# Dexter 9/22/2013 (S08E12) "Remember the Monsters?"



## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

What a whimper of a finale.

There's so much like this, but a great example of how sad the whole season has been is when Batista and Quinn are watching the video footage of Dexter in the prison after he'd killed Vogel... hello? anybody with a brain left on the writing staff? *sigh*


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## markp99 (Mar 21, 2002)

Dang it. TvTorrents is down, though sounds like I'm not missing much?


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

Very lame.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Blech.


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

The Log Truck Killer.....lolz...oh wait not really that funny...sigh

If nothing else, I'm pretty sure nobody saw that coming...


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## GoPackGo (Dec 29, 2012)

No words.


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## MegaHertz67 (Apr 18, 2005)

So disappointing. In so many ways.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

:down: terrible ending. 

I can't believe how bad this whole last season was. Huge letdown for an otherwise great show. Especially when Michael C. Hall was in one of the best finales in the history of TV. (i.e. Six Feet Under, I loved how that ended) 

Oh well off to watch Breaking Bad.


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## Azlen (Nov 25, 2002)

Poor Harrison. Having to grow up in an Argentine orphanage after losing both of his parents and his father's fugitive girlfriend leaves him behind at the convent. He's going to grow up and be a serial killer.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

Azlen said:


> Poor Harrison. Having to grow up in an Argentine orphanage after losing both of his parents and his father's fugitive girlfriend leaves him behind at the convent. He's going to grow up and be a serial killer.


I'm not sure Hannah would abandon him, but if she did, hopefully he would get sent back to live with Rita's parents like Rita's other children.

Which reminds me, I would have preferred a subplot about Dexter's stepkids rather than all the other lame subplots this season.


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## getbak (Oct 8, 2004)

Azlen said:


> Poor Harrison. Having to grow up in an Argentine orphanage after losing both of his parents and his father's fugitive girlfriend leaves him behind at the convent. He's going to grow up and be a serial killer.


When she closed the iPad, I imagined her looking at Harrison and trying to figure out how much poison she'd need to use.

A laughably bad finale to a laughably bad season. I can't believe there was talk of a spin-off series. Which character would anyone would want to see on a spin-off?


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## FilmCritic3000 (Oct 29, 2004)

All I can say is ugh. This season wasn't even on the level of bad fan fiction.


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## danielhart (Apr 27, 2004)

What a big bag of suck that was.


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## Jesda (Feb 12, 2005)

Selfish Dexter doing selfish crap while the writers expect us to admire him for it.


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## Test (Dec 8, 2004)

So in the end this entire show was really only in the mind of a lonely bored logger?


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## Odds Bodkins (Jun 7, 2006)

In terms of the episode, it was the best one of the season but the writers letting Dexter off the hook yet again is just so damn disappointing. Would have been better if we didn't get the lumberjack look-in.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

getbak said:


> Which character would anyone would want to see on a spin-off?


Dexter as a logger. AMC's answer to Ax Men.


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## Sacrilegium (Dec 14, 2006)

I look forward to Dexter's career as a tree sap spatter analyst. Can't wait for the scene where he sings the Lumberjack song from Monty Python.


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## wouldworker (Sep 7, 2004)

It sounds like I did the right thing when I gave up on this show a couple of seasons ago.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

wouldworker said:


> It sounds like I did the right thing when I gave up on this show a couple of seasons ago.


Yep. You didn't miss much at all. The show overstayed its welcome by 2-3 seasons.


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

Now I know why they showed the boat selling scene and dexter explaining it comes with a life raft.


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## lambertman (Dec 21, 2002)

Masuka's daughter = ZERO PURPOSE (besides the topless scene)


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

It would have been a more fitting ending if they just ended it with him sailing into the storm.

I was also surprised by how little emotion I felt when Dexter pulled the plug on Deb. I've been known to get very choked up during emotional scenes in TV and movies, but this just didn't elicit a strong response. I think the main problem is that by the end of the series, I was pretty much indifferent. If Deb had died a few seasons ago, I probably would have been in tears. When Rita was murdered, for example, I was devastated.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

lambertman said:


> Masuka's daughter = ZERO PURPOSE (besides the topless scene)


Agreed. It added absolutely nothing to the show. The writers should have ditched that whole subplot and instead dedicated that time to the central story.


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## Dawghows (May 17, 2001)

Odds Bodkins said:


> In terms of the episode, it was the best one of the season....


Yep. I just wish that was higher praise than it actually is.


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## Tracy (Mar 12, 2000)

So disappointing. That flashback scene with the newborn Harrison was so hokey--so overplayed.

There were so many things that drove me crazy. Why didn't Hannah just get in a car and drive to Maine for two weeks? And for God's sake, why was she dressing like a supermodel looking for attention when she is getting on a bus? Grrrr. Can't she at the very least...oh, throw on a scarf?? When Hannah sees that Dexter's boat has sunk, she purses her lips a bit and moves on. She doesn't think, "Maybe he faked his own death....I will at least read the whole article."

Deb's death felt all wrong to me. It barely made me cry at all, and I can cry a lot at this sort of stuff. How is the fact that the brain-dead Deb disappears from the hospital being dealt with? Is it just assumed that Dexter did the deed?

And now Dexter is punishing himself by becoming a logger...a lonely lonely crazy logger? Ugh.


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

lambertman said:


> Masuka's daughter = ZERO PURPOSE (besides the topless scene)


That was a complete waste of time. She didn't even further anybody else's storyline either.


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## Tracy (Mar 12, 2000)

I thought Masuka's daughter was tossed in this season so that we could leave the character (Masuka) knowing he wasn't alone. If nothing was really going to develop with it (like through the bad credit aspect) then why not let Masuka attract a super hot chick who marries him? A waste.

And why get Deb and Quinn back together?

Plus, I never really cared about the psychologist lady and her crazy son. And what was the point of the junior serial killer protege story line? Just when I was starting to like the kid, he got offed.


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## Sacrilegium (Dec 14, 2006)

Tracy said:


> So disappointing. That flashback scene with the newborn Harrison was so hokey--so overplayed.


Baby Harrison was even less human than his father.


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

Tracy said:


> ...And why get Deb and Quinn back together?...


I didn't have a problem with that. At least, it made Dexter feel better/not guilty about leaving Deb behind (before she got shot). She'd have somebody to look out for her, replacing Dexter.


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## Tracy (Mar 12, 2000)

pmyers said:


> I didn't have a problem with that. At least, it made Dexter feel better/not guilty about leaving Deb behind (before she got shot). She'd have somebody to look out for her, replacing Dexter.


Yeah, but it made me feel bad for Jamie. I would have liked to see her end up happy.

Dexter should have died while saving Deb, Jamie, Harrison, and Masuka's daugher from the crazy son. That would have been better.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Sacrilegium said:


> Baby Harrison was even less human than his father.


Oh god, those scenes were _horrible_. I even said to my g/f, it's so obviously a doll.. and the writing and acting where so forced/bad. They could have left it out and had zero effect on the show. In fact, they could have left out the entire show, and had zero effect on the show.


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## jr461 (Jul 9, 2004)

Tracy said:


> So disappointing. That flashback scene with the newborn Harrison was so hokey--so overplayed.
> 
> There were so many things that drove me crazy. Why didn't Hannah just get in a car and drive to Maine for two weeks? And for God's sake, why was she dressing like a supermodel looking for attention when she is getting on a bus? Grrrr. Can't she at the very least...oh, throw on a scarf?? When Hannah sees that Dexter's boat has sunk, she purses her lips a bit and moves on. She doesn't think, "Maybe he faked his own death....I will at least read the whole article.".


Yup, as mentioned in prior threads, a haircut, hair dye, a HAT! How about sunglasses? Instead she parades around everywhere as an exact match to her picture which is everywhere.

My take-away from the article was that she didn't want to deal with it right there and then with the boy.


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## jr461 (Jul 9, 2004)

Tracy said:


> I thought Masuka's daughter was tossed in this season so that we could leave the character (Masuka) knowing he wasn't alone. If nothing was really going to develop with it (like through the bad credit aspect) then why not let Masuka attract a super hot chick who marries him? A waste.
> 
> And why get Deb and Quinn back together?
> 
> Plus, I never really cared about the psychologist lady and her crazy son. And what was the point of the junior serial killer protege story line? Just when I was starting to like the kid, he got offed.


