Review: Dexter: Resurrection, "Call Me Red" | Season 1, Episode 4

What do you do when you need to introduce someone even more evil than a serial killer? Easy: You make them a venture capitalist.

One could easily imagine the weaker version of “Call Me Red,” one that fell into the trap of New Blood: Dexter endlessly haranguing himself about his failings as a parent and his desperate desire to do right by Harrison, with everything else taking a back seat. Thankfully, Clyde Phillips and company have learned their lesson. Dexter is at his best when confronting the evil in others, and being pulled in different directions—trying to satisfy his Dark Passenger while still doing right by his family and those he cares about. Because the character wants to have fun, just as much as we want him to; the series flies when embracing that fundamental duality in Dexter. Too much emphasis on either side of the equation, and it tips into either weightless trash or self-serious hokum.

Instead, this episode gives us Krysten Ritter saying she’ll make Neil Patrick Harris eat his own eyeballs if he ever messes with her. It gives us Peter Dinklage lording over a truly bananas collection of serial-killer memorabilia. And it gives us Eric Stonestreet, borderline unrecognizable as a dorky suburban dad, saying, “I’m the ponytail guy.” If you don’t thoroughly enjoy this episode, then I can only suspect this reboot of Dexter might not be for you. The “dinner party for serial killers,” as Dexter calls it, goes forward as intended, and it makes everything a good deal more fun. Sure, we’ve still got the ongoing drama with Harrison, and Batista makes a few unfortunate discoveries, but it’s rapidly becoming clear that what I thought of as the meat of this season—the father-son dynamic—is almost inevitably going to be pushed aside somewhat in favor of watching a knockout group of character actors do their thing. In this case, that “thing” is killing people. What a treat.

Sorry, Harrison, but with a setup this appealing, your own problems recede into the background. Right from the open, with Dexter making a Mission: Impossible-style thumbprint skin for Red’s hand, it’s clear this episode is ready to get a little silly. After getting into his Roland Schmidt “costume,” Dexter is picked up by Charley, who low-key brags that it only took her three weeks to find him. (Dexter v/o: “It only took me three days.”) After a tense moment where it seems like the thumbprint might fail, Dexter’s identity as Roland is confirmed, and he’s ushered into the opulent underground dwelling of Leon Prater (Dinklage, clearly having a ball), the aforementioned venture capitalist who makes it his mission to bring talented serial killers together in order to share the most secret and fundamental parts of their bloody trade. Leon almost titters with laughter when Dexter asks if he’s a serial killer, too. “No, just a….huge fan.”

Not everyone gets equal time here—there’s only a few moments of David Dastmalchian, Dastmalchian-ing it up as the socially awkward Gemini Killer—but what we do get is solid. Before the others arrive, Prater takes Dexter-as-Red through his gruesome trophy room: Gacy’s clown suit, Dahmer’s fridge, Bundy’s chair…he even has Trinity Killer Arthur Mitchell’s hammer. And then, the pièce de résistance: The Bay Harbor Butcher’s collection of blood slides. You can almost feel Dexter’s full-body vibration (Hall nicely plays it as a moment of nearly giving away the game) when he reaches for it. It segues quickly into “Red” presenting Prater with the first of his x’ed-out drivers licenses, but the connection between past and present has been made clear without any monologuing or need to over-explain. As Dexter puts it, “I know it takes one to know one, but this guy’s fucking nuts.”

There’s a lot of story unveiled during the dinner—mostly about the various other killers, the rules that Prater has put into place to keep them safe (he explicitly acknowledges that former member Keith was killed for not following the rules), and the expectation that Dexter will give a presentation at the next meeting detailing his latest kill. But the whole thing is overlaid with a sharp back-and-forth between Dexter and Ghost Dad, arguing about what to do with this collection of murderers that’s been dropped into his lap. His father sticks to the mission (“You’re still gonna kill those guys, right?”) while Dexter begrudgingly admits how good it feels to be in a room with people where he can be himself. Which is awfully ironic for a guy pretending to be someone else.

And true, Dexter falling for another killer has already been done (are you popping up anytime soon, Yvonne Strahovski? Sure, Harrison says your character died, but whatever, so did Dexter), but the chemistry between Ritter and Hall is palpable, and her version of killing—vengeance on sexual predators—makes for a nicely compelling draw for our protagonist. All the hand-wringing of Ghost Harry can’t stop his son being attracted to someone, and it takes the prearranged meeting with Harris’ Lowell to stop Dexter from hopping in the shower with the new object of his affections. (Full disclosure: I mentally yelled “Boo!” and threw popcorn when Dexter didn’t join Mia in the shower, because who doesn’t enjoy an inappropriate sexual complication?)

