S01.E01: Cold Snap

[Meredith Quill]

Quote

For the past decade, Dexter has assimilated into small-town life as a beloved member of the Iron Lake community; when a local hotshot begins behaving recklessly, he questions whether he can continue to suppress the murderous urgings.

 

[monkeypox]

I went in completely spoiler free. Jennifer Carpenter was the best thing in the episode. I liked seeing Dexter again like an old friend, but almost everything that happened was predictable. Not looking forward to anything Harrison related. Years ago, I hated that baby. We'll see...

[paigow]

4 hours ago, monkeypox said:

Not looking forward to anything Harrison related. Years ago, I hated that baby. We'll see...

Trinity let him live... give the kid a break... but how did he get from Argentina to NY with no money??

Edited November 7, 2021 by paigow

[paigow]

Synopsis:

For the past decade, Dexter has assimilated into small-town life as a beloved member of the Iron Lake community; when a local hotshot begins behaving recklessly, he questions whether he can continue to suppress the murderous urgings.

[Pike Ludwell]

I don't think it's known yet how Harrison located Dexter -- he couldn't have found him on his own. Hannah must be behind it and could soon make an appearance. Maybe he'll even move to Argentina by the end of the season.

Edited November 7, 2021 by Pike Ludwell

[revbfc]

So the police can’t find him, but his son can?

The real message of this show: cops are stupid.

[paigow]

Becca is still in high school... If she is still a minor, then statutory rape can be added to 5 counts of vehicular manslaughter...

[arachne]

Yeah, a lot of stuff in this episode was predictable. I knew Deb was going to say "Me" about ten seconds before she did.

Dexter wasn't kidding about being rusty -- the old Dexter would never have left that blood in the snow by his house! (And you know that's going to come up again.)

One little detail made me wince: Having grown up in Connecticut, and having lived in upstate New York for some years, I know for certain that liquor stores in NYS are called exactly that. "Package store" is a strictly New England thing. 

[paigow]

Did Dex keep the $9000 assault rifle as a trophy?

[AnyTimeFromNow]

I liked it! Was it fabulous? Perhaps not. But I was sure happy to have this serial killer back in my life! It's been long enough that I didn't have a lot of expectations. But I feel like this resurrection of the series cleansed my palate sufficiently from the dismal ending of the first go-around. And I am looking forward to more!

 

[SunnyBeBe]

I had no idea that Debs would annoy me so much. Harry didn’t do that.  

[Yakima]

I cannot believe just how incredibly bad this was.  I was done with the whole thing half way through but suffered through the rest of it.  Won't be watching any more.  Who writes this crap?

[Elizzikra]

3 hours ago, paigow said:

Did Dex keep the $9000 assault rifle as a trophy?

He'd have to get rid of it or it would tie him to the dead guy.

Quote

I liked it! Was it fabulous? Perhaps not. But I was sure happy to have this serial killer back in my life! It's been long enough that I didn't have a lot of expectations. But I feel like this resurrection of the series cleansed my palate sufficiently from the dismal ending of the first go-around. And I am looking forward to more!

It was a good appetizer. It raised all sorts of questions: how did Dexter get from logging in the Pacific Northwest to running a fish and game shop in upstate New York? Has Deb been with him the whole time or has she recently reappeared as he reaches his 10 year no-kill anniversary? How did Harrison find Dexter and what does he want from him. Dexter was big news when he disappeared; Harrison has to know what his father did. How will Dexter convince Harrison to keep quiet about who he really is? So much to explore...

[ShadowHunter]

7 hours ago, revbfc said:

So the police can’t find him, but his son can?

The real message of this show: cops are stupid.

Happens in life they couldn't find Brian Laundrie. 

I thought this was a bit slow but picked up at the end.  I do wonder if we will see Harry appear at least once in Dexter's mind. All I really hope for this season is that it wraps up well. 

I wonder if Dex will eventually get to Miami or if we are going to see that crew again. Probably not.  I hope we don't see Hannah again though! I hated her and if they were going to explore a relationship for Dexter I'd rather it had been with Lumen. 

Loved hearing the old music at the end.  It is funny how with this show much like with the stores and media we skipped Thanksgiving and went right to Christmas.

 

[Kristi800]

Quote

Dexter wasn't kidding about being rusty -- the old Dexter would never have left that blood in the snow by his house! (And you know that's going to come up again.)

I guess living in the country, and if he said a fox got to chickens (where are the chickens?), there could be animal blood...but seems pretty timely.

Yeah, same question about how Harrison was able to find DM. 

Thought it was good. This guy was not difficult to hate so it was definitely time to GO!