I don't think anyone would have wondered what became of Masuka. I would assume life goes on as it did with him in forensics and chasing tail as much as possible


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

dswallow said:


> There's so much like this, but a great example of how sad the whole season has been is when Batista and Quinn are watching the video footage of Dexter in the prison after he'd killed Vogel... hello? anybody with a brain left on the writing staff? *sigh*


I didn't mind this scene. I got the distinct feeling that Quinn, and perhaps Angel too, knew that Dexter killed Saxon on purpose and didn't care to turn him in. They'd probably have liked to have done it themselves. Killing Saxon with the pen and getting away with it was probably the best part of this turd of a finale.

What I do mind is:

1) Dexter boating off into a storm that he could not survive

2) Dexter surviving the storm, with no explanation

3) Dexter showing up at a logging camp and looking sad. It's just a miserable way to end a series. He's just stuck there in limbo.

They could have redeemed the let down of an episode a bit had they just changed the final scene to show Dexter murdering someone.

If they'd have had any courage whatsoever, they would have ended this series with Dexter dying by lethal injection. It's what his father always warned him about. It was bound to happen eventually, no matter how careful Dexter was. Commit the perfect murder enough times and eventually you'll screw it up.

The Deb-Dexter-Harrison scenes served no purpose.

Turning Deb into a vegetable and then mercy killing her, while in character (Dex mercy killed Lemon Meringue Pie lady back in S2), was just an anticlimactic letdown. It's not how we wanted Deb to go, and ultimately a show is about pleasing the fans, even if you do have to shock or upset them from time to time. Her death wasn't shocking or upsetting. It was just bleh.

Masuka's daughter? Worthless waste of screen time. Masuka? Just as worthless this whole season, as was Quinn and Angel.

Did all the writers leave and get hired by Breaking Bad?


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## Sacrilegium (Dec 14, 2006)

smbaker said:


> I
> 1) Dexter boating off into a storm that he could not survive
> 
> 2) Dexter surviving the storm, with no explanation


Well, they _did_ say his boat had auto-pilot and a life raft. I think we're meant to infer he drove out a little ways, set it on auto-pilot and rafted back to the shore. But it wasn't spelled out explicitly.


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

Sacrilegium said:


> Well, they _did_ say his boat had auto-pilot and a life raft. I think we're meant to infer he drove out a little ways, set it on auto-pilot and rafted back to the shore. But it wasn't spelled out explicitly.


I don't remember them saying that, but it does sound plausible.

It's not a very good plan, as there was the very real possibility that the boat might not have been wrecked, and instead would have been found out of fuel with the autopilot set and no body.

What was lacking of this season was Dexter's cleverness. He's often had innovative solutions. This whole season was generally Dexter acting dumb.


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## TampaThunder (Apr 8, 2003)

So in anticipation of this final season I read the first 6 Dexter books and rewatched seasons 1 through 7 the first 3 weeks of September before watching all of season 8 for the first time this past weekend. What a waste of time. This season and finale were absolutely horrid. I'm looking forward to reading book 7 and trying to put the last couple of seasons of the show out of my head.

For those of you who haven't read the books, don't let the TV show put you off. The books are drastically different from the show and, IMHO, must better entertainment. (Though you do miss out on the nudity. LOL)


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

TampaThunder said:


> For those of you who haven't read the books, don't let the TV show put you off. The books are drastically different from the show and, IMHO, must better entertainment. (Though you do miss out on the nudity. LOL)


How is the violence level in the books? From what I saw on wikipedia, it sounded like it is ratcheted up a level from the TV series.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

Breaking Bad should have been on Showtime to allow all the banned dialog on AMC.

Dexter would have done fine on AMC with just a few tweaks.

Sad it ended up the other way around.


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

Hank said:


> Dexter would have done fine on AMC with just a few tweaks.


Dexter was fine where it was, for the first 4 seasons.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

Hank said:


> Dexter would have done fine on AMC with just a few tweaks.


Nope. Not even close.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

TampaThunder said:


> For those of you who haven't read the books, don't let the TV show put you off. The books are drastically different from the show and, IMHO, must better entertainment. (Though you do miss out on the nudity. LOL)


The books were terrible, except for the first couple. The books went in a direction that was just absurd and unreadable.


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## pendragn (Jan 21, 2001)

Somewhere today I read an interview with a writer and producer and they explained the ending in a way that made sense. Their ideas were good, their execution suuuuuucked.


Masuka's daughter was added to show what was going to happen to him. That as a guy that had never had a meaninful relationship with a woman in his life he could mature and fix that.
Quinn's detective storyline was the same thing. To give us an idea what happens with his character. That he doesn't keep being a turd, he matures.
They said the whole point of the series was to show how Dexter had changed. How he had started out being emotionless and trying to be human. Trying to care. In the end he did, but all it did was cause him pain. It caused him pain when Deb died, for instance.
The end part was showing how now that Dexter could feel emotion and care he couldn't handle it, so he went to live alone. They mentioned, "He's so alone he doesn't even have his voiceover anymore."

Reading that article made it make more sense. Like I said, terrible execution, but at least it made sense.

tk


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## getreal (Sep 29, 2003)

Archangel00 said:


> The Log Truck Killer.....lolz...oh wait not really that funny...sigh
> 
> If nothing else, I'm pretty sure nobody saw that coming...


There was a scene where the killer was coming around an ICE truck, so that might be clever ...

Hey, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel to find something there ... 

So, what about Dexter's compulsion he's had since he was 3?


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## getreal (Sep 29, 2003)

john4200 said:


> ... I would have preferred a subplot about Dexter's stepkids rather than all the other lame subplots this season.


Ugh! Teen angst ... blecch! :down:

Hannah just may prepare a "special" chocolate milk for little Harrison.


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## Idearat (Nov 26, 2000)

The airport scene was a bit of a joke. Dexter buys all the bits at the airport store, puts them in a backpack he bought there too. Surveillance video of the departure lounge would have shown him putting the bag there in less time than it would take to exit the airport.

I also took it that Angel and Quinn didn't believe Dexter's story about killing Saxon, but they were happy to go with it. Of course this only worked if the room recorded video and no audio with Dexter telling Saxon he was going to kill him. The end result was that Dexter's last kill of the show was in full view of the police and he got away with it. (Wouldn't have worked in one of _Major Crimes'_ interrogation rooms )

As soon as we saw Deb was on life support it was clear that Dexter would "kill" her like he had the social worker (at her request ). It was over dramatized though as next of kin he could have just told the hospital to not keep her on the ventilator.

The "Escape from Miami" bus ride had all the excitement of a slow speed Bronco chase. Deb's boss has a serial killer on the bus but decides to ride next to her for 6 hours rather than just making a phone call?


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

john4200 said:


> Nope. Not even close.


Sure it could.. my point is, that Breaking Bad would have been significantly better suited on Showtime than Dexter was (without all the bleeping and censoring that happened to BB). If Dexter was on AMC, the end result and enjoyment of the program wouldn't be affected that much, and not nearly as much as BB would have been improved.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

I thought this was a very fitting end to the season. 

(In other words, a pretty dismal cap to a pretty dismal season). It's sad to look back and think that, at one time, Dexter was my favorite series on television. Now I feel like I would have been better off not to have watched this season, or the one with Hanks and Olmos.

I almost don't even have the heart left to quibble with the fine points of the episode. What's the point of singling out a few turds in a septic tank full of them? But I guess I will:

1. What is up with "Miami Central Hospital" being on the waterfront? Shouldn't it be... Central?
2. Why did Deb flatline and code on the machines not when Dexter removed the sensors, but significantly after he removed them? What were the the sensors sensing at that point?

They ALMOST had a good ending. If Dexter had not just dumped Deb in the ocean, but had entered together with her, and held onto her as they both sank to the bottom, where they came to rest amongst his other body bags and he drowned at the bottom of the ocean while holding onto her body, that would have been a better ending I think. And it would have been a callback to earlier in the season when she tried to drown him, retroactively giving that scene more heft. I was disappointed that he drove into the storm, instead. And then to do that but survive to live on under a new identity elsewhere? Ugh.

