The seventh season of “Dexter” doesn’t arrive until September 30th. After a couple of lackluster seasons, Showtime has really been pushing this new season of “Dexter” in the hopes of keeping disgruntled viewers from bailing and maybe even bringing some “Dexter” viewers who had quit seasons ago back into the fold. They’re trying to both position this new season as a “game changer” and as the beginning of the end. “Dexter” has two seasons left before it’s over, and season seven will operate as the first part of the series ender.
A new trailer has arrived (below), and the executive producer of the series, Sara Colleton, gave an insightful interview with TV Guide that revealed perhaps more than you might want to know about the upcoming season. Here’s the obvious (SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN’T CAUGHT UP): Deb is not going to turn Dexter over to the police after having discovered him killing Travis. At least not immediately. The seventh season will deal with Dexter’s “regret, responsibility, shame, and betrayal” as he also tries to handle embarrassment for the first time. Embarrassment that he is who he is, and embarrassment that he let down Deb. Deb, meanwhile, has to sit with the knowledge that his brother — who she wants to f**k, by the way — is a serial killer, and deal with her own guilt about not immediately turning him in.
The interview did contain a few interesting notes about the upcoming season (SPOILERS, IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW), namely that Dexter will tell Deb everything. Maybe not all at once, but over the course of the season, Dexter will reveal all secrets, including his past with their father, Harry, and the way he trained Dexter. In fact, part of what the next season will be about is Dexter’s anxiousness to share his lifelong secret with someone he loves. But that’s not all.
There will be a major first-season callback to Sergeant Doakes. As you recall, Doakes was framed as the Bay Harbor Butcher by the actual Bay Harbor Butcher, Dexter, and Lieutenant LaGuerta will begin to suspect that the Bay Harbor Butcher is not, in fact, dead. An investigation would allow her to clear the name of her friend, Doakes, and obviously put Dexter in jeopardy.
On top of that, Ray Stevenson, Jason Gedric, and Yvonne Strahovski — who will play part of a former husband-wife serial killing team who turned state’s evidence on her husband in exchange for her freedom — will have their own subplots, which hopefully will pack season seven with enough stories to prevent it from sinking under the weight of their usually agonizing middle-of-the-season filler episodes.
Here’s the new trailer, which doesn’t contain any new material from the upcoming season, but does contain what I’ve grown to dislike most about “Dexter” these past few seasons: Dexter’s droning, redundant, and cliche-heavy voice-over narration.