[preeya]

1 hour ago, Elizzikra said:

Dexter was big news when he disappeared; Harrison has to know what his father did. How will Dexter convince Harrison to keep quiet about who he really is? So much to explore...

Perhaps he won't have to as Harrison might be the next "Dexter In Waiting." You know, like father, like son.

Edited November 8, 2021 by preeya

[WaltersHair]

I was really liking Dexter's new home until the kid showed up. No way that's a good thing. I know it's supposed to add an element of danger to Dexter's life, but I guess it fits all the old Dexter elements: a family member to worry about, ingratiating himself with the locals, a serial killer on loose that he will track while dodging being caught, and he literally works at the knife and gun club.

I'm in, but I hope it doesn't get sloppy like that those last seasons did.

[aghst]

So Dexter lives in a cabin out in the woods and even though he hasn't killed anyone or anything (apparently not even killing the deer that he hunts) in 10 years since living in Miami, he just happens to have a little shed to do kills, as well as supplies of duct tape and rolls of plastic sheets.

Yet apparently he has this chipper outer persona in the little town in upstate NY.

OK, could have sworn he went to the Pacific NW at the end of the OG series and he was a lumberjack, not a gun store clerk who raises some livestock out in the middle of nowhere.

He's going around putting on big smiles and waving at just about everyone in Podunksville.  He has to have a cover yes but isn't this completely alien to his nature?  He talks to Dead Deb, like David Fisher used to talk to the corpse of the week.

Guess he's jonesing for a kill because he dreams about killing that punk before he eventually does it and he's shaking in bed at night.  Why isn't he cuddling up with sheriff mom on these cold winter nights?

Is folksy Jim Lindsay going to revert to the socially awkward forensics nerd  Dexter Morgan?  Well as a killer yes but his outward personality?  Because everything we knew about Dexter from the OG series is that it would emotionally drain him to maintain this cover.

So the kill of the weeks was so asking for it but the death of the deer seems to have flipped a switch inside.

Now why did he go back for Harrison?  Parental impulses or maybe he's trying to see if Harrison also has a Dark Passenger?  

 

I don't know how dropping a lot of bodies in a small town would work, compared to Miami.  It would be a rare occurrence to have murders out there.  We heard what kind of things the police deal with on a daily basis there so they'd be completely incapable of investigating serial murders.  But the punk kid's father is apparently some heavyweight.

OTOH, there are several girls missing so you'd think the state police would come in and if not them, the FBI might be enlisted as well.

If Dexter starts adding to the body count, it's going to be noticed, not just in that little town but maybe even nationally.  Dexter will probably solve what's been happening to the missing young women.

[Chaos Theory]

Dexter has always been less slasher and more a show about a psychopath trying to fake being a real person and the tragedy of it.  Just when he decides he might chose his wife….his wife get brutally murder.  Just when he decides to do right by his sister……

So he abandons his son and moves to the cold part of the country and for 10 years avoids killing.    Deb has always represented something different then Harry has do I can see Ghost Deb being.  Different voice in his head.  She is not the voice that tells him that if. He wants to kill that it’s ok as long as he is careful…..so of course if you come to the show to watch Dexter murder people you are going to find her annoying.  I mean it took almost all of the pilot of Dexter to murder someone.    And yeah Harrison being there is going yo be all kinds of awkward for Dexter considering everyone knows him as Jim.  
 

i don’t remember if Dexter was actually wanted for any crimes at the end of the finale so I don’t think the police were actually looking for him.  Even if they were even in real life other more pressing cases come up and Dexter case would be filed as a cold case maybe picked up every few years by a new Detective.    But if Harrison’s case it is possible Hannah figured out where he went early on and if he didn’t move she could have told Harrison where to at least start which is more then the police had.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[Liamsmom617]

I enjoyed this, overall, though Ghost Deb was snarkworthy. I too missed Dexter's VO and was pleased to her it/him return. My question, though: Are they doing the daytime soaps thing of making Harrison way older than he should be, chronologically? Wasn't he like 3 or 4 when the series ended? How the hell is he in his mid-to-late teens already?

[preeya]

I'm curious to know what happened to Hannah and how her relationship with Harrison developed or devolved.

[Elizzikra]

1 hour ago, Liamsmom617 said:

I enjoyed this, overall, though Ghost Deb was snarkworthy. I too missed Dexter's VO and was pleased to her it/him return. My question, though: Are they doing the daytime soaps thing of making Harrison way older than he should be, chronologically? Wasn't he like 3 or 4 when the series ended? How the hell is he in his mid-to-late teens already?

