Jennifer Carpenter Cryptically Discussed How The ‘Dexter’ Revival Brings Deb Back In A ‘Cosmically Profound’ Way

Now that Jennifer Carpenter’s Dexter return is official, the actress has opened up what convinced her to return for the Showtime revival, which pretty much everyone agrees was a hot mess by the time it dropped its infamous ending. As fans of the serial killer series know, there’s only one logical way to bring Carpenter’s Debra Morgan back, and that’s as Dexter’s new conscience. In a new interview with Variety, showrunner Clyde Phillips essentially confirms that Deb will be living in Dexter’s mind just like his father did, and that approach was enough for Carpenter to sign on:

“I didn’t really feel like I wanted to go back and fix a broken score,” Carpenter said. “I feel like Deb had a different ending than the show. So, I decided that my work was to go to the bottom of the ocean and collect her and see if she wanted to be a witness to watch an unmedicated, decoded, unpunished, unchecked serial killer experience himself.”

“I wanted to massage her scar tissue,” she continued, noting that she found it “cosmically profound” to return to the character in such a way.

According to Carpenter, she was attracted to the notion of being “an echo or and inconvenient truth for Dexter,” and that’s what drew her to the revival series that will see Dexter attempt to start a new life in New England while bumping up against a new villain played by Clancy Brown.

The Dexter revival premieres November 7 on Showtime.