WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Dexter: Resurrection season 1, episode 6!Dexter and Harrison’s conversation about Hannah McKay’s death inDexter: Resurrectionfinally pays justice to her role after the original series, but the scene ignores a crucial figure who came before her. Though Hannah was a major character in the final two seasons and became Harrison’s adoptive mother, her impact has often been ignored afterDexter’s original series finale.
AsDexter: Resurrection’s main charactersnote, serial killer Hannah McKay raised Harrison after Dexter abandoned them and drove into a hurricane. She was Harrison’s only real semblance of family, yetNew Bloodkilled Hannahoff-screen by revealing she died of cancer several years earlier.Resurrectionfinally acknowledges how important both Hannah and Rita are as Harrison’s mother figures, but still leaves out another significant character who arrived before her.
Lumen Helped Dexter Raise Harrison Before Hannah Came Into The Picture
Harrison Called Hannah “Mama” In A Major Dexter Season 5 Scene
Rita is Harrison’s birth mother and raised him for the first year of his life, but Hannah wasn’t Dexter’s next love interest to spend significant time with young Harrison. That would beDexterseason 5’s Lumen Pierce, who came into Dexter’s life almost immediately after Rita’s death when he found her being held hostage and assaulted by the Barrel Girl Gang.
After Dexter rescued Lumen, the two began a romance that also involved working together as killers to get revenge on the surviving Barrel Girl Gang members. During their relationship, Lumen was often at the Morgans’ home and would help Dexter care for Harrison, helping to fill the mother role left by Rita’s death.
In one scene, Harrison even called Lumen “mama” while the family is eating breakfast, which is met by harsh words by Rita’s daughter Astor. Lumen didn’t just help Dexter raise Harrison, though. She also watchedAstor and Cody Bennett, stepping in to help them work through their grief, problems, and teenage struggles – areas of parenting that Dexter himself struggled to navigate.
However, after Dexter and Lumen killed Jordan Chase and dealt with all the Barrel Girl Gang members, Julia Stiles’ character left Miami. Her darkness was gone once Chase was dead, and she couldn’t stay in that relationship with Dexter. That meant she also had to leave Harrison behind, despite how close of a bond the two had formed throughoutDexterseason 5.
Lumen may not have been around as long or intensely as Rita and Hannah, but she still played a crucial parental role in Harrison’s life. Rita andHannah are Harrison’s two primary mothers, but it’s still strange that Dexter’s references to his maternal figures completely ignored Lumen inResurrectionepisode 6.
Harrison’s Only Mother Figures After Rita’s Death Have Been Killers
Harrison Was Only Raised By Killers
Tragically, Rita’s death ultimately left Harrison to be raised almost exclusively by serial killers. While Dexter’s sister helped out with Harrison when he was a young child,Deb’s death inDexter’s original serial finaleyet again left him without a morally just female figure in his life. After Rita, his new mother replacements were killers like his father.
To be fair, Lumen never truly achieved serial killer status. Her only kills were Alex Tilden and Jordan Chase, with Lumen deciding to stop killing forever after their deaths. Meanwhile, Hannah McKay had already been an established serial killer long before forming a relationship with Dexter, but it’s unclear whether she stopped killing after she and Harrison moved to Argentina.
WhileJack Alcott’s Harrison Morganhasn’t discussed it inDexter: Resurrection, it’s assumed that he knows Hannah was a serial killer. Since Harrison began digging online to find out information about Dexter beforeNew Blood, he likely also gave Hannah McKay a few searches, which would have exposed her criminal history. Even without Dexter, Harrison couldn’t escape being raised by killers.