He was born in 2009 so yes, he was SORAS'd; otherwise he'd be 12.

Speaking of - Astor and Cody? I wonder if they will be back. I'm thinking no but I'd sort of forgotten them and they're out there too.

Quote

i don’t remember if Dexter was actually wanted for any crimes at the end of the finale so I don’t think the police were actually looking for him. 

Did they ever figure out he killed Doakes? If so, I think he'd still be at the top of a most-wanted list, being a cop killer and all.

[ShadowHunter]

1 hour ago, Liamsmom617 said:

I enjoyed this, overall, though Ghost Deb was snarkworthy. I too missed Dexter's VO and was pleased to her it/him return. My question, though: Are they doing the daytime soaps thing of making Harrison way older than he should be, chronologically? Wasn't he like 3 or 4 when the series ended? How the hell is he in his mid-to-late teens already?

They Definitely aged him up. Even when Dexter ended he has been aged up. 

I don't believe the cops are looking for Dexter though. They like everyone else just think he died in that Hurricane. Hannah was the one who was wanted and did absolutely nothing to change her appearance.

[arachne]

12 hours ago, Kristi800 said:

where are the chickens?

Now that I remember, he was raising chickens on his property, and goats (so cute!) 

[CatfishMan]

1 hour ago, Elizzikra said:

He was born in 2009 so yes, he was SORAS'd; otherwise he'd be 12.

Speaking of - Astor and Cody? I wonder if they will be back. I'm thinking no but I'd sort of forgotten them and they're out there too.

Did they ever figure out he killed Doakes? If so, I think he'd still be at the top of a most-wanted list, being a cop killer and all.

If I remember correctly, the only murder pinned on him was the serial killer guy that killed Deb and he got off on self-defense (they actually had video since he was in custody). Then didn't Dexter fake his death on the boat, so everyone thinks he's dead.

As for the episode, I mildly enjoyed it but I think it was more a nostalgia thing that will wear off quickly. It definitely just felt like a retread of what we've already seen. And I think I predicted almost everything that happened in the episode right before it happened (including that d-bag shooting the deer right in front of Dexter...err...Jim).

[paigow]

1 hour ago, Elizzikra said:

Did they ever figure out he killed Doakes? If so, I think he'd still be at the top of a most-wanted list, being a cop killer and all.

Technically, Laila killed Doakes. Yes, Dexter kidnapped Doakes but she stumbled on to the scene and blew up Doakes with the stove ...

[CarpeFelis]

A bit predictable in parts:

• Dexter smashes Entitled Asshole in the face and OF COURSE it’s just in his head.
• Entitled Asshole’s friend conveniently spills details of his crimes to Dexter.
• Dexter finally gets close to the deer and somebody shoots it.
• And of course it’s You Know Who.
• Dexter smashes him in the face again and you think “I will be so freaking annoyed if this was just in his head again”, but it was real this time.

Despite all that, I enjoyed having Dexter back on the screen.

Anyone else notice how much the police chief girlfriend resembled Debra? Since Dead Deb now seems to be a Harry-like representation of Dexter’s conscience, could it be he subconsciously chose someone who resembles her—much less being a police chief—as a reminder to stay on the straight and narrow?

[anoninrva]

27 minutes ago, CatfishMan said:

As for the episode, I mildly enjoyed it but I think it was more a nostalgia thing that will wear off quickly. It definitely just felt like a retread of what we've already seen. And I think I predicted almost everything that happened in the episode right before it happened (including that d-bag shooting the deer right in front of Dexter...err...Jim).

The hohum normal life routine seemed like a straight copy and paste of the original show ("6 and 9"), but I'm waiting to see how the new girl, rapidly aged son in tow, and rural lifestyle are going to factor in.  I'm hoping the super-obvious hints at the missing girls being related to the town plutocrat don't play out the way they're hinting, but we'll see.

[AngelaHunter]

13 hours ago, Yakima said:

I cannot believe just how incredibly bad this was.  I was done with the whole thing half way through but suffered through the rest of it.  Won't be watching any more.  Who writes this crap?

I went into this thinking that after the final three execrable seasons this had to be better, especially with Clyde Phillips back. I guess it was, marginally, and I wanted to like it but oh, lord - so self-conciously woke,  and such awful scenery chewing from the really, really bad, drunk, druggy bad-guy. We get it! He's a horrible, terrible person who doesn't deserve to live. His friend wasn't much better, screaming confessions to a stranger while snorting coke and showing his "dick face". Oh, and that CGI deer? Ghost-Deb getting dragged back into the water by... The Creature from the Black Lagoon? A Dementor? As dearly as I came to love Deb in the original series (and still think what was done to her was disgraceful) I really think I'd prefer Ghost Harry here.

