At long last, New Blood delivers the series finale Dexter Morgan and Dexter fans deserve
Forget the monsters: “Sins Of The Father” is satisfying, poignant, and definitive
TV Reviews Dexter
[Ed. note: Showtime released the Dexter: New Blood finale Sunday at 12 a.m. ET via streaming.]
“Sins Of The Father” is an excellent finale for New Blood, and for Dexter as a series. It’s more than just a decent finale by the standards Dexter set for itself during its endless creative trough. “Father” is a very strong hour of television from a show that offers them up inconsistently and very rarely does so at the end of a season. And the episode works so well because it makes use of the entirety of Dexter, not just its mythology but the public perception of the show. “Father” succeeds because it goes places no one expected this show to go based on its history.
The uncharitable way to describe that would be to say “Sins Of The Father” lumbered over the low expectations set by the endlessly derided “Remember The Monsters?” But what showrunner Clyde Phillips has put off is much more sophisticated than that. The only thing that could have redeemed Dexter at the end of season eight was some kind of accountability for Dexter Morgan, at least the sense that for once he’d truly gotten out in front of his water skis. Because that moment never came—save for Dexter’s goofy, bearded foray into forestry—it was reasonable to assume it never would.
New Blood seemed to be toying early on with the idea of Dexter’s past catching up with him in spectacular fashion. The plot points involved weren’t always elegant, as with Angela and Molly’s fortuitous trip to Manhattan or Harrison blabbing about Dexter’s identity while in a near-fatal drug haze. (The less said about Angela’s encounter with Batista the better.) But that’s because they took place in a show that the audience doesn’t believe will ever hold Dexter accountable. What a mighty letdown it might have been if, after all the feints at unearthing the truth behind the Bay Harbor Butcher, nothing paid off.
But it wouldn’t be the first time Dexter let the audience down by letting Dexter slip the hangman’s noose one more time. And within the past few episodes, there have been a ton of references to the idea of Dexter as a superhero either by comparing him to Batman or reanimating his Dark Defender alter-ego. There was no reason to read more deeply into it at the time, but in hindsight, all the superhero references look like deliberate misdirection. Various Dexter writers and producers have made comments over the years about how Dexter is the flawed savior the world doesn’t know it needs. For that version of the character to survive, he has to be free to deliver his brand of justice. (Rumors about the potential impact of New Blood’s strong ratings made a superhero’s ending seem all the more likely.)
In a pleasant surprise, Phillips’ script doesn’t cast Dexter as a superhero at all. Dexter still thinks of himself that way, and he desperately needs Harrison to give him the adoration and reverence he thinks he’s owed on account of the hundreds of theoretical lives he’s theoretically saved. But “Father” exposes Dexter for what he truly is: a craven, narcissistic addict who will move heaven to get another hit of his drug of choice. Even if Dexter had lived to see the end of this episode, it’s hard to imagine how the man who gets called out for his decades of destructive behavior would forge ahead as the protagonist of this show.
From the earliest moments of the episode, the varnish crumbles and drifts away from Dexter’s all-consuming assholery. His bright idea, in light of the suspiciously torched cabin, is to take Harrison and move to Los Angeles. Never mind, as Harrison points out, that he would be uprooting Harrison from a place he’s worked hard to integrate himself into. The knife twist is Dexter’s presumption that moving is the only option so he and Harrison can continue doing “what we do.” When Harrison asks for specifics on how such a lifestyle would work, all Dexter can confirm is that they would dedicate themselves to stalking and murdering targets anytime they weren’t splashing in the pool.
What Dexter doesn’t know is that Angela has two titanium screws once housed inside Matt Caldwell’s knee: One from the mysterious envelope that implicated Dexter in Matt’s death and another found in the rubble of Dexter’s cabin. Before their blended family can enjoy their pasta night, Angela finds an excuse to get Dexter alone so she can arrest him for Matt’s murder. Here, Dexter offers another startling look into his inner darkness. As he’s being held at gunpoint, Dexter sees Angela’s reflection in a stainless steel toaster that’s conveniently situated next to a block of knives. The unsubtle implication is that Dexter absolutely considered doing the awful thing he’s always unwittingly delegated to someone else. He would have killed Angela to save himself.
In a promising early indicator, “Father” is just over 11 minutes into its runtime when Dexter is cuffed and booked on murder charges for the first time in the show’s history. That gives us a glimpse into what Dexter looks like truly cornered, and it’s no prettier to look at than anything else Dexter does in the episode. There’s a smugness and a sense of entitlement that permeates all of the interrogation scenes, traits that fit neatly into Dexter’s psychological profile but have never seemed starker than they do here. “I’m worried about you,” he tells Angela with a tone somehow more condescending than the statement’s content. Has this guy really always been this awful?
As soon as Dexter is placed in Iron Lake’s dinky holding cell to await his arraignment and an awkward reunion with Batista, it’s pretty obvious Dexter will manage to escape custody and try again to grab Harrison and bolt out of town. The unfortunate twist comes when Dexter tangles with Logan through the bars of the cell while trying to access the keys and winds up killing him. That makes for a tense father-son reunion when Harrison sees Dexter with blood smeared on his face and quickly deduces why a harried phone call from Dexter came from Logan’s phone. The realization solidifies for Harrison an evolution that began as soon as Kurt Caldwell’s blood pooled near his feet.
Harrison isn’t like his father at all, he realizes, and he tells Dexter in no uncertain terms in what’s easily the best scene of the series. The hope was that New Blood would find a way to bring Dexter’s journey full circle, and the final confrontation between Dexter and Harrison is hard to fault. Just this once, Harrison leans into the family business and follows Harry’s code far better than Dexter has since his move to Iron Lake. Harrison’s done his due diligence to uncover a killer of the innocent, and now he has to force Dexter to confront all the harm he’s done before putting him down for good.
Rather than go for something more over the top like Harrison killing Dexter using Dexter’s exact modus operandi, the script settles for a metaphorical table for Dexter to lay on and let Harrison put a bullet in his heart. With Angela’s blessing, Harrison makes a run for it, finally free of his father’s dark influence. Listen, it’s not all perfect, there are places to quibble and I’ll get into those in the strays. But “Sins Of The Father” gets so much right, and if the job was to rescue Dexter from punchline status, consider it accomplished.
Stray observations
- Angela’s behavior was absolutely inscrutable for most of the episode. There’s no earthly reason why she would turn the camera off at Dexter’s request, and certainly, no good reason to investigate Dexter’s tip about Kurt Caldwell by herself without telling a single person where she’s going. C’mon now!
