Fortunately, Hall and the original showrunner Clyde Phillips (who left) Right after five seasons) have a second chance to finish with New blood, which premieres on November 7 at 9 p.m. It remains to be seen how the show really wants to end its story this time around. One thing’s for sure though: it has some compelling options from Jeff Lindsay’s original Right book series to ponder.
rolling stone Chief TV critic Alan Sepinwall recently posted an interesting thought experiment on Twitter, writing, “If Dexter had tried this in the last season, would it have been better or worse than Lumberjack Dexter?”
The attached screenshot is a Wiki entry detailing the events of the third of eight books in the Right series, Dexter in the dark. It reads: “The Dark Rider turned out to be an independent entity living in Dexter, possibly the progeny of the ancient god Moloch. The idea was largely disliked by critics and fans alike and was scrapped from future books. In 2013, the writer, Jeff Lindsay, stated that: Dexter in the dark was an experiment. As such, the storyline was tested and the idea was abandoned.”
Well, that’s fascinating.
In the show, The Dark Passenger is the name Dexter gives to his uncontrollable urge to kill. It is clearly a personification device that Dexter uses to justify his violent sociopathy. That’s also the case in the books…until that controversial third entry. In Dexter in the dark, Dexter Morgan is suddenly abandoned by his Dark Passenger at a very inopportune moment – he is kidnapped by a murderous cult, you see. Only when Dexter is despondent at the loss of his Dark Passenger buddy at the end of the book does it return to him, delighted to once again feast on its grief.
Dexter in the dark was the first book to be released after the Showtime series had already premiered. Excerpts from the title are even accessible in the menu of the Right season 1 dvd. While the first two books and seasons of Right match up pretty well, the third installments of each going in completely different directions. While Lindsay did leave that Moloch plotline after book three, it serves as a fascinating “what if…?” for the Dexter franchise in general.
