Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Dexter: Resurrection season 1, episode 10.The ending of Dexter: Resurrection season 1 made it official: the franchise isn’t addressing a major complaint concerning Harrison that has been around since Dexter: New Blood. Dexter: Resurrection did a good job of fixing the mistakes of New Blood. The ending of Resurrection season 1, for example, was a lot more fitting and well-received than the ending of New Blood was.
For all the good Resurrection did and all the changes it made to New Blood’s ending, however, it also repeated one of the first sequel show’s worst mistakes. It wasn’t as obvious this time around — mostly because Resurrection had a much more satisfying ending — but it’s still there, and it still presents a big problem for Harrison’s story going forward.
Dexter: Resurrection Season 1 Completely Ignores Harrison’s Two Siblings, Despite A Huge Focus On Family
One of the biggest themes of Dexter: Resurrection is the idea of family. The entire season was about Dexter and Harrison reconnecting and relearning how important and transformative familial love can be. The entire franchise is really about family, but despite that, Dexter: Resurrection forgot about Astor and Cody Bennett yet again.
Astor and Cody were Rita Bennett’s kids that she had before dating and marrying Dexter. After Rita’s death, they went to live with their paternal grandparents, and Dexter essentially excused himself from their lives. The fact remains, however, that Astor and Cody are Harrison’s half-siblings, yet Resurrection left them out of its themes of family.
This isn’t a new problem, either. Dexter: New Blood also completely forgot about Astor and Cody. Even when Harrison travelled thousands of miles to reconnect with Dexter in Iron Lake, he never bothered to track down Astor and Cody. Dexter also went through a revelation about learning to be a more present father and accept his children, but that lesson evidently only applied to Harrison.
Dexter: Resurrection Season 2 Can’t Continue To Ignore Astor & Cody
Jack Alcott as Harrison Morgan and Emily C. Kimball as Gigi Jones in Dexter: Resurrection, episode 8, season 1.
Zach Dilgard/Paramount+
At this point, the way the Dexter shows have ignored Astor and Cody Bennett simply can’t continue. The fact that Dexter has two stepchildren and Harrison has two half-siblings that are being entirely disregarded undermines Dexter: Resurrection’s main themes and messages. How can this show be about the importance of family when half of the living Morgan/Bennett family isn’t in it?
Morgan/Bennett Family Tree
Name
Relation To Dexter
Rita Morgan née Bennett
Wife
Astor Bennett
Stepdaughter
Cody Bennett
Stepson
Harrison Morgan
Biological Son
Hannah McKay
Adoptive Mother of Harrison
Astor and Cody should be part of Harrison’s journey and growth going forward in Resurrection. He’s finally learned to accept his father and his sins, and he should now get the chance to meet and accept his siblings. They could be his link to Rita’s side of his heritage, and a way for Harrison to get more info about his mother beyond the story of her death.
Cody and Astor also deserve to confront Dexter just as much as Harrison did. He abandoned them first by shipping them off to live with their grandparents after Rita’s death. Now that he’s going by Dexter Morgan again, maybe they could track him down and find some closure of their own. No matter what, though, if Dexter: Resurrection wants to tell a story about family, Astor and Cody need to be in it.