Dexter: New Blood hits its peak with a thrilling episode heavy on mythology

Jack Alcott Photo: Seacia Pavao/Showtime

Between Angela and Molly’s road trip to Manhattan and Dexter’s foray into narcotics enforcement, New Blood’s last two episodes were clearly designed to keep the show’s gunpowder dry before a third-act crescendo. But who could have predicted the next installment would be as explosive as “Skin Of Her Teeth?” Even more than the strong “H Is For Hero,” the seventh episode makes a strong case for New Blood’s existence and instills confidence that this season might provide the ending Dexter deserves. (Assuming a definitive ending is actually forthcoming, but more on in the coming weeks.)

The episode is a symphony comprising the sounds of well-constructed masks finally slipping off and shattering on the ground. The mask slips off of Dexter, who for the first time is being addressed by his love interest by his actual name. Their detente is mostly transactional. Angela needs a forensics expert she can trust to examine Iris’ body and carefully collect whatever clues might have survived a decades-long stay in Clarke Caves. For his part, Dexter is either trying to squirm back into Angela’s affections or hoping to buy enough goodwill to keep his secret identity between them. But he uncovers a good amount of information, including what appears to be skin cells on one of Iris’ teeth.

Dexter tries to manage Angela’s expectations, reminding her that the DNA might not be adequate for any kind of lab analysis, let alone enough to test against multiple potential suspects. Luckily, Angela only has one suspect in mind, which conveniently for Dexter, just so happens to be Kurt Caldwell. Try as she might, Angela can’t shake the feeling that there’s something more to Kurt’s insistence on calling off the search for Matt once he found out the caves were to be the next expansion of the search grid. Fortunately, the hunch works out, and Angela gets the satisfaction of taking her best friend’s killer into custody.

By that point, Kurt’s mask is dangling off his chin. At the point he’s arrested, Kurt has already gutted his murder hostel and is subtly menacing Dexter over a slice of complimentary Boston creme pie. But then Kurt offers to share everything he knows about the case once he’s secured a lawyer, and the story he tells serves as a convenient alibi for Angela and the district attorney to hear while giving the audience an objective look at Kurt’s origin story. Kurt’s father was a monster himself, it turns out, a trucker with a predilection for violently assaulting sex workers he’d pick up on the job. All along, a young and impressionable Kurt was a witness to the sexualized violence, which always included a ceremonial hymn in the form of Del Shannon’s “Runaway.”

Years later, according to Kurt, he saw Iris climb into his father’s cab looking to hitch a ride out of town. Despite his awareness of his father’s violent past, Kurt claims he said nothing and hoped the missing girl had made it to her destination and started a new life. It’s a flawed story, to be sure, but Kurt doesn’t need the story to be perfect. He only needs for it to provide a somewhat workable theory for how his DNA would have gotten into Iris’ mouth, and it does just that. The D.A. understands Angela’s frustration but isn’t confident a jury would discount Kurt’s story. But in the actual flashback, we see Kurt pick up Iris in his truck only to shoot her as she scurries away following an altercation between them. Every murder Kurt has committed since has been an attempt to recapture the sick thrill he got the night he most resembled his father.

Dexter is back in the uncomfortable, albeit familiar position of having to hope the justice system will work as intended while trying to ignore his desire to exact justice himself. For once, Dexter’s logic as it regards Kurt makes sense. If he takes Kurt off the board as Harrison is growing closer to him, Kurt will become just another father figure cruelly ripped away from him with no real explanation. The ideal scenario for Dexter is for Angela to get Kurt convicted, thereby exposing his true nature to the community and hopefully breaking whatever spell he has over Harrison. As much as Dexter prattles on about his responsibilities as a father, this might be the first example of him actually making a decision based on what’s best for Harrison rather than what would be most satisfying to him.

But the path of most enjoyment for Dexter is far from the easiest this time because he and Kurt have unmasked each other. In a playful taunt that harkens back to the days of the Ice Truck Killer, Kurt has his henchman—the same guy who checked into a swanky hotel as Matt—give Harrison an envelope to give to Dexter. The contents? One of a pair of titanium screws, the only evidence to survive after Dexter incinerated Matt’s body. If Dexter perceived Kurt as a threat to Harrison before, he has to know how much bigger a threat Kurt is now that everything is out in the open between them. Kurt’s mentorship of Harrison hasn’t been terribly different than Dexter’s. His overtures toward Harrison are mostly dark and destructive, but with a kernel of purity buried underneath. Now that he knows Dexter murdered Matt, Kurt’s intentions toward Harrison are bound to become more sinister.

Then again, Harrison has demonstrated time and again his ability to neutralize dangerous situations with the use of his handy straight razor. He slashes another kid with it, this time an angry Moose Creeker looking to avenge the kid whose arm Harrison snapped just for laughs. Dexter arrives just in time to prevent any further escalation, but Harrison is so ashamed of his dark side emerging again in front of his father that he finally admits everything. Everything Dexter has suspected about Harrison is true, including the fact that he remembers Rita’s death in vivid detail and thinks about it constantly. Harrison, it turns out, has yet a third unfortunate father figure named Arthur Mitchell, who’s briefly reprised by John Lithgow. No offense to Batista, but that’s more like the Miami cameo I had in mind.

Stray observations

• There’s plenty to quibble with in this episode, yes. (For example, I have no idea how Dexter would be able to see skin cells inside the tooth of a decades-old corpse.) But there was so much to like that I didn’t care about the details, much like Dexter back in its glory days.
• Also, I get that Harrison is upset, but to conclude that Dexter left because he was afraid of what Harrison was becoming is a gross oversimplification of that story. Harrison grew up in Argentina with Dexter’s ex-girlfriend, so clearly, there’s a bit more at play here. At least now Dexter is motivated to come clean.
• Finally, an altogether pleasant encounter with Molly Park. She acts like a human being long enough to comfort a despondent Angela and renews Angela’s suspicion of Dexter when they compare notes about her scary encounter with Kurt. More of this please.
• Who is Elric Kane, and why is Kurt paying him off? Might it relate back to Edward Olsen, who we’ve neither seen nor heard from in weeks?
• Dexter straightening the award placard in Kurt’s office was a fun little character beat.