I Thought Dexter: Resurrection's Big Penultimate Episode Death Was A Smart Move, But I Didn't Expect To Still Feel Heartbroken Days Later

Major spoilers below for the latest episode of Dexter: Resurrection, so be warned if you haven't yet watched via Paramount+ subscription!

With so many characters getting killed off already in Dexter: Resurrection's first season, I'd held out a fraction of a hope that the creative team would find a way to get Batista off of Dexter's back in a non-fatal way. That partial-hope was filled with bullet holes near the end of "Touched by an Ángel," unfortunately, with David Zayas' long-running franchise character getting shot to death by the killer-obsessed Leon Prater.

Batista was set up to be the newest victim of the Bay Harbor Butcher after he flapped his gums about Dexter's past to Charley and Prater (and anyone else who'd listen), and while Michael C. Hall's character attempted to free his former colleague, Batista ignored the threat of his captors and just focused solely on taking Dex down for good, and died for it. For all that I thought the cliffhanger was a smart move, storytelling-wise, I'm still quite heartbroken over how far this character was raked over the emotional coals.

I Think Batista's Death And Final Moments Were Smart For How They Fractured Dexter's Psyche

If we're speaking solely about how the events of this show affect and relate to its titular protagonist, then I think Batista's death makes a lot of sense to strike a mighty chord within Dexter's mental state. They used to be really good friends, and there was a trust there for many years that Dexter could still cling to in ways that the other man could not. It's pretty much the only reason Batista lived long enough to get to this episode, showing up at Blessed's house would be enough to sign any other character' death warrant.

Dexter himself showed just how important Batista's opinion of him was when he attempted to clear up the latter's misconception that he'd killed both Doakes and LaGuerta, and he was taken aback when Batista dismissed such attempts to ward off guilt. His final words were a literal "Fuck you" to our resident vigilante, and he died, leaving Dexter the only living being within Prater's fucked-up museum of serial killer weapons and keepsakes.

Hall's manic screams that ended the ep perfectly encapsulated how I'd think anyone would be feeling after everything that went down, especially since he was fully confident that he'd have Prater wrapped, stabbed, and dissected by lunchtime. So all things considered, killing off an OG character was a pretty brilliant way to shatter the main character ahead of the all-important finale. (Given Season 2 was already ordered, we dare not worry about Dex being not-really-killed off again.)

It Breaks My Heart That Batista Fell So Very Far From Grace

When one isn't viewing this storyline solely through main-character lens, however, Batista's death becomes far more heartbreaking and difficult to think about fully objectively. I mean, he was easily one of my favorite characters during the flagship series' run on Showtime, and it wasn't all just due to how great David Zayas looks in a hat.

Angel was the somewhat rare TV example of a cop who's good at his job because he's smart and capable, and not due to being morally untethered or having unique abilities. That goes back to his early days on the force, too, as shown in the renewed-then-cancelled prequel Dexter: Original Sin, with James Martinez in the role.

So it was pretty rough to watch Dexter's actions take such a toll on Batista by the time the OG series ended, and it seemed clear even then that he might never get over LaGuerta's murder, regardless of who was responsible. But one could have pretended that he was living his best life, and the New Blood update that he became Captain of Miami Metro pointed in that positive direction. At least until he learned about Angela Bishop's Butcher suspicions.

By the time he showed up in New York looking for the former spatter analyst when Resurrection's storyline starts, it seemed clear that Batista went to some dark places before making the decision to suddenly vacate his decorated career and life in Florida specifically to track Dexter down. But, because he's a good detective, he actually found his target, and thus had all the right instincts in place to pull off the arrest of the century.

Or at least, the old Batista might have been able to pull that arrest off without incident. In his currently fraught state, however, he was unable to actually prove that all of his suspicions were correct, and instead repeatedly made himself sound like a paranoid lunatic in front of the only two cops who seemingly have an equal investment in his findings. (Assuming this New York Ripper theory isn't true, anyway.) The fact that he continued to lie about being an active homicide captain did not help one bit, either.

Without the cops on his side, Batista took matters into his own hands once more, and thought he'd struck gold by discovering Dex's connection with such a socially conscious bazillionaire like Leon Prater, only to get beaten up and taken captive.

Dexter's Admission About Doakes And LaGuerta Was The Final Middle Finger To Batista's Legacy

I realize that within the fictional reality of Dexter: Resurrection, no one is 100% safe from either a brutal death or a lifetime of regrets. Nobody dies in this show without enough baggage to fill a second casket, and I wouldn't readily expect anything different involving the one person beyond the titular character who's appeared in every franchise entry. I knew he wouldn't get a glorified hero's death or anything, at least.

Still, though, Dexter found a way to make an already depressing situation worse in Batista's final moments. Instead of letting the dude die thinking that he'd come as close as humanly possible to achieving justice to Doakes and LaGuerta's deaths, Dex threw a wrench in by saying he didn't even kill either of them. There wasn't enough time for the show to dig too deeply into those ramifications, but I can only imagine how piercing those words would have been, for Batista to realize that his entire mission was based on misinformation, and that he was now dying at the hands of a monster who wasn't even responsible.

Zayas didn't let any of that show on Batista's face in that moment, though, and he instead flipped it so that Dexter's attempt to free himself of that burden went unfulfilled. So in the end, Batista did get the final mic drop, but at such an unenviable cost.

I guess now it's time to look forward to Batista: Resurrection getting ordered up at Paramount+ while waiting for the Season 1 finale to debut on Friday, September 5.