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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | No! I saved ‘em. They’re just runaways. Do you have any idea, the trauma they were gonna go through? I do. I saw it! I saw it firsthand, what my dad would do to them! I’d pick them up on the road and I’d take ‘em to my cabin and I’d give 'em a nice room and a warm meal and safety. But that was never enough for them, they always wanted to go back out there. And so I preserved them, kept them safe forever. | „ |
| ~ Kurt justifying his murders |
Kurt Caldwel, also known as the "Runaway Killer", is the main antagonist of Dexter: New Blood.
He was a prolific serial killer who was known for killing around 30 runaway teenage girls and who served a fake life as the mayor of a small town named Iron Lake. When Dexter killed his sadistic son, Matt, for shooting a deer and committing numerous other atrocities, such as murder, he hunted Dexter and his son.
He was portrayed by Clancy Brown who also portrayed Byron Hadley in The Shawshank Redemption and Richard Brinkerhoff in Gen V and voiced Uka Uka in the Crash Bandicoot video games, President Luthor in Justice League, Mr. Freeze in The Batman, Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Yakone in The Legend of Korra and Gunmar in Tales of Arcadia.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- While his dad did beat up prostitutes in front of him and abuse his wife, it is not played for sympathy as it is only an excuse to kill, in fact, he enjoys his crimes and there is no reason to target teenagers except pure sadism and to make sure he isn’t caught.
- When he picked up a hitchhiker named Iris and she declined to let him drive her home, they got into a scuffle where he shot her in the back. Kurt then proceeded to bury her behind some rocks, but she was still alive and died slower due to this.
- Because of the situation with Iris, Kurt becomes a serial killer who targets teenage runways. After luring them into his cabin and locking the door, he puts on his winter outfit and forces the girls to run in order to shoot them in the back and keep their bodies as trophies. Over the span of many years, he kills at least 30 of them.
- Drives a young girl named Chloe to a cabin so that he can spy on her with a camera and watch her scream. After she slashes Kurt's face with a piece of broken glass, he drags her out of the room and shoots her in the face, making him viscously angry as he shot her in the head, ruining his trophy.
- In a wrestling match with Harrison and an opponent, he yells at Harrison to unleash his anger on the kid, causing him to break the kids arm.
- After escaping prison due to a lack of evidence for the murder of Iris, he pays Elric to kidnap Dexter, resulting in Elric’s death. He also shows no concern over Elric’s fate.
- To spite Dexter, he lures in Harrison to his cabin and tells him to run. While Harrison is running as fast as he can, Kurt waits for Dexter to show up in order to murder Harrison while a hopeless Dexter watches, although he doesn’t succeed.
- Burns down Dexter’s cabin to get rid of evidence and perches onto a truck with his sniper rifle to shoot Dexter and Harrison when they get out the bunker.
- Murdered Molly Park, a true crime podcaster who had become involved in the investigation into Kurt, which is one of his many bodies.
- In his final moments, Kurt showed no remorse for his crimes and says that he was helping all the girls he killed. Dexter also calls him out for blaming his dad for his behavior, further driving home that Kurt isn’t tragic.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He cares for his son Matt as he wanted revenge on Dexter for killing him, stating that he wants "Son for a son, Eye for an eye." Although Matt says that Kurt wasn’t a great father, this doesn’t make his care any less genuine as Kurt would routinely cover for his son when he got into trouble and kept a photo of him in his office even after Matt was gone.
- Although his method of collecting trophies is quite disturbing and unique to him, he fails the heinous standard to both Arthur Mitchell and Mad Dog who’ve killed over 200 people (Arthur almost reaching 300), and specially to Arthur, who was more brutal in his killings and had more personal villainy to Dexter by killing his wife. Resources aren't an argument since he is very wealthy and was active for at least 25 years according to Dexter. However, he still stands out for his high kill count and personal villainy to Dexter by attempting to kill his son, so he doesn't fail completely.
Trivia[]
- He is one of the two villains from the Dexter series to be Near Pure Evil, alongside Brian Moser.
External Links[]
- Kurt Caldwell at the Dexter Wiki
- Kurt Caldwell at the Villains Wiki