New Blood: Why The Killer Drains Blood — Dexter Season 1 Connection Explained
Warning: SPOILERS for Dexter: New Blood episode 3.
Dexter: New Blood’s mysterious serial killer carefully drains the blood of his victim, which bears an eerie connection to Dexter season 1’s villain. After nearly a decade-long hiatus from killing, Dexter: New Blood shows the vigilante killer back to his old habits. Following the return of his son Harrison and a reminder of his true identity, Dexter Morgan, under the alias Jim Lindsay, kills Matt Caldwell, a recklessly entitled resident of New Blood’s Iron Lake. After a long period of putting his murderous past behind him, Dexter is also faced with a new serial killer foe in town, who also happens to share similarities with the original series’ first villain.
The original Dexter series featured a new serial killer each season, who would rival Dexter Morgan’s own vigilante killing sprees. Season 1 featured The Ice Truck Killer, season 2 was Dexter himself as the Bay Harbor Butcher, season 3 saw The Skinner, season 4 was The Trinity Killer, season 5 was The Barrel Girl Gang, season 6 was Colin Hanks’ Doomsday Killer, season 7 featured Dexter's girlfriend Hannah McKay and the Koshka Brotherhood, and season 8 rounded out the series with Oliver Saxon. Dexter: New Blood has kept fans (and Dexter) in the dark about the new serial killer’s identity, only showing him in a mask as he watches the girl he trapped, hunts her with his rifle, and drains the blood from her body.
Interestingly for Dexter, considering the season is already three episodes in, Dexter and the Iron Lake police aren’t aware yet that there’s an active serial killer in town. Only going off of the personalities and hints from Dexter: New Blood’s characters, it’s been highly speculated that the new killer is either Kurt Caldwell or Edward Olsen. While New Blood’s killer has still yet to be identified, the series has given hints to his Modus Operandi, which shares a strange blood-draining ritual that relates to Dexter's original season 1 serial killer.
After killing the girl that had been trapped in his cabin by hunting her, Dexter: New Blood’s serial killer brings her body back to a self-made embalming room. The serial killer cleans her body carefully before going to his tray of medical supplies, where he then begins to drain her blood into metal buckets. While preparing the body and draining the blood, New Blood’s killer plays The Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to Do Is Dream” on a record player - which is oddly similar to how Dexter season 4’s Trinity Killer played Frankie Avalon’s “Venus” on a phonograph before killing a 10-year-old, even down to the same shot of the vinyl spinning. Considering New Blood’s killer is also clearly a hunter, there are several reasons why he could be draining blood, including a connection to Dexter season 1’s Ice Truck Killer.
Out of Dexter’s many serial killers, season 1’s Ice Truck Killer, AKA Rudy Cooper, AKA Brian Moser, was the most personal. He happened to be Dexter Morgan’s biological brother, having been separated from Dexter after the two boys were found in a pool of their mother’s blood. Like his younger brother, Brian grew up to become a serial killer, though his fixation was on amputated body parts while Dexter’s was on blood. Dexter season 1 saw Brian as its main villain under the alias of The Ice Truck Killer, who was known for murdering women, draining their blood, and dismembering their bodies, which he would store in a large refrigeration space. The aspect of The Ice Truck Killer that Dexter's Dark Passenger found most fascinating was that he drained his victims’ blood into a bucket, which he eventually learned was partially to make the amputations less messy. In a moment that would finally make Dexter remember the traumatic murder of his mother, Brian had covered an entire hotel room with the collective, pooled blood of his victims that he had been storing. Dexter eventually put The Ice Truck Killer to rest, murdering him in a framed suicide by draining him of his blood.
The most obvious connection between Dexter: New Blood’s serial killer and The Ice Truck Killer is that they’re draining their victims’ blood. Their processes are also quite similar, using at-home surgical tools to drain the blood while collecting it into buckets. The fact that Dexter: New Blood episode 3 shows the serial killer using his own surgical tools in a medical room suggests that he has a tie to the medical field in his own profession. This would seemingly imply that New Blood’s serial killer isn’t Kurt Caldwell as theorized, considering he runs a successful trucking and truck stop company. Aside from hunting his victims with a rifle, New Blood’s killer does differ from The Ice Truck Killer in one important way - he injects the victims with formaldehyde. Unless he’s throwing a private funeral for his victims, there’s no real explanation as to why he would want to preserve their bodies by embalming them.
Dexter season 1’s Ice Truck Killer had an important reason for saving the blood of his victims, as he would use it to cover a hotel room and taunt Dexter with the birth of his Dark Passenger on October 3. It also assisted in a cleaner amputation process, which may prove helpful to New Blood’s killer, as cleaning the dead body in episode 3 proves he is entirely orderly. As Dexter: New Blood’s serial killer drains the blood, it’s clear he’s not simply following the traditional embalming process. The blood drains into a bucket, whereas the typical embalming process has the blood flow into a drain and down into a sewer system. The bucket suggests he’s saving it for something, which could either be a personal, sickening reason, or a way to get an enemy like The Ice Truck Killer did to Dexter. New Blood features plenty of connections to hunters, especially with the new killer's M.O., so it's possible the bodies are being drained of blood and embalmed as trophies.
Considering how clean and orderly New Blood’s serial killer is, it’s possible he will be dismembering the body similar to how The Ice Truck Killer did, making it more difficult for the police or animals to find evidence of his crimes. He also has a fixation with the pink pajama suit that he has folded up neatly next to the body, possibly saving it for the next girl he abducts and kills. This could call back to The Ice Truck Killer continually obsessing over the prosthetics and amputations of his victims, which calls back to his traumatic childhood. If the pink pajamas become a staple for Dexter: New Blood’s serial killer victims to wear, it will be much easier for the police and Dexter to find out their connection to his past.
Source: Screenrant
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