Dexter: How will it end?

[CrusaderFrank]

I've been a fan since forever. Last episode is next week.

Deb's shot. Dexter no longer needs Harry.

What happens when Dexter discovers his new found compassion got his sister shot?

Do they make the last flight out of Paris (Miami)?

Matsuka's Daughter...dayyyyum

 

[DGS49]

The possibilities are endless. Let's just hope the writers don't fuck it up, or just give up, like they did with the Soprano's.

My guess is that Dexter and his son will survive and be "on the run" at the end. Hannah (his blonde GF) is toast. I can't believe they would kill off Deb, but it's looking that way.

 

[Harry Dresden]

maybe it will be like the last episode of "Forever Knight".....everyone got killed off....

 

[Sarah G]

I've been a fan since forever. Last episode is next week.

Deb's shot. Dexter no longer needs Harry.

What happens when Dexter discovers his new found compassion got his sister shot?

Do they make the last flight out of Paris (Miami)?

Matsuka's Daughter...dayyyyum

I can't believe the feelings this show always stirred. I never liked violence or even bloody scenes, even just a little. I started watching the season of the Trinity Killer. John Lithgow was stunning in his role. Scary and so hateful... best horrific villian ever. I was hooked.

Watching tonight, the goodbyes made me cry, lol. Crying over a serial killer and a bunch of co dependents, you know the kind of stuff that makes normal people ill.

Hope you all get to see it soon and come back to chat about the finale.

 

[Sallow]

Lumberjack Dexter..

Favorite scene, "I'm gonna kill you with that pen.."

 

[Sarah G]

Lumberjack Dexter..

Favorite scene, "I'm gonna kill you with that pen.."

Lol, and then Angel asking such innocent questions. Why would you do that, you don't even work here anymore. I'm gonna miss this.

 

[Sallow]

Lumberjack Dexter..

Favorite scene, "I'm gonna kill you with that pen.."

Lol, and then Angel asking such innocent questions. Why would you do that, you don't even work here anymore. I'm gonna miss this.

Was a good ending.

I didn't expect them to let Dexter live..

 

[Sarah G]

Lumberjack Dexter..

Favorite scene, "I'm gonna kill you with that pen.."

Lol, and then Angel asking such innocent questions. Why would you do that, you don't even work here anymore. I'm gonna miss this.

Was a good ending.

I didn't expect them to let Dexter live..

I keep imagining Harrison growing up and taking over. The show is so damn good, I don't want to let go.

 

[Sallow]

Lol, and then Angel asking such innocent questions. Why would you do that, you don't even work here anymore. I'm gonna miss this.

Was a good ending.

I didn't expect them to let Dexter live..

I keep imagining Harrison growing up and taking over. The show is so damn good, I don't want to let go.

Try Ray Donovan.

Excellent cast and writing.

 

[Sarah G]

Was a good ending.

I didn't expect them to let Dexter live..

I keep imagining Harrison growing up and taking over. The show is so damn good, I don't want to let go.

Try Ray Donovan.

Excellent cast and writing.

I did see a couple of episodes. Been so busy, it's hard keeping up with all of these great series. I watch Boardwalk too.

 

[Zoom-boing]

I felt it was on the lame side. I get the whole "Dexter exiles himself to keep from harming Hannah and Harrison" pov. But this whole last season felt kind of ... I don't know... just missing or something.

I was hoping for the neat-and-tidy-wrapped-with-a-bow ending where Dex, Hannah, Harrison fly off and live happily ever after and Deb and Quinn do the same. Figured I wouldn't get that but ... When he rode into the storm and the screen went black I nearly exited out of the site I was on. I almost missed the very last scene ... kind of wish I had. I don't know, this last season and the ending left me feeling the same way Alias did. It was time for the show to end and I was ok with that but the heart of the show, the heart of what made Dexter 'Dexter' had gone astray and they rushed that change, just like they rushed the ending (specifically the last episode) of Alias. One scene Dex is free from needing to kill, the next scene he knows he is forever a serial killer. Blarg. Left me disappointed. All of that just seemed like they were at a loss as to what to do and they just wanted to wrap up the show. I would have preferred that Dex jump off the boat with Deb cause Dex and Deb were always a team. And he left Harrison with Hannah? Really?? Uh, no. I knew that Dex and Hannah were not going to be together when they had Harrison whisper to Dex that he loved Hannah. Overall, not the best ending that they could have come up with. At all. Or at least they could have written it better. Too much just 'happens' ... like Dexter surviving riding into a full force hurricane. Pop! He just does.

