Dexter: Resurrection: Gabriel Luna Breaks Down The Sleepy Eyed Stranger Shocker

[Warning: The following contains major spoilers for Friday's episode of Dexter: Resurrection, "Live Free and Die." Read at your own risk!]

Ray's time on Dexter: Resurrection may have been short, but Gabriel Luna certainly made the most of it.

The actor was reluctant to play a serial killer at first because it went against his general motto for roles. "If grandmas wouldn't be proud, then maybe don't do it," he says. However, he and producer Marcos Siega grew close in Morocco when Siega directed The Terminal List, and he sent Luna a script during a hiatus for The Last of Us.

"There was something about it," Luna says. "I love Marcos, but also the character, there's such an interesting MO to this guy. It's not about the thrill or the fight."

Stepping into the role of Ray Ballard, aka The Sleepy-Eyed Stranger, was definitely new territory for the actor. According to Luna, this is a guy who wants to psychologically torture his victims until they break. At that point, killing them was like "freeing them from that insanity."

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He's a guy unlike other killers Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) has encountered over the years, but that didn't stop him from becoming Dexter's latest victim in Friday's episode. But first, Ray complicated the plan by showing up to a meeting of the minds set by Charley Brown (Uma Thurman) with a live captive to kill.

TV Guide caught up with Luna to discuss Ray's motivations, his unexpected dynamic with Hall and why this particular kill could be a turning point for Dexter.

TV Guide: Ray is unlike a lot of the killers we've seen on Dexter before. How did you get into his head and figure out what was driving him?
Gabriel Luna: It's not about watching them cry and beg and plead for their lives. He has to kind of condition them and tenderize them to the point mentally that he feels that he's actually freeing them.

I think mostly it was about, hurt people hurt people kind of thing, and getting into that space, and then realizing there's something about him. A lot of what we were doing on the day, and a lot of what I developed before I got there was kind of this arrested development.

He's stuck in this maybe early teens kind of childhood mentality, and a lot of the way he responds to Dexter's provocations and Charley's changing of the plan is very tempestuous and childlike.

Somebody hurt him when he was younger, and I think he's just in a place where he's trying to teach that lesson to others to not let family or friends or anyone get close.

We don't see much of Ray's life outside of his crimes. What did you imagine he was doing when he wasn't killing people?
Luna: He's kind of hermetic. He's also been inactive for quite a long time, as far as his trail of dead that he's leaving behind, and it's only in this invitation that Charley sends, this trap that they set, that he's actually reignited into what he feels is his purpose.

I think on a daily basis he's kind of sourcing revenue and his income from trading online and monitoring these markets, and then everything he does, he does from that one room. He's definitely secluded and isolated, and purposefully so. That's why he's not very good with people.

One of the more surprising things about Ray is how badly he wants Prater's approval. He even gets upset when he thinks Dexter has stolen his idea. What's going on there?
Luna: That's exactly it. I'm glad that you said that and that you were able to clock that. That's just the child. That's just the stage of development he seems to be stuck in.

Dexter says, "You have a great share. It's going to be great," and he's like, "I know I have a great share," and it's just almost like two stepbrothers fighting over a father's attention or something.

As much as I was bringing the backstory into it, much of that happened on the day in the way we started to see the way this language is pouring out in the relationships, specifically the one with Michael, and the way that we hit it off started to develop. It became a 12-year-old and his older stepbrother. He's just annoyed.

Michael C. Hall has been playing Dexter for two decades, and audiences know even his smallest expressions and mannerisms. Was there anything about working with him that surprised you?
Luna: What surprised me, and I guess a lot of people know this, and maybe I'm just late to the party, but he is a great singer. He's a great musician with a really beautiful voice, and his band Princess Goes is really cool, kind of like new-wave post-punk.

I always had my guitar with me at work, and we were playing and kind of passing it back and forth, talking about the band, talking about music and what we love. And he played me one of his music videos.

Especially in the voiceovers, when you're in his head with him, there is such a beautiful musicality of the way he speaks and just his intonations, and I think that definitely transfers over from him being a rock star and a singer and all that.

I didn't know that was in his tool bag, so to speak, and for me it helped inform why those voiceovers and those little soliloquies and asides that he has in his head are so engaging. It's just the musical nature of his voice.

One of the strange things about Dexter is that audiences are rooting for one serial killer to murder another. What kind of reaction were you hoping to get from viewers with Ray?
Luna: Last week the introduction was really effective, and the music supervisor needs a raise and a tip of the hat because the Nine Inch Nails tune really got people going.

I've seen a lot of calls and responses to that scene alone, and folks feeling like, "Oh my goodness, Dexter may have his hands full," or maybe this is the killer of the season, and a lot of different projections and predictions.

I was really proud of that. I was proud of how quickly the character seeped into people's nightmares. I had a few people say they made sure their screen doors were locked and they kept the lights on.

Ultimately, everybody's on Dexter's side of the stadium and sitting behind his bench and rooting him on. There were a lot of people trying to figure out exactly what Ray's place is and how long he's going to be with us, because sooner or later they all got to go, and Bay Harbor Butcher's got to do his work.

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Ray's death doesn't exactly go according to Dexter's original plan. How do you think this kill changes things for Dexter moving forward?
Luna: It's already gone a little bit wonky for him in the way these first few kills have transpired in this season. He gets into a big old knockdown drag-out with that big kind of John Wayne Gacy-looking fella, and then I show up with a live body.

I think he's starting to maybe hit his stride and come back into his power, into his purpose. I think he's inspired by how they were able to improvise and go off script.

He was able to not only save everyone who was ever going to potentially encounter the Sleepy-Eyed Stranger, but the person that was there. He took action and was able to save George, this victim that was potentially going to be taken.

I think he's really proud of that and inspired by that call to action, and his ability to meet that moment when he had to.

Dexter: Resurrection Season 2 is currently streaming on Paramount+. New episodes drop on Fridays.