Michael C. Hall on the ‘Dexter’ Confrontation He Was Always Waiting For
[This story contains major spoilers for the series premiere of Dexter: Resurrection.]
Dexter Morgan died once before, born again as a lumberjack and eventually an upstate New York man about town. What’s one more resurrection between friends?
After getting fatally shot in the heart in the 2022 finale of Dexter: New Blood, Michael C. Hall‘s outlandishly lucky serial killer-killing serial killer once again stalks the land, thanks to the latest entry in the franchise, Dexter: Resurrection.
The series premiere (the first two episodes began streaming on Friday) reveals how Dexter survived a point-blank gunshot wound to the chest, leveled his way by son Harrison (Jack Alcott), thanks to the violence occurring in the midst of radically cold temperatures. Just a few degrees warmer and Dexter would be as dead as all the villains he’s killed in the past. Instead Resurrection finds him alive, if not exactly well, as he suffers through an existential end-of-life crisis littered with ghosts from his past only to come out the other side of it as a man on the run in New York City. (John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer, Jimmy Smits’ Miguel Prado, Erik King’s Sgt. Doakes make cameos; James Remar’s father Harry is also there, along with the graves of departed sister Debra, wife Rita and former colleague Maria LaGuerta.)
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Before hitting the road toward the Big Apple, however, Dexter faces down his even bigger past in the form of an old friend shaping up to be a new foe: Angel Batista, the fedora-hatted Miami cop played across the decades by David Zayas. After having returned to the franchise in New Blood, Angel reemerges here with newfound awareness about Dexter, all-but completely clued in on his old colleague’s status as the infamous Bay Harbor Butcher. Angel and Dexter’s wariness of one another comes to a head in the premiere during a scene in the hospital, when Angel lays his cards out on the table, without making a full on declaration of war.
“That scene is one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever gotten to play in the show,” Hall tells The Hollywood Reporter about the long-awaited showdown between Dexter and Angel. “It’s a scene you could only enjoy if you’ve been doing something for as long as we’ve been doing it. We have real memories between us [as actors].
Hall found the scene to be a complicated one for Dexter, who is being confronted by the former Miami Metro Homicide chief he has long respected. “It’s really bittersweet for him to reconnect with someone who was once his friend and colleague, when it was a much simpler relationship,” says Hall. “It’s incredibly rich to face Batista with the knowledge of what Batista now has every reason to suspect, or even knows. It makes for some delicious dynamics. Ultimately, Dexter’s a self-preservationist, but he does have a genuine fondness for Angel, and Angel for him, in spite of everything.”
For Zayas, the view of the scene is a bit different: “This is a different Angel, with all the information he has now, particularly Dexter just being alive. It’s a new case he has to deal with outside of his environment, in a new place, in New York, where he has no authority as a police officer. He’s having to deal with the cold coming from Miami. There’s so many little issues for him to navigate, while he’s trying to get some justice for all of what he’s missed over those many years.”
Rather than face that justice, Dexter evades it, hitting the road for New York for one reason and one reason only: Harrison. Dexter finds out his son is still alive and not all that far away, living in Manhattan working at a hotel. What’s more, he’s killing at that hotel, and Dexter hears about it, leading him to charge into action to atone for his biggest sin of all: letting his son down.
“Dexter’s invested in the fact of his humanity in a way that feels more substantial and committed than ever before,” says Hall, adding, “But there’s also a new set of characters Dexter interacts with that feels fantastical in a good way.”
Those new characters are a who’s-who of serial killers, played by Uma Thurman, Peter Dinklage, Neil Patrick Harris, Krysten Ritter, Eric Stonestreet and David Dastmalchian.
“The spectrum between those two things feels even broader and more vibrant. We’re proud of it,” says Hall of the show’s confrontation between Dexter’s humanity and serial killer identity. “The show belongs to us while we’re making it. We’re finished making it, and now it belongs to the fans. I’m excited to give it to them.”
But is he excited to bring justice to Dexter’s doorstep? When the dust settles on Resurrection, it’s hard to imagine how both Dexter and Angel can walk away intact — or even alive, in Batista’s case. If it came down to ensuring Angel’s survival, is Hall open to the idea of finally putting Dexter behind bars?
“It’s certainly within the realm of possibility,” he muses. “If he were to be apprehended, he would probably find himself in a prison population that was pretty ripe for his code. It’s a compelling idea.”
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Dexter: Resurrection’s first two episodes are now streaming on Paramount+ for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers, before an on-air debut Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Remaining episodes drop weekly.
