[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Dexter: Resurrection Episode 7, “Course Correction.”]
Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) dropped the mask in more ways than one on the latest episode of Dexter: Resurrection. Picking up directly after the revelation that Gareth a.k.a. the Gemini Killer (David Dastmalchian) was a twin, Dexter was asked to do his show and tell session for Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage) after the group watched Al’s (Eric Stonestreet) chilling action cam footage of himself luring in and strangling a poor woman who was out for a jog.
At first, he turned to Red’s supply bag and dressed the part of the despicable Dark Passenger. Then, after an emotional visit from his ghost dad Harry (James Remar), he decided to be himself instead … sort of. As Red, Dexter gave the group a rousing speech about how he got to be his true self around his victims and how that feeling of freedom died whenever they did. He also talked about how being surrounded by others with the urge gave him a new sense of that same release. And he also warned that trying to live a double life just doesn’t work — a Trinity Killer-coded message for Al, no doubt, but also a truth that Dexter himself experienced.
The theatrical nature of the speech landed with its intended audience. Prater pulled Dexter aside and complimented him on the truth and vulnerability of his share session before revealing the reason for his own fascination with mass murderers and their trophies. As it turned out, the person who killed his parents in a car collision did it on purpose and had done it before. Prater eventually befriended the serial killer and grew close to him before he, too, died.
Soon after their all-too-cozy chat, Dexter decided to approach Gareth and divulge another truth about himself: that he knew the Gemini was a twin. By playing to Gareth’s narcissism — like brother, like brother — he disarmed and toyed with Gareth a bit before dropping the real bombshell that he’d killed his other half the night before and that he was in the business of hunting serial killers, not rideshare drivers. In response, Gareth broke his wine glass and slashed Dexter’s arm, but that only gave Dexter the cover he needed to stab Gareth in the carotid right in the light of day as the others rushed to intervene. Then, he blamed Gareth for Lowell (Neil Patrick Harris) and the threats against them all, effectively ending the country manor quarantine.
Zach Dilgard / Paramount+ With Showtime
Back in the city, Angel Batista (David Zayas) was insistent that Detective Claudette Wallace (Kadia Saraf) should still pursue his theory about Dexter, despite Mia (Krysten Ritter) being blamed for the hotel murder and subsequently, conveniently, dying in her jail cell. Only one thread from the case bugged her: The watch that tied her to the original murder didn’t have her prints on them like the other Lady Vengeance trophies. That was enough of a question mark for her to give him Dexter’s address.
Dexter then faced two surprises in rapid succession. First, upon joining Harrison (Jack Alcott) on a college campus tour — as it turned out, Harrison wanted to follow his family’s police work tradition and found a criminal justice program to scout — he walked into a New York Ripper presentation from, wait for it, Claudette Wallace. After it, he went into full blood spatter analyst mode and methodically demonstrated why her murder weapon theory was off. If she didn’t have her eye on him before, the sight of him swinging an invisible weapon around with such proficiency almost certainly changed that. This was the third time Dexter was his real self in this episode, and it still wasn’t the last.
Zach Dilgard / Paramount+ With Showtime
Then, he went to Blessing’s (Ntare Mwine) house to find Angel there, ingratiating himself to Dexter’s new host. The two put on airs in front of Blessing, but Dexter soon escorted Angel away to have a real conversation in the car. Dexter didn’t mince words in telling Angel to get lost, and Angel reciprocated.
“You think I’m just going to back off?” Angel said. “Let you get away with what you did to Maria and Doakes and Deb?” He then insinuated that Dexter might be at it again as the Dark Passenger — he was only half right on this account.
With a menacing stare, Dexter then said to him, “If I really am who you think I am, this can’t possibly end well for you.”
Angel was undeterred, though, and said, “I’ll take my chances, buddy.”
Dexter then kicked him out, but not before Angel could plant a tracking device in his passenger door cupholder.
It wasn’t the first time Angel and Dexter met face to face in this spinoff, but it was the first time Angel laid his cards on the table about finally identifying Dexter as the Bay Harbor Butcher. Dexter’s resulting threat was surprising, given his allegiance to the code, which Angel simply does not fit.
Where this goes from here remains to be seen, but since Angel probably isn’t going to go the way of Angela Bishop (Julia Jones) and just give him a pass, he’s either going to have to kill him or do something that makes up for all of the bloodshed in Angel’s eyes … like expose or take down the real New York Ripper, perhaps?
Dexter: Resurrection, Fridays, Paramount+