- How does she know Dexter is not delivering her into a trap of some kind? It boggles the mind. That said, I did like the moment of her identifying the bodies of the missing girls whose cases she internalized.
- I have to admit, for all the shit I’ve talked about Batista, I actually wanted more Batista here. It was less than ideal to tease that interrogation and not deliver it.
- Everybody in the cast killed it, but man, Jack Alcott really did some fine work this season. And he did so much of it with a better-than-ever Michael C. Hall. That final confrontation was just superbly performed.
- Props to Alano Miller and Julia Jones as well, even if their character didn’t always make the most reasonable choices. Why was Logan so late on the draw at Angela’s house? Oof.
- I like Radiohead’s “A Wolf At The Door” but I didn’t love it for Dexter’s booking montage. Too many of the lyrics fall square on the nose and I’d have preferred something instrumental.
- Thanks for reading! I mostly had fun in Iron Lake.
210 Comments
I hated it. The only way to have Harrison not become a person like Dexter who murders the irredeemable is for him to…murder his father (an irredeemable murderer) in cold blood? And then wander the country as a homeless youth without money or family or a safety net? WHAT?
Just imagine a Mack truck plowed into him moments after he drove off, or he just slid off the road into a tree and died. People seem to have become too attached to Harrison and forgot that Dexter is the star of show, and it was his story that was being told, not Harrison’s. Everyone and everything in this show revolved around Dexter, and I think they ended it the way it was always going to end, with Dexter being outed to everyone around him as the monster he always was underneath. That said, I thought for sure the way they framed it that Angela was going to be shown as having crept up and shot Dexter before Harrison could.
Naaaah he celebrated by going to a gym and getting on treadmill like the old days.
His best option is probably the military so I’ll assign that story to him.
Harrison died on his way back to his home planet.
That’s what SATC – AJLT – did to Stanford Blatch – they Poochied him.
I know some of these words
The entire point of Dexter as a character is that he’s an anti-hero. He’s not simply some “monster.” He’s a sociopath by nature, who bends his nature into a quasi constructive action of killing other murderers/rapists/etc. The idea that “oh Dexter is exposed as the monster he really is!!!” is contrived.
All sociopath means is the person lacks empathy for others. It has nothing to do with butchering and killing people. It would make killing people easier, sure, but lacking empathy for other people isn’t going to make you wanna kill them. You’ve probably come across dozens of them over your life and just thought “that guy’s an asshole” and never thought much else of it.Calling him an anti-hero is simply saying to yourself that “he’s not that bad.” Dexter used the same I’m not as bad as them attitude to justify killing people and had Harry’s code to keep himself from getting caught. He’s always been in it for himself. There was never any “dark passenger,” it was always Dexter calling the shots.That is the realization Dexter has when Harrison tells him his dark passenger is the driver. It finally clicks in his head that “oh. He’s right. I’m the driver, the dark passenger. It’s been me all along.” This is why he wants Harrison to kill him. He knows he’s just as bad as the “bad” guys he’s killed.
Calling Dexter isn’t me telling myself he’s not that bad. Its me stating what he is, by design, through the intentions of the writers, and the perceptions of the audience. He’s a serial killer who kills bad people. There are people in the world who believe in an eye for an eye, or capital punishment. That’s the sensibility Dexter plays into. Again, its the entire point of his character.The dark passenger is just a metaphor. It doesn’t mean that Dexter never took responsibility for being killer. Its just the idea that he has the urge to commit acts of violence, which he can’t help, and can’t necessarily control. And he does not know/nor does the show ever imply that Dexter is as bad as the people he kills. There’s a tacit morality to the idea that the people he kills harm innocent people without remorse. What Dexter says about indirectly saving lives in New Blood, is the show revealing exactly that morality. And its not exactly incorrect. What’s incorrect is that killing bad guys is justifiable in the first place, not that it is equal to being one of the bad guys.
I think it is justifiable.
Except Dexter factually IS NOT as bad as the people he’s killed, he’s saved countless lives whether that was his intention or not, so for the show to try to argue that felt kinda weak, and as others said I don’t see how Harrison brutally killing his own father is somehow magically less traumatic then having to grow up with him.
And then wander the country as a homeless youth without money or family or a safety net? WHAT?THIS. It made me nuts, so Angela you’re just going to send a traumatized minor off into the world to fend for himself? Someone take this lady’s badge away.
“so Angela you’re just going to send a traumatized minor off into the world to fend for himself?”
Yeah, why didn’t she arrest him and send him to prison for life as a 14-year-old?
But isn’t the point of ending the show with Dexter’s letter to Hannah in the front seat of Harrison’s car to let Harrison off the hook for any guilt over the murder? The letter basically reads, “Please kill me.” And the show has been suggesting that killing Dexter is the authentic way to follow the code. The superhero fantasy was just something Dexter thought he could sell Harrison, but his son was smarter than that.On the other hand, you’re right that Harrison has to drive off living with the legacy of guilt — it’s like the ending of El Camino. Maybe the show is trying to have it both ways?
I thought FOR SURE they were going to have Dexter appear in Harrison’s passenger seat — as a literal manifestation of Harrison’s “dark passenger” — to lay the groundwork for a Harrison-centric series with Dexter has the imaginary friend (like Harry was to Dexter).
Well she did give him 20 bucks before letting him go.
The show managed to leave Harrison in worst shape than when he first arrived, but at least he didn’t die, which given Dexter’s record it was one of the possible outcomes.
I could be wrong but didn’t they show that Harrison had a stack of cash with him? Presumably it’s the money Kurt took from his safe right before they caught him.
It’s his gap year
Whoever wrote this article is clearly not a fan of the show and was force to write this piece. The ending was horrible, the writers had one job and still failed. It’s insane that they still don’t understand the demographics of the show and why people in the first place tuned into watch. The dark novels are much better, with better writing. Also, what’s up with the writers and the constant incest topics. Deb and Dexter, now Harrison and Audrey. The main writer is clearly in love with his sister, it’s disgusting!
“ to…murder his father (an irredeemable murderer) in cold blood?”
Yeah, while Harrison was driving away, crying, I really thought “boy, that was a murder in cold blood, just look at how unemotional he is?.
But that’s not even the point of the finale. The show is clearly laying the groundwork for Harrison to go on and become his own “dark passenger” serial killer, without the added cost of Michael C. Hall’s salary.
