After more than six seasons, Showtime’s serial killer with a conscience seems to have met his romantic match in Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski), a woman with a dark past of her own that resurfaced when a mystery writer got a little too close to uncovering her violent history.

Hannah, of course, became Dexter’s (Michael C. Hall) first plastic-wrapped victim to survive his kill table, turning what could have been her deathbed into a place of passion once Dex realized just how much of a kindred spirit Hannah really is.

After unsuccessfully trying to stay clear of one another, Hannah and Dexter have become almost an item, as their chemistry has proven too much for either to successfully ignore. And almost like Deb’s tragic love life, their happiness won’t last long as the head of Miami Metro, upset over writer and fleeting love interest Sal Price’s death, wants to take advantage of Dexter’s deadly skills when she asks him to set things right and bring Hannah to justice in the court of his Dark Passenger.

The story sets up an epic and insanely awkward love triangle between Dexter, Hannah and Debra, who still may be harboring romantic feelings for her foster brother after learning that he was a serial killer (with a code!) who went so far as to tamper with her cases.

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Strahovski, busy with rehearsals for her upcoming Broadway play Golden Boy in New York, to discuss if Deb and Hannah can both survive, how Hannah could help Dexter with Isaac and if the sibling connection makes Deb off-limits from Hannah’s poison.

The Hollywood Reporter: How are we going to see Hannah’s and Dexter’s relationship progress?
Yvonne Strahovski: It turns out can’t really help themselves. The question now is what will Dexter do now that Debra has asked him to handle Hannah McKay. Does he like Hannah enough to ignore Debra’s request? Which woman in his life will he choose?

Dex can be himself around Hannah, who’s OK with the fact that he’s a serial killer. Does that give her an advantage?
It gives her a big advantage. We can see Dexter struggling with the fact that he’s really allowing himself to fall for her. The big one for him is that he doesn’t have to hide anything. It goes back to the beautiful connection between Hannah and Dexter where she says, “We look out for each other. That’s pretty big for people like us,” and she puts her hand on his heart. It’s the first time you really see Dexter emotionally connecting with somebody in the series. It definitely sets up a big emotional struggle with the feelings he’s developing for Hannah and the family loyalty and the feelings he has for Debra.

We see in the promo that Dexter tells Deb that he has fallen for Hannah. What might Deb and Hannah’s confrontation look like?
We all know Debra is a pretty feisty character, so you put one feisty woman against another feisty woman and there’s bound to be some kind of drama. We see a little snippet of that in the preview and it’s a question of how far is Debra going to push it. With her character struggling with these weird feelings she’s having for Dexter and she’s also trying to find her power again. It could be that part of Debra regaining her strength as an individual might be pursuing her career even further — like she said, the music to her ears is a jail door slamming shut.

Is Debra is more put off by Hannah because Hannah is a killer or is because she’s Dexter’s new love interest?
I think the fact that she killed turns her on in a way. She wants to make things right and find justice because that’s what her job is all about.

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