I didn't get the sense that Hannah has any thought other than being a good surrogate mother. So that's good, at least.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

95% of this season was filler crap that had no bearing on the show or the main characters.

I wasn't a big fan of the religious angle of Season 6, or the weird sub plot of Deb being in love with Dexter, but at least it was a coherent story. This season was all over the place with sub plots that never played out, new characters that were never developed and a horrible ending. Can't believe the f*cked it up so badly.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

danterner said:


> They ALMOST had a good ending. If Dexter had not just dumped Deb in the ocean, but had entered together with her, and held onto her as they both sank to the bottom, where they came to rest amongst his other body bags and he drowned at the bottom of the ocean while holding onto her body


That's exactly what I thought, too, in fact I said to my g/f, "he's going with her"... but then he didn't. That would have been a *much* better ending.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

I would have preferred he went in the water with Deb.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

Does the TV series follow the books the whole way? Just for a season or 2? I'd be interested in reading the books if they were different than the series.


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## smak (Feb 11, 2000)

Idearat said:


> I also took it that Angel and Quinn didn't believe Dexter's story about killing Saxon, but they were happy to go with it. Of course this only worked if the room recorded video and no audio with Dexter telling Saxon he was going to kill him. The end result was that Dexter's last kill of the show was in full view of the police and he got away with it. (Wouldn't have worked in one of _Major Crimes'_ interrogation rooms )


I think that was WAY too professional a kill for somebody who supposedly had never done it before.

I wanted one of them to at least comment on that.

-smak-


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## Archangel00 (Aug 25, 2006)

Typical Hollywood, taking the safest course possible BS. Hardly anything is completely "killed off" anymore. The creativity well has all but run dry, so they gotta leave the door at least partially cracked open for some sort of possible future.


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## ElJay (Apr 6, 2005)

VegasVic said:


> I would have preferred he went in the water with Deb.


I agree... What was the point of living? He's dead to Hannah and Harrison.

I'm annoyed they kept up with the stupidness right up to the end. I'm glad it is done.


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## GDG76 (Oct 2, 2000)

They changed most of the writers/show runner after season 4 (the Trinity Killer season).

Since then, there hasn't been a decent season. They all started with promising ideas but never went anywhere good with them. To think of how they wasted what could have been with Colin Hanks, Edward James Olmos, Jonny Lee Miller, Peter Weller, etc. and it's really the biggest missed opportunity to go out on a high note of any TV show ever.

Season 5 was ok, but I'm thinking they must have had a bunch of leftover scripts/ideas from the previous team. Again, it had good ideas, but the execution sucked.

Things they could have done:

-Have Batista be the one who slowly figures out Dexter, maybe with an assist from Masuka.
-Avoid the whole Deb finding out until season 7 or 8 and make those seasons crazy as it begins to unravel quickly. Deb doesn't need to become a killer.
-Never bring up the Deb/Dexter incesty love bit
-Give Dexter another killer or two who was actually intelligent and not off the rails nuts.

They easily could have had another good 4 seasons (few patches and 5 would have been great). But man, it was bad in the end. To think how great a season the second one was and where it ended up, blech.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

danterner said:


> They ALMOST had a good ending. If Dexter had not just dumped Deb in the ocean, but had entered together with her, and held onto her as they both sank to the bottom, where they came to rest amongst his other body bags and he drowned at the bottom of the ocean while holding onto her body, that would have been a better ending I think.


Except that the bodies of Dexter's victims are not sitting at the bottom of the ocean near Miami. The early ones, which *were* sitting there, were recovered during the BHB investigation. Then Dexter learned to go out further and drop the bodies where the current would take them even further out.


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## Eight47 (Feb 22, 2003)

VegasVic said:


> Does the TV series follow the books the whole way? Just for a season or 2? I'd be interested in reading the books if they were different than the series.


The first season is mostly based on the first book. The rest of the books are different.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

Good to know, thanks. Maybe I'll pick up book #2 and see if I like it, then get the rest.


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## GoPackGo (Dec 29, 2012)

If Dexter were shown on AMC, sure there wouldn't have been the nudity, and that would have changed the show a little bit, but the MAJOR change would have been Deb's language. Would have completely changed her character.


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## KevinG (Sep 3, 2003)

So, what does Batista (for example) think happened to Harrison? Do they suppose he was on the boat with Dexter? Why would Dexter be bringing his son out on the boat before a hurricane?

Anyway, my wife has decided that Dexter gets bored after a month, and goes off to find Hanna and Harrison and they live happily ever after.


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## nyny523 (Oct 31, 2003)

Wow.

What a disappointing ending to a show that used to be so good. 

It was a huge bag of suck, and the hugest thing in the huge bag of suck was that flashback hospital scene after Harrison was born. I have never seen worse acting, a worse wig, and a faker fake doll baby EVER. Took me totally out of whatever was supposed to be going on there. Clearly the purpose was Deb telling Dexter what a good brother he was - but frankly, if we did not already "get" this after 8 seasons, something is very wrong.

They should have ended this show after Season 5 - the past three seasons have been a long, drawn out train wreck.

So sad


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

GoPackGo said:


> If Dexter were shown on AMC, sure there wouldn't have been the nudity, and that would have changed the show a little bit, but the MAJOR change would have been Deb's language. Would have completely changed her character.


Sure, but was that part of her character critical to the show at all? Not really. They still could have portrayed her in a similar fashion without the bad language.. Just look how they developed Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad, where he can't say one "teenth" of what Deb gets to say, yet his character is just as bad or badder than Deb.


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

..does the murder rate in some small logging town, skyrocket?


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## nyny523 (Oct 31, 2003)

Hank said:


> Sure, but was that part of her character critical to the show at all? Not really. They still could have portrayed her in a similar fashion without the bad language.. Just look how they developed Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad, where he can't say one "teenth" of what Deb gets to say, yet his character is just as bad or badder than Deb.


*****!


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## TAsunder (Aug 6, 2003)

I liked the ending scene but nothing I saw redeemed this show from continuing on after the Trinity season. That would have been a much better way to end the show.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

Well, compared to the rest of the season, I thought the finale was not that bad. Ok, except for the flashback scenes and how easy it was to get Elway, et al, off their track.

One thing I got right, a while back, was that I predicted that Deb would be killed by a bad guy. I thought it was kind of cool that Dex took her out of there for a burial at sea. It was kind of lame that nobody noticed that the one person not dressed in medical garb was taking a body out of there during the storm (which wasn't really bad there yet at all). 

It seemed like the majority of the season was filler, as has already been mentioned, so that was a shame. There are some great suggestions here as to how it could have ended.

I've always been on the 'let Dexter live and not be caught' team so I was glad for that. It was kind of decent the way they made it look like he rode into the storm and was dead and then was mildly surprised when they showed him in the logging scenario (was that up in Alaska, perhaps? I didn't notice. I think I'll watch the last bit again).

I, too, thought that Joey Quinn and Batista TOTALLY knew that Dexter killed whats-his-name as revenge. You could see how they were calculating out that they, too, were glad he was dead and that they would buy into the defense story for a myriad of obvious reasons.

I figure Hannah will raise the kid but I don't mind that they left it where you have no idea what will happen about that. Three obvious scenarios - she raises him; she sends him to Orlando (isn't that where the grandparents & other kids live?); or she kills him. I really don't care either way, so I like that it was left open.

But I did get how Dexter figured that those were the last two people left who he loved and he felt that if he hung around he would destroy them too, as he felt he had destroyed everybody else he loved. So he is kind of left in his own prison, knowing that he just has to be alone for the rest of his life (or, until...?). I didn't see that as selfish. I think I would have expected that he just rode into the storm to die so having him escape to live his life out alone, where he wouldn't hurt any more loved ones, was more of a punishment to himself than ending it.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

sharkster said:


> I, too, thought that Joey Quinn and Batista TOTALLY knew that Dexter killed whats-his-name as revenge. You could see how they were calculating out that they, too, were glad he was dead and that they would buy into the defense story for a myriad of obvious reasons.


I agree with that, but I also don't think it's reasonable at all that they would have been in the position to be making that decision at all, let alone even in the room officially. They were immediate coworkers, after all. Not that there weren't hundreds of other stretched of reasonableness this season, but still, it was just a cheap device overall.