I just didn’t understand why Harrison had to run, that would have easily been a case for self defense. He would have stayed in Iron Lake and had a normalish life with people who cared about him. They never showed anything that the police at all suspected him of any involvement. And how is Angela going to explain shooting him with his own rifle and not her police gun?
Not to mention that Harrison killing Dexter makes him exactly as bad as Dexter, throwing the hamfisted moral lesson of the story directly into the trash. And Angela letting him go makes her an accessory to murder, proving she’s not fit to do her job and has absolutely no moral authority.
It’s a fitting ending but it’s just a bit odd to revive dexter just for a season. I mean that made the ending all the more unexpected.
My guess is that the only way they could sell the revival to MCH was to make it a quick redemption for the awful Season 8 with a real finale.
Basically this and they succeeded.New Blood Season have washed away lot of bad tastes from Season 8 and I feel that they can end the series at that point.
How is this not obvious to everyone?
Especially since all the bad stuff happened in the last minutes of the last episode. It was way too sudden. I wonder if they had to cut things short because of that damn virus.
Also as a side note, I found the production design of the series so refreshing, tactile, and real. Unlike so many streaming shows (And Just Like That, Morning Show, etc.) there were no shitty outdoor green screens, no obviously fake driving scenes, no indoor setpieces that looked like sets. The show was clearly filmed outdoors in the woods in a real small town. You could see their breath when it was supposed to be cold at night. People walked in and out of real buildings. It was just nice for a change in this era of crappy content overload.
I LOVED the title scenes for each episode, esp. this one where the letters seemed to run down a waterfall. They were cheeky and awesome.
Yeah, I was worried that the whole “golden age of network TV drama” nature of Dexter would make it look really cheap and from a bygone era in 2022 – it’s been copied over and over again by a dizzying amount of other shows and could’ve come across as ugly on the eye and years behind more modern shows. But I thought they did a reasonable job with that aspect of things, and if anything, like you, it made me nostalgic for the ridiculous outlays that used to happen on real sets and locations when the likes of Lost, Prison Break and Dexter were in their prime. If this season succeeded in any way, it was that blend of old and new – bringing a show from the 2010s into this decade and being imperceptible from both the new shows and its own origins.
Considering how much was made of the idea that the show’s original ending was shitty and that this was basically a way to get it right, I really don’t get how this being a one-and-done was unexpected.
I mean we’re used to studios/networks milking the crap out of anything so I expected two or three seasons (unless it was really bad and cancelled).
Cries in Firefly
“I really don’t get how this being a one-and-done was unexpected.”
It probably comes from Showtime not knowing how to let a show end. Ever.
They’re certainly going to spin off Harrison, right? *sigh*
I don’t really see what would be left to say; he’s kind of on a redemption path; he knows about his shit and will deal with it.
I said this above, but I’ll repeat here: I thought FOR SURE they were going to have Dexter appear in Harrison’s
passenger seat — as a literal manifestation of Harrison’s “dark
passenger” — to lay the groundwork for a Harrison-centric series with
Dexter has the imaginary friend (like Harry was to Dexter).
Angela going to investigate Kurt’s property by herself without telling anyone does make sense. Those missing persons she was investigating had become a huge part of her life, and finding out what happened to them had become more a personal crusade than actual police work. When she finds the women she knows their faces and names. She invested herself into finding them or finding out what happened to them, and so it would totally make sense for her to bypass any police protocol and logical judgement and just b-line it straight to Kurt’s when Dexter gives her a sliver of a hope that she will find something to help her solve the mystery of these women.
Plus, its not like she has a huge police force—-what did she have, Logan, who wouldn’t be able to respond to any calls, Teddy, who was the lone cop who COULD stay on patrol (predictably sleeping in his car, lol).I guess the argument could be made that despite this, she should definitely have waited for some kind of backup (procedurally) before heading into a possibly dangerous situation, but I think the emotions got to her hearing that a 20+ year investigation might have been solved. Understandable.
Well, now, this is the rave I was not expecting.
I think there the implication of the Angela arrest scene, that Dex would have killed her if he had an opportunity, was kind of a neat reference to how Doakes died. Although I admit that might be my own mental gymnastics as I always feel that was the episode where the show kind of lost sight of itself.By having Doakes die in a fire, even after making it clear that Dexter was going there to kill him, they removed that difficult choice from Dex and started building him instead asthat mythological figure. So having that scene here was also, for me, that Dexter was going to kill Doakes. That that is who he is.
You’re misremembering. Dexter never planned on killing Doakes. He was going to frame him as the Bay Harbor Butcher. Doakes was just killed by Lila before Dexter had that opportunity. I liked this finale as a whole, but I did find it slightly odd and out of character that Dexter would be desperate enough to kill Logan (at least he tried to talk him down first) and Angela. Though I guess, he did try to kill Laguerta in the original series but that was during the shittier seasons.Still, thematically, I agree with the review here, it’s better than having Dexter get away with his sins again and I do appreciate them not really casting Dexter as the hero he desperately wants to see himself as. Still though, when you compare this to how Breaking Bad held Walter White accountable and broke him down it’s easy to see how that show did it a lot better.
Thanks for the correction, although my larger point still fortunately stands.And completely agreed on the Breaking Bad comparison. The other one I would throw out there is The Shield and how it dealt with Mackey at the end. I’ve actually always used Dexter as the negative comparison to those two as I feel Dexter fell in love with its main character while those two shows always remembered that they were shows about villains.
I don’t think he planned to frame him until Doakes was dead.
“You’re misremembering. Dexter never planned on killing Doakes.”This isn’t true. Dexter planned to kill Doakes a few episodes before the season 2 finale. He drugged him in order to kill him, but before Doakes passed out he hinted that Dexter didn’t know the truth about Harry (that he killed himself). This caused Dexter to back off.
After 16 years of Dexter’s character development, Harry’s Code, James Remar as Harry, and now Carpenter / Deborah as his reprised conscience, Dexter would never have killed Logan, or “an innocent” like that. Nor likely panicked given those circumstances. Dexter has too much to live for at this point. As you said, Dexter wouldn’t even kill Doakes, and he was much more of a threat and menacing character. Dexter’s adherence to the Code is so strict, he is even teaching it to his troubled son.Also, if “Mary Sue” Angela can’t “pattern” Kurt Caldwell as the kidnapper and killer of all those girls on her own bulletin board, even when Kurt’s DNA is on the teeth of her dead friend’s corpse, I am certainly not buying her quantum leaping years of hard evidence, and the FBI, to finger Dexter as Miami’s long dormant, “already solved” BHB.Dexter dies, yes. But by Google and bad writing. A shame, because so much else was good this season.
