Okay, wellness check: How are we all doing? I thought the penultimate episode of this season might be about putting the pieces in place for an explosive finale, so I was admittedly caught off guard by the tragic ending. Also, as a person of Donnie Darko experience, playing Gary Jules’s cover of “Mad World” over the credits is the easiest way to wring tears out of me — it almost feels like cheating. I can’t really be mad, though. Dexter: Resurrection has earned this moment, delivering a consistently strong season with a gripping plot and high emotional stakes. It’s the most I’ve cared about this franchise in many, many years.
I mean, how could you not feel tension in the opening scene of “Touched by an Ángel”? We pick up right where the last episode left off, with Prater interrupting a meal between Dexter and Harrison. “No matter how hard I try to keep my family life separate from my darker needs, the two just keep on colliding,” Dexter says in his voice-over. Yes, that’s the bigger-picture problem, but in the more immediate sense, Prater keeps calling Dexter “Red,” and Harrison could blow his dad’s cover with a simple “Who’s that?” Thankfully, the younger Morgan is distracted by fanboying over Prater — he’s seen all his TED Talks! — and Dexter wisely suggests moving the conversation outside before Harrison says anything incriminating. Once they’re alone, Dex doesn’t hide his anger when he tells Prater to stay away from his son (he’s literally always saying this), but Prater keeps his own emotions at bay. Assuring Dexter that he would never get between a father and son, the billionaire requests a one-on-one meeting so that “Red” can finally drop the “shroud of secrecy” he’s been hiding behind. If he fully opens up about his life, Prater won’t need to have him followed. Sounds like a fair trade, not to mention a good opportunity for Dexter to practice his improv skills.
In the meantime, though, Prater is on the precipice of discovering Dexter’s true identity, which is troubling, to say the least. Wisely, Dex decides to tell Harrison the whole truth about Prater’s serial-killer club and all the murderers he’s been Bay Harbor Butchering. He also assures his son that Prater and Charley are only concerned with him, and not with Harrison — a belief that’s immediately disproven when Charley shows up at the Empire Hotel the next day. Under the guise of needing room service delivered, she locks Harrison in her suite so she can ambush him with questions. “When my boss, Leon Prater, invites someone to his home, I vet them,” she says, conspicuously placing her gun next to a very tasty-looking breakfast. “This is me vetting.” Given how terrifying Charley is, Harrison does a decent job lying when she confronts him about his non-Schmidt last name. Mixing some truth in with the deception, he says he took his mother’s name after Red abandoned them. For someone who tracks down serial killers for a living, I’m confident Charley could suss out Dexter’s identity very easily at this point, but she seems satisfied with Harrison’s answers for the time being. When he relates all of this to his dad after the fact, Dex again urges calm. He also asks if Harrison can pull some hotel records for him.
Finding Charley’s address is simple enough, and breaking in doesn’t seem to be a challenge either. Once there, he discovers both her special-ops background and her sick mother being tended to by a nurse upstairs. With some prodding from Harry, Dexter decides to go full Dark Passenger on Charley, hiding in the back seat of her car so he can wrap Red’s Gigli saw around her neck the moment she slides into the driver’s seat. Uma Thurman has really only had the opportunity to play Charley as ruthless and steely, so it’s a pleasure to see her show some vulnerability here. When Dexter demands to know how she went from a military hero to Prater’s henchwoman, Charley reveals that the billionaire has been funding her dying mother’s life-extending treatment. In exchange, Charley has been tasked with “hunting down serial killers like you to join his sick-fuck club.” She tearfully asks if Dexter has killed her mother, but he says that’s not the kind of person he is — and he doesn’t think Charley’s the kind of person who threatens innocent teenagers with a gun. That wasn’t Charley going above and beyond to protect her boss, she explains. She was simply following his direct orders because she can’t say no to the man keeping her mother alive. “Mr. Prater exploits everyone’s weaknesses,” she tells Dexter. “Mine is my mother; yours is clearly your son.” It was Prater who broke the promise to stay away from Harrison, Dex realizes, before letting Charley go with only minor damage to her neck. And it’s Prater who will have to be dealt with.
But let’s not forget about our old friend Batista. He’s been lurking from the start of the episode, following Dexter around, snapping pics, and generally refusing to let his (correct) theory go. He might not have much of a choice, though, after Wallace calls him in to confront him about impersonating a police officer. She also repeats what Dexter told her about Batista’s difficult past, discovering that his partner was the Bay Harbor Butcher and later losing the ex-wife he was still in love with in the line of duty. “This is what Dexter does,” Batista insists. “He twists things out of context. He’s a master manipulator. He lies and lies, winning people over with his goddamn gee-whiz smile.” Good speech, but it’s not enough to change Wallace’s mind. She threatens to have Batista arrested if he doesn’t leave New York, and she makes him surrender his Miami Metro shield. You can almost hear the sad trombone as Batista exits the station — but not before seeing a flyer for the New York City Police Foundation gala with a prominent photo of Prater, the same man he saw Dexter talking to the day before.
