Tamal Kundu
Music plays an important role in the third episode of ‘Dexter: New Blood.’ Leonard Cohen’s rendition of “Avalanche” plays as Dexter Morgan/Jim Lindsay (Michael C. Hall) visits the crime scene to rectify one more oversight. Elsewhere, the mysterious second predator shows his modus operandi for the first time to Del Shannon’s “Runaway.”
Harrison starts attending the local school and immediately garners the attention of teachers and students alike, albeit for different reasons. Audrey (Johnny Sequoyah) has a quasi-confrontation with Edward Olsen. The effects of Matt Caldwell’s murder continue to stir up the town, and Harrison shows that he might have inherited the Dark Passenger from his father. Here is what you need to know about the ending of ‘Dexter: New Blood’ episode 3. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Dexter: New Blood Episode 3 Recap
Episode 3, titled ‘Smoke Signals,’ begins with police and volunteers still searching for Matt. Officer Logan, who also serves as the wrestling coach at the school, asks Harrison to join the program. Dexter and Harrison meet the school’s principal, whose questions about Dexter’s involvement, or lack thereof, in Harrison’s upbringing make Dexter uncomfortable as he has no idea how to answer them. Fortunately for him, Harrison comes to his rescue. Later, Harrison does unprecedentedly well at the school’s placement test, which leads the principal to accuse him of cheating. When Dexter agrees that Harrison will retake the test, it frustrates his son.
The main problem that Dexter faces in this episode is how to dispose of Matt’s body. It’s not like he has an ocean to dump the remains as before. As the search escalates, Dexter finds himself rapidly cornered into a wall. A CSI investigator is called in, and he correctly theorizes what has happened to Matt. With the dog squad arriving next, Dexter ventures out that night and digs Matt’s remains out from under the fire pit. He then takes the other man’s jacket and runs across the snow to confuse the dogs and lead them towards where he earlier left Matt’s glove.
At the same time, somewhere else in Iron Lake, the second predator releases Lily. Filled with false hope, she tries to run but is gunned down. Later, the killer is shown draining the blood out of Lily’s body. At the school, Harrison witnesses Zach, one of the wrestling team members, catfishing another student named Ethan.
After he takes the test again, scoring even better than before and is subsequently admitted into the school, Harrison approaches Ethan and tells him the truth. He even threatens Zach when the latter tries to attack Ethan. Later, he and Ethan chat about hurting Zach, with Ethan sharing sketches of the different ways he thought of killing the other boy.
Dexter: New Blood Episode 3: Ending: What Does Dexter Do With Matt’s Body?
Dexter watches the police and volunteer gather on his property and reflects that they have no idea that the person they seek is right underneath their feet. However, it is revealed that there were cameras to catch animal movements through heat signatures in the area where Dexter attacked Matt. The cameras show that there was a second person there. The CSI concludes that the human blood found at the scene belongs to Matt. Angela (Julia Jones) still doesn’t necessarily think that Matt is dead, but now she and her department know that foul play was involved. She widens the search area, believing Matt has sought shelter somewhere on the outskirts of the town after the incident.
Dexter first tries to dispose of the body in an abandoned mine shaft but has to discard the plan and run away when he encounters a bear there. This makes Dexter wryly observe in his inner monologue that he misses Miami, where his only animal concern were alligators.
Eventually, while watching the local Seneca people burn the body of the dead buck, Dexter gets the idea of how to solve his own problem. He takes Matt’s remains to the local incinerator and burns them. The resulting ashes fall over the town as the episode ends.
Why Is Kurt Lying? Is Matt Alive?
After he is done with the incinerator, Dexter sees Kurt (Clancy Brown) drunk but oddly happy in the street. The man claims that Matt is alive and that they have face-timed each other. Clearly, this isn’t true. The man that Dexter killed can’t be anyone else but Matt Caldwell. So, this probably means that Kurt is lying.
The question here is, why. One possible answer is that he has figured out that Dexter killed his son, and now he is trying to unsettle Dexter just to see his reactions. But the response of an ordinary person to a discovery such as this is to inform the authorities and not start playing a dangerous game with a potential murderer. So, why is Kurt doing this?
The show wants us to conclude that Edward Olsen is the second predator in Iron Lake. His brief conversation with Audrey after her car breaks down is meant to make our skin crawl. However, this is most likely a misdirection. It increasingly seems possible that Kurt is the serial killer who has made Iron Lake his hunting ground. Given how long young women have been going missing in the area, he has been doing this for a while. After realizing that Dexter has killed his son, he probably has decided to bring him in his own way.