After 16 years of Dexter’s character development, Harry’s Code, James Remar as Harry, and now Carpenter / Deborah as his reprised conscience, Dexter would never have killed Logan, or “an innocent” like that. Nor likely panicked given those circumstances. Dexter has too much to live for at this point. As you said, Dexter wouldn’t even kill Doakes, and he was much more of a threat and menacing character. Dexter’s adherence to the Code is so strict, he is even teaching it to his troubled son.Also, if “Mary Sue” Angela can’t “pattern” Kurt Caldwell as the kidnapper and killer of all those girls on her own bulletin board, even when Kurt’s DNA is on the teeth of her dead friend’s corpse, I am certainly not buying her quantum leaping years of hard evidence, and the FBI, to finger Dexter as Miami’s long dormant, “already solved” BHB.Dexter dies, yes. But by Google and some lazy writing.A shame, because so much else was good this season.
Walter white dies doing his favorite shit I don’t really think that show gave him accountability because at a certain point walter was too much of an identity figure for the audience so he couldn’t fully lose. I think the shield has much stronger just deserts when it comes to someone getting it in the end
It isn’t binary. Idk why everyone needs to see it as that black and white. Walt absolutely was held accountable. Not fully losing doesn’t mean he didn’t lose. You really think Walt would have preferred Hank being dead and his family being in emotional turmoil for the rest of their lives? He’d prefer if he gets recognition *and* not have his family destroyed. He only gets one and losing the other is still painful. Yes, the shield has better “just deserts” but Ozymandias was the crowning achievements of having Walt’s sins catch up with him and it’s legitimately one of the best episodes of television ever produced. If breaking bad ended on a bittersweet note, it’s absolutely heavier on the bitter side and that’s what I mean when I say accountability.
Yeah that’s where the show should of ended but then Walt saves the day and frees Jesse and gets two tweekers to scare a billionaire with lazer pointers in one of the dumbest scenes of TV ever made
To be fair anything compared to Breaking Bad will come up short.
I did find it slightly odd and out of character that Dexter would be desperate enough to kill LoganYes, that was completely unexpected and out of character, even for an unpredictable show like this one.
i liked how he killed (logan) once Dexter realized Angela knew he was the BHB and Batista was on the way, he had that creature who was cornered energy to him. And then he showed that again when he was ready to abandon Harrison again just to not get caught. Thats why I loved it, they showed just how monstrous Dexter is, and how horrible he is. and they did it through his son’s eyes beautifully. Killing Logan was the bubble burst for him. Dexter has always been able to talk himself around the code, and dragged Deb around with him. Harrison is perfect because he has the desire to be with his father that a son like him would have, but the distance and resentment he carried allowed him to see the BS once enough had been shown. It was great. I wish Angela didn’t let him go – the only thought I can give for her decision is that Harrison won’t be able to have a normal life there once his father’s horror becomes known – so maybe that was her rationale? letting him escape so he can be free of it – although every other law enforcement officer now involved will obviously want to question and interview Harrison, so he will almost be a fugitive now? and his continued escape will make it seem like he is involved?
Breaking Bad held Walter accountable? Because all I see are people (idiots) who revere him as some kind of Tony Montana badass.
How does fans misinterpreting the show mean Breaking Bad didn’t hold Walt accountable? I’m not seeing the logic there. The show is the show and if audiences misinterpret the intent, that isn’t on the show, especially when Ozymandias was pretty obvious in what it’s intended goal was…which again, was to punish Walt for all of his sins. So yes, the show held him accountable.
Maybe. We’ll never know if Dexter would have killed Doakes because Lila killed him.
You’re misremembering. Dexter never planned on killing Doakes. He was going to frame him as the Bay Harbor Butcher. Doakes was just killed by Lila before Dexter had that opportunity. I liked this finale as a whole, but I did find it slightly odd and out of character that Dexter would be desperate enough to kill Logan (at least he tried to talk him down first) and Angela. Though I guess, he did try to kill Laguerta in the original series but that was during the shittier seasons.Still, thematically, I agree with the review here, it’s better than having Dexter get away with his sins again and I do appreciate them not really casting Dexter as the hero he desperately wants to see himself as. Still though, when you compare this to how Breaking Bad held Walter White accountable and broke him down it’s easy to see how that show did it a lot better.
I think Dexter killed Logan so that we as the audience could see Dexter kill an innocent so that his ultimate fate goes down better with people who still see him as the hero. Basically, the writers didn’t trust the audience to come to that conclusion on our own.
I never saw Breaking Bad as holding him accountable. The finale has him shooting up nazis with a machine gun, rescuing Jessie, and dying with a smile on his face. It’s supposed to be ironic, certainly, but it’s still redemptive. The scene where he kidnaps his daughter gives a sense of just what a selfish monster he is, but the writers soft pedal it. That fits into the moral universe of the show, where Walter is bad but every season there’s someone worse to make him look like an antihero rather than a straight up monster.
“The finale has him shooting up nazis with a machine gun, rescuing Jessie, and dying with a smile on his face.”
How many episodes before the finale did you just…skip?
I think it’s a matter of BB’s endign redeeming Walter in some ways, but it’s still all Walter’s fault that everyone is in the situation they are in and none of them are necessarily better than they were just a few episodes prior. Skyler has leverage for a plea deal, but she’s still basically facing jail time; he’s no longer in his kids’ lives, etc. So it’s all still Walter trying to redeem himself for ultimately selfish reasons.it’s also telling we’re still comparing Dexter’s ending to Breaking Bad’s all these years later.
Not really! Everyone compares everything to Breaking Bad everywhere in the TV world. All TV drama & comedies with any sort of moral ambiguity are compared to Breaking Bad.
Ah good, Im glad someone else gets that. You only need to guage general opinion of the character to see that the show failed to condemn him.
If Walter were a bad person in the world of Breaking Bad, he would have been poisoned or melted in acid or hit by a car or shot face-down in a ditch or blown up, since that’s how the show deals with bad people. Or, if the writers had followed the story to its natural conclusion, he would have died a sad, lonely, anonymous death from cancer. Instead the writers have him die killing nazis, which is the noblest death you can ask for.
