What to watch before Dexter: Resurrection Season 2

No. 01 · 2006 · Series · 10h 46m

Dexter: Season 1

By day, mild-mannered Dexter is a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police. But at night, he is a serial killer who only targets other murderers.

Why it matters: The Ice Truck Killer, and the secret of Dexter's past.

Starring

Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, and David Zayas

Creator

James Manos Jr.

Scores

IMDb 8.6 · Rotten Tomatoes 83%

No. 02 · 2009 · Series · 10h 28m

Dexter: Season 4

Dexter as a father and husband struggles to figure out how to survive for years to come. He seeks to learn from Arthur Mitchell, a serial killer and family man, who has murdered for over thirty years without being discovered.

Why it matters: John Lithgow's Trinity Killer; the series' high point.

Starring

Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, and David Zayas

Creator

James Manos Jr.

Scores

IMDb 8.6 · Rotten Tomatoes 88%

No. 03 · 2013 · Series · 10h 33m

Dexter: Season 8

As Deb struggles to deal with the consequences of her actions, a mysterious woman comes to work with Miami Metro, offering first-hand information on Dexter's past.

Why it matters: The original finale, and the ending fans still argue about.

Starring

Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, and David Zayas

Creator

James Manos Jr.

Scores

IMDb 8.6 · Rotten Tomatoes 35%

No. 04 · 2021 · Series · 8h 51m

Dexter: New Blood

10 years after Dexter went missing in the eye of Hurricane Laura, we find him living under an assumed name in the small town of Iron Lake, New York. Dexter may be embracing his new life, but in the wake of unexpected events in this close-knit community, his Dark Passenger beckons.

Why it matters: Ten years later in upstate New York; the revival that answered the original ending.

Starring

Michael C. Hall, Jack Alcott, and Julia Jones

Creator

Clyde Phillips

Scores

IMDb 8 · Rotten Tomatoes 77%

Episodes

10

No. 05 · 2025 · Series · 14h 29m

Dexter: Resurrection

Dexter Morgan awakens from a coma and sets out for New York City, determined to find Harrison and make things right. But when Miami Metro's Angel Batista arrives with questions, Dexter realizes his past is catching up to him fast.

Why it matters: Dexter survives and follows Harrison to New York.

Starring

Michael C. Hall, Uma Thurman, and Jack Alcott

Creator

Clyde Phillips

Scores

IMDb 9 · Rotten Tomatoes 95%

Episodes

20 across 2 seasons

No. 01 · 2006 · Series

Dexter: Season 1 recap

Dexter works blood spatter for Miami Metro and kills murderers who slipped through the system, dating Rita, a survivor of domestic abuse with two kids, as cover. A new killer, the Ice Truck Killer, leaves drained, dismembered bodies and starts leaving messages meant only for Dexter, including pieces of Dexter's own buried past. Debra, a vice cop desperate for homicide, works the case and falls for Rudy Cooper, a prosthetist. Sergeant Doakes distrusts Dexter from the start. Dexter recovers the memory at the root of everything: at age three he watched his mother Laura Moser killed with a chainsaw in a shipping container and sat in her blood for days.

How Dexter: Season 1 ends

Rudy is the Ice Truck Killer and Dexter's biological brother, Brian Moser, who was in that container too. Brian kidnaps Debra and offers Dexter a family of killers if he will murder her with him. Dexter refuses, saves Debra, and kills Brian himself, staging it as a suicide. Debra survives traumatised, never knowing Rudy was Dexter's brother, and Dexter learns Harry knew all along.

No. 02 · 2009 · Series

Dexter: Season 4 recap

Dexter is exhausted with a newborn son, Harrison, a house in the suburbs and a double life. Frank Lundy, now retired, returns to Miami chasing the Trinity Killer, who has killed in the same cycle of three for thirty years, and is murdered; Debra is shot in the same attack. Dexter discovers Trinity is Arthur Mitchell, a deacon and family man, and, instead of killing him, gets close to him under a fake name to learn how he hides it from his family. Debra learns Harry's secret about Dexter's birth mother.

How Dexter: Season 4 ends

Dexter finally kills Arthur and goes home to find Rita dead in the bathtub, killed by Trinity before Dexter got to him, with baby Harrison sitting in her blood, just as Dexter once sat in his mother's.

No. 03 · 2013 · Series

Dexter: Season 8 recap

Six months later, Debra has quit the police and is falling apart with guilt. Dr. Evelyn Vogel, a psychiatrist, reveals she helped Harry write the code and has studied Dexter since childhood. A killer called the Brain Surgeon sends her pieces of his victims; he is her son, Daniel, now calling himself Oliver Saxon. Hannah returns, and Dexter plans to leave for Argentina with her and Harrison.

How Dexter: Season 8 ends

Saxon kills Vogel and later shoots Debra, who suffers a stroke and ends up brain dead. Dexter kills Saxon in custody, takes Debra off life support, buries her at sea and steers his boat into a hurricane, presumed dead. Hannah and Harrison wait in Argentina. In the last scene, Dexter is alive, working as a lumberjack in Oregon.

No. 04 · 2021 · Series

Dexter: New Blood recap

Ten years later, Dexter lives as Jim Lindsay in Iron Lake, New York, sells hunting gear, dates the police chief Angela Bishop, and has not killed since Miami; a vision of Debra now plays the voice in his head. His teenage son Harrison finds him. Dexter kills Matt Caldwell, the son of a local businessman, and when Matt goes missing, Angela starts digging. Matt's father, Kurt Caldwell, turns out to be a serial killer of young women.

How Dexter: New Blood ends

Dexter kills Kurt, but Angela works out that Jim Lindsay is Dexter Morgan, the Bay Harbor Butcher, and arrests him. Dexter kills a deputy to escape, and Harrison, horrified, shoots his father in the snow. Angela lets Harrison drive away.

No. 05 · 2025 · Series

Dexter: Resurrection recap

Dexter survives Harrison's bullet and wakes from a coma weeks later. Harrison, working as a bellhop at a New York hotel, has killed a man assaulting a guest, and Dexter follows him to the city to protect him. Driving for a rideshare app, Dexter crosses paths with a killer who murders drivers, which leads him to Leon Prater, a billionaire who hosts a secret club of serial killers. Angel Batista retires from Miami Metro to hunt Dexter.

How Dexter: Resurrection ends

Batista tracks Dexter to Prater and is shot dead by Prater. Prater captures Harrison, but Dexter kills him, dumps him in New York Harbor and takes his files and yacht, leaving the police to pin Batista's murder on Prater. Dexter and Harrison are reconciled, and season 2, out October 30, 2026, brings the New York Ripper and a new killer, the Five Borough Killer.