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## Sacrilegium (Dec 14, 2006)

It's a good thing that Deb is so fat and heavy. She would've had to be weighed down otherwise.


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## Idearat (Nov 26, 2000)

I watched this on Monday. It was a little freaky that on two different shows that day I saw an official stab a prisoner in custody in the right of the neck with a pen.


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## Carlucci (Jan 10, 2001)

In thinking back, I don't think the writers did a good job of conveying what they were going for. When Dexter refused to kill Saxon while Saxon was strapped to the chair, it completed the deep, tragically beautiful transformation of Dexter -- he didn't *need *or even *want *to kill anyone anymore and was now ready to integrate fully into society, to live and love with Hannah and Harrison in Argentina, and just feel normal. This was HUGE, and the writers needed to have Dexter smile, or weep joyously, or something to make it clear that he felt normal for once. Instead, as written and performed, it just seemed to be a stupid decision he made.

That moment when he didn't kill Saxon, was supposed to be both an amazing triumph for Dexter, *and *his most tragic of all decisions. Just as it took a terrible tragedy to make him into a killer in the first place, it took another, Deb's death, to turn him right back again, after, albeit momentarily, ridding himself of murderous nature.

If only they had spent a little more time conveying that he was "cured" and then immediately snapped back to his murderous ways, it might have better conveyed the true tragedy of his decision to become a hermit logger.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

TAsunder said:


> I liked the ending scene but nothing I saw redeemed this show from continuing on after the Trinity season. That would have been a much better way to end the show.


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## getreal (Sep 29, 2003)

Carlucci said:


> In thinking back, I don't think the writers did a good job of conveying what they were going for. When Dexter refused to kill Saxon while Saxon was strapped to the chair, it completed the deep, tragically beautiful transformation of Dexter -- he didn't *need *or even *want *to kill anyone anymore and was now ready to integrate fully into society, to live and love with Hannah and Harrison in Argentina, and just feel normal. This was HUGE, and the writers needed to have Dexter smile, or weep joyously, or something to make it clear that he felt normal for once. Instead, as written and performed, it just seemed to be a stupid decision he made.
> 
> That moment when he didn't kill Saxon, was supposed to be both an amazing triumph for Dexter, *and *his most tragic of all decisions. Just as it took a terrible tragedy to make him into a killer in the first place, it took another, Deb's death, to turn him right back again, after, albeit momentarily, ridding himself of murderous nature.
> 
> If only they had spent a little more time conveying that he was "cured" and then immediately snapped back to his murderous ways, it might have better conveyed the true tragedy of his decision to become a hermit logger.


:up: Good analysis. If only you were in the writer's room ...


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

I suspect this will go down in history as one of the most disappointing finales ever. I've yet to hear one person say they really liked the way it ended. In fact, the most complimentary thing I've heard thus far was ... "compared to the rest of the season, I thought the finale was not that bad".


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

What I felt was that Dexter was initially glad that he didn't feel the need to kill Saxon and revelled in that notion. He looked forward to having his 'family' (Hannah & kidlet) as to the new direction that his life would now take. 

But then he realized two things - not only does he destroy everybody he loves but that he hated the life he thought he wanted.

There were two ways out - die in the storm, or go off to a new, incognito, life alone and save those he loved (the only two left) from his perceived knowledge that he would, sooner or later, destroy them too. I would assume that this new life would have him continue killing by the code, as that is the only way he feels 'right'.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

gweempose said:


> I've yet to hear one person say they really liked the way it ended.


I liked the way it ended with a fade to black and rolling the credits.


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## nyny523 (Oct 31, 2003)

I own the DVDs for the first 5 seasons.

I see absolutely NO reason to get the other 3...


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## GDG76 (Oct 2, 2000)

nyny523 said:


> I own the DVDs for the first 5 seasons.
> 
> I see absolutely NO reason to get the other 3...


They could have changed it into a wacky romantic sitcom with Lumen and Dexter (please call first and let me know if you are going to be late when you go on a vigilante bender dear) for the last 3 seasons and it would have been better than the crap we got.


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## KRS (Jan 30, 2002)

No farewell call for his other two kids?

If Dexter is going to give up killing, why not go and live in Argentina?

Airport security must be pretty lax in Miami. And the parking is plentiful and located right outside baggage claim!

"Let's go and get ice cream." Really, that's the last line of the series? 

The CGI of the storm was pathetic.

What a pile of ****. 


My ending would have had Dexter get caught and wind up on death row, killing off the killers from behind bars.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

I thought Dexter was going to chain himself to Deb and both go overboard. And then maybe their dad "talking" to them as they floated to the bottom.


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## Test (Dec 8, 2004)

KRS said:


> My ending would have had Dexter get caught and wind up on death row, killing off the killers from behind bars.


I thought this is where they were going to go with the final season. It would have changed things up a bit.



VegasVic said:


> I thought Dexter was going to chain himself to Deb and both go overboard. And then maybe their dad "talking" to them as they floated to the bottom.


You reminded me ,I saw Deb replacing Harry for sure right after he pulled the plug (but they didn't) and then I was waiting for her to be there when he was alone in his cabin, but she wasn't.


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## nyny523 (Oct 31, 2003)

It so TOTALLY annoyed me that Debs last scene was that cheesy-ass flashback.

I thought Jennifer Carpenter did a really good job with that character, and then they gave her that piece of crap scene to finish an 8 year run? Really???

So. Bad.


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

I'm really not sure if the series finale could have satisfied me based on the corner they had already painted themselves into from the entire season.


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## FilmCritic3000 (Oct 29, 2004)

scandia101 said:


> I liked the way it ended with a fade to black and rolling the credits.


This. :up:


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## KevinG (Sep 3, 2003)

pmyers said:


> I'm really not sure if the series finale could have satisfied me based on the corner they had already painted themselves into from the entire season.


John Lithgow, as Trinity, wakes up in a cold sweat and realizes that everything since his season was a bad dream?


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## smak (Feb 11, 2000)

nyny523 said:


> It so TOTALLY annoyed me that Debs last scene was that cheesy-ass flashback.
> 
> I thought Jennifer Carpenter did a really good job with that character, and then they gave her that piece of crap scene to finish an 8 year run? Really???
> 
> So. Bad.


Yah, I hate when they let characters like this go out with a whimper.

She was a good character, we liked her for 8 years, and she dies needlessly.

-smak-


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## nyny523 (Oct 31, 2003)

smak said:


> Yah, I hate when they let characters like this go out with a whimper.
> 
> She was a good character, we liked her for 8 years, and she dies needlessly.
> 
> -smak-


It wasn't so much that she died - I would have been fine with that if it had been done better.

It was the fact that the last thing we saw was that horrible scene with the cheesy dialog and the bad wig and the fake baby.

It was just SO BAD!!!


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## Dawghows (May 17, 2001)

smak said:


> ...we liked her for 8 years, and she dies needlessly.


Well, more like 6 years. I took me awhile to warm up to her.


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## ElJay (Apr 6, 2005)

If they'd done away with the whole hokey "Deb gets mortally wounded" storyline and just had Dexter kill the idiot on the table, I thought they could've crafted a sort of thrilling end to the series with Elway, et al chasing Dexter and Hannah around. Instead we were subjected to those terrible flashbacks and Elway turned out to be nothing but a giant time suck. Could the writers really not foresee how ridiculously wrong that post-murder-on-video scene with Batista, Quinn, and Dexter was going to be?



GDG76 said:


> They changed most of the writers/show runner after season 4 (the Trinity Killer season).


OK, that explains a lot for me. I think season 4 was definitely the pinnacle of the show. Somewhere in season 6 I believe there was an episode with Ronny Cox that at least made me laugh, other than that it's been forgettable.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

ElJay said:


> Could the writers really not foresee how ridiculously wrong that post-murder-on-video scene with Batista, Quinn, and Dexter was going to be?


They've always been completely blind when it comes to Dexter. This was no different. Wouldn't you think by now they would be wondering why violence and bloodshed seem to follow him wherever he goes?


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## Idearat (Nov 26, 2000)

KevinG said:


> John Lithgow, as Trinity, wakes up in a cold sweat and realizes that everything since his season was a bad dream?


