Dexter: New Blood: Harrison's Trophy

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Dexter: New Blood Episode 9.

Kurt Caldwell has seen the end of his path in Dexter: New Blood, but what happens to Dexter and Harrison Morgan? Harrison has been taught the Code now that Kurt is gone. And now it seems inevitable for the boy to develop a taste for his own trophy.

Dexter: New Blood: A Keepsake

Serial killers typically always keep a trophy as part of their kill rituals to remember their victims, as the original Dexter series reminded viewers. One of the most sociopathic features of Dexter's vigilante serial killing was cutting his victim's cheek and placing the blood sample in a slide that he kept in a box, which almost got him caught multiple times.

Deb interrupts Dexter's explanation of the Code to Harrison in Dexter: New Blood, just as he is about to tell his son about his blood slide kill ritual.

Dexter determined it was time to tell Harrison about his own Dark Passenger and, more importantly, the Code of Harry after Kurt attempted to kill Harrison as the Runaway Killer in Dexter: New Blood Episode 8.

Dexter tells Harrison about the Code in a flashback of him seeking and capturing Wiggles the Clown, an unseen kill from the original series, in New Blood Episode 9.

Dexter gets to the stage in the flashback where he has Wiggles on his table and is about to cut his cheek for his blood slide trophy before Deb interrupts and informs Dexter he can't tell Harrison about his ritual, so Dexter skips over this element.

Why Made Deb Stop Dexter?

This is why Deb would stop Dexter from telling Harrison this: it indicates that Dexter has a psychopathic desire to remember and re-experience these killings with enjoyment, which is far more sickening than simply being a vigilante.

Dexter tried to paint the Code as non-lethal or particularly horrific, concluding the flashback by stating he only scared Wiggles into never hurting anyone again. If Dexter had mentioned the fact that he hoarded mementos and sadistically slashed the cheeks of his victims, it would show that the Code was about more than simply restraining his urges, but also about enjoying the brutal process.

Realizations from Harry's Code

Dexter realizes that the blood slides were never part of Harry's Code since they contradicted the idea that he was merely a vigilante, so making him just as much of a sick serial killer as the rest.

Dexter leaves out this disturbing routine so that Harrison doesn't believe it's okay, rather than passing it on to Harrison, which would just feed the gruesome element of his Dark Passenger. Dexter does not cut Kurt's cheek or extract a blood sample even when the two gang up to kill him.

In Dexter: New Blood, Dexter has let Harrison in on the "family business," but he still needs to keep the most unsettling portions of his rituals out.