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In 2020 I watched the TV series Dexter with my partner, who had seen it years before. We finished it earlier this year. I understand that Dexter came out years ago, and writing about it years after it ended sounds a little pointless. Or does it? Season 9 is coming soon, hopefully to redeem the disaster that was season 8. Here’s my take on the ending of Dexter and why it’s the worst TV show ending I’ve ever seen. (Spoilers for those who haven’t seen the TV series Dexter.)
An Iconic Beginning
The first two seasons of Dexter were fantastic. I adored the show right away, and we binged the second half of season one. Doakes was my favourite character. Him dying at the end of season two was sad but made narrative sense. The show was like some of the other iconic TV shows I adore with dramatic storylines and moral ambiguity. The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and my beloved Game of Thrones.
The ending of Game of Thrones is universally hated. I personally loved it, but I can understand where some things felt rushed and under-handed (namely the white walker plot). But it was certainly a bittersweet ending. The power-hungry characters were all gone. The Stark family came out on top. Everything came to its logical conclusion. Daenerys burned King’s Landing, which she’d been PLANNING since season one.
How Dexter Slowly Went Wrong
I enjoyed season 3, though lighter than the other two seasons. Miguel was a fun character, and I loved Rita. Season 4 was brilliant. Rita’s death was horrific but made perfect narrative sense. The story could have ended around there. Rita dies, showing the consequence of Dexter’s actions. Deb discovers Dexter’s secret, and turns him in. Dexter goes to prison; his kids forever traumatized, and we all see him for who he is. It’s deeply dark and sad but sends a good message. Dexter’s actions could not go on forever without consequences.
Seasons 5-8 have so many problems. I enjoyed them, but so much was wrong with them, especially seasons 7 and 8 which for me were the worst seasons of the show. One of the reasons why Breaking Bad is so excellent is that it didn’t stretch out for too long. The last two seasons were phenomenal. The ending was perfect. If Breaking Bad had gone on for three more seasons, the show would have been ruined.
Dexter could have been like Breaking Bad. The shows are very similar: a selfish anti-hero claims to act altruistically, but really acts for personal gratification. Obviously, Dexter is a psychopath while Walter becomes a sociopath. The show also muddied the waters regarding Dexter’s psychopathy. Psychopaths are fundamentally incapable of empathising with others. Dexter forms connections, but they were all self-serving. His love for Deb was based around how she made him feel, not about her. If it wasn’t for the code, Dexter would have been a purely evil monster, just like Trinity and Oliver Saxon and Brian Moser and all the other killers we saw.
There are three key factors that lead up to Dexter’s awful ending.
Dexter constantly getting away with murder.
There were so many stupid Deux ex Machinas where someone came close to finding out, but then Dexter’s secret stayed safe. It became so repetitive, seeing Dexter killing over and over, no consequence. La Guerta came close. Season 7 should have ended with Deb lowering her gun and putting Dexter under arrest. He goes to prison. La Guerta doesn’t die. Debra is forever scarred but she did the right thing.
Instead, Dexter is spared while an innocent dies.
How Debra was handled at the end.
Overall, Debra Morgan is the best character on the show. My other favourites, Doakes and Rita, were killed in the ‘golden’ seasons. Deb in the earlier seasons was really annoying but she was also a badass cop and a fiercely loyal sister. Her character development was the best part of the last few seasons. Deb should have been the hero of the show, the one who sadly got caught between her beloved brother and her commitment to justice. Ultimately, her turning in Dexter or killing him out of mercy to spare him from a lifetime in prison would have been the beautiful bittersweet ending the story needed.
But instead, they killed her off in a really stupid way. I could forgive Deb dying in a heroic way, but being shot on the job? Really? After all she had been threw and THAT’S how she dies? Because her brother decided to suddenly change his mind and not kill Saxon although that is literally something he would never do? So freakin’ pathetic. An utter insult to Deb’s character.
And wow, the whole ‘Deb being in love with her Dexter’ storyline had to be one of the show’s most stupid, terrible ideas. I really don’t know why they threw that in. Thankfully they abandoned this in season 8, although this makes it more infuriating as why throw in something only to ignore it. POINTLESS.
Hannah McKay.
