‘New Blood’ finale gives ‘Dexter’ a proper send-off

Spoiler alert: This story contains details from the finale of Showtime’s “Dexter: New Blood,” now streaming.

“Dexter” fans were disappointed with the infamously ambiguous ending to Michael C. Hall’s serial-killer vigilante series in 2013, after eight seasons.

Hall made it a mission to right this wrong with his return in Showtime’s “Dexter: New Blood” after an eight-year break.

We’re sure that Hall succeeded in bringing an absolutely unequivocal ending to Dexter Morgan in the “New Blood” season finale (which began streaming Sunday morning before the evening broadcast).

Dead sure.

“I’m just gonna say three words because it’s not like that was all a dream or anything like that,” says executive producer Clyde Phillips. “Dexter is dead.”

That’s right: Dexter Morgan, who started a new life in upstate Iron Lake, New York, posing as regular guy Jim Lindsay, lay fully deceased in a pool of his own blood at the end of Sunday’s finale, “Sins of the Father,” that puts this chapter of the franchise to rest permanently.

On the other end of the shotgun was Dexter’s son, Harrison (Jack Alcott).

“I can’t think, in the history of television, there’s ever been a redo to a muchmaligned finale,” says Phillips. “We got a chance to give Dexter the right send-off.”

Why Dexter had to die

The previous run ended with Dexter mercifully pulling the plug on sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter), dumping her body in the ocean and driving his boat into the eye of a hurricane to certain death. His rationale was to keep loved ones from getting hurt anymore, including Harrison. But that ending also revealed Dexter faked his own death and began living as a lumberjack in Oregon.

Grown Harrison tracked down his father in upstate New York in the “New Blood” season and, as the title suggests, began following in his father’s killer footsteps. Dexter became a guide to Harrison’s own “dark passenger” killing side. The two even started hatching dreams of being a vigilante serial killing team in a new town.

But that was before Dexter was arrested by his increasingly suspicious girlfriend and police chief, Angela Bishop (Julia Jones), who discovered his true identity and was about to bring down the legal hammer. To escape from his jail cell, Dexter was forced to kill the key-carrying Sergeant Logan (Alano Miller), who also was Harrison’s mentoring wrestling coach. Small-town problems.

Logan’s death was too much for Harrison, who decided he would not escape with his fleeing father, but rather stop him. Dexter, close to freedom, also realized he was irredeemable. Phillips says it was Hall’s idea to have Dexter remind Harrison how to take off the safety on the rifle.

“Dexter says, ‘This is the only way out. For both of us.’ And then shows him the kill spot on his chest,” says Phillips. Harrison fires.

The writers and Hall had planned to kill off the character early on in the revival season. “It was determined that Dexter must die,” Phillips says. “We can’t turn Dexter into a superhero getting out of impossible jams every season. It has to end, viscerally and inevitably.”

The death signifies the first time he is “feeling love, and it’s for his son and that’s as human as he’s ever been.”