prominent in Dexter season 8 than the show’s previous installments, suggesting the only reason to bring in Zayas’ son was to let him have a break when he wasn’t required on set. Since Angel Batista’s role was increasingly in the background of Dexter season 8, it makes sense that the series recruited his lookalike son to stand in for shots at Miami Metro so the actor could prepare for his more intense scenes.
It’s common practice in the TV industry to have stand-ins for main actors in scenes that don’t require them to be put in focus, but these roles are typically not taken by those related to the actors. While this may have been the case before Zayas Jr. was old enough to step in for his father in season 8, Dexter’s original series seemed to enjoy bringing in the actor’s real-life family to act on the show. Before Zayas Jr. stood in for his father in Dexter season 8, he was a stunt performer in Dexter’s season 7 episode “The Dark… Whatever,” likely as his father’s double. David Zayas’ wife and the mother of David Zayas Jr., Liza Colón-Zayas, also appeared in Dexter season 5 as Paloma Aragon, the mother of a murder victim by the Fuentes Brothers. In this episode, Angel Batista spends time comforting Paloma after the loss of her daughter. Both on-screen and behind-the-scenes, Dexter’s later seasons showcased the talents of the Zayas family in relation to Angel Batista's character.