Can there be a fictional character worse than Hannah McKay? (Okay, probably.) She’s the Jack Berger of Dexter. The cursed character who comes in at the end and is just a pain in the arse. I despised everything about Hannah McKay. The fact that Dexter dared declare her as some great love-of-his-life was a horrid insult to Rita. Now, LUMEN was a great character. If they’d have brought Lumen back, there would have been no complaint. The relationship between Dexter and Lumen spent time developing, and Lumen was a good person who understood Dexter.
Hannah McKay. Where do I even begin. Firstly, she’s so fricken BLAND. She thinks herself this great killer when she’s just a pathetic poisoner. She had no personality, and killed people conveniently. Plus, Dexter had plenty of women on his table before. But Hannah’s the one he decided to fuck?
When she went to prison in season 7 I was overjoyed. Her coming back in season 8 was another major flaw of the season, but I thought she was coming to seek revenge. Then she could have been interesting. But no, suddenly Dexter drops everything for this piece-of-shit woman, who has mercilessly killed people, and despite being a wanted felon, hasn’t heard of hair dye.
A terribly stupid plot-hole in season 8 was when the woman at the hospital saw Hannah McKay with Harrison, and the FBI marshal came. The receptionist TOLD HIM THAT HANNAH MCKAY WAS SITTING RIGHT THERE. Why didn’t the marshal check the CCTV footage? And Deb clearly isn’t blonde. You think he would just believe that the receptionist was visually impaired?
But what really broke my heart was seeing Hannah off in Argentina with Harrison. Not only did Dexter abandon his son, he left him with that vile creature who would probably poison him when he became inconvenient. I really hoped she would get caught by Elray at the last minute. But again, constant Deux Ex Machinas. She’s a FUCKING WANTED FELON. You’re telling me that NO ONE would report her at the airport? A strikingly stunning blonde woman? This bitch needs to take lessons from Amy Dunne.
How Dexter Should Have Ended
There are many ways Dexter could have ended that would have made narrative sense while still being satisfyingly bittersweet. For starters, the show didn’t need to go on for eight seasons. But let’s suppose everything stayed the way it did. I liked Vogel, she was an interesting character, albeit creepy. And let’s say Hannah McKay makes her horrible comeback and turns Dexter into a pathetic simp.
In the second-last episode, Dexter DOESN’T walk away from Saxon. He kills him, rather than suddenly doing a total character U-turn and deciding to walk away from a kill because of his stupid obsession with Hannah McKay. Debra walks in and calls Miami Metro, saying that she has found Saxon and he has been killed. Case closed.
Dexter makes for Argentina with Hannah, but Elway and the marshal get there first. Hannah is arrested by the FBI and taken away. Boo-hoo, Dexter is heartbroken. He decides to send Harrison up to Astor and Cody with their grandparents, and then tries to leave town. But Hannah ends up telling the FBI all about Dexter and he is also arrested and taken to prison. Dexter is shown walking past all his old co-workers. Deb is in tears while Quinn holds her. The two of them get married later on, although Deb is forever heartbroken about her brother being taken away. Harrison is safe, Hannah is gone, and Jamie marries some cute rich guy in Atlanta where she is training as a therapist.
A bittersweet ending. Not hard. An even better one would have been ending it much earlier so the frightful terror that is Hannah McKay never existed. Deb arrests Dexter, and marries Quinn, adopts Harrison. Or Deb arrests Dexter, marries Quinn, and Harrison is sent to live with Astor and Cody. Or Dexter nods at Deb, signalling for her to shoot him, saying that it’s okay and he would rather be killed by his sister than spend his life behind bars.
Heck, I would have been happy with both Deb and Dex ending up dead together. It’s sad but would have been better than Dexter being a fucking lumberjack in the woods with the bitch Hannah walking off with his son. Why??? Why, writers, why?
Oh Well
Still. It’s a TV show, and maybe season 9 will have some redemption. I’m not one of those people that says we should petition to have the ending re-made. At the end of the day, writing a TV show is no easy feat. Someone would have been disappointed whatever the ending. But there could have easily been a much better ending. Even having Dexter sailing off into the hurricane storm as an act of noble self-sacrifice would have been more satisfying. Sad, but I could live with that. Both he and Deb leaving the world together.
Also, how the fuck would he have survived the storm in his boat???
But I’ll get over it. The ending of Dexter is as terrible as Breaking Bad‘s ending is fantastic. Dexter really had the possibility to be an incredible show, and for a while it was. But stubbornness ruined it. Maybe season 9 will be better.
Have you seen Dexter? What did you think of the ending? Leave a comment below letting me know!