I was thinking Dexter wakes up in a cold sweat and Keith says to him: "David, did you have another bad dream where you are a serial killer and not a mortician?"


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

The best ending would have been for Dexter to kill the writers. They murdered the script so they deserved to die by Dexter's hands.


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## markymark_ctown (Oct 11, 2004)

Watched the finale last night...not impressed. Not even a good ending really. Surprised that he didn't die, but a logger?


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## Fahtrim (Apr 12, 2004)

Dexter going over with Deb or Dexter getting caught while dumping Deb woulda been better too, imo.

So many ways to make it better really. I get the idea of the ending, the execution sucked like pretty much the final season.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

LMAO - you guys are so funny. I love reading this board.

Idearat - Great series finale, ala Bob Newhart. Love it!

Mr Unnatural - OMG, that is too funny. Great idea!


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## getreal (Sep 29, 2003)

mr.unnatural said:


> The best ending would have been for Dexter to kill the writers. They murdered the script so they deserved to die by Dexter's hands.


Ding-ding-ding!! We have a winner! :up::up:


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Aside from all the stuff that everyone has already mentioned, did it not bother anyone that with a Class 3 hurricane approaching, imminent enough to ground planes and necessitate evacuation of a hospital, Dexter was crusing around on his boat in perfectly calm water? How were there not huge swells in advance of the hurricane?


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## ElJay (Apr 6, 2005)

DevdogAZ said:


> Aside from all the stuff that everyone has already mentioned, did it not bother anyone that with a Class 3 hurricane approaching, imminent enough to ground planes and necessitate evacuation of a hospital, Dexter was crusing around on his boat in perfectly calm water? How were there not huge swells in advance of the hurricane?


I personally enjoyed the shadows the sun was casting from the completely overcast sky and the fake lightning effects at the bus station.


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## nyny523 (Oct 31, 2003)

DevdogAZ said:


> Aside from all the stuff that everyone has already mentioned, did it not bother anyone that with a Class 3 hurricane approaching, imminent enough to ground planes and necessitate evacuation of a hospital, Dexter was crusing around on his boat in perfectly calm water? How were there not huge swells in advance of the hurricane?


OMG.....YES!!!!!

I thought it was just me.

They had the palm trees in the distance blowing like crazy, and the water was perfectly calm.

Ridiculous!


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## pmyers (Jan 4, 2001)

If the story was good enough, the "special effects" wouldn't have mattered.


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## mrdazzo7 (Jan 8, 2006)

pendragn said:


> Somewhere today I read an interview with a writer and producer and they explained the ending in a way that made sense. Their ideas were good, their execution suuuuuucked.
> 
> Reading that article made it make more sense. Like I said, terrible execution, but at least it made sense.
> 
> tk


The article is here - I agree with you...what they're describing sounds all well and good, but what we got is a totally different animal. It's a good read because it almost sounds like they're delusional about how this stuff played out. The one tidbit TK left out was their explanation of why Hannah's lack of trying to change her appearance - I think this is the best example of how off

_BUCK: We played with the idea of dyeing her hair. In the research we did on fugitives we learned there are countless fugitives out there just walking around that nobody is really looking for. There arent funds to hunt down every one of them  particularly Hannah, as she hasnt been convicted of a crime. Shes not high priority. We put her in sunglasses. Otherwise we didnt want to call more attention to it._​
Except they spent like six episodes establishing that there's a $250,000 reward for her capture and focused on several parties actively trying to capture her (including the US Marshall's Service and a heavily connected PI), as well her having to hide in Deb's house because it's not safe to _go outside_. This statement makes me wonder if they've even seen the show.



sharkster said:


> I've always been on the 'let Dexter live and not be caught' team so I was glad for that. It was kind of decent the way they made it look like he rode into the storm and was dead and then was mildly surprised when they showed him in the logging scenario (was that up in Alaska, perhaps? I didn't notice. I think I'll watch the last bit again).


The season two storyline would have been a great final season, with Dex's dump site being discovered and the PD closing in on him as each episode goes on. The whole season we're expecting him to be outed by the end but it ends up being pinned on someone else (whoever) and he gets away with it. But the whole season would have been suspenseful. They could have even still done the whole Deb finding out last season and played with that for a while, etc.

But since they did it in season two and again with Laguerta, I get that it would have been redundant. I'm ok with him not getting caught, but I do think it was cheap they went the whole "he's still alive" route at the very end. When he tossed his phone in the water, I thought for sure he was gonna kill himself, and then he drives into a GIGANTIC storm surge on his tiny boat, effectively doing so to prevent harm from coming to others. I thought that was a bold move, but then they changed it two minutes later by showing him still alive. Cheapened everything. Why go out of your way to show him driving into a seriously deadly storm, then pretend he survived on a small life raft? Just kill him.



Sacrilegium said:


> It's a good thing that Deb is so fat and heavy. She would've had to be weighed down otherwise.


Hahahah I was cracking up at that.

Were Hannah and Harrison in Argentina at the end, or somewhere else? Pretty sure Elway's gonna hop on the next flight there once he wakes up. And did Dexter get himself and Harrison new identities when he got one for Hannah? And if Hannah had her new identity already then why didnt she just use that name when she went to the ER with Harrison? Ok ok I'm thinking too much. 

I liked the evolution of the character, conceptually, it's just that the execution was bad at almost every single turn. I don't get how a group of people in a room together can still come up with something this bad. The article also mentions that they had a lot less time to prep than usual because it premiered three months earlier, so I think that should serve as a lesson for future shows. Look at Breaking Bad - they took an extra year for these last eight episodes and it's like a master class in how to end a series.


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## Hunter Green (Feb 22, 2002)

danterner said:


> 2. Why did Deb flatline and code on the machines not when Dexter removed the sensors, but significantly after he removed them? What were the the sensors sensing at that point?


That actually was about right; her body worked apart from that she couldn't breathe on her own, and some unspecified other autonomic nerve system failures; so it would take at least that long, probably longer, before the loss of air would cause a crash.



Sacrilegium said:


> It's a good thing that Deb is so fat and heavy. She would've had to be weighed down otherwise.


Okay, not to be King of Pedantry here, but fat people float, and skinny people sink. Because fat is lighter than water and muscle and bone are not.



Carlucci said:


> In thinking back, I don't think the writers did a good job of conveying what they were going for. When Dexter refused to kill Saxon while Saxon was strapped to the chair, it completed the deep, tragically beautiful transformation of Dexter -- he didn't *need *or even *want *to kill anyone anymore and was now ready to integrate fully into society, to live and love with Hannah and Harrison in Argentina, and just feel normal. This was HUGE, and the writers needed to have Dexter smile, or weep joyously, or something to make it clear that he felt normal for once. Instead, as written and performed, it just seemed to be a stupid decision he made.


This. So much this.

I will say two things positive about this. First, unlike a lot of people here, I thought the scene with Dexter, Angel, and Quinn reviewing the video made perfect sense. You know that Angel and Quinn saw through it, but they didn't have to conclude he's a serial killer to do that -- they wanted to do it themselves, and they're not even her brother. You could see them calculating in their heads -- yeah, okay, we can sell this. You could see the shock, too. This seems like the brotherhood of cops to me. And I thought Angel's quiet stunned delivery made perfect sense -- and wasn't the obvious way to go, but the right way to go.

And I was so glad when, outside room 205, when Dexter brought a fork to a gun fight, Angel showed up. Sure, Dexter still ended up doing the deed later, but for once, the cops doing guard duty actually did their job and something was done right. A nice break from the Idiot Ball and a tiny bit of good for Angel.

Otherwise... yeah, they do seem to have taken the course of 'we can't make everyone happy, so let's make sure we make no one happy'. So much never paid off. So many stories didn't end up mattering. So much that seemed like it had a point never ended up jelling. I can see how the writers had ideas about themes, but it never coalesced.

And the only callback to the show's start was a cameo of an ice truck. Big letdown there, too.

Nothing really got resolved.  Nothing really ended. It just stopped.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Hunter Green said:


> That actually was about right; her body worked apart from that she couldn't breathe on her own, and some unspecified other autonomic nerve system failures; so it would take at least that long, probably longer, before the loss of air would cause a crash.