100%
Being held accountable isn’t a binary black and white thing. It’s not 100% or 0%. Ozymandias is absolutely holding him accountable making him suffer dearly for all of his sins throughout the series. He dies alone with a smile on his face. Okay, sure, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t held accountable. He’d prefer dying with Hank not dead and his family not in emotional ruin. And again, not binary, he redeems himself a bit but also acknowledges that he’s selfish and is to blame for everything that went wrong. That paints him as not a good person overall. The show didn’t backpedal on that and it’s why his admission is actually important. And lastly, someone being worse than Walt doesn’t mean he isn’t terrible himself. That doesn’t make sense and again, it’s showing that you’re being too binary about it. He’s still a monster by the end of the series, him killing worse people doesn’t make him not a monster.
“By having Doakes die in a fire, even after making it clear that Dexter was going there to kill him,”I might be remembering this wrong, but I could swear that Dexter was going to release Doakes and before he could, Lila had blown him up.
I think that’s correct, he was gonna release em.A much better person than I can rewatch it to make sure, cause I’m too lazy to go through and find it.
I binged season 2 over the holidays- Dexter had Doakes captured,
was going to turn himself in, but Deb unwittingly convinced him not to. Some
plot contrivance happened, where the cops were closing in on Doakes so Dexter
raced them to the cabin with his kill tools. It’s never explicitly said, but I
think at that moment, he had made the decision to kill Doakes. Fortunately Lila
ex machina’d the situation.Regarding Logan, it’s in-character for him. Even disregarding the Doakes example, he killed Robocop and more-or-less killed Laguerta. And that’s not even getting into the collateral damage deaths.
Wow, I didn’t remember that thing with Deb at all. Maybe I need to go back and rewatch, because a lot of what I based my views of the series and Dexter Morgan in general was based on that he was going to let Doakes go, either as unimpeachable framed or embracing the inevitable of Doakes/Miami PD arresting Dexter.
That’s how I remember it as well, Dexter was considering letting Doakes go. But if there was a scene of him collecting his kill equipment I completely forgot.
I could be wrong, but my hazy memory—wasn’t he also out to get Lila by that point in the season? Maybe that was the reason he was putting his tools together?
I doubt it, I don’t remember her doing anything code worthy before blowing Doakes up
I think she threatened Rita at some point didn’t she? Or Deb?I’m remembering a scene with “Beer Dispensing Nipples” line being used, was that after Doakes died?
Maybe, I watched the original run of Dexter once so there are going to be a lot of details like that I’m not going to remember. Originally I only remembered that Lila killed Doakes after Dexter was on the fence and my takeaway was that the writers never wanted to commit to Dexter doing the act.
Well, that and they couldn’t keep Rita around if Dexter hadn’t soured on Lila.
I don’t think Dexter planned to kill Doakes. At that time in season 2 his sense of the code and not killing the undeserving was strong. He considered giving himself up. He kidnapped him because he didn’t know what to do and was buying himself some time.
Two echoes of Kurt from Dexter this episode…when Angela is interrogating him he says “I’m worried about you”, like Kurt did in episode 7 and when Harrison shoots him he says “you did good”, as Caldwell said when he broke that other kid’s arm in the wrestling match. Both word for word repetitions. Probably more there that I missed initially, but I really hate their clumsy attempts to paint Dexter as being just like Kurt, it taints the entire story for me. He was never a “good guy” sure but he was always distinctly different from the people he hunted and this route of saying “nah, he’s exactly like them” doesn’t sit right with me.It also muddies the entire point of Harrison’s supposedly hopeful ending and renders Dexter’s death ultimately pointless in that light. This is in no way a satisfying ending for either character or the show as a whole.
Excellent observations, but these verbal echoes seem more subtle than clumsy. Maybe it’s just me, but I completely missed them.
The contrast is that Kurt was praising Harrison for causing harm to an innocent person, whereas Dexter was praising him for preventing any more innocent people from being harmed. I missed the repetition of these lines until you pointed it out, but I think they can still take on different meaning when used by Dexter vs. Kurt.
I also really liked that Harrison kept coming back to the number of lives Dexter’s killings saved, and Dexter was like “oh yeah, that too.”
I didn’t think it was worthy of an A, mainly because having Harrison kill Dexter doesn’t really solve anything. More that likely, Harrison is just going to continue the vicious cycle since he just killed a guy who deserved it (aka The Code). It would have been better had Angela capped Dexter at the end. And Dexter definitely deserved it after he killed Logan to escape—-he’s clearly not the man he used to be, because that Dexter was willing to turn himself and release Doakes in Season 2.That being said, it was still immeasurably better than the lumberjack finale, which still remains one of, if not the absolute worst, series finales ever. Overall, I enjoyed this little mini series which was head and shoulders above Season 8, and probably just behind Seasons 2, 1, 4 in quality.
I think the point established is that Harrison doesn’t HAVE a dark passenger, that is the serial killer’s need to kill. He has anger and dark thoughts which are natural given his situation but he is not a budding serial killer and will likely never kill again.
But then what was the point of the wrestling scene or his maiming of the would-be bomber?I don’t feel like that was resolved quite so well.
Pure misdirection. He’s an angry kid with some serious issues but Dexter was in another league.
“But then what was the point of the wrestling scene or his maiming of the would-be bomber?”
That he has anger and dark thoughts which are natural given his situation but he is not a budding serial killer and will likely never kill again.
Yeah: planning on – and thoroughly enjoying – slicing up that potential school shooter, and later, VERY willfully (and happily) breaking that wrestler’s arm…not to mention busting out his favorite slicing razor (with a smile) in that fight against those guys later on…sorry, that’s not “normal” teen unhappiness/angst.He may not have a fully formed “Dark Passenger”, but he is DEFINITELY on that path.
My thoughts exactly. Go back to that penultimate episode when Harrison was in the basement with Dexter killing Kurt. When the blood flows down from the table and toward his feet, he got flashback to his mother’s death and was freaked out by the whole thing.Either he’s quite disgusted by idea of killing or he correlated his father to the Trinity Killer as just another serial killer who’s nothing really special aside from killing a lot of people.Harrison is NOT his father, he seen firsthand account of what its like to kill AND how it affects other people around him. With death of Logan as direct result of Dexter, you can bet that Harrison wouldn’t want to be like his father.
