Resurrection’ Can’t Forget the Most Important Aspect of the Original Series

Dexter has been a franchise poised to endure ups and downs. While the original series is touted to be an all-timer when it comes to Season 1 through 4, Season 5 is where the series started to falter, up until its extremely disappointing series finale in Season 8. But, in this landscape of reboots, requels, and complete remakes, nothing is ever really over, and Dexter (Michael C. Hall) returned in 2021 with Dexter: New Blood. The series saw Dexter living as Jim Lindsay, a clerk at a wilderness sporting goods store in the small town of Iron Lake, New York. While Dexter: New Blood appeased a lot of die-hard fans at first, they were once again met with another lackluster finale. Thankfully, that wasn’t the last time audiences would see Dexter kill again.

Dexter fans are riding the high that Dexter: Original Sin brought to the table in 2024, surprising the masses with the quality of a series that most thought wasn’t even needed. Next up is Dexter: Resurrection, a sequel series following directly off the events of Dexter: New Blood. Dexter’s past crimes have caught up with him — his cover has been blown, and his son, Harrison (Jack Alcott), has sought his own retribution by seemingly shooting and killing Dexter. But, as Dexter: Original Sin confirmed, reports of Dexter’s demise were greatly exaggerated, and this new series sees the serial killer fleeing to New York City to hopefully hide in plain sight within the chaos in one of the busiest cities in the world. What this series needs to highlight, which might be a difficult one to pull off, is that Dexter’s Code needs to become a priority in the narrative once again.

‘Dexter: Resurrection’ Needs To Abide by the Code

In Dexter: New Blood, Dexter abandoned his dark passenger, along with his double life as a forensic bloodspatter analyst by day and serial killer by night. That’s not the only thing he abandoned. When Dexter relapses and begins killing again, Harry’s (James Remar) code that gave his life structure deteriorated as the series progressed. Dexter’s first kill after 10 years did abide by the code his father taught him, but it led to a slippery slope unlike how he operated in the original series while working for Miami Metro. Dexter’s kills progressively got more sloppy and fueled by his son, and almost out of survival. The further down the rabbit hole of murder Dexter went, the more his facade began to fade, and the secrets of his past came to the surface.

Without the meticulous nature of Harry’s code to help keep Dexter’s dark passenger satisfied, his killings are no longer justified, even though throughout Dexter: New Blood he tries to justify his actions continuously. In his final kill of the series, Dexter completely breaks the Code when he kills a police officer to escape captivity, and possible persecution of his past murders. The Code is what separates Dexter from the victims of his own blade. In his mind, he is serving his own version of justice, even if he has committed the same acts they have. The irony of Dexter: New Blood seeing Dexter stray away from the Code is that he was teaching Harrison his ways to help temper his arising violent urges.

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The good news is, Dexter: Resurrection will be thrusting our favorite “vigilante” back into the killing game once more, but the series needs to ensure that his victims meet the code that was imprinted into Dexter’s brain by his father, Harry Morgan. The first teaser of the new series confirmed the return of Remar’s Harry as Dexter’s dark passenger subconscious, returning after his sister, Deborah (Jennifer Carpenter), replaced Harry in Dexter: New Blood. This is a hopeful clue that Dexter will refocus and ensure the Code is a primary vehicle for his targets once again.

‘Dexter: Resurrection’ Will Provide a New Outlook on Serial Killers

The Dexter franchise has never been shy about introducing other serial killers into the fold — Arthur Mitchell a.k.a. The Trinity Killer (John Lithgow), Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski), Travis Marshall a.k.a. Doomsday (Colin Hanks), Brian Moser a.k.a. Rudy Cooper aka The Ice Truck Killer (Christian Camargo), but Dexter: Resurrection seems to be championing serial killers in a new way. Peter Dinklage‘s Leon Prater has assembled a guild of serial killers, including Charley (Uma Thurman), Lowell (Neil Patrick Harris), Mia (Krysten Ritter), Al (Eric Stonestreet), and Gareth (David Dastmalchian). Dexter will now be among a group of his peers, something that will allow him to be his true self openly. It also tees up an opportunity for Dexter to share his Code with fellow killers, and while that could lead to ridicule by some, it could also open up common ground to others who abide by similar rules as they parse out their prey.

While the reason why Prater has assembled this massive group of killers is unknown, it does provide the perfect backdrop for how Dexter can stay out of the way of the law, for now. Power and money always outweigh law and order, especially in tales of fiction. Now that Harrison has been trained in the ways of Harry’s Code, will he emerge into this prestigious group? Or will Dexter’s only son become his greatest foe? It will be fascinating to see how Dexter feels about Harrison in this new series, especially after the last time they saw each other, when Harrison tried to kill Dexter.

The series will explore the complexity of Dexter’s kill rooms once more. While he continues to run from the crimes of his past, the code needs to be the backbone of why Dexter takes the lives of others, or the whole core concept of Dexter is completely ruined. The kills need to be justified by Dexter himself, or everything falls apart, like what fans saw in Dexter: New Blood. What makes Dexter so likable is that he believes he is killing for the greater good, and the franchise desperately needs that to return. The franchise seems to try and learn from its past mistakes, and Dexter: Resurrection is the perfect vehicle to give Dexter an ending that is satisfying and feels deserved.

Dexter: Resurrection premieres on July 11 on Paramount+.