Warning: Contains spoilers for Dexter: New Blood episode 9.
As Dexter: New Blood approaches its season finale, the show needs to be careful to avoid having Angela repeat Dexter twists that have already been fully explored with Deb. In the original Dexter, Deb eventually found out about Dexter’s murderous hidden life. The events that followed led to the controversial Dexter season 8 finale and Dexter: New Blood is at risk of doing it again.
In Dexter: New Blood, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) regularly sees visions of his deceased sister, Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter), but it is his girlfriend and Iron Lake’s chief of police, Angela Bishop (Julia Jones) that acts as his family and his connection to the local police force. After learning from Angel Batista (David Zayas) about Dexter, Deb, Harrison, and the Bay Harbor Butcher, she has been putting the pieces together. Dexter: New Blood episode 9 seems to show her reaching the conclusion that Dexter was the Bay Harbor Butcher and then receiving a note that claims Dexter was responsible for Matt Caldwell’s death. What Angela does next will define Dexter’s legacy.
With Angela all but certain that Dexter is a serial killer, she needs to either arrest him, decide to let him go, or some combination of the two. There’s some setup for the idea that Angela might be willing to let Dexter escape in a twist ending, given that Kurt Caldwell murdered the runaway Iris, the friend who suddenly disappeared and drove so much of Angela's career. With that background, Angela might sympathize with Dexter's efforts to kill murderers with the side-effect of saving innocent lives, or she might still value the relationship they previously developed enough to save him. However, if Angela lets Dexter go for either of these reasons, the show risks repeating a storyline in the Dexter: New Blood finale that has been seen in two different ways in the original seasons of Dexter. In the Dexter season 5 twist, Deb catches Lumen (Julia Stiles) and Dexter right after they have killed Jordan Chase; however, she has not seen their faces and, believing them to be vigilantes seeking revenge for what was done to Lumen (not far from the truth), she instructs them to disappear before the rest of the police arrive. In the Dexter season 7 twist, after Deb has discovered Dexter’s secret, she keeps it for him. Eventually, however, Captain Maria Laguerta (Lauren Vélez) catches Dexter red-handed and Deb ultimately shoots her to prevent her brother’s secret from being revealed.
The fact that Deb shot Laguerta and not Dexter at the end of Dexter season 7 prepared the show for its series finale where Dexter escapes without facing direct consequences for his extended run of killings. Given that Dexter: New Blood seems to have set out to fix the issues with the original Dexter’s ending, it would make more sense for Dexter to end up either dead or in jail rather than having the show rehash previously explored ideas. While Angela letting Dexter get away might allow for a continuation of the revival TV series, her betrayal of her own sense of justice would likely lead to a similarly disgruntled response from viewers.
Despite the risk of audiences feeling cheated by another Dexter finale or reusing an old plot, the possibility of Angela letting Dexter go is still on the table. Dexter: New Blood has repeatedly echoed story beats from the original show as well as including plenty of homages to the old series, so it is not beyond them to repeat another key moment in the finale. While there are other ways that Dexter could survive the series without Angela letting him go, it would not be entirely unreasonable to repeat the Deb story with Angela as the show has often revisited the ideas of cycles and the difficulty of breaking those cycles that lead to traits being passed from father to son, as might be hinted at by the Dexter: New Blood finale’s title: “Sins of The Father.”
Dexter: New Blood releases new episodes Sundays on Showtime.