 

[Harry Dresden]

I felt it was on the lame side. I get the whole "Dexter exiles himself to keep from harming Hannah and Harrison" pov. But this whole last season felt kind of ... I don't know... just missing or something.

I was hoping for the neat-and-tidy-wrapped-with-a-bow ending where Dex, Hannah, Harrison fly off and live happily ever after and Deb and Quinn do the same. Figured I wouldn't get that but ... When he rode into the storm and the screen went black I nearly exited out of the site I was on. I almost missed the very last scene ... kind of wish I had. I don't know, this last season and the ending left me feeling the same way Alias did. It was time for the show to end and I was ok with that but the heart of the show, the heart of what made Dexter 'Dexter' had gone astray and they rushed that change, just like they rushed the ending (specifically the last episode) of Alias. One scene Dex is free from needing to kill, the next scene he knows he is forever a serial killer. Blarg. Left me disappointed. All of that just seemed like they were at a loss as to what to do and they just wanted to wrap up the show. I would have preferred that Dex jump off the boat with Deb cause Dex and Deb were always a team. And he left Harrison with Hannah? Really?? Uh, no. I knew that Dex and Hannah were not going to be together when they had Harrison whisper to Dex that he loved Hannah. Overall, not the best ending that they could have come up with. At all. Or at least they could have written it better. Too much just 'happens' ... like Dexter surviving riding into a full force hurricane. Pop! He just does.

yea i could not see him leaving his kid either.....if something happens down there and they question Hannah and discover she is wanted up here....they will think she kidnapped the tyke....and then what happens?...

 

[Zoom-boing]

Ok, I've been discussing this w/my daughter and reading various comments on sites.

If Dex were to kill himself he'd slit his throat and keel over the side of the boat and be with Deb, so when he drove away into the storm, presumably to kill himself ... that just seemed out of character to me.

He had every intention of dying but didn't ... he wasn't expecting that. He accidentally survived, against the odds.

The very last scene, where he looked so dark, sinister? I mistook that for remorse/regret/grieving. It was none of that. His eyes were black, the 'life' in Dex was gone, no soul there ... the Dark Passenger took over.

Ah!

Might have to rewatch with a different perspective.

Still can't figure that he would leave Harrison (worst child actor) with Hannah, Rita's parents not knowing where he has gone. Just doesn't work.

 

[hortysir]

Should have left Dexter cut to pieces with his kid holding the knife in a storage locker filled with blood

 

[DGS49]

Final Thoughts on Dexter

Well, we finally have our conclusion. Dexter’s son and girlfriend are safely planted in Rio, Deb is feeding the fish in Miami, and Dexter has apparently faked his death successfully and transplanted himself to a logging camp at an unknown location, where he will presumably live out the rest of his days as an anonymous, harmless, boring recluse.

All in all, there are no loose ends – he has no one who will miss him terribly in Miami, he was never found out by the authorities as a prolific mass murderer, so they are not looking for him, and there are basically no characters remaining that we would care about in the future. The possibilities for a sequel or a Made-4-TV follow-up movie are preserved. But that would depend on future demand and Michael C. Hall’s availability; plot lines would be potentially endless. I don’t think the public would accept anyone else playing Dexter in the future.