I don’t disagree with this view, and I think it’s what the writers were getting at, though I still think they didn’t quite sell the idea. Like even as Kurt was rambling in a Dexter-esque rationale about why does things, Harrison didn’t seem to entirely pick up on that and still seemed basically on board with the idea. He was still on board with the idea even after seeing all the blood.There’s probably an argument that Dexter’s killing was for the greater good where Kurt was clearly just getting his rock’s off, and Harrison recognized such, but I think at least some semblance of doubt in Harrison could’ve been shown.
That’s a pretty fair argument. Harrison did seems to be quite back and forth between seeing his father’s reasons being valid and was not sure about whatever he want to be involved. Even so, he did wants to be with his father ever since he knows the how and why of Dexter’s history.That’s it, until he found out about Dexter’s killing Logan, which flies in the face of everything he learned about who and what Dexter is all this time. Killing an innocent, especially one who made Harrison feels like he belongs, made Harrison realizes that perhaps he’s wrong about everything and that he’s is not like Dexter at all. His anger and rage may not have stemmed from his mother’s murder, but by his father’s abandonment.
The writers didnt know wtf they were doing
Dexter literally has the same flashbacks in the original show.
There’s also a moment in the finale where Harrison is arguing with Dexter and he turns away from Dexter and says “shut up” as if he’s talking to someone else. Though I suppose he could have been talking to Dexter to me it read as if Harrison has his own Dark Passenger, so my take is that he does have the same dark urges, he’s just not actually a sociopath like Dexter so he feels, as well as simply knows, the desire is wrong/bad.
What’s the difference between having “dark thoughts” and having a “dark passenger”?
But but… He saw something crazy happen in a bathtub when he was 9 months old. That’s how serial killers are made!
To be fair, though, isn’t that basically the entire premise of why Dexter is the way he is? (seeing his mother brutally killed as a young child)
Very true. I had no issue with it happening to Dexter, since he was 3 years old and could process the event. Harrison was still learning object permanence and how to hold his head up.
When it was showing Harrison’s face aiming at Dexter and we heard a shot I half expected him to have a shocked face and we would see Angela shot Dexter first so Harrison didn’t have to. For most of the season I also expected a reveal that Harrison killed Annah and she didn’t really die of cancer.
Yeah there was a moment there when I thought maybe Angela even shot Harrison since he had the gun trained on Dexter. And yes, I also thought we’d learn Harrison killed Hannah. Oh well.
“More that likely, Harrison is just going to continue the vicious cycle since he just killed a guy who deserved it (aka The Code).”
It’s amazing how many people just don’t fucking get it…
I’m still wondering how Dexter was getting around so well after having been shot in the leg.
Season 2 – Dexter is self healing from gunshots, as established by the vanishing leg wound and is now alive again. 😂
When Harrison decided not to go, I was screaming at the TV “Dex, what’s your Plan B?!”
I enjoyed it. It was good to revisit Dexter and get a better ending. However, I don’t want to leave Iron Lake now, is this it? Can we have a show about Angela the small town sheriff chasing serial killers out of the woods or something?
Luckily they just got a new doctor, though he’s a little peculiar.
This review is what you get when you have a Dexter diehard write it. Sheesh
This ending felt right to me. I personally thought Angela was going to let Dexter go once she found evidence of Kurt’s crimes going into this episode but overall satisfied with how it played out. Only detail that felt off was Angela letting Harrison go so abruptly. She didn’t seem like a character prone to snap decisions like that. I would have liked a little more resolution with Bautista. Maybe in the inevitable HARRISON tv show, where I’m sure Dexter will come back as a mental ghost haunting his son. Maybe Harrison ends up going to Los Angeles and becomes an actor. Bautista writes a book about Dexter being the Bay Harbor Butcher and it gets turned into a movie. Harrison ends up playing his father as stunt casting, gets taken over by the role and becomes a real killer.
Isnt this kinda the plot of psycho 2
Not the movie version. Had to look it up but I guess it’s kind of the plot of the novel, which I never read.
Or at least Return to Cabin by the Lake
Scream 3
Seed of Chucky
I think having Dexter arrested would have been better. Having Harrison watch everything his dad did over the last couple of episodes really showed how Dexter’s life was sad and self-serving. As others have mentioned, having Harrison kill Dexter did not really end any sort of cycle of violence, if anything, it contradicted a lot of the revulsion and uncertainty Harrison had been showing up to that point. Maybe Dexter getting shot in the leg so he could not escape and him having one final full-psycho moment as Angela closes in on him would have been better.I will say it is pretty rare for these type of shows to end with prison and not death. Is prison too ordinary or is death, at least as an end to a series like this, more preferable to prison? Overall, I enjoyed this season. It had enough good moments to balance out weaker stuff and it way better then the previous final season.
I don’t mind that they killed Dexter—I just assumed that would happen due to knowing what Clive Phillips wanted the main series to end, originally, which was Dexter being executed.
I am kind of upset with *how* they killed Dexter. Because it was set up that he was finally going to be held accountable for his actions, but, instead, he got what he wanted. Harrison is now a killer, like him. He doesn’t have to face charges, or prison, or execution. He doesn’t have to actually face responsibility for all of the deaths he caused (though he seems to understand the weight of the innocent lives that were lost because of his actions at the very end).
Especially with the set up of Angel coming to New York, what I really wanted was for it to set up one more season. Harrison doesn’t go through with shooting Dexter, and, instead Angela pulls up and stops him. Dexter is arrested (again) and held more securely, and he has to face Angel—which would have really been a powerful moment, considering Angel considered Dexter his best friend AND saw his darkness at the very end when Dexter killed the guy who killed Deb, and Angel and Quinn just let him walk away. And he has to go back to Miami and face all of the people who mourned him when he faked his death—Masuka, and Cody, and Astor (and Harrison would be reunited with his now-adult siblings, who could be his legal guardians, which I still don’t get why that wasn’t an option before for him to end up in the Foster system?). And he does get put on trial for being the Bay Harbor Butcher—there would be enough evidence, especially if Quinn still had the photos from Season 5 from when he was having Dexter followed. Bring back a bunch of actors from the original series as witnesses, putting the story together.
And then do Phillips’ original ending idea. Dexter being executed, his victims in the witness booth. It would have felt so much more earned and justified and really broken the character down to brass tacks, and really held him to account.
