Bodily fluids flow for 'Dexter' at Comic-Con

Dexter fans will get blood aplenty when the show's third season premieres Sept. 28, but it won't be the only bodily fluid flowing. The show's Comic-Con panel -- helmed by stars Michael C. Hall and Julie Benz, plus executive producers Clyde Phillips and Melissa Rosenberg -- went to great lengths to discuss how serial killer-turned-forensic scientist Dexter Morgan is finally growing up.

And growing he is. The clip opened with a beyond-steamy sex scene between Dex and girlfriend Rita (Benz). Loyal watchers will remember Dexter has said he's just not interested in sex, and had problems even pretending as much with Rita. Clearly, those issues will be resolved in the third season.

Also in the clip were scenes of Jimmy Smits as a new assistant district attorney interested in Dexter's friendship. More shocking, we see Dex murder an innocent, and not in his careful, analytical way, but in the heat of the moment. Of course, he's called in to investigate his own crime once again.

All of the above fits the new Code of Dexter, as Hall said, which replaces the Code of Harry. With Dexter having confronted the truth behind his foster father's death last season, he's tweaking the rules to accomodate the sort of emotional growth most normal humans experience early in their lives. Don't expect a totally new man, though: Phillips confirmed the show would end as soon as Dex truly found his humanity.

Hall, by the way, spent the session lining up and then wolfing down Hershey's Kiss chocolates. At first it seemed like the sort of discordantly creepy (in its very mundane way) thing his alter ego might do, but it turns out he was just yet another victim of the Comic-Con exploding-truck traffic jam.

How do you kill a panel with such great energy? Bring in Mark Ecko. The fashion designer apparently owns the rights to any Dexter video game, which has been in development. The big news? That game is almost ready... for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Such a momentous announcement was met with, to put it nicely, nonplussed silence.

The producers tried to salvage the event by bringing up a "shocking reveal" in the first episode, a mistake by Dexter that sets the tone for the rest of the season. Sounds an awful lot like the murder shown in the clip. No further details could be pried from their cold, dismembered hands.

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