“'Sins Of The Father' is an excellent finale for New Blood, and for Dexter as a series," says Joshua Alston. "It’s more than just a decent finale by the standards Dexter set for itself during its endless creative trough. 'Father' is a very strong hour of television from a show that offers them up inconsistently and very rarely does so at the end of a season. And the episode works so well because it makes use of the entirety of Dexter, not just its mythology but the public perception of the show. 'Father' succeeds because it goes places no one expected this show to go based on its history. The uncharitable way to describe that would be to say 'Sins Of The Father' lumbered over the low expectations set by the endlessly derided 'Remember The Monsters?' But what showrunner Clyde Phillips has put off is much more sophisticated than that. The only thing that could have redeemed Dexter at the end of season eight was some kind of accountability for Dexter Morgan, at least the sense that for once he’d truly gotten out in front of his water skis. Because that moment never came—save for Dexter’s goofy, bearded foray into forestry—it was reasonable to assume it never would."
What was it like for Clancy Brown to join a show that has already come and gone?: "It's not just another gig, because it does have its pedigree," says Brown, who had no problem with the original finale. "That could be a problem if everybody was going back to Miami and all the other cast were going to be there, but the new cast outnumbered the old cast on this one. And I remember asking Michael (C. Hall) that question and saying, 'Hey, is this weird for you, coming back to this after 10 years and reviving this character and going back to the well?' And he sort of smirked at me and he said, 'You know what's weird is that it's not weird to me. I'm stepping right into this and it's pretty easy and I didn't expect it to be.'"
Executive producer Clyde Phillips weighs in on the finale, says he's open to a Harrison spinoff: 'The intent was to tell a complete story," he says. "It's no secret that the eighth season was very unpopular and dissatisfying to the fans. I wanted the audience to feel as if we had completed the story. I guess I was striving for redemption, not in any religious sense. I just wanted to redeem the show for the audience and send it off with something that we're proud of instead of something that we'd have to make excuses for."
Michael C. Hall is satisfied with Dexter: New Blood's ending: “Some people will have predicted it, and some will be shocked by it,” the actor told the Los Angeles Times in a Zoom interview last week. “Some people will accept it, some people will reject it. I think it will be difficult for people to grapple with his fate given that he is someone that they have spent a lot of time with and have a lot of affection for — at least in some cases.”