Dexter: Resurrection Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Murder Horny

Yes, that was really Dexter tapping Harrison on the shoulder. And no, neither of them is OK.

Dexter: Resurrection Season 1 Episode 5 is, predictably, unhinged. But underneath the provocative title (“Murder Horny”) and Dexter’s almost-romantic near-kill with Mia lies one of the most emotional, introspective episodes of the season. 

It finally forces father and son into a reckoning. Who they are. What they’ve become. And whether they can be better together.

Let’s start with that reunion. Harrison is understandably stunned. His reaction? “You’re like a goddamn horror movie villain.” Which… yeah. That’s accurate. 

Dexter’s reappearance is a Jason Voorhees-level resurrection with better hair. But the shock quickly gives way to something much heavier. Anger. Confusion. Trauma. 

Harrison is still homeless, and he’s being watched. He’s under suspicion. And here comes Dexter, back from the dead like it’s just another Tuesday.

Dexter apologizes. He shouldn’t have practically begged Harrison to put him down. He shouldn’t have manipulated him, and most certainly shouldn’t have tried to nurture the darkness inside his son. 

That look of pride when Dexter finds out about the nine pieces and the bloodless cleanup says it all. And yet, Harrison doesn’t feel pride or relief. He feels haunted, and like the ticking of Ryan’s stolen watch, it’s always there.

Harrison finally says it: “I would have never killed Ryan if you weren’t you.” That line shatters Dexter. He offers to carry the burden for his son — literally, taking the watch — but he’s gutted when Harrison says he might not want him in his life at all.

That moment pushes Dexter toward Mia.

And on paper, Mia should be perfect for him. She gets it; she kills. She even bowls. Dexter tries Swan Lake, but they agree on bowling. It’s such a regular pastime. It was on Detxter, and it is here. He loses with a 7-10 split. 

They bond over their childhood trauma, their estranged families, and their casual ability to dismember without flinching. They’re the Joker and Harley of serial killers, Gotham style, except… not quite.

Because, for all Mia’s style and swagger, she’s empty inside. She kills not for justice or control, but for the high. 

The myth of Lady Vengeance is a lie. She’s not a vigilante, she’s a predator. She says so herself, proudly. Dexter sees it — and hates it. 

Because for the first time in his life, he wants more. He’s beginning to believe there might be something better than the code. Something like… family.

So when she offers him a ménage à murder (not sex, but a team-up), Dexter plays along. But he’s not into it. When she’s bloodthirsty, he gets hesitant. When she’s spontaneous, he’s calculating. And when she’s “murder horny,” he’s already holding the syringe.

Except… he doesn’t kill her. Not then, not there. Not yet.

He lets her do what she does — baiting a man into her apartment, knocking him out with wine, ready to torture him — and calls 9-1-1 to stop her. 

The cops bust in just in time (which might be the least realistic part of this episode), and Dexter quietly plants Ryan’s watch to frame her for his death. Claudette is skeptical, but the setup is slick. Mia’s locked up, and Dexter — once again — walks away clean.

But is he clean? Not even close. 

Harrison’s still reeling. Claudette’s still circling. And Batista is sharpening his harpoon. Dexter is officially his white whale, and with each new twist in the Ryan Foster case, Batista gets closer to land.

The emotional heart of the episode lands when Dexter opens up about Rita, about how Trinity killed her because Dexter let his guard down. He thought he could live two lives, be two men. He wanted a mentor when Trinity should have been a target. 

Dexter confesses the guilt and the grief of living through that. And for once, Harrison hears the truth — all of it.

That’s when something shifts.

Dexter says he no longer wants to mold Harrison in his image. He doesn’t want Harrison to be like him. He just wants to be in his life because Harrison is his reason to live now, not his excuse to kill.

It’s a beautifully raw moment — one of the best father-son exchanges the series has ever delivered. When Harrison reaches across the table to touch Dexter’s hand, it’s the emotional release we’ve been waiting for since New Blood.

But it won’t last.

Mia’s not stupid. Charley isn’t either. She might be a Harvard-educated lawyer, but she’s also the concierge to a serial killer society. She tells Mia their “mutual friend” is watching, and he appreciates her cooperation. Comfort will be offered. 

You can feel the walls closing in, not on Mia, but on Dexter.

And then there’s Leon Prader — charming on camera, calculated off it. The Leslie Stahl interview wasn’t just exposition; it was character construction. We learn he came from the foster system, and that he paid off the mortgages of families who adopted kids from the same home. 

He hosts charity events for fallen officers because of how they made him feel when his parents were killed in a car accident, and he was alive in the back seat. If not for them, he says, before trailing off. 

On paper, he’s a philanthropist with tragic roots. But let’s not kid ourselves: Leon Prader is a collector, not just of trophies, but of people. Killers. Broken things. Mia. Charley. Even Dexter. 

He’s building something behind the curtain, and if “Who is Leon Prader?” is the question of the season, I’m betting the answer will blow it all open because guys like Prader don’t just vanish when one of their puppets gets locked up.

They escalate.

Spatter Matters

😈 “Murder Horny” could have been a cheap thrill of an episode, but it delivers so much more. It’s the turning point for Dexter, for Harrison, and maybe for the entire second half of the season. 

The show continues to lean into its rogues gallery — Lady Vengeance, The Gemini Killer, Charley, Prader — like it’s building its own twisted Justice League of Gotham-style serial killers. (Honestly, tell me Dexter’s not Batman with blood slides.)

🎞️ And then there’s the use of Dexter: Original Sin footage, which adds unexpected weight to Dexter’s confession. 

When he tells Harrison about the frat boy he wanted to kill — the one who assaulted Deb — we get to see it play out, through the younger version of Dexter we’ve only just met. It’s not just a flashback. It’s myth-building, and it’s a subtle reminder that even the darkest monsters had origin stories rooted in something… human.

The emotional stakes are rising. The kills are getting messier. And Dexter? He’s finally choosing life over death.

Sort of.

So what do you think?

Is Dexter really changing or just dressing the darkness in nicer clothes? Are we building toward redemption, ruin, or something in between?

Drop your thoughts in the comments, and if you’re as murder curious as we are, don’t forget to share this with your fellow Dark Passenger devotees.

Let’s talk it out… before someone ends up on the table.

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