Liam Hoofe reviews episode 3 of Dexter: New Blood, ‘Smoke Signals’…
Dexter: New Blood continued to introduce new characters in Episode 3, and we began to get to know Harrison a little better as well.
The titular character took a little bit of a backseat in this week’s episode, at least from a development point of view. The former Mr Morgan has always been at his best when he’s got his back against the wall, and this week’s episode saw him spend pretty much the entire hour working out how to get rid of a body before realising that there was a giant incinerator in the town.
While the end result felt a little silly given how obvious it was, it is nice to see Dexter sweating again. The idea that things have changed since his first run and that he could slip up a lot easier now does make things more interesting. Dexter struggling to deal with modern techniques and under-estimating a small town should keep the tension brewing nicely.
Once again, Deb deserves another mention here. Her presence as the new dark passenger has been brilliant and she was on top form this week. The sequence in the school park was great and it’s nice to see Dexter being mocked instead of the more serious tone we had with Harry in the original run.
Harrison was the real focus of this episode though. We got to see him interact with other people at school and we also got to see that he has his dad’s desire for justice as well. Where things end up with Harrison is one of the most interesting things about this season. He is clearly his dad’s son, but at the same time, he also comes from a long line of law enforcement, and the fact that he expressed concern at his schoolmate’s bloodlust towards the end shows he could go down this path.
It seems clear that Harrison is going to play some sort of role in Dexter’s ending. Whether that’s with him working out who is father is and sending him down, or him putting his father on his very own table is the big question.
Last week’s episode really established the small size of the town and this week began to highlight its characters. Clancy Brown’s Kurt was given a lot more time on the screen and he looks like one of the most interesting characters. The ending where we saw him lying about his son was an intriguing way to wrap things up. With five episodes to go, things are really going to have to heat up on the villain front in the next week or two.
Speaking of which, we saw the killer commit his first murder. Last week we saw him toying with a young woman he had caught, and this week he let her run through a field before shooting her dead. If it’s not Kurt, then it could end up being Edward Olsen, the billionaire in the town who seems a little too fascinated with Audrey for his own good.
Episode three continued to set the table, with Harrison really starting to feel like his own character. We have been introduced to the majority of the characters now so let’s hope things can really start moving in the next episode or two as we get closer to the finale.
Liam Hoofe