by Marc Patterson

Today over at Entertainment Weekly some mild to not so mild spoilers for the upcoming season five of Dexter were revealed. Having just come off the best season yet I couldn’t help but take a peek at what’s waiting for us in season five, and the news warms my blood. For those of you who HAVEN’T had the chance to view season four, or are trying desperately to keep yourselves untainted going into season five I’m going to tell you right now… MOVE ALONG and DON’T READ ANY FURTHER, especially if you haven’t seen season four! However, if you have seen season four I would like to iterate that we don’t condone any major spoilers and we genuinely feel that what follows is rather minor in the grand scheme of the show. Proceed at your own risk.

Okay, assuming you’re still reading let’s commence with the mild spoilers. According to EW the biggest news is that season five will pick up immediately following the shocking conclusion to season four. This was one area of the show that had folks buzzing insanely following that finale. Would they pick up with the show months/years later, or would they take the more immediate route of showing how Dexter works his way through the grief of his loss, as well as getting himself out of an awfully suspicious jam. This isn’t going to be an easy challenge for the writers, but is a choice I wholeheartedly back.

Executive Producer Sara Colleton tells EW: “We have spent the last month sitting around, talking and really debating how best to deal with the aftermath of [Rita's death]. We uniformly decided that we don’t want to jump ahead. We need to see Dexter go through the process that we’d all have to go through if such a horrible thing had happened to us. We need to see him doing everything from the big emotional things like grieving the loss, to the mundane things like arranging a funeral, getting the kids dressed, and all the other things that are usually done for men because their wives or mothers do them.” Sara continues, “It would be cheating the audience of their catharsis to not see Dexter go through that mourning period and see how it affects him or to not see him dealing with the blowback of what he essentially caused.”

The article goes on to speak more about some larger season spoilers that we don’t want to get into here. While I subscribe to the theory that it’s okay to snoop under the Christmas Tree, it’s just not fair to open the presents before good ol’ St. Nick arrives.

On a spoiler free note, for those of you who have been following the news of Michael C. Hall’s battle with cancer, Colleton tells EW in a concluding comment that “Michael’s in full remission. I just had a three-hour breakfast with him this morning. He’s in great shape and is getting his energy back. We are all very excited to get back to work. The guy is incredibly courageous and worked hard all through last season despite being sick. He’s an amazing human being and actor. It was scary, but the show will go on. We start shooting in late April or May, which is usual. We will not have to stall production.”