
Dexter: New Blood Review: Sins of the Father (Season 1 Episode 10)
Please note this review contains spoilers for Dexter: New Blood Season 1 Episode 10.
This really couldn’t have ended any other way.
Dexter: New Blood Season 1 Episode 10, “Sins of the Father,” offers a more satisfying end than the original series did, and it’s not exactly a surprising one. Unfortunately, it’s also muddled by being too rushed.
As an anti-hero, Dexter needed to die to end this story properly. And it only made sense for it to be at his son’s hand. The way the story unfolded, it was almost too predictable that this is how Dexter Morgan’s story would end.
It’s poetic. It’s even merciful.

The scene is gorgeous, heartbreaking, and dripping with emotion. Michael C. Hall’s performance is stellar as he desperately tries to convince Harrison to come with him, but then ultimately accepts a very different fate when Harrison points out how many innocent people had been hurt because of him. Dexter’s known this, of course. That’s been his battle for a long time.
Dexter: You have to take the safety off. Just like I showed you.
This moment was foreshadowed when Harrison received that gun as a gift, then proved to be a really excellent shot. Dexter collapses onto the snow, blood pouring out in that same striking way that we saw on Dexter: New Blood Season 1 Episode 1.
Dexter’s narration lets us know that he feels love from his son more than anything as this occurs. Harrison is releasing him, and of course, it means Dexter won’t have to face a trial and go to prison. Harrison will even get to feel like a hero.
He’s done his own vigilante act, really following in the footsteps of his father. It’s interesting that it mirrors the way Kurt killed, as well. We can only imagine what might come next in Harrison’s life, but for now, what matters is Dexter’s story has met a proper end.

And yet there are problems with how we ended up there in the first place. As much as the ending feels satisfying, poetic, and inevitable, everything that led us to that moment is rushed — and not altogether believable.
For starters, all along, Angela has been putting the pieces together too easily. She’s exceptionally smart, has good gut instincts, and even knows a few things about Dexter that others may not notice, but still — it comes together like too much a no-brainer.
She’s also too quick to believe it and has been all season. This is a serious boyfriend, one who she spends Christmas with and has family meals with. We never did see much in the way of chemistry between them, but it rings false that she wouldn’t be in a bit more denial about someone who she says she loves.
It seems to me that all of that could have been solved with a little more time. A few more episodes to allow for more suspense and more nuance could have made it all seem more plausible. But that fact is it happens too quickly.

As does everything else in the finale.
The hardest pill to swallow is that Dexter would break his code and kill an innocent person. It seems wildly out of character and it isn’t the Dexter we know at all. Add to that, it’s messy and careless, leaving him in a situation more desperate than he’s ever been in.
Of course, he had to kill someone innocent for Harrison to have his own realization about his father. Harrison was able to accept, on some level, that his dad was this sort of superhero who brought villains to justice. But he can’t accept that his father would so easily kill someone who doesn’t deserve it at all.
Once again, a little more time to explore all of this could have justified it. When Dexter kills Logan, we’re missing the inner dialogue that could have made it make sense. We’re to understand that it’s about desperation at that point, and that it’s about getting to his son.
He’s willing to kill someone innocent if it’s the only way to keep Harrison from being without a father. I can buy that. He’s also backed into a corner in a way we’ve never seen before, so perhaps it is within his character to make such a move.

But because it’s all so rushed, it instead feels like a choice that’s only made for the sake of getting to the end of the episode and giving Harrison a reason to pull that trigger.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the finale is that we’re led to believe we’re going to see a confrontation between Dexter and Angela Batista.
Angela calls Batista to ask about the Bay Harbor Butcher case, then reveals the Batista that Dexter is still alive. He says he’ll get there as soon as he can, and when Dexter learns that Batista is on the way, he knows he’s screwed. (Plus, he’s in the system now after being arrested under his real name).
It’s a huge letdown that we don’t get that payoff.

