Dexter wrapped up its eight season run on Sunday night, and much like the response to the series' later seasons (since that infamous Season 4 final) the finale was a very confounding end to a once great television series.
This season has largely focused on, or has at least attempted to, highlight Dexter's evolution from an emotionless serial killer, governed only by a code instilled to him by his father, into a man who no longer feels the need to kill, and feels a stronger pull towards the relationships he shares with his loved ones.
Unfortunately, the finale continued to do what Dexter, as a character and as a show in general, has struggled to do for this entire final season - make up it's mind on exactly what it wants to say about the titular hero. At the end of last week's episode it looked like Dexter had put down his knives for good, leaving his sister Deb to handle serial killer Daniel Saxon (a.k.a. The Brain Surgeon), while he, his girlfriend Hannah, and his son Harrison, looked set to fly of into the sunset to Argentina to start a new life together. But that was before Saxon fatally shot Deb and escaped. And once again audiences had to endure Hall's Dexter making up his decision, and then changing his mind again, on whether he was able to leave Saxon behind and move on, or make one last kill.
What made the choice particularly more frustrating in this episode is that their really wasn't one. If Dexter truly is all about family now, as his actions would have you suggest, than staying in Miami (despite the ongoing hurricane) to protect Deb from Saxon was a real no-brainer. Our sub-par villain Saxon obviously knew this too, otherwise why would he be going after Deb at all? One could argue that because his family (or just his mother, Evelyn Vogel) deserted him after discovery his true nature, wherein comparison, Dexter has two women in his life that know his secret, yet still love him would be enough motivation to drive Saxon. The series never really explained this though, so its really up to audiences to decide for themselves.
Not only was Dexter's choice underwhelming, the entire episode overall was very tedious to watch. The continuous attempts by both Dexter and Hannah to keep Elway off of their tracks, Saxon's roaming through a dark clouded Miami, the impending hurricane, it should have been exciting, but it lacked inventiveness and urgency.
While it would have been too much to expect Dexter to also wrap up the storylines of its significant supporting cast, which have been ignored for year, Batista and Quinn got a touching moment with Dexter towards the end of the episode - both accepting Dexter's killing of Saxon in retaliation to Deb's Death.
There were also numerous plot holes, as has become a staple of Dexter in its final season, including but not limited too: Saxon not telling Miami Metro about Dexter, Dexter killing Saxon in the police station, Hannah tranquilising Elway in the middle of a bus, and Dexter taking Deb's body out of the possible.
While one can handle all this, it's difficult to see many fans being able to accept the fate of one Lieutenant Debra Morgan, who for many has been the shows saving grace for the past four seasons. It's not that she died, but that she died the way she did, that makes her characters' end so unsatisfactory. She was shot at the end of the last episode, not in a stand off of epic proportions, but by a bullet haphazardly fired by a fleeing victim. Her doctor was optimistic of her recovery, until - off-screen - she suffered a blood clot as the result from her surgery, and was reduced to a comatose vegetable.
It's understandable that Debra died, if anything was actually made clear in this episode, or this season, its that Dexter's inability to be torn between two lives and world - one as a serial killer, and one as a family man - that those closet to him always end up paying the price for his mistakes, but this isn't something we learned recently, so to have it repeated again feels a little pointless. In the end Dexter pulled the plug on Deb, and I did quite enjoy the significance of him taking her out on his boat and disposing of her as he has done countless times before, it was completely fitting that she was his final victim.
But after all that, was she? Dexter seemingly drove his boat into the impeding hurricane off of the Miami Coast, killing himself and ensuring that the ones he loved would never have to suffer because of him again. Apparently even that is no match for our Dexter though, an epilogue of sorts showing him working in a secluded area as a lumberjack, depression beard and all, indicating he survived and faked his death.
This left Hannah and Harrison to make do on their own in Argentina, Hannah shown to have believed Dexter died in the hurricane, giving audiences very little closure to Dexter in the end.
Rating: 2/5
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