The following contains spoilers for Dexter: New Blood's eighth episode, "Unfair Game," which aired on Showtime on Dec 26. For more, check out our review of last week's episode, "Skin of Her Teeth."
"Unfair Game" could have easily wound up being a running-in-place entry for New Blood but instead, as we close in on the finish, it brought most everything to a head, building up to an exciting climax for both Dexter and Harrison as Kurt finally revealed what his "nice guy" act was all about.
Dexter has always dealt with adversaries who thematically lined up with his seasonal arcs/journeys. That's just been the lay of the land for the series overall, and it's worked well sometimes. Kurt's whole deal of reaching out to Harrison and trying to swoop in as a "better dad" always felt like a stretch since the dude's relationship with his own son, Matt, was strained and Matt had grown up to be a total jackass. Also, for someone who's had his guard up most of his life, and also spent months traveling across the country by himself, Harrison's inability to spot an outright creep in sheep's clothing felt clumsy too. His "stranger danger" tingle should have been better than this.
But this week's episode went a long way in explaining much of this. Sure, Kurt's ability to ingratiate himself to Harrison mostly worked because of a series of convenient misunderstandings between him and Dexter, but finding out that Kurt's plan, since the first time he came by to thank Harrison for what he'd done to protect the school, was to kill Harrison in front of Dexter -- that was pretty freakin' cool. Kurt has known Dexter killed his son since right after Episode 3, "Smoke Signals," so this has been in the back of his mind the entire time. Maybe not this exact scenario, since everything seemed to escalate following Kurt's arrest, but definitely something along these lines.
Even back when Kurt started warming up to Harrison by offering him a job at the diner, there was a question as to whether or not he was lining up Harrison as a victim (to quickly replace Kurt's ruined/tainted kill). Now we discover that was, in fact, half-right. Harrison was in Kurt's crosshairs, but for something totally different. This adds way more depth to Kurt as a manipulator, to know that his small town outreach act is meant for all types of potential murder victims. His fuddy-duddy dopiness is to get everyone to let down their defenses. Though, Harrison still should have been more wary of a guy who wanted to break into the school with him and hit the batting cage -- and super suspicious of an invite to a remote cabin for drinks.
There was certainly a version of "Unfair Game" that could have ended with Dexter killing Kurt, instead of this season's monster just running off into the night (where he'll now definitely be hunted by the police, for real) but this now sets up Kurt, in the next episode or two, to be Harrison's initiation kill, possibly. Also, by no actual machinations of his own, Dexter got what he's wanted for half the season now. Harrison got to see Kurt for the a-hole he is, and in the worst way, too, since Kurt was literally going to shoot down Harrison himself after spending half the day being super sweet to him. Dexter couldn't have hoped for better, really, and it all ended with him revealing the bare basics of his "born in blood" backstory to Harrison and the kid being receptive to it. Hooray!
It would seem everything's lining up just perfectly for the Morgans, if it weren't for the fact that all throughout this episode, while Dexter was doing his best to not get murdered in the snowy woods by Kurt's lackey, Elric (who was also the guy pretending to be Matt in New York), Angela pieced together that he was the Bay Harbor Butcher! At this point, with all the dots connected, it wouldn't be surprising if Dexter and Harrison returned home to their house being surrounded by cops (though she may need a bit more to go on to make an arrest).
This might set up Angela for, maybe, a LaGuerta Season 7 fate, but there are other avenues to explore here rather than a retread of that. That's not to say she won't meet a sad, gruesome end, but one would hope New Blood finds an alternate route to the one that's been taken before. It will all come down to the two most divergent endings for the series since day 1: Is Dexter ultimately doomed or can he have the perfect murder family he's always dreamed of?
"Unfair Game" revved up the tension and action (Dexter got to squeak in a third kill, even) while also working as a retroactive explainer for the previous Kurt/Harrison wonkiness. Like, it always felt weird that Dexter was in competition with a guy who clearly wasn't a good dad. Ghost Deb's role in this episode felt typical, more or less -- as most everything she's done aside from the premiere and a few other spare moments has felt -- but at least it gave Dexter someone else to bounce ideas off of while being stalked in the abandoned summer camp. It is curious though, speaking of ghosts, that John Lithgow returned to the series just to be naked and bloody in a brief flashback. Deb's presence feels like the type of shallow phantom role we expected. Lithgow, however, feels like a missed opportunity in a different way, so let's hope we see him again before New Blood calls in a night.
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