Wondering what’s up with your favorite blood-spatter analyst? Wonder no more. At the Saturn Awards, executive producer Clyde Phillips filled us in when we asked about Season 3 and just how long Dexter Morgan can stay under the radar.

Previewing what’s to come, he said, "Dexter inadvertently sets in motion a chain of events that will change his life not only for this year, but change his life forever" —and that doesn’t mean a manhunt. "We’re done with that," says Phillips. "But that doesn’t mean he’s not in great jeopardy. For Season 3, we had to basically start it all over. We really had to cut [the storyline] from whole cloth."

As Jimmy Smits joins the cast, it may be surprising to hear that it’s not as an adversary to Dexter. "He plays an assistant district attorney who is a rising star in the city of Miami," shares Phillips. "His brother dies in the first episode and he and Dexter form an alliance. That’s basically all I can tell you, other than the fact that Jimmy Smits is going to go, I believe, places he’s never explored before as an actor."

And Rita, says Phillips, will be "pivotal to what goes on in the year and is part of what changes Dexter’s life." But will Dexter find his soul? No, says the producer. "Once he’s completed as a person, the show’s over." We wouldn’t want that.