It all seemed so rushed to me. IMO, the Harrison scene should have happened at the very end - "I'm Harrison" - cut to credits. This reveal came so soon it just kind of fell flat for me.  Great parenting there, Dex. Abandon your son to a skanky serial killer in Argentina and just forget about him.

Disappointed, I am.

 

[paigow]

45 minutes ago, anoninrva said:

I'm hoping the super-obvious hints at the missing girls being related to the town plutocrat don't play out the way they're hinting, but we'll see.

Maybe these guys are involved....

[CatfishMan]

One potential saving grace could be Clancy Brown playing the big bad this season. He's always good.

[paigow]

4 minutes ago, CatfishMan said:

One potential saving grace could be Clancy Brown playing the big bad this season. He's always good.

The sleazy guy with the chopper is probably the BIGGER bad...

[CatfishMan]

33 minutes ago, paigow said:

The sleazy guy with the chopper is probably the BIGGER bad...

Possibly, but my money is on the father of the kid Dexter just murdered.

21 hours ago, paigow said:

Becca is still in high school... If she is still a minor, then statutory rape can be added to 5 counts of vehicular manslaughter...

Do we even know who that girl was? I don't remember seeing her prior to that. Obviously she is young since she told "Jim" not to tell her father but how do you know she's in high school? 

[chediavolo]

16 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I had no idea that Debs would annoy me so much. Harry didn’t do that.  

She annoyed me in the original. It’s the actress I think. 

15 hours ago, Kristi800 said:

I guess living in the country, and if he said a fox got to chickens (where are the chickens?), there could be animal blood...but seems pretty timely.

Yeah, same question about how Harrison was able to find DM. 

Thought it was good. This guy was not difficult to hate so it was definitely time to GO!

Just for killing that magnificent  and rate white deer, he deserved to die. 

Edited November 8, 2021 by chediavolo

[BeatrixK]

I am so full of questions -- and may need to rewatch to see if I missed the answers.

 

1.)  I like Deb being his subconcious view of himself -- Deb seems to voice his self-reflection on who he is, and is probably what has kept him from Killing:  reminding him how many people died because of who he is that he said he loved....so keep that murdery thing in check, bro.

2.)  I can see the Harrison end game a mile away.  (Won't speculate...but it's pretty damned obvious.)

3.)  I don't necessarily question Harrison's cash (Life insurance from Dexter's 'passing'?  Hannah?) - but WTF happened with Hannah?  Did he run away from her?  Did she get thrown into a south American pokey or something? 

4.) Clancy Brown has me excited!  Love him!

5.) I loved the detail of the Dex VO's coming back when 'Dexter' came back.

 

I will give it another episode...but I am not holding out hope they learned their lessons from the shitshow that was season 8.

[preeya]

I would like to see a catch-up episode devoted to enlightening fans as to what happen with key characters between the end of Season Eight (also known as DEXTER: The Final Season) and this season of Dexter: New Blood.

[anoninrva]

1 hour ago, CatfishMan said:

Possibly, but my money is on the father of the kid Dexter just murdered.

Do we even know who that girl was? I don't remember seeing her prior to that. Obviously she is young since she told "Jim" not to tell her father but how do you know she's in high school? 

Aren't the guy who closed down the restaurant and the father of the obnoxious kid the same person?  I thought it was his dad's helicopter we saw at the beginning of the episode taking him to town?

[CatfishMan]

1 minute ago, anoninrva said:

Aren't the guy who closed down the restaurant and the father of the obnoxious kid the same person?  I thought it was his dad's helicopter we saw at the beginning of the episode taking him to town?

I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I think the guy in the helicopter was the one who shut down the restaurant, and the d-bag kid's father we have not seen yet (who I speculate is Clancy Brown).

[Zonk]

I for one loved it. Had the old Dexter feel, from before the new chucklefuck ruined it.

"I may be a monster, but I'm an eveolving monster." - Dexter is a Pokémon, confirmed!

22 hours ago, arachne said:

Yeah, a lot of stuff in this episode was predictable. I knew Deb was going to say "Me" about ten seconds before she did.

I don't think that was supposed to be a twist. It was just a dramatic pause. We knew she was dead and only in Dexter's imagination from the start.

 

 

 

[anoninrva]

9 minutes ago, CatfishMan said:

I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I think the guy in the helicopter was the one who shut down the restaurant, and the d-bag kid's father we have not seen yet (who I speculate is Clancy Brown).