Which leads us to the real return of Dexter Morgan: killing Lowell. If you saw Harris walk into Leon’s lair, oozing smarm and arrogance, and thought, “Oh, he’s definitely going to be killed first,” congratulations, you know Dexter Morgan. Sure, killing Ronald last week was ostensibly the first old-school killing he had done, but it felt like a personal affront: The guy had stolen his nickname! This was purely by-the-code Dexter, embodying the life he had abandoned, only to return after Leono Prater dropped a literal invitation to meet other serial killers into his lap. And the scene played out beautifully, from Lowell refusing to freak out or beg for his life (“Do me a solid and knock me out first”), to Dexter confessing to being the Bay Harbor Butcher right before plunging the knife in. It sounds stupid, but this is Dexter’s entire raison d'être, and we got a good one. The show revolves around these masks-dropped, cards-on-the-table exchanges, because they give the audience and characters a chance to step away from the artifice driving his entire public life—without them, it would become unbearable. And it’s what makes Prater’s circle so tantalizing to us and Dexter—imagine all of this being out in the open, longer than the duration of someone alive on Dexter’s kill table.

But of course, there are other parts to this episode. Harrison’s story admittedly gets goosed in an interesting way, thanks to Batista. Dexter’s old buddy shows up, first to bond with Harrison about the long-ago memories of being babysat by Batista’s niece, but he quickly lays on the Bay Harbor Butcher theory. And after Harrison bails on him, Batista hears about the murdered guy (smooth move, Elsa), compares notes with Detective Wallace, and pretty soon, he’s back to…not threaten Harrison, per se, but to warn him. I don’t believe Batista that all he wants is confirmation—than Dexter told his son about being the Bay Harbor Butcher—but I do believe that he wants to spare Harrison. Like Wallace, Batista fundamentally understands the guy Harrison (allegedly!) killed was a monster, and doesn’t have any interest in going after the son. But he certainly doesn’t have any compunctions about hounding Harrison until he gets what he wants. I can’t imagine that’ll go well in the long run.

Especially not with the big reveal at episode’s end. Harrison, as we well know, is not his father: He can’t deal with the drama, and especially the guilt, of being a murderer. And after the disastrous attempt to kiss Elsa ends in embarrassment and awkwardness, with the younger Morgan believing he’s ruined that friendship, he’s ready to march into the police precinct and confess—until Dexter stops him. “Don’t.” “Dad?” It’s as apropos a mission statement for the season so far as anything we’ve gotten, and even if Dexter isn’t so thrilled to be revealing himself to his son as still alive (and god knows how Harrison will react), it’s exactly the continued forward momentum I was hoping for. This show doesn’t play coy, or stretch things out, or any of the other bugbears of streaming service. They want to get to the good stuff as quickly as we do, and for that, we can all offer up a hearty, “Now you’re taking life advice from ponytail trophy guy?”

Stray observations

• Needle drop city, this episode! “Badoom” by Scrounge soundtracks Charley and Dexter’s entry to Leon’s lair; “We All Got Work To Do” by MJ Lenderman is the sound of Harrison post-failed kiss; “T.W.B.” by Attachment as Lowell stalks Jules (and Dexter stalks Lowell)…but Shazam failed me when it came to the first song Charley plays in the car while driving Dexter to Prater’s place. Anyone?
• Leon and Charley are a fun odd couple. Leon: “That went exceptionally well, don’t you think?” Charley: “If you say so.”
• Harrison picks up dead guy’s watch, and it is a real-deal tell-tale heart, ticking until Harrison has to leave the place.
• Honestly, the scenes between Ritter and Hall were great, weird and intense and funny in equal measure.
• Jesus, does Wallace seriously only listen to “Stayin’ Alive” over and over? This is already silly, and getting sillier.
• On the other hand, good silly is Dexter putting on his fake thumbprint and looking at Harry: “Who’s got a fake print and passes for Red? This guy.”
• Also enjoyed how sad Dexter looked at the banquet Leon laid out when he realizes Red is a vegan, and they prepared a separate meal for him…until he bites into his cauliflower and it’s obviously delicious. Justice for good vegan food!
• Another great moment: Harry telling Dexter Leon is going to get suspicious when Lowell disappears. Dexter: “Didn’t YOU tell me to kill Lowell?” Harry: [Shrugs]
• I know this is hanging a hat on a hat, but after the whole Original Sin thing, it’s such a pleasure to watch fun Dexter.