CODY AND ASTER NEVER HAPPENED FONT YOU FARE BRING THEIR NAME UP OR A SCARY SERIAL KILLER WILL SCARE YOU
Haven’t read review yet, only just started *forcing myself to* watching. WAS excited (well, relatively) but the ending got spoiled for me (on this site last night, no less) so now I’m just clocking in. Morning Sam. Morning Ralph.Sorry yeah I’m in a bit of a pissy mood. Will reply to THIS with full thoughts after the fact. (and hey, maybe during! I know anybody gives a shit!)
So if Angela was going to take responsibility for shooting Dexter (she was calling in an officer-involved shooting), why did Harrison have to leave?
Maybe because Harrison was such a dumb kid that she knew he wouldn’t be able to keep any of this to himself?
Because she didn’t want him to be in the middle of the massive oncoming media circus – and because the town would turn on him after learning his father killed Coach Logan. Also, because he was a killer and she didn’t want him anywhere near her daughter.
So Dexter survived the boat fire? Must be a very good swimmer.
I always thought the end of the original show as good. Not the best ending of a series, but I think it was better than this one.It made absolute no sense that Angela would cover up Dexter’s murder. They made her character very serious and by the book type of person and then the last part of the show she does something completely out of character.
Let me preface this by saying that I am in the absolute smallest of minorities in that I loved the original Dexter ending. I get that some of the points were preposterous, but I do genuinely believe that for the story they were telling over the years it was a perfect ending for the character. As we come to realize through the 8 seasons, Dexter wasn’t a total psycho who was incapable of feeling. Dexter says this himself in the finale, in a line that I think is the most important in the entire series. “As much as I may have pretended otherwise, for so long, all I wanted was to be like other people. To feel what they felt. But now that I do, I just want it to stop.” He wasn’t an emotionless monster like Harry led him to believe, and I believe we’re supposed to at least feel as if he was led down a different path maybe Dexter’s urges could’ve been stopped. However, at the same time, as the show progressed, Dexter started killing outside of the Code in an effort to protect himself. Even if we supported him throughout the series, as we reach the finale, we’re supposed to realize that he truly has become a monster, in a way that he wasn’t before. He is irredeemable, even if we still sympathize with him. For me, that’s why the emotional beats of the finale work, even Dexter’s self imposed exile. It’s because this is a true punishment for him. He realizes that he is the problem and that all of the feelings of love that he claimed to never have actually do exist, but because of him he can’t have them. The punishment of finally having it all and realizing that you will ruin it is enough to eat him alive. Now, with all of that said, I think this finale is significantly worse. The first reason is because the “realization” Dexter comes to in the scene where Harrison gets him to realize how many innocent lives he’s ruined has already happened. It literally happens in the original finale. He chooses to live in exile because he knows he destroys every live he comes in touch with. What does him realizing it again do? It doesn’t add anything to the story of Dexter, it’s just making him come to the same conclusion he did once before. Secondly, what were they possibly going for by having Harrison kill him? The entire point of the final scene is that Harrison isn’t Dexter, he’s not a killer, he’s choosing to walk away. The best way to show this is to have him actually murder his father? As his father who loves him, your best option to save your son is to invite him to murder you? Not sure how that is supposed to make him any different. Finally, this season seemed to entirely forget who Dexter actually was. The Dexter of the earlier seasons wasn’t a total monster like he’s presented as here. He has some type of moral compass. He chooses Deb over Brian. He wasn’t going to kill Doakes. He’s obviously a psycho still, but one with layers and nuance. Here he’s just presented as an addict who will do anything to keep his high going. However, we saw in the original finale that this wasn’t the case. Truly think they dropped the ball with this
Such a good post
I have to admit, for all the shit I’ve talked about Batista, I actually wanted more Batista here. Ay Dios mio, Maria! NO!But I agree with the review. I’ll add that normalcy isn’t happening for Harrison, not after shooting his own father.Overall, it was a decent season that made up for the disastrous finale, but not for S5-S8 as whole. I’m glad I won’t have to watch this show anymore (yes, I do realize nobody made me), though I won’t be surprised if Showtime gives Harrison his own spinoff series.
Batista may have been one of the worst detectives ever, but c’mon, you had to be wanting to see him finally confront Dexter as the monster he is.Plus, you’d get to see Batista finally (probably) realize how stupid he’s been. 😉
Batista is by far the worst main character in the entire series, written like he’s a detective starring in really shitty Latin telenovela. I almost stopped watching when he said something along the lines of “maybe you got the wrong impression, but I’m a happily married man” when Angela called him.
That was pretty rough (the line to Angela). Angel is a terrible character but the actor is pretty fun to watch. The shit they had these actors do over the years, I swear..
I particularly hate what they did to LaGuerta and poor Lauren Velez, reducing her character to a completely 2 dimensional caricature of crazy lady nobody believes near the end of the series. She at least had some depth prior to that.
We didn’t even get to see Batista wear a hat this season.
Does Dexter actually love Harrison or is that the story he’s sold himself because he wants to believe he’s capable of love? Hall’s performance seemed to play around with both possibilities until that final letter, which seemed far too eager to answer the question.
Good point. And actually, this same narrative was used in his entire relationship with Rita in the original run. Did he ever really love her, or was it just his idea of wanting to be able to love somebody?Given how quickly he kicked her to the curb for Lila (until she became completely unhinged), I’m not sure he ever did love Rita.Dexter might have actually loved Lila for a brief period.
How about Lumen?
In real life, too!
“Love” might be the wrong word exactly, but there is some sort of connection he had with both Harrison, Rita (and her other children) and maybe Lumen and Hannah. Plus with Deb and Harry, if it wasn’t love, it’s probably the closest thing a sociopath could have.
This is a problem with the whole character of Dexter, and why the show couldn’t sustain itself. This whole is he or isn’t he a true sociopath gets played with constantly, but the writers never offer any answers.
It’s supposed to be real, but I think it would work better if he hadn’t had similar moments of realization, bonding, and/or connection with Bynie, Rita, Lila, Mos Def, Jimmy Smits, Lumen, Hannah, Deb, and probably others I’m forgetting. It’s a good moment if the show had done a better job of actually writing the pragmatic psychopath they constantly insisted on, but this time, for totally real, Dexter feels what feelings are, is a well they went to far too often for this to really play as the series capper they wanted it to.
