Dexter hones his murder protocols in a promising New Blood

Jack Alcott Photo: Seacia Pavao/Showtime

In one sense, Dexter: New Blood is a total no-brainer. As a once-beloved drama with a notoriously terrible ending, Dexter was practically pleading for a corrective. But righting Dexter’s wrongs is no small feat, as the first two episodes of New Blood have demonstrated. There’s a ton of expository effort required to place Dexter in a new identity and environment, and the decision to introduce a teenage Harrison doubles that workload.

But with an original ending so reviled, New Blood is on a short leash with its audience as much as if it was a brand new series. There’s little time to dilly-dally. So while it’s completely understandable that Winter Dexter needed time to warm up, it’s a shame that some people might not have made it through to “Smoke Signals,” this season’s most promising episode yet. It’s also the first episode to capture that sense of fun and mischief that saturated Dexter in its prime.

All that said, “Smoke Signals” is bound to be polarizing because it goes all-in on the mystery surrounding Harrison, which requires a higher-than-normal tolerance for adolescent stories in an adult show. And the subplot Harrison gets thrown into upon enrolling in his new high school is already pretty annoying. Apparently, despite being initially met with suspicion, Harrison is suddenly the big man on campus, hence his inclusion in a cruel catfishing prank on Ethan, the school’s punching bag.

Rather than join in on the torment, Harrison alerts Ethan to the scheme, and even physically stands up to Zack and the other bullies. That act of bravery destroys any chance Harrison had to integrate himself into his new school’s ruling class. But it does make Ethan trust him enough to reveal the must-have accessory for any aspiring school shooter: a notebook full of violent murder drawings that evokes Patrick Bateman during a manic flight. Making matters worse, Ethan’s drawings invariably depict Harrison’s new wrestling teammates as the victims of his fantasy dismemberments.

And listen, every bit of that is exhausting. But I’m willing to give anything related to Harrison the benefit of the doubt because he represents the season’s most intriguing mystery and Dexter’s biggest threat in ages, perhaps ever. Yes, the as-yet-unrevealed town serial killer is continuing apace and has now taken his first on-screen victim. But Dexter is great at outfoxing serial killers and eluding cops while fully surrounded by them. It’s hard to imagine Dexter struggling to eliminate another one, even now that his murder muscles have atrophied a bit.

Harrison is in a much greater position to destroy Dexter. He’s the only link to Jim Lindsay’s old life and crimes, and he’s carrying a lifetime of trauma and resentment that threatens to spill out at any moment. Take for example Dexter and Harrison’s meeting with the school principal about Harrison’s suspiciously impressive scores on a placement exam. Harrison takes the very first opportunity he’s given to needle his estranged father about his assumed identity, which should worry Dexter far more than it seems to.

Speaking of Harrison’s suspicious test scores, just about everything about Harrison is suspicious, and the more we learn about him, the more terrifying he becomes. “Where’d you learn to do that?” has become a common refrain in scenes with Harrison, whether he’s finessing a locked door or nearly crushing Zack’s windpipe. Add that to the test score, which according to the principal, places him around a 15th-grade level, and you’ve either got a kid that learned a lot from his tumultuous upbringing or something else entirely. Harrison is a towering threat whether or not he is who he claims to be.

Dexter has become a sentimental sap in his old age, an evolution that still doesn’t make a ton of sense. By the end of the episode, Harrison has called him Dad for the first time, and without a hint of sarcasm for once, says “Dad…my new favorite word.” Didn’t Harrison call him Dad as a kid? And what’s so potent about this new family unit he’s created for himself in Iron Lake that he didn’t have in Miami, back when Rita, Astor, and Cody were part of his cover? I haven’t the first clue as to how and why Dexter is so paternal all of a sudden, but the more vulnerable Dexter makes himself to Harrison, the more interesting the father-son story becomes.

Dexter’s fatherly aspirations also make him a more interesting character by forcing him to finally consider in earnest how his addiction impacts the people around him. Sure, the Dexter of old pretended to be introspective when it suited him and had the occasional tense conversation with Ghost Harry. But Dexter never chose to be a husband or a father, he merely chose to surround himself with people who made him seem less creepy and suspicious. Why he’s chosen to lean into fatherhood now is anyone’s guess, but because he’s actually choosing to be a father rather than to look like a family man, his choices carry more weight. His addiction has never been quite so inconvenient as now when he’s trying to turn over a frosty new leaf.

To that end, Dexter spends most of the episode cleaning up the Matt Caldwell mess, which requires coming up with a new modus operandi. Without the ocean currents to rely on, Dexter has to create a protocol for disposing of Matt’s body. Ghost Deb, who was a real pill in the first two episodes, has finally settled into a more traditional collaborator and sounding board for Dexter as he plots his next moves. Deb was almost always the best character in Dexter, which is partly why the eighth season was a disaster long before Dex took up forestry. Deb has been nearly unrecognizable for some time now, and it’s nice to see her back in fine form, even as a figment of Dexter’s imagination.

“Smoke Signals” is also a really handsome episode with lots of opportunities for visual flourishes that director Sanford Bookstaver takes full advantage of. The montage in which Dexter whips Matt’s jacket around in the woods to create a fake trail for the K-9 team is beautiful and unexpectedly moving. Granted, Leonard Cohen’s “Avalanche” does the heavy lifting, but it’s a great sequence that resembles a macabre rhythm gymnastics routine. There are also terrific shots of the incineration of Matt’s body, which ends up falling on Dexter and a drunken Kurt Caldwell, who is suddenly claiming to have seen his son alive and well.

Stray observations

• Angela redeems herself in this episode by wondering aloud why she would have made such a ridiculous initial conclusion in Matt’s case. She might be a good cop after all.
• It’s now confirmed that Iris was Angela’s sister, and we get to see more of Angela’s past and insight into why her job puts her in a precarious situation.
• The use of thermal photography is a bit much, but it makes for some great tension when Dexter is being questioned, first informally by Angela, and later formally by the keen Logan.
• Edward Olsen menaces Audrey when her car breaks down on the side of the road, and I can’t help but wonder if that character will serve a purpose beyond misdirection. The mystery killer is totally Kurt Caldwell.
• Speaking of the mystery killer, the death of the drifter girl was chilling. This killer seems especially sadistic in comparison to Dexter’s past foes, watching his victim wallow in despair, then killing her just as she thinks she’s escaped. Brutal stuff.
• Dexter almost got mauled by a bear, but that bear probably saved him from being captured.
• New Blood doesn’t have a fun opening credit sequence like old Dexter, but these new closing credits are really, really beautiful.