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Dexter Series Finale Recap – Episode 08.12

Dexter series finale

Dexter series finale recap

 

Analysis

I have been rather critical of this season as a whole, but this finale was an entirely different realm of unsatisfying. In fact, it’s probably the most unsatisfying television finale that I’ve ever seen. This episode didn’t tie up any of the loose ends from the various subplots on the show, or give closure to any of the characters that we’ve watched over all these years. We didn’t even see Masuka at all in this episode. Hannah’s continued existence in the show’s mythology does not feel justified or credible. For the bulk of the season, the writing focused closely on Dexter’s relationship with Doctor Vogel, his long-lost spiritual mother, and she was presented as an essential part of Dexter’s overall story. This idea could have worked, but she was killed two episodes ago and her death really has no weight on this finale in any way. Speaking of Vogel’s death, despite the potential the character had, Saxon doesn’t feel like a suitable final monster for Dexter to slay.

The only two characters that received a definitive and fitting end to their stories were Dexter and Debra. To the episode’s credit, they handled the euthanization scene very well, and I can’t fault them for the ending of that story arc. There is a kind of tragic poetry to the idea that Debra, the person that Dexter cared about most in the world, the one relationship he couldn’t live without, was Dexter’s final victim. His guilt over his role in his sister’s death would cause him to live in self-imposed exile. However, it doesn’t seem logical that he would let his son grow up in a foreign country with no ties back to his real family back in the United States.

Debra’s abrupt offscreen stroke seemed to come out of nowhere, and it felt cheap to just have her essentially die in a simple manner. It is probable that the writers wanted both the viewer and Dexter to learn his sister’s fate the same way a normal family member would, learning from the doctor firsthand and not being present when the stroke actually occurs. There could be some merit to that idea, but it feels uncharacteristic for the show’s usual narrative style.

As the series wound to a close over the past few episodes, it seemed clear that the writing staff were not going to be answering any of the questions that we wanted to see answered, and seemed to ignore the inherent drama of the series’ unique setting. If your series is about a vigilante serial killer working as a member of law enforcement, the drama should be geared towards the conflicts that will be stirred up when his police coworkers become aware of his secret.

We saw this happen in both Season 2 and Season 7 with Doakes and LaGuerta respectively, but Dexter was able to escape those moral quandaries when they were killed by other people. What would it have been like if the Miami Metro staff finally became aware of Dexter’s  dual nature and pursued him to the fullest extent of their power? He could have been put him in a position where he would be forced to abandon Harry’s Code so he could survive. Would this not have been a more gripping and thrilling story arc than the one we were given? We’ll never know. The writing staff seemed intent on giving us the answers to more superficial questions that we didn’t want or care to have answered.

It’s a damn shame that Dexter had to end this way. As far as I’m concerned, Dexter should have ended either at the fourth or fifth season finale, back when it was in its prime. It frequently showed moments of brilliance throughout its tenure, and it deserved to go out in a much better fashion. This was neither the ending that we needed or deserved, but it’s the one we got.

 

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