The one satisfying payoff we do get is Angela seeing everything Kurt had done. Dexter leads her right to where he kept his victims, where she would see “what real evil looks like.” But even that winds up being less satisfying than it could have been, because she doesn’t find out Dexter’s involvement there.
When he tells her where to find those bodies, it seems like he has a larger plan in place, but it’s only just enough to distract her and get her out of the station.
Yet again, it’s just too rushed.
Every issue with this finale, and really with Dexter: New Blood as a whole, hinges on timing. Just a few more episodes, or even episodes that ran a little longer, might have been just the thing that was needed to make it all come together in a way that was more satisfying.
That said, it’s been a heck of a ride, and Dexter: New Blood gave us a chance to see new sides of Dexter Morgan along with deep character growth. That’s perhaps even more important than offering a more satisfying conclusion to his story, but it definitely does that too.
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What did you think of the Dexter: New Blood finale? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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11 comments
Best review of the finale that I’ve read.
Thank you so much, and thanks for reading! This finale was certainly a lot to process.
I didn’t think the ending made any of sense.Harrison doesn’t want to leave Iron Lake because he had made friends there and because of his girlfriend, but that is exactly what happens. He should have just left with Dexter then.Oh well anyway I also think a spinoff won’t work unless Harrison’s dark passenger emerges and Dexter is his concious.It did seem really rushed.
That is a really good point about Harrison wanting to stick around. I do think I’d be interested in a spinoff that had Dexter speaking to him in that way. You never know, I suppose.
I think your article is spot on. Very rushed and in need of a few more episodes. Where I disagree is that I don’t think Dexter had to die. I love the character and after such a good season having the door left open would have been cool. A cool ending would have been that Batista and Dexter confrontation you mentioned. The season ends with Dexter in the back of Batistas car in cuffs would have felt more like justice to me, death is too easy. And, it leaves the door ajar for more Dexter. Even if Dexter gets away at the end, he isn’t starting over like in Iron Lake, he would be plastered all over the news and on the run, I would have even liked that better….him dying just seems lazy and too obvious to me.
This is a good review of the finale, maybe a bit heavy on the rushed side of things, as I feel it was executed quite well. Most other ‘reviews’ I’ve seen have been trashing everything and anyone just because dexter died, these people don’t seem to realise he’s been the villain the whole time and Harrison opens his eyes to that and he accepts his death is needed for Harrison. I though it was some of Hall’s finest acting of his Career in the death scene,
We don’t if dexter is dead. Wouldn’t be a surprise if he survives this … hope so.
I was so disappointed and let down there is only one season and had had to die so soon. I think eventually he had to but there was so much more story to be told. Especially with Harrison. I was loving the fact he was back and now gone so soon. Damn!
Dexter killing an innocent is out of character and not the Dexter we love? Did you only watch New Blood? Check out season 5, the bathroom scene and get back to me? He has killed innocent before, although I do think Logan was accidental.
Exactly! Also, what about Laguerta? Dexter was about to murder her in cold blood to get away before Deb did the dirty work for him. His first rule wasn’t “only kill bad dudes”, his first rule was “don’t get caught”. Killing Logan to escape was 100 percent in character for him. Which is exactly why Dexter was, despite his code, a bad guy himself.
Harrison needed to see that and realize that Dexter isn’t a vigilante superhero – he is a murderer who just happened to kill less wholly innocent people than most serial killers. The show always kind of acknowledged that, but it’s nice to have it spelled out in the end (especially since there are way too many fans who idolize Dexter as well).
It’s also nice that Dexter can still have some redemption through one of the few people he actually loved. Deb couldn’t do the right thing when he asked her to shoot him, but Harrison could. Of course, the really right thing would have been to turn himself in as Harrison had asked him to, but as I said: Dexter isn’t a good guy, so I buy that this was as much selflessness as he could muster.
It seems you were watching something else. This ending is even more unsatisfactory and poorly written than the previous one
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