I am more or less happy that this is the kind of ending that Dexter, both the person and series, deserved.All the things that Dexter have tried to hide are now out in the world for everyone to know, exactly the way I thought Season 8 should have gone down. Harrison confronting Dexter was emotionally charged for all the right reasons and that served a far better conclusion to Dexter’s arc as serial killer and as father. Harrison came to learn who exactly his father is and now that he (and in turn, we) knows, the series can finally concludes on its own accord.So… is it the best Dexter season ever? Nah, that still goes to Season 4 because of memorably insidious Trinity Killer plot. I say it is the best Dexter since Season 7 (for most part aside from that bad conclusion with Dexter getting away again with broken Deb in tow). The fact that this season actually washed away these horrible bad tastes from Season 8 is major accomplishment enough that I can suggest this series again to anyone interested.Nicely done, Clyde Phillips. This is indeed far better ending than one you envisioned long ago.
You know Clyde Phillips didn’t write the original ending, right? That was Scott Buck. All the way.
Oh no no no, I meant that Clyde Phillips had an original vision for the series’ ending before he left. He envisioned Dexter being caught by the police and ending the series with him on the execution table.And yeah, Scott Buck ruined what would have been a good ending by copping out on Dexter being alive and getting away.I am glad with the new ending, which helps the series coming to full circle. I think (and hope) that there wouldn’t be another season. Dexter’s story feels appropriately complete with Harrison and Angela and Bautista being free of traumas caused by the Bay Harbor Butcher.
“And yeah, Scott Buck ruined what would have been a good ending by copping out on Dexter being alive and getting away.”I’m not sure how much of this was “don’t blame me for the awful finale” hearsay, but I could’ve swore that somebody said that Showtime wouldn’t let them kill Dexter off at the end of the OG series because they wanted the option open to reboot/resume in the future.Still, they could’ve come to some better conclusion than “he heads to the Pacific Northwest to cut down trees and cry”.
If that’s the case, they shouldn’t have had Deb die.
Ah, gotcha.
The stuff with Harrison and Dexter was good. But everything involving Angela? Woof. Her doing the interview of somebody she was intimately involved with was going to be a major problem in court, and then her claiming she was the one who shot Dexter, but not with her service revolver but somehow with the rifle registered to him that everybody knew he had bought for his vanished son…I try not to nitpick shows like this, but that’s a LOT.
So… the oil tycoon in the first episodes was just what? A misdirection? A dropped plot?
Aslo while this ending wa better than the first, I’m kind of disappointed that Dexter ended things on his own terms. He never really had to face the social/legal consequences of his actions.
This was a very up an down season, but this episode may have been the best series finale I have ever seen, at least top 5. It’s not perfect, but I really, really liked it. Her character made a lot of dumb decisions to make the plot work, but I think Julia Jones did a fantastic job as the chief. Most of the cast was pretty good, actually. I’m glad they got it right on the second go-round.
Julia Jones’ Angela was singlehandedly smarter than the entire Miami police force, lol
She put it together a little too easily, no question, but I do think she had a legitimate advantage over Miami PD in that she knew “Jim” had run from Miami and faked his own death, which immediately raises suspicion. Then the coincidence of the similar murders/needle incidents in her own town and the podcast raising Molly’s conspiracy theories— she had more pieces to the puzzle than Miami Metro did, and it would have been easier to connect the dots.
The ideas were the great, but the execution felt rushed. And the fact that Dexter himself was in a rush to escape in those final scenes didn’t help matters. It was supposed to give it urgency, but it all just went too fast to land properly. Also, though I’ve appreciated Jack Alcott’s work throughout the season, the directing of the final scenes didn’t serve him well. The magnitude of killing your long-lost and yearned-for father was lost, especially with him immediately coming up with an explanation when Angela showed up and that little smirk as he was driving away. If the intent was for the audience to feel that he’s a bit of a psychopath, it worked; otherwise I’d have liked more nuance, more shock, more horror in his final moments onscreen. Still, a more satisfying ended than I imagined possible, given the conclusion of the original run.
I thought the ending was more appropriate than the last one we got (Dexter’s punishment is exiling himself from a family he barely cared about?), but this one still felt like they didn’t connect the rest of what went on in the season to the actual ending. Really the whole season had a bunch of loose plot points that never really went anywhere or felt like the writers couldn’t explicitly tie up so they had to make loose connections (i.e. Kurt knowing Dexter did it because general reasons, etc.). Echoing others in that the implications that Harrison is without a dark passenger through killing Dexter doesn’t scan at all.
I didn’t like new blood mostly because by the last episode they managed to rewind all the growth that Dexter had till season 8.He says he has never felt love in the last episode of new blood but considering what he says in the last episode of season 8 this is a contradiction.he said before iwanted to feel how others felt but now that i do i want it to stop.by S-8 he actually loved Hannah,his son,debra.Him killing that police officer was done very badly.Dexter had managed to avoid killing innocent atleast directly till s-8,and then they gave him such a bad death,a death like any random serial killer would have got. But the only reason the series existed was because this one was special, maybe better than others,maybe he had some good in him,.Now suddenly you say he likes killing, wants to enjoy with his son. And Harrison broke someone’s arm just becoz he wanted to be like his father wow. The only reason an innocent died was because he was there and certainly dexter didn’t want him there before. The gave him a death that any random serial killer would have deserved we all know the only reason the series existed because this one was special maybe he had some good in him. They should have just killed him in the storm. Now all the people that knew him closely will just hate him
I dont think Harrison’s going to become a future serial killer. Not everyone who has that “born in blood” shit automatically has to have that drive to kill-I think that was just something fucked up in Dexter, specifically.
I found this almost as unsatisfying as the Lumberjack finale tbh. As mentioned in the comments, the whole “Dexter saves Harrison from the trauma of a life of killing” is answered by Harrison having to kill his father? Like that isn’t just as traumatic? Bizarre.
They also wimped out on Dexter crossing the line. It would have been far more impactful and interesting if Dexter had killed Angela, not that her death would have been any more tragic than Logan’s but her character was closer to Dexter and her death would have had a far bigger impact emotionally on both Harrison and the viewers. Instead they went for the easy and lazy option and tried to add some gravitas to Logan’s death by having him “bond” with Harrison over a jacket and some takeaway food. It was pathetic.I can’t believe after 10 hours of this crap they didn’t even grant us a scene between Dexter and Batista. But that was just indicative of the whole season, a mess of lazy writing, short cuts and mediocrity.
Btw, what was the point of that oil tycoon from the first half of the season?
Going to have to respectfully disagree on most of what you said except the oil tycoon part. It’s like they just forgot he existed. Definitely bad writing on their part. Everything else I was