I think what Dan was saying is that if Dexter took off all the monitors, what was the machine reading to be able to tell that she flatlined after all the leads were disconnected. It was very realistic that she wouldn't die right away. It was just questionable whether she was still hooked up to the monitor. But you can't have someone die on TV/movies in a hospital without the flatline sound. The audience wouldn't know what happened.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

danterner said:


> 2. Why did Deb flatline and code on the machines not when Dexter removed the sensors, but significantly after he removed them? What were the the sensors sensing at that point?





Hunter Green said:


> That actually was about right; her body worked apart from that she couldn't breathe on her own, and some unspecified other autonomic nerve system failures; so it would take at least that long, probably longer, before the loss of air would cause a crash.


Yes, it would take some time for her to die once she was taken off life support. I believe the point that danterner was trying to make was that the machines should have showed her flatline as soon as Dexter removed the sensors. Perhaps he only removed the pulseox and not the other sensors. I'd have to go back and watch the scene again.

Edit: Looks like DevdogAZ beat me to it.


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## mrdazzo7 (Jan 8, 2006)

DevdogAZ said:


> I think what Dan was saying is that if Dexter took off all the monitors, what was the machine reading to be able to tell that she flatlined after all the leads were disconnected. It was very realistic that she wouldn't die right away. It was just questionable whether she was still hooked up to the monitor. But you can't have someone die on TV/movies in a hospital without the flatline sound. The audience wouldn't know what happened.


lol, I absolutely thought of that when I was watching the scene... It's sad how engrained that cliched sound is in how these scenes played out. For the second where I thought they weren't gonna do it, I thought to myself how unusual that was... but then they did it anyway.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

mrdazzo7 said:


> lol, I absolutely thought of that when I was watching the scene... It's sad how engrained that cliched sound is in how these scenes played out. For the second where I thought they weren't gonna do it, I thought to myself how unusual that was... but then they did it anyway.


I have to admit, for a second there I thought she was going to start breathing on her own and have a miraculous recovery. With all the other ridiculous things that have happened this season, I was prepared for anything.


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## getbak (Oct 8, 2004)

mrdazzo7 said:


> Were Hannah and Harrison in Argentina at the end, or somewhere else?


Yes, I believe so. There's a big obelisk in Buenos Aires, and when they left the cafe, you could see a big obelisk in the background.


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## Idearat (Nov 26, 2000)

getbak said:


> Yes, I believe so. There's a big obelisk in Buenos Aires, and when they left the cafe, you could see a big obelisk in the background.


There was a less subtle clue:


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## Hunter Green (Feb 22, 2002)

I didn't watch that closely for specific things, but I just assumed he didn't disconnect everything, that there were electrodes stuck on somewhere we didn't immediately see.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

Clyde Phillips, the showrunner for seasons 1-4, explains how he would have ended the series:



> In the very last scene of the series, Dexter wakes up. And everybody is going to think, 'Oh, it was a dream.' And then the camera pulls back and back and back and then we realize, 'No, it's not a dream.' Dexter's opening his eyes and he's on the execution table at the Florida Penitentiary. They're just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery.
> 
> And in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed-including the Trinity Killer and the Ice Truck Killer (his brother Rudy), LaGuerta who he was responsible killing, Doakes who he's arguably responsible for, Rita, who he's arguably responsible for, Lila. All the big deaths, and also whoever the weekly episodic kills were. They are all there.
> 
> That's what I envisioned for the ending of Dexter. That everything we've seen over the past eight seasons has happened in the several seconds from the time they start Dexter's execution to the time they finish the execution and he dies. Literally, his life flashed before his eyes as he was about to die. I think it would have been a great, epic, very satisfying conclusion.


http://www.slashfilm.com/dexter-sho...ing-former-showrunner-reveals-alternate-idea/

So, if I'm understanding him correctly, he's saying that the series was Dexter remembering, on his deathbed, what really did happen in his life. And, on his deathbed, he sees the "ghosts" of those he's killed, similar to how he has seen Harry over the course of the series.

That's certainly better than what we got.


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## brebeans (Sep 5, 2003)

Idearat said:


> I was thinking Dexter wakes up in a cold sweat and Keith says to him: "David, did you have another bad dream where you are a serial killer and not a mortician?"


Yes! would have been pretty funny and ridiculous. So, a perfect fit for the ending. Nothing got really 'connected' . As another poster said, it just "stopped". I would have rather seen that Dexter decided to boat off into the storm and die.

What were the writers trying to say/do by having Dexter live and how do we know he's a logger? I know there's a log cabin and he has a beard...but WHY was that scene even there and WHY that environment or character in particular??


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

brebeans said:


> Yes! would have been pretty funny and ridiculous. So, a perfect fit for the ending. Nothing got really 'connected' . As another poster said, it just "stopped". I would have rather seen that Dexter decided to boat off into the storm and die. What were the writers trying to say/do by having Dexter live and how do we know he's a logger? I know there's a log cabin and he has a beard...but WHY was that scene even there and WHY that environment or character in particular??


We know he's a logger because we saw him working on a logging truck just before we saw him go into that cabin.

And I assume the reason they chose to have him be a logger is because that is typically associated with the northwest part of the country, which is about as far away from Miami you can get (and still be in the continental US).


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## pendragn (Jan 21, 2001)

brebeans said:


> What were the writers trying to say/do by having Dexter live and how do we know he's a logger? I know there's a log cabin and he has a beard...but WHY was that scene even there and WHY that environment or character in particular??


When Dexter started he was a person with no emotions. He didn't care about anyone. He didn't love anyone. And it didn't bother him if anyone ever got hurt. He was doing his damnedest to pretend to be human, and he wanted to be.

Throughout the series he turned into that. He loved his son. He missed his dead wife. He loved his sister. He got what he wanted.

But he discovered that having feelings and loving people hurt him when bad things happened to him, and bad things seemed to happen to the people he loved a lot.

So in the end, he got what we wanted, he was a feeling human. But turns out it made him miserable. So the last scene was a feeling Dexter moving as far away from everyone he loved so he wouldn't destroy them. He would never allow himself to care about anyone again. He was all alone. And it made him miserable.

That's what they were trying to portray. They did a terrible job.

tk


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

brebeans said:


> What were the writers trying to say/do by having Dexter live and how do we know he's a logger? I know there's a log cabin and he has a beard...but WHY was that scene even there and WHY that environment or character in particular??


I kind of felt the writers showed that last scene strictly to give themselves a way to bring the character back if they decide to do so in the future.


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## getreal (Sep 29, 2003)

DevdogAZ said:


> ... you can't have someone die on TV/movies in a hospital without the flatline sound.


Just like you cannot move a firearm of any kind without the TCHK-TCHK sound effect. The slightest movement of the weapon triggers the sound.



pendragn said:


> When Dexter started he was a person with no emotions. He didn't care about anyone. He didn't love anyone. And it didn't bother him if anyone ever got hurt. He was doing his damnedest to pretend to be human, and he wanted to be.
> 
> Throughout the series he turned into that. He loved his son. He missed his dead wife. He loved his sister. He got what he wanted.


Throughout the series I guess you could say that Dexter evolved from Scarface into Mr. Chips (i.e., the polar opposite of Walter White in *Br*eaking *B*ad).


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## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

My son caught this on Wikipedia. It was removed pretty quickly, but says a lot.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

Wikipedia is basing that statement off the critic reviews from metacritic. Out of 10 critic reviews, 8 were positive, 2 were mixed, and none were negative. 

I have to wonder what the critics were smoking. The metacritic user reviews show a different story. Of the 31 User reviews (not votes, but actual user reviews), 13 were positive, 6 mixed, and 12 were negative. Still seems overrated to me, but at least there were nearly as many negative reviews as positive ones. The critics really missed the mark on this one, with no negative reviews.

http://www.metacritic.com/tv/dexter/season-8


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## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

I'm pretty disappointed with the way Dexter fizzled out.

However, let's take a different tack.

Let's say the first 6 seasons of Dexter never existed? Would your opinion of these last two seasons change.

I think part of what attracted us to Dexter is nothing really existed like that before on TV. So in part Dexter was fighting against it's own success.

What do you think?


