'Dexter' Season 7 Photos: New Characters, Old (Mannequin) Hands

With rumblings that season eight of "Dexter" might be the end of the series, not to mention the lackluster reaction from fans and critics to the sixth season, there's a lot riding on the shoulders of the upcoming season seven.

So far, we've had a few brief glimpses of the return of "Dexter," but only from the very beginning of the first episode back. There were the promos, which didn't show footage from the season but set the tone with some suggestive writhing under the covers; there was the two-minute clip from Comic-Con that showed Deb's reaction and Dex's excuse; and there was the short promo that showed that Dex and Deb will end up burning the evidence.

Now, we have some brand new photos from the early episodes of the series, which show us some of our new characters. One of the pics features "Chuck" star Yvonne Strahovski, who will play a woman who aids Miami Metro with reopened cases, and another features Ray Stevenson, who plays a European gangster who makes a visit to Miami.

The other pics show that Dexter will still be talking to good ol' Harry about things... and he'll need him, too, as he deals with Deb's new insight into Dexter's true nature. It also looks as though Dexter will be dealing with a potential nemesis in Louis, as one of the photos shows Dex looking over the Ice Truck Killer hand with Harry, his tools and slides out on the table. We can only hope that Rudy shows up at some point, too... that was fun.

Check out the pics below: