Yvonee Strahovski and Michael C. Hall in DEXTER - Season 7 - "Chemistry" | ©2012 Showtime/Randy Tepper

DEXTER is now in its killer seventh season on Showtime, Sundays at 9 PM. The serial killer antihero played by Michael C. Hall is currently dealing with double whammies from his police lieutenant stepsister Debra, played by Jennifer Carpenter, who has found out his big secret and just confessed that she’s in love with him. Meanwhile, Dexter may be in love with fellow serial killer Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) and has infuriated urbane but lethal Ukrainian mobster Isaak Sirko (Ray Stevenson).

Scott Buck, who has been with the series since Season 2 and has served as show runner and one of the show’s executive producers for the last several seasons, talks about where DEXTER has been and where both the character and the show are going.

ASSIGNMENT X: How long has it been decided that Deb was going to find out Dexter is a serial killer?

SCOTT BUCK: I think we knew we would always eventually tell the story, but it so dramatically changes the nature of this show, that it wasn’t we didn’t really want to consider it until we were sort of closing in. [The producers were waiting for] the right moment, but it’s just been in our consciousness for such a long period of time that we knew it was a great story. That’s exactly what the whole season is about, is how is Deb going to deal with this, because we know she’s a very good cop, and she’s a very moral, bright person, who will always try to do the right thing, that’s who she is, but at the same time, she’s a very loving sister who cares more about her brother than anything else in the world, so it’s how is she going to balance these two things? It’s not an easy balance. Constantly, they’re going to be divided against each other. I think we play it as real as possible. After this number of years, I think we know Deb pretty well and how she would react in these situations. We don’t shy away from the reality of it, that there is no easy solution to being in this circumstance. So we just deal with it head-on.

AX: Season 7 begins literally where Season 6 ends, with Deb walking into the church where Dexter killing the crazy apocalyptic religious murderer played by Colin Hanks. Was it hard getting the end of the last episode of Season 6 to match the beginning of Season 7 in production terms?

BUCK: No, it was just very expensive to hold that gigantic church set, to not strike it and have to rent the entire stage so that we could keep that church for that period of time. But when we wrote the end of Season 6, we knew exactly what was going to happen in the following episode, so it was not so difficult for us to write it.

Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall in DEXTER - Season 7 - "Run" | ©2012 Showtime/Randy Tepper

AX: Sometimes the people that Dexter kills are long-term serial killers themselves, but in the case of Viktor, played by Enver Gjokaj, he killed Mike Anderson, played by Billy Brown, from Miami Metro in a sort of routine shooting …

BUCK: It was done to very carefully set up the world that we’re about to enter. So the kill itself is not as significant as the entry to the world we’re about to spend much of the season in.

AX: Are we going to find any secrets out about Mike, now that he’s dead?

BUCK: No. Mike is a true blue good cop, who was probably one of the best cops in the precinct, and met a very unfortunate and tragic end.

AX: Dexter is aware that Captain LaGuerta, played by Lauren Velez, is looking into the Bay Harbor Butcher again. Is he going to have a violent reaction to this?

BUCK: Dexter does not kill innocent police officers, so no, I don’t think it puts her in his crosshairs.

AX: One of the things that Dexter has been concerned about since his little son Harrison was born is whether or not Harrison is going to inherit Dexter’s homicidal tendencies. Is Harrison going to get old enough in what’s plotted out for the rest of the series to have that question answered in any way?

BUCK: I don’t think we’ll see that in the Harrison that we know.

AX: Who would you say is the biggest threat to Dexter this season?

BUCK: I think it’s himself. I think he is his biggest, scariest enemy throughout this season, but that’s part of the fun of this season is, when he thinks he’s taken out one thing, then another threat suddenly comes from another direction. It’s him constantly juggling all these huge threats throughout the season. In one episode, one may be bigger, and just when he thinks he’s dealt with it …

AX: Are you already breaking Season 8?

BUCK: It’s certainly in our thoughts. I mean, as we broke Season 7, we were thinking, “Well, how would this lead into Season 8?”

AX: Now, granted, most of the people that Dexter kills are fairly horrible people themselves, but has it been difficult to spend six years so far with the psychic weight of this show?

BUCK: It sometimes occurs in my dreams in not the most pleasant of ways. Yes, it’s a dark show, it’s a dark process, so it certainly invades all our psyches. At times, we’d probably prefer it would not.

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Article: Exclusive interview with DEXTER showrunner Scott Buck on Season 7

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