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

No, the last season really was a huge bag of suck, by any measure. I think the only reason we all watched it was to see "what happens"... Same reason I watch The Walking Dead.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

waynomo said:


> I'm pretty disappointed with the way Dexter fizzled out.
> 
> However, let's take a different tack.
> 
> ...


No, if the last 2 seasons were aall of Dexter, I can't see having watched more than 2 or 3 episodes then deleting the season pass. Though I guess my opinion would've changed... from "bag of suck" to "Dexter who?"


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## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

Hank said:


> No, the last season really was a huge bag of suck, by any measure. I think the only reason we all watched it was to see "what happens"... Same reason I watch The Walking Dead.


Hmmm, I rewatched most of season 7 before 8 started. It actually was not as bad as I remembered.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

I wonder what the Dexter writers were thinking when they watched the Breaking Bad finale last night.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

gweempose said:


> I wonder what the Dexter writers were thinking when they watched the Breaking Bad finale last night.


Most were probably scared mommy would discover they'd stayed up past bedtime to watch it.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

john4200 said:


> Wikipedia is basing that statement off the critic reviews from metacritic. Out of 10 critic reviews, 8 were positive, 2 were mixed, and none were negative.
> 
> I have to wonder what the critics were smoking. The metacritic user reviews show a different story. Of the 31 User reviews (not votes, but actual user reviews), 13 were positive, 6 mixed, and 12 were negative. Still seems overrated to me, but at least there were nearly as many negative reviews as positive ones. The critics really missed the mark on this one, with no negative reviews.
> 
> http://www.metacritic.com/tv/dexter/season-8


The reason for this is that most TV critics don't do a review of a whole season. They're typically sent the first episode or the first few episodes and they write a review based on that. So with the way last season ended on the cliffhanger and then the way this season started with the Brain Surgeon killer and the potential of Deb coming unhinged, it probably looked like it was going to be a decent season after the first few episodes, and that's what metacritic's "season" reviews would be based on. I would venture to guess that if you went back to those same critics that gave it positive reviews for the "season," none of them would give the full season a positive review after having seen the whole thing.


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## john4200 (Nov 1, 2009)

DevdogAZ said:


> I would venture to guess that if you went back to those same critics that gave it positive reviews for the "season," none of them would give the full season a positive review after having seen the whole thing.


Good point. Now that you mention it, I cannot remember reading a critic review of an entire season. They are usually for the first few episodes, as you say.

I didn't try to check, but I bet many of the metacritic positive user reviews were early in the season, and many of the negative user reviews were late in the season or after it was over.


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## tony touch (Jul 16, 2004)

I was also disappointed and bored by the last few seasons. And I wish they hadn't done the logger end scene.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

tony touch said:


> I was also disappointed and bored by the last few seasons ...


It's a shame. If they had ended the show after Lithgow's season, it would have gone down in history as one of the greatest shows ever. The last few seasons, particularly this final season, completely tainted its legacy.


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## Hunter Green (Feb 22, 2002)

Some interesting revelations about why the ending was what it was here:


> "They won't let us kill him," Goldwyn said of the network's constructive note for the show that was once thought to be predicated on the suspense that its character might end up dead or in jail.... "Showtime was very clear about that. When we told them the arc for the last season, they just said, 'Just to be clear, he's going to live.'"


I'm a little more sympathetic with the writers now. We already knew that they had no way to make everyone happy, but it turns out, they also had little freedom in choosing the particular way to piss off at least half the audience, and probably almost all of it.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

Why would Showtime insist that he lives? Just so they can potentially resurrect the series at some point?


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## pendragn (Jan 21, 2001)

gweempose said:


> Why would Showtime insist that he lives? Just so they can potentially resurrect the series at some point?


Spoilers about Breaking Bad ending:


Spoiler



Imagine if AMC would have put restrictions on Vince Gilligan about how Breaking Bad ended. It would have been horrible.



tk


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

Hunter Green said:


> Some interesting revelations about why the ending was what it was here:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Even with that sort of requirement, my solution would've included setting up for a kill just like he does his victims, but dismembering and blinding him instead, and keeping him alive. Then leaving his head/torso intact with him alive, and sufficient proof to authorities of his being a serial killer, then showing him convicted and in prison, without limbs.

There's always ways.


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## VegasVic (Nov 22, 2002)

Agreed, if they were "ordered" to keep Dexter alive there were so many better ways to do it. I really want to know who the guy was who said "let's make him a lumberjack"


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## Fahtrim (Apr 12, 2004)

"Hey I know, full beard, Plaid shirt, looking off into the camera silently, win!!!"


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## nyny523 (Oct 31, 2003)

Fahtrim said:


> "Hey I know, full beard, Plaid shirt, looking off into the camera silently, win!!!"


But first, have a hurricane where the ocean doesn't move!

Yeah, that's the ticket!!!


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

I don't know - I still think the ending wasn't all that bad. I don't just see it as 'he's a lumberjack'. I see it as him never being able to be with his loved ones again, because his ways destroy everybody around him, and he is pretty much living in his own prison as a result. Sure, it's 'prison by lumberjack' but how much more remote could you find yourself if you were going to exile yourself from everybody you ever loved?

Thanks for the info from Showtime. One thing I am most glad about is that I've always said I don't want him killed or caught. I was kind of in the 'he rides off into the sunset' but that would be far too simplistic, considering the character. 

Perhaps if it had ended with him riding into that storm it would have been a more satisfactory ending for a lot of people. I think it would have been an appropriate ending, even thought I never wanted him killed. When it was happening, I was thinking 'well, there you have it - makes sense'. Then when the last scene played out it occurred to me that him having to be devoid of any life with loved ones, especially since he had clearly made those human connections and liked them (in a way), was a worse fate. I picture him still killing bad guys - and getting away with it. He goes back to being the way he used to be before Rita.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

I would have been a lot more satisfied with the ending if he would have just gone to join Hannah and Harrison in Argentina. That would have been streets ahead of the stupid ending they chose. Not sure why they felt it was either killing him off or having him be alone in exile.


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## ElJay (Apr 6, 2005)

If they were going to be forced to make the character live, I don't know why they didn't go the full on happy route and have him reunited with Hannah and child.


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## Hunter Green (Feb 22, 2002)

I think what they gave us was the closest that they could get to "he's dead" but that Showtime would accept (blinded and dismembered, they might have picked up on the clues there...). Ultimately, Dexter *is* dead. It's just his body that's left now. The voiceover is gone because Dexter is gone.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

DevdogAZ said:


> I would have been a lot more satisfied with the ending if he would have just gone to join Hannah and Harrison in Argentina. That would have been streets ahead of the stupid ending they chose. Not sure why they felt it was either killing him off or having him be alone in exile.


Agreed.

But it's like pulling a turd out of the trash bin and polishing it up a bit.

<include obligatory Mythbusters reference here>


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## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

Hunter Green said:


> Some interesting revelations about why the ending was what it was here:
> 
> I'm a little more sympathetic with the writers now. We already knew that they had no way to make everyone happy, but it turns out, they also had little freedom in choosing the particular way to piss off at least half the audience, and probably almost all of it.


Yeah, me too. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. These people will all need work in the future.

Too bad Showtime had to put in their 2 cents.


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## Doit2it (Jan 3, 2006)

My initial knee jerk reaction was one of disgust too. They should have stopped at him steering into the storm and the media aftermath. But after thinking about it for a few hours I came to the conclusion it was a fit ending.

In the beginning of the series, Dexter struggled with understanding how everyone else could create connections with others. He began to understand it with his sponsor Lila, who he could tell everything, and his girlfriend then wife Rita, who he told nothing. 

He didn't start to form true connections till Harrison was born, he saw how his true self revelation affected Debra, and his relationship with Hannah, who he was willing to leave his life for to protect.

Throughout this time he always blamed himself for anything bad that happened to people close to him. When Debra suffered her nonrecoverable injury, it was the last straw. He realized that even Harrison and Hannah would be eventually succumb to his "curse".

After "taking care of Debra" he decided the only option was to be alone. Without his connections to ground him in his humanity his dark passenger took over and he became your run of the mill serial killer. That's what his "mad eyes" in the last scene meant to me.

