Dexter: New Blood episode 2 recap: Who is Kurt Caldwell?

After the high stakes of the premiere, Dexter: New Blood episode 2, “Storm of Fuck,” slows things down to assess the consequences of Dexter’s latest kill and introduce his son Harrison Morgan into the Iron Lake community.

Matt Caldwell’s apparent disappearance draws the local law enforcement, including Dexter’s girlfriend, chief of police Angela Bishop, to Dexter’s cabin where the search party sets up home base. His cabin is conveniently located near Matt’s last known location since he told people he was going hunting in the nearby woods where he shot a white buck on reservation land.

Dexter skillfully misleads the investigation, so they’re led to believe that Matt shot the buck (which he did actually do) and then, not wanting to face charges for poaching on Seneca land, fled to New York.

It looks like Dexter has gotten away with yet another murder by the episode’s end. Not only does he skillfully cover up his blood trail and disturb the crime scene, but Dexter also plants one of Matt’s gloves near the highway and even helps the cops match the bullet inside the buck to the ammo Dexter sold Matt the day before at the shop.

Dexter’s conscious, a hallucinatory Deb Morgan, berates him throughout the episode for falling into old habits and endangering his son. He’s gotten away with murder yet again, and he loves it. “Smug fuck,” she scolds.

But has Dexter gotten away with it? Maybe not. Dexter: New Blood episode 2 introduces a new antagonist in the shape of Kurt Caldwell (Clancy Brown), Matt’s powerful and well-connected father. Kurt has no intention of letting Angela and the police end their search early despite their claims that Matt probably ran off into the night. Matt has a habit of calling his daddy for help every time he gets into trouble, so why wouldn’t he this time?

Especially if the charges are probably just a steep fine, no, Kurt isn’t buying the story Dexter wants to sell. With an impassioned plea to the Iron Lake residents, he gets Angela to restart the search and go through the night in search of Matt.

Dexter: New Blood episode 2 recap: Who is Kurt Caldwell?

Besides being an anxious father, is there more to Kurt than meets the eye? Remember Lily (Kimmy Anne Dunn), the girl Angela helped out at the bar in the premiere? We catch up with her again in this week’s episode, and things are not looking good for her. She’s trapped inside a creepy hotel room with a camera and everything.

Someone is watching her, and while we don’t see the person in full, the hint given to us by a close-up of the kidnapper’s eyes and the ominous score that plays when Kurt is first introduced seems to hint that Caldwell senior could be the person holding Lily hostage. Further evidence of this is Angela’s line that they’ve been trying to get into contact with him “for hours.” What was he doing during that time? Spying on Lily? Someone was.

Petro billionaire Edward Olsen is also a potential suspect. Either way, Lily is in big trouble, and she knows it. When she finally notices the glowing red light of the camera in her bedroom, she sees that someone has written “you’re already dead” around it.

Dexter: New Blood episode 2 recap: What happened to Harrison during his time in Argentina?

Apart from the central murder investigation, Dexter: New Blood episode 2 spends several scenes setting up Harrison’s integration into the Iron Lake community and hinting at his past. Since Dexter left him with Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) in Argentina, he’s lived a whole life.

Harrison and Angela’s daughter Audrey (Johnny Sequoyah) hit it off right away. They have a lot in common, including the fact that their parents are dating. Initially, it looks like Angela isn’t thrilled that Dexter kept the fact he has a son from her for all the time they’ve been dating, but she’s surprisingly cool with it, even revealing that Audrey isn’t her biological daughter. Angela adopted her. She also gives Dexter some much-needed parenting advice.

Despite everything that happened, Dexter and Harrison appear to take some steps forward in their relationship. During one heartbreaking scene, Harrison reveals that he found the letter Dexter wrote to Hannah all those years ago and focused on the line: “Contact me if Harrison exhibits any dark tendenices.”

All this time, Harrison has lived under the assumption that his father abandoned him because he saw something evil inside him. Dexter assures his son that wasn’t the case. He left because of his own personal demons and fears that he would somehow infect or influence Harrison if he stayed.

But Dexter never anticipated that Harrison would end up alone. Not only did Harrison lose his biological mother Rita as a baby, but Hannah succumbed to pancreatic cancer three years before Harrison arrived in Iron Lake. Bounced from foster home to foster home, Harrison had a rough go of it for a while before tracking down his dad.

We find out more secrets and hints to what Harrison’s life has been like throughout the past decade while he hangs out with Audrey and her friends. For starters, Harrison easily breaks into a locked door while the other teens struggle to get in, alluding to the possibility he’s broken into a few homes before. Then he casually reveals that he is a few years sober now after struggling with a drug problem.

Left alone with Harrison’s bag while he goes to retrieve firewood, Audrey’s oafish friends Scott (Andrew Fama) and Zach (Oscar Wahlberg)—who have deemed Harrison a freak for some reason (probably jealousy)—go through his things. To her credit, Audrey tries to stop them. They find a notebook inside with pages full of impressive drawings. Harrison sees them looking but doesn’t mention it when he returns.

What else is Harrison hiding? Does he have “dark tendencies” like his father? By episode’s end, Harrison has agreed to remain in Iron Lake, at least for now.

New episodes of Dexter: New Blood premiere Sunday nights at 9/8c on Showtime. Episodes also stream early at midnight on the day of release via the app and website.