Prater, meanwhile, is delighted to learn that the Dark Passenger used his weapon of choice on Charley without actually killing her. He seems almost turned on by her neck wound. (She thankfully pulls away when he tries to touch it.) He also doesn’t seem particularly bothered about Dexter breaking into Charley’s home, hiding in her car, and threatening her life. Serial killers are, after all, apex predators, Prater reminds her. “You can’t be surprised when a lion bites,” he says. I don’t know how understanding he’d be if he knew “Red” was making plans to kill him, however. When Dexter calls, Prater agrees to meet him the next morning before the gala. Dex, who stresses that he needs alone time with Prater, wants to use this opportunity to end their association with the good old-fashioned finality of a knife to the heart. His timing, though, is not great. The following day, Batista shows up first with a dire warning about the man he’s seen Prater spending time with. He reveals that “Red” is really Dexter Morgan, his colleague for over 20 years at Miami Metro. Charley is smugly satisfied to know her suspicions weren’t off base, though if I were her, I’d be doing some soul-searching about not unmasking Dexter sooner.
When Dexter arrives shortly thereafter, he has no idea what he’s walking into. Prater suggests they talk in his vault. “That way we can clear the air,” he says before pointedly adding, “Dexter Morgan.” Charley emerges from behind and puts a gun to Dex’s head, forcing him into the vault where Prater is waiting. Whatever Dexter’s expecting is certainly not what he gets. Surprise, the serial-killer enthusiast isn’t mad about being deceived — he’s delighted! With Batista already strapped to a kill table, Prater gushes over Dexter killing Lowell and Gareth. “I’m just so excited to be talking to the Bay Harbor Butcher!” he squeals. We should have known it was always going to go this way. Whatever loyalty Prater might feel to the murderers he collects is trumped by the presence of someone more prolific than all the others combined. The irony of the Bay Harbor Butcher is that for all the “good” he’s done by taking serial killers off the street, he’s killed far more people than any of them could ever hope to.
Now, Prater has a plan: He will become Dexter’s benefactor, inviting serial killers to his gatherings for the sole purpose of letting the Bay Harbor Butcher take them out. In a way, it’s exactly what Dex wanted (“Look at him taking my idea,” he notes in voice-over), but it would require partnering with a man as loathsome as Prater. It would also mean killing Batista as the price of Dexter’s admission. “I must admit, I’ve always wanted to see someone like you at work,” Prater says, nearly drooling in anticipation. He hands over a knife against Charley’s objections, even taking her gun so she’ll stop pointing it at Dexter. “Ángel Batista has threatened my life, my son’s life,” Dex’s voice-over reasons as he lifts the weapon. “Now that he’s confirmed who I am beyond a shadow of a doubt, he will never give up.”
But he can’t do it. Instead of stabbing Batista, Dexter frees him — a stupid move, though it’s not like he’s drowning in options. It’s still a bit naïve that he briefly wonders if he and Batista can be partners again, a hope that’s quashed once Batista has the upper hand and is strangling him. Just as Dexter embraces the poetry of dying at the hands of an old friend, Prater intervenes, shooting Batista repeatedly from behind. Charley pulls her boss out of the room, with the vault door closing behind them and leaving Dexter trapped with a dying Batista. I’m not sure what Dex expects from Ángel in these final moments. There is a sad sort of desperation in watching him try for something like absolution, swearing that he didn’t kill Doakes or LaGuerta, even as he admits to being the Bay Harbor Butcher. That he’s telling the truth is beside the point — Lila and Deb acted out of love for Dexter. Batista doesn’t need to know the details to understand that. “It was your fault,” he answers. “And now I’m dying because of you, just like they did.”
Perhaps this is something Dexter needs to hear; perhaps it’s something we do, too. The truth is that Dexter has always been a show about a monster. No matter how closely he follows the code, no matter who he targets, there is always a cost to his Dark Passenger. Batista is only the latest piece of collateral damage. Surely this is what Dexter’s thinking when he offers a useless “I’m sorry.” However genuine his tears are, they’re not enough to earn him forgiveness. Batista’s last words speak for anyone who has found themselves in the Bay Harbor Butcher’s line of fire: “Dexter Morgan … fuck you.”
Blood-Spatter Analysis
• On the whole, this season has been so light and funny — particularly after the bummer vibes of New Blood — that I was unprepared for such a heartbreaking death. Kudos to the writers and to superb performances from Michael C. Hall and David Zayas for a stunning scene.
• I’ve been saying since episode three that I think Quinn will pick up where Batista left off next season. That now seems kind of inevitable, right?
• Maybe Dexter thought he and Batista could work together because of how quickly he’s able to earn Blessing’s forgiveness after spilling his secret, but I think Blessing is more understanding than most.
• While I still feel like there must be more to Gigi than meets the eye, her current role on the show seems to be making out with Harrison and not much else.
• I did appreciate Gigi asking Dexter about his work in “blood-splatter analysis” (“blood spatter,” he corrects), given that the practice has been widely debunked. I was wondering if Dexter would ever acknowledge this.
• Speaking of investigations, we get a tiny bit of movement on the New York Ripper case, with Wallace determining that the weapon Dexter described is a manhole-cover hook. Unfortunately, that doesn’t narrow things down much, as any number of public workers could have had access to a tool like that.
• If you’re as obsessed as I am with who the Ripper might be, I did a breakdown of the most compelling theories I’ve seen.
• At least Oliva made Wallace crack a smile with his needle-in-a haystack joke. Look, there wasn’t much to laugh about this week — I’ll take what I can get.