You're right.  They are both Caldwell on IMDB (jerk kid and Clancy Brown):

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14164730/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm

[paigow]

Iron Lake is not a college town. Becca was walking with 2 high school jacket wearing dudes when Dex passed them on his way to work.

[Zonk]

5 minutes ago, anoninrva said:

You're right.  They are both Caldwell on IMDB (jerk kid and Clancy Brown):

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14164730/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm

Which probably means that Clancy Brown is the red Hering and oil baron who gave out cocoa is the real serial killer, who killed all those missing girls.

Unless they are throwing a real curveball here and it's gay dogowner, which would be fun, but I kinda doubt it.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Zonk

[AngelaHunter]

2 hours ago, CatfishMan said:

One potential saving grace could be Clancy Brown playing the big bad this season. He's always good.

Agree! He has always been awesome!

I did a little double take at Dexter playing Dr. Doolittle with the chickens, goats, pigs, etc. He used to kill animals for fun, if they annoyed him, or - as he did in Se05 -  murder that poor raccoon as bait for Boyd Fowler. But, oh well. Maybe his new love of animals was part of his evolution into "Jim",  a small-town store clerk.

[paigow]

1 hour ago, CatfishMan said:

 Obviously she is young since she told "Jim" not to tell her father but how do you know she's in high school? 

 

3 minutes ago, Zonk said:

 

Unless they are throwing a real curveball here and it's gay dogowner, which would be fun, but I kinda doubt it.

Especially since he is married to Pastor Brian

[CatfishMan]

13 minutes ago, paigow said:

Iron Lake is not a college town. Becca was walking with 2 high school jacket wearing dudes when Dex passed them on his way to work.

If she really is a minor, you would think the "evolved monster" would immediately think that would be an easy (legal) way to take down the d-bag without having to kill him.

[SunnyBeBe]

I would have enjoyed just seeing Dexter living his normal life a little longer, without having parental responsibilities.  It bogs things down, imo.  I enjoyed the old Dexter much more before he was married or had kids or step kids.  It cramps his style.  So, why start out with this again from the start?  I just think I would have played this differently.  Still, I liked it ok.  I think it has potential.  

[CatfishMan]

16 minutes ago, Zonk said:

Which probably means that Clancy Brown is the red Hering and oil baron who gave out cocoa is the real serial killer, who killed all those missing girls.

I was thinking that as a possibility as well, but either way it is safe to say Clancy Brown will be a major antagonist for Dexter, especially given what the kid said before he killed him.

[izabella]

I'm so happy Dex is back, and I never thought I would say that after the craptastic end of the series.  I was not happy to see Deb back.  I hated her in the beginning of the series, then learned to appreciate her and like her, and then I hated what they did with her character in the end.  But it makes a lot of sense to have her as his inner voice, as long as they don't make her ghost lovey-dovey with him, which I thought I saw some of in this episode, unfortunately.

It seems I am one of the very few who liked Hannah, so I am intensely curious what happened with her and Harrison in Argentina and where she is now.  I was sad for her at the end of the series when she saw the newspaper and knew Dex would not be joining them.  I know, I know, she was a serial killer, but so is Dex, so I'm not gonna be mad at her about it, lol.

Not sure how I feel about Harrison.  Like Deb, it seems like a logical choice to have him be a part of Dexter's world now.  And I remember that he had his own childhood mommy-was-murdered-in-front-of-me experience, complete with a roomful of blood, so it's possible he has his own dark passenger.   I wonder if Dex will remember anything from his therapy season and if he'll reference it at all .

I did get lost with the number of times we saw Dex running through the woods with his rifle.  Did he see the white deer multiple times?  Or were those scenes all just one time, but cut up into multiple parts, and the only time we saw the whole scene from start to finish was when douchebag son was finally dispatched because he needed killin'?

[CatfishMan]

30 minutes ago, izabella said:

I did get lost with the number of times we saw Dex running through the woods with his rifle.  Did he see the white deer multiple times?  Or were those scenes all just one time, but cut up into multiple parts, and the only time we saw the whole scene from start to finish was when douchebag son was finally dispatched because he needed killin'?

I didn't understand that either. Thought maybe it was just his daily workout regime - run after a deer with a rifle but don't shoot it. 🙄

[anoninrva]

32 minutes ago, izabella said:

I did get lost with the number of times we saw Dex running through the woods with his rifle.  Did he see the white deer multiple times?  Or were those scenes all just one time, but cut up into multiple parts, and the only time we saw the whole scene from start to finish was when douchebag son was finally dispatched because he needed killin'?

I honestly thought that was a dream sequence until they blended it with obnoxious kid subplot.