Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Dexter: New Blood.
Iron Lake’s oil billionaire Edward Olsen served as an ominous and possibly villainous recurring character at the start of Dexter: New Blood, but what happened to him after episode 3? Dexter: New Blood episode 1 introduced Edward Olsen (Fredric Lehne) as an antagonistic and wealthy oil tycoon living in Iron Lake, who struck up a particular rivalry with teenager Audrey Bishop. While hints of Olsen being involved with the Runaway Killer, having a deep-seated interest in Audrey, and secretly being a bigger villain than Kurt were sprinkled throughout the first few episodes, Edward Olsen was never seen or mentioned again after the timeline of Dexter: New Blood episode 3.
Considering Olsen was the first possible villain introduced in New Blood, it seemed strange that he never returned. Olsen actually played a much bigger role than Kurt Caldwell in Dexter: New Blood’s first few episodes, but his presence became obsolete once Kurt was revealed as the Runaway Killer. While many theorized that Edward Olsen was possibly the Runaway Killer, may have been buying Kurt’s victims as trophies, or was secretly Audrey Bishop’s unseen father, nothing of his character came to fruition. There was still hope that he could connect back to Audrey and Angela’s background, but this was dispelled when Audrey revealed her father to be Angela’s ex-husband and that Iris was not her mother. Kurt’s screentime quickly outranked Olsen’s, and the rich oil billionaire became a mystery for the rest of Dexter: New Blood’s season.
After no mention of Edward Olsen upon Kurt Caldwell’s serial killer reveal, it seems that the only purpose the character served in Dexter: New Blood was as a red herring. Olsen being a more prominent antagonist than Kurt in the first few episodes was set up as a way to distract audiences from believing Kurt was the serial killer right off the bat, but really it was quite obvious that Clancy Brown was behind the white ski mask. Once it was revealed that Kurt was Dexter: New Blood’s Runaway Killer, there was no real purpose for Olsen to take up screen time any longer. Without a reveal of him being connected to Audrey’s background, it seems his only other use in New Blood was to formulate Audrey’s character. Audrey’s interactions with Olsen showed that she was strong-willed, passionate about fighting climate change, and wouldn’t back down against a powerful billionaire trying to rule her town. After using him as a distraction from Kurt Caldwell being the Runaway Killer and introducing Audrey’s personality, Olsen’s role was complete in New Blood episode 3.
In retrospect, Dexter: New Blood may have benefitted by not including Olsen’s character at all. He took up an unnecessary amount of screen time in the first few episodes as a possible villain, and his only asset in the search for Matt Caldwell was his helicopters – which may have been what spooked Kurt into saying Matt was alive. Dexter: New Blood using Olsen as a red herring was also unnecessary in that Kurt was already posed as a major villain for Dexter either way, so the season could have saved the trouble of writing in Olsen and simply establishing Kurt as the killer from episode 1. This would have repeated Dexter‘s Arthur Mitchell/Trinity Killer reveal in season 4, where audiences knew he was the killer the entire time, and had to suspensefully watch him evade the police while Lundy, Miami Metro, and Dexter tried to find him.
Instead, Edward Olsen may go down as one of the most pointless recurring character roles in Dexter’s history. As only a red herring and nothing more, Olsen became more of a missed opportunity or collateral in time restraints rather than a necessary piece of Dexter: New Blood’s story. Instead of following up on his proposal to Audrey that he’s “not a bad guy” by having him continue to help in the Runaway Killer case and Matt Caldwell’s death/disappearance, Edward Olsen simply remains a mysterious Iron Laker just “being a billionaire” in Dexter: New Blood’s season.