Once again the writers of the series made me feel sorry for a serial killer. It would always surprise me when I found myself rooting for or scolding Dexter for almost getting caught. Great series!


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

DevdogAZ said:


> I would have been a lot more satisfied with the ending if he would have just gone to join Hannah and Harrison in Argentina. That would have been streets ahead of the stupid ending they chose. Not sure why they felt it was either killing him off or having him be alone in exile.


Because, as Dexter said in his voice over, he destroys anyone he's close to....he can NEVER be close to Hannah and Harrison again without destroying them.

(Finally got around to watching the final ep...)


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Bierboy said:


> Because, as Dexter said in his voice over, he destroys anyone he's close to....he can NEVER be close to Hannah and Harrison again without destroying them. (Finally got around to watching the final ep...)


I understand the writer's rationale. I just don't agree with it, and I don't think most viewers did, either.


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## pendragn (Jan 21, 2001)

DevdogAZ said:


> I understand the writer's rationale. I just don't agree with it, and I don't think most viewers did, either.


Like has been said earlier in this thread, the writer's weren't allowed by Showtime to end it the way they wanted. This was the only way then could think of for Dexter to "get his" in the end. The writers agree that the ending wasn't optimal.

tk


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## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

pendragn said:


> Like has been said earlier in this thread, the writer's weren't allowed by Showtime to end it the way they wanted. This was the only way then could think of for Dexter to "get his" in the end. The writers agree that the ending wasn't optimal.
> 
> tk


I don't recall. Did the writers say how they would have preferred to end it?


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## pendragn (Jan 21, 2001)

waynomo said:


> I don't recall. Did the writers say how they would have preferred to end it?


I haven't read anything that says what they wanted to do, but I read an article that said Showtime told them they could not kill Dexter at the end. That article is linked earlier in this thread.

This Cracked Podcast also talks about it, and they talk about what the ending should have been.

tk


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

waynomo said:


> I don't recall. Did the writers say how they would have preferred to end it?


Earlier in the thread I think I linked to an article that had an interview with the prior show runner, who discussed how he would have ended it.


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## danterner (Mar 4, 2005)

Dexter might have ended on a low note, but this guitarist still managed to capture the magic it had at its best:


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## photoshopgrl (Nov 22, 2008)

For those disappointed in the ended (like me), here's to hoping they give us something better with this

Dexter Returning as Limited Series with Michael C. Hall


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## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

I never did watch the last two seasons. Everyone seemed to say not to bother. Maybe this will motivate me to get that done.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

I'm not sure how I feel about this. The ending was such a poop show, that I'm inclined to just let it completely die. On the other hand, most of Dexter was fun to watch. Having recently watched Micheal C Hall's other big show, Six Feet Under, I've wondered what has happened to him? I haven't seen him on anything recently (though perhaps he's just on something I don't watch). Hopefully they can sort of "rewrite" the ending. This might be worth subbing to Showtime for a month when the new season is over and binge it.


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## Hank (May 31, 2000)

I tend to agree with SteveNJ... the ending was horrible (and the last two seasons), they just lost their bearings on the theme of the show. 

But if it's really just a 10-episode mini-season and that's it -- hopefully they got their mojo back and can produce something really good, and then let it die a better death the second time around.


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## Dawghows (May 17, 2001)

Steveknj said:


> ...Having recently watched Micheal C Hall's other big show, Six Feet Under, I've wondered what has happened to him? I haven't seen him on anything recently (though perhaps he's just on something I don't watch).


 He's done stage work, both On- and Off-Broadway; a few smallish film and TV roles; some voice work in animation; and starred in the Netflix series "Safe."


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## dtle (Dec 12, 2001)

> The revival will go into production early 2021, five years after it wrapped up its initial 8-season run.


What?!!? It ended in 2013.. not five years.


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## photoshopgrl (Nov 22, 2008)

Hank said:


> I tend to agree with SteveNJ... the ending was horrible (and the last two seasons), they just lost their bearings on the theme of the show.
> 
> But if it's really just a 10-episode mini-season and that's it -- hopefully they got their mojo back and can produce something really good, and then let it die a better death the second time around.


Too bad they can't rewind Deb's death.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

I loved the show from beginning to end. IMO, it was a good ending. Well, yeah, Deb's death sucked but as for Dexter there were a couple of things that I hoped would NOT happen and either of those happened. In that vein, I thought it ended in the best way possible.

I will look forward to this limited piece. I've missed the show and I've missed MCH.


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## Craigbob (Dec 2, 2006)

I just wish the series had followed the books after season 1. Though the Trinity killer story line with John Lithgow was awesome.

Maybe they can mine some of the books for ideas.


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

photoshopgrl said:


> Too bad they can't rewind Deb's death.


Maybe they could make the original finale be a dream. Generally I hate it when things get retconned like that, but in this case I'd let it slide.


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## Family (Jul 23, 2001)

smbaker said:


> Maybe they could make the original finale be a dream. Generally I hate it when things get retconned like that, but in this case I'd let it slide.


Not me............


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## Test (Dec 8, 2004)

Steveknj said:


> I'm not sure how I feel about this. The ending was such a poop show, that I'm inclined to just let it completely die. On the other hand, most of Dexter was fun to watch. Having recently watched Micheal C Hall's other big show, Six Feet Under, I've wondered what has happened to him? I haven't seen him on anything recently (though perhaps he's just on something I don't watch). Hopefully they can sort of "rewrite" the ending. This might be worth subbing to Showtime for a month when the new season is over and binge it.


I think most people would agree that the show went downhill after the original showrunner left. It's good news that the original guy is back behind the scenes with this mini-series. I didn't like the later seasons and really disliked the finale, but I'm willing to watch just for that fact.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Test said:


> I think most people would agree that the show went downhill after the original showrunner left. It's good news that the original guy is back behind the scenes with this mini-series. I didn't like the later seasons and really disliked the finale, but I'm willing to watch just for that fact.


Oh, I'll watch, but I don't have high hopes. There's only so much you can do to get it back on the rails. I'm also not a huge fan of resurrecting old shows. Either you have such high expectations and they disappoint, or the characters you liked aged so much they just don't feel right.


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## photoshopgrl (Nov 22, 2008)

Steveknj said:


> Oh, I'll watch, but I don't have high hopes. There's only so much you can do to get it back on the rails. I'm also not a huge fan of resurrecting old shows. Either you have such high expectations and they disappoint, or the characters you liked aged so much they just don't feel right.


I feel like Michael will be more than able to step right back into this role flawlessly. That's one of the up sides to the news.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

photoshopgrl said:


> I feel like Michael will be more than able to step right back into this role flawlessly. That's one of the up sides to the news.


You know him on a first name basis?  We'll see. I'd rather go in with low expectations and be pleasantly surprised than with high expectations and be disappointed. I keep thinking back on the failed attempt to bring back Murphy Brown years later with the same cast, and it was just horrible.


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## photoshopgrl (Nov 22, 2008)

Steveknj said:


> You know him on a first name basis?  We'll see. I'd rather go in with low expectations and be pleasantly surprised than with high expectations and be disappointed. I keep thinking back on the failed attempt to bring back Murphy Brown years later with the same cast, and it was just horrible.


No I'm just typing with one hand so I'm lazier than normal.


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

Looking back Dexter was "fine". Seasons 1 and 4 are really the only ones I can remember detailes from and think of fondly. There's just been much better stuff since then.

I'll probably watch it if it is for sure a limited series.

Thinking back wasn't The X-Files reboot supposed to be a limited series as well? I just feel like I've been burned like this before, thinking I was getting a nugget of sweet nostalgia, then getting a feast disgusting, sour, bland and unwanted extended series,kills off my nostalgia.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

photoshopgrl said:


> I feel like Michael will be more than able to step right back into this role flawlessly. That's one of the up sides to the news.


Absolutely! MCH is truly a brilliant actor. I don't know if he won any Emmys for SFU or Dexter, but he sure should have! I really don't see him doing the project if it is sub-par.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

sharkster said:


> Absolutely! MCH is truly a brilliant actor. I don't know if he won any Emmys for SFU or Dexter, but he sure should have! I really don't see him doing the project if it is sub-par.


He was nominated once for SFU and five times for Dexter but never won. He did win a Golden Globe.


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