Fans of the show (I confess, I are one), had to accept a lot of improbable realities, some of which became difficult to swallow at times. Dexter was able to miss days and days in the office, and no one ever complained or docked his pay. He could go without sleep for weeks at a time – especially during his marriage to Rita - with only minimal effect. He found (and took advantage of) the most flexible and accommodating babysitter since Mother Teresa. He could (apparently) pick up and carry dead or incapacitated victims weighing well-over 200lbs, off camera, with no apparent problem. After killing them, he would cut them up and place them into bags that had to weigh at least 50 pounds each, then toss those plastic bags around like they were beachballs. He could set up a “kill room” – a scene that in my experience would take a small crew of grunts at least a full day – in a matter of an hour or so, and clean it up in minutes (including packaging up a mountain of plastic sheeting), leaving no trace of his activities anywhere. Dexter did not live an opulent lifestyle (with the possible exception of his boat), but seemed to have unlimited financial resources.

More relevant to his evil personna, he came up with an injectable chemical that could render a 250+ pound man totally inert and helpless INSTANTLY, with a quick shot to the neck. He was virtually unbeaten in hand-to-hand combat, regardless of the size or athleticism of his foe, or what weapons he might have. He recovered from physical injuries with incredible speed, seemingly being back at 100% within minutes. He came out of horrific auto accidents without a scratch, and was even drowned with no apparent ill effects. In the final episode, he was stabbed deeply in the shoulder with a pen-knife, and apparently just forgot about it. And ultimately he rode his small power boat into a horrific hurricane, smashing it to pieces, yet survived, again, without an apparent scratch.

Throughout the series, Hall successfully portrayed a person with no emotional reaction to any stimuli around him (until the final season, sort of), looking strikingly like someone who knew he was supposed to demonstrate some emotion, but not sure what it was, exactly, or how to show it. Which was true to the story line.

It was not so long ago that television programs were discouraged from – if not actually prohibited from – showing final endings where the “bad guy” got away with murder or a bank robbery, etc. Dexter could not have been produced in 1965, for this among many other reasons. Alfred Hitchcock occasionally would show the bad guy getting away, but in his final words after the end of the story, Hitchcock would assure the audience that the bad guy was arrested shortly thereafter, off screen.

So the Dexter plotline of the sympathetic mass murderer who is simply doing that the Criminal Justice System seems to unable to do, is a relatively recent one, and one that Dexter’s writers did fairly well. But in recent years, the “honorable” vigilante who kills bad guys and eludes capture by the police has become almost trite.

I would tune into a sequel. “Dexter vs. Sasquatch!”

 

[DGS49]

Ray Donovan went to shit over the past couple episodes. It was a series that had a lot of promise - great cast - but ended up being almost a parody of the Soprano's. The writers would not have to go much further to convert it into a knee-slapping parody.

Jon Voight's character is simply "over the line." No one could be that despicable and clueless.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Ray Donovan went to shit over the past couple episodes. It was a series that had a lot of promise - great cast - but ended up being almost a parody of the Soprano's. The writers would not have to go much further to convert it into a knee-slapping parody.

Jon Voight's character is simply "over the line." No one could be that despicable and clueless.

a parody of the Sopranos?.....which Ray Donovan are you watching?....

 

[Alfalfa]

I'm a little ambivalent about the Dex ending. There have been worse, Soprano's and LOST come to mind. But as mentioned I didn't see him leaving Harrison, much less with Hanna who was a serial killer herself but without a code...she killed people inconvenient to her. Without Dex might Harrison become inconvenient? Dex seemed to have lost his need to kill, his dark passenger was gone, what threat did he pose to his new family?

How does Dex get out of the storm yet leave his mostly sunken boat in the ocean to be found?

I have to say the death and dumping of Deb impacted more then I thought it would. I had forgotten how central she had become to everything going on in the show. Even though at first I didn't like the character (simply couldn't believe she was a cop) then her becoming COP, I wasn't buying. But she grew on me over time. It was the same with Quinn.

I think my favorite character next to Dex was Battista. Best serial killer, John Lithgow.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Final Thoughts on Dexter

Well, we finally have our conclusion. Dexter’s son and girlfriend are safely planted in Rio, Deb is feeding the fish in Miami, and Dexter has apparently faked his death successfully and transplanted himself to a logging camp at an unknown location, where he will presumably live out the rest of his days as an anonymous, harmless, boring recluse.

