Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Dexter: Resurrection Season 1, Episode 9.
In the Dexter world, unless you’re Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), just about everyone dies. It’s not just the bad guys, but his family, his co-workers, and as shown at the end of Dexter: New Blood, it even seemed like Dexter himself was a goner for a while. We know not to get too comfortable when a new character appears, but Angel Batista (David Zayas) was different. He was there from day one in the original series, the cool, happy-go-lucky homicide detective who didn’t see who Dexter really was. Instead, he saw a best friend. Batista became a darker character as more of the people in his circle started to die, and by New Blood and into Dexter: Resurrection, he knew that Dexter was indeed the real Bay Harbor Butcher.
From the moment he decided he wasn’t giving up in his pursuit, we knew Batista was going to make a violent exit. That moment came at the end of Dexter: Resurrection‘s ninth episode, fittingly titled “Touched by an Ángel”. Angel Batista is dead, but even though it was long predicted, it didn’t stop it from being the most tragic death yet.
Angel Batista Was the Epitome of Good
Every season of Dexter sees our protagonist taking out the bad guys, but getting wrapped up with other killers so often puts the people in his life in mortal danger. When Dexter’s wife, Rita (Julie Benz), a good woman just trying to live her life, is shockingly murdered by the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow) in Season 4, it was one of the most soul-crushing deaths in TV history. The death of Dexter’s sister, Debra (Jennifer Carpenter), didn’t hit as hard as it should have in those inferior later seasons, but she was the biggest character, outside of Dexter, who could have perished.
Working as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department, Dexter is next to people who investigate people just like him. That leads to a few of them getting too close and losing their life along the way, but one cop who never leaves us is Angel Batista. Unlike the always angry James Doakes (Erik King), or sometimes cold and not always likable Maria LaGuerta (Lauren Velez), Batista was easy to love. He was good at his job, but he was also a good person. With his stylish hats and shirts, he was cool and easy-going, a man with a depressing job who still kept his smile. And he absolutely adored Dexter Morgan.
Others, especially Doakes, may have looked at Dexter with suspicion or saw him as unusual, but Batista saw only a quirky guy who was his best friend. It annoyed Dexter at times, but Batista’s goodness made him blind to any negative judgment. He’s the last one who would have ever thought that Dexter Morgan could be a serial killer.
Batista Spent His Last Days Not Being Listened To
Batista’s opinion started to change at the end of the original Dexter, with Maria mentioning her suspicion that their co-worker could be the real Bay Harbor Butcher. He dismissed it for a while, but it was too much to ignore after Maria was killed. In Dexter: New Blood, it was fun to see David Zayas return in a limited role. The series wasn’t about him, but there he was, lurking in the background, starting to figure everything out. If he ever did, he was doomed.
In Dexter: Resurrection, suspicion turned to certainty. Angel was positive that Dexter was his man and he wasn’t going to let it go. Catching the Bay Harbor Butcher, and getting perceived justice for Doakes and LaGuerta, became his life mission to the point that he retired and left Miami. Dexter Morgan was his job now, and he pursued it vigorously, whether it was approaching Dexter, his son, or even putting a tracker on the killer’s car.
Batista is a good man and a good detective, so even though we didn’t want Dexter to be caught or killed, that didn’t mean fans wanted to see Angel Batista die. Perhaps he could be the adversary always on Dexter’s trail over several seasons of Resurrection. Sadly, that became more and more unlikely, especially when New York City detectives Wallace (Kadia Saraf) and Oliva (Dominic Fumusa), who had their own Dexter suspicions, turned on one of their own. They went from listening to Angel to treating him like he was a crazy man obsessed with catching a killer who had been brought to permanent justice two decades ago. We knew that Angel was right, which made seeing him so dismissed and isolated a tragedy unto itself. He was the hero, but no one would listen.
Angel’s Death Was Not Only Tragic, but Painfully Realistic
Going into “Touched by an Ángel”, you could feel that Angel Batista was about to die. He had gotten too close to Dexter, and now, just like everyone else, he would pay the price. When he visited Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage), trying to warn him about who Dexter was, you wanted to scream at your TV and tell him to run away. He couldn’t hear us, he couldn’t know, which made it all so much more brutal. Other deaths in Dexter have come out of nowhere, but Batista’s entire arc this season has been a constant, building dread. The only question was how it would happen and who would do it.
We get our answer in the ninth episode, when Prater brings Dexter to his home and not only reveals that he knows he is the Bay Harbor Butcher, but also shows Batista strapped to a table. The serial killer collector is excited, wanting to see the Butcher do his thing in person. Of course, Dexter will not kill him, and he almost immediately cuts his former friend free. That small moment gave us a bit of hope. Now saved, would Batista forgive Dexter, at least temporarily, so they could get away from Prater and Charley (Uma Thurman)?
The tragedy was that this outcome could never be. Batista was too good, and his pain too great, to ever look away from evil. He literally turned his back on a greater evil because he was so consumed by the loss of Doakes and LaGuerta that it led to his demise. The scene works so well because it feels so real. Doakes and LaGuerta got over-the-top deaths, with the former being blown up by Dexter’s psycho ex Lila (Jaime Murray), and Deb shooting LaGuerta. Angel’s death was plausible, an end that could have been prevented but always had to be. In the last moments, he got a few seconds to speak with his nemesis, to share his pain, and in a defeated voice say, “Fuck you, Dexter Morgan.” Batista died, like so many others, because of him. It was so crushing and unfair that even the formerly cold-hearted Dexter let out a guttural scream of his own pain. You can’t get more devastating than that.
The finale of Dexter: Resurrection premieres on Paramount+ next Friday.
Dexter: Resurrection
- Release Date
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July 13, 2025
- Network
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Paramount+ with Showtime
- Directors
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Marcos Siega
- Writers
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Scott Buck