According to Scott Reynolds, Michael C. Hall wanted to touch on Dexter’s relationship with faith in this new season.
During the eight-season run of the original series, Dexter Morgan crossed paths with faith (and specifically Christianity) several times. Most of those moments came during the sixth season, which leaned heavily into religious symbolism thorugh its main villain, Travis Marshall, aka the Doomsday Killer, with the biblical-themed and disturbing “Doomsday Tableaus.”
Even though Dexter never saw himself as a religious man, he wasn’t immune to faith. There were plenty of moments when he called out to God, sometimes sarcastically, sometimes instinctively. The most iconic example comes at the end of Season 6, when Debra catches him in the act, and he mutters that unforgettable “Oh God.”
But faith didn’t stop haunting Dex there. Years later, in Dexter: Resurrection, religion returns into his story in a surprising way. In Episode 9, titled “Touched by an Ángel,” there’s a scene where Dexter once again finds himself invoking God, but this time it feels a little different. When Leon Prater exposes him and Charley aims a gun at him, Dexter blurts out, “Little help here, God?”
Executive producer and writer Scott Reynolds talked about this moment during a recent Dexter: Resurrection aftershow, explaining that this episode digs into a new side of Dexter, the part of him that’s starting to wonder if there’s something bigger out there.
Interestingly, from the early days of planning the season, both Reynolds and Michael C. Hall wanted to explore what it means for a man like Dexter, who has “come back from the dead,” to start questioning whether fate, or even God, might be at play in his life.
Reynolds said that after everything Dexter has survived, it’s natural to start wondering if it’s just skill and luck, or if something, or someone, is watching over him. “He keeps getting away with it,” Reynolds explained. “And when that happens again and again, you start to think, maybe somebody out there’s looking out for you.”
In “Touched by an Ángel,” Dexter’s inner monologue actually reflects that struggle. As he’s preparing to kill Prater, he talks about how, in the old days, people used to pray to gods, but it didn’t always end well. He’s still the Dexter we know, the one who trusts in logic, precsion, and... steel (knife). Yet, as everything begins to go out of control, even he can’t help calling out to something greater, if only for a second.
Reynolds said that this small moment where Dex is asking for help from God, is something the old Dexter would’ve mocked. But this time, it shows a man who’s starting to doubt his own certainty.