All in all, there are no loose ends – he has no one who will miss him terribly in Miami, he was never found out by the authorities as a prolific mass murderer, so they are not looking for him, and there are basically no characters remaining that we would care about in the future. The possibilities for a sequel or a Made-4-TV follow-up movie are preserved. But that would depend on future demand and Michael C. Hall’s availability; plot lines would be potentially endless. I don’t think the public would accept anyone else playing Dexter in the future.

Fans of the show (I confess, I are one), had to accept a lot of improbable realities, some of which became difficult to swallow at times. Dexter was able to miss days and days in the office, and no one ever complained or docked his pay. He could go without sleep for weeks at a time – especially during his marriage to Rita - with only minimal effect. He found (and took advantage of) the most flexible and accommodating babysitter since Mother Teresa. He could (apparently) pick up and carry dead or incapacitated victims weighing well-over 200lbs, off camera, with no apparent problem. After killing them, he would cut them up and place them into bags that had to weigh at least 50 pounds each, then toss those plastic bags around like they were beachballs. He could set up a “kill room” – a scene that in my experience would take a small crew of grunts at least a full day – in a matter of an hour or so, and clean it up in minutes (including packaging up a mountain of plastic sheeting), leaving no trace of his activities anywhere. Dexter did not live an opulent lifestyle (with the possible exception of his boat), but seemed to have unlimited financial resources.

More relevant to his evil personna, he came up with an injectable chemical that could render a 250+ pound man totally inert and helpless INSTANTLY, with a quick shot to the neck. He was virtually unbeaten in hand-to-hand combat, regardless of the size or athleticism of his foe, or what weapons he might have. He recovered from physical injuries with incredible speed, seemingly being back at 100% within minutes. He came out of horrific auto accidents without a scratch, and was even drowned with no apparent ill effects. In the final episode, he was stabbed deeply in the shoulder with a pen-knife, and apparently just forgot about it. And ultimately he rode his small power boat into a horrific hurricane, smashing it to pieces, yet survived, again, without an apparent scratch.

Throughout the series, Hall successfully portrayed a person with no emotional reaction to any stimuli around him (until the final season, sort of), looking strikingly like someone who knew he was supposed to demonstrate some emotion, but not sure what it was, exactly, or how to show it. Which was true to the story line.

It was not so long ago that television programs were discouraged from – if not actually prohibited from – showing final endings where the “bad guy” got away with murder or a bank robbery, etc. Dexter could not have been produced in 1965, for this among many other reasons. Alfred Hitchcock occasionally would show the bad guy getting away, but in his final words after the end of the story, Hitchcock would assure the audience that the bad guy was arrested shortly thereafter, off screen.

So the Dexter plotline of the sympathetic mass murderer who is simply doing that the Criminal Justice System seems to unable to do, is a relatively recent one, and one that Dexter’s writers did fairly well. But in recent years, the “honorable” vigilante who kills bad guys and eludes capture by the police has become almost trite.

I would tune into a sequel. “Dexter vs. Sasquatch!”

Or did he? He didn't expect to survive the hurricane, he assumed he would die. He was not 'Dexter' in the last shot ... the Dark Passenger took over. Check out his eyes.

First Episode (S1):

Finale (final shot):

Also, note the Season 8 cover. Dexter (the Dexter who wanted a real life) is also a victim of the Dark Passenger; he is consumed by him (it); he's on the table.

I agree with much of the rest of your post. Still ... it was a great ride.

 

[Sarah G]

I think one mistake they made and it's a big one, they never should have let Deb find out Dexter was the Bay Harbor Butcher. It kind of made her character depressing and not funny anymore like she used to be. She already died a couple of seasons ago. Also, her falling in love with her brother had an ick factor.

One of my favorite exchanges between her and Vince in about 2010, they're in a tattoo shop:

MASUKA
All together once again. One big happy family. Eh, Dexterino

MASUKA
The dragon lady represents the dualities of my inner warrior.

DEBRA MORGAN
Or your inner idiot

MASUKA
Hey, if you can't muster up some respect, I'm dropping the curtain.

MASUKA
Tramp stamp. I think I'm in love.

DEBRA MORGAN
If she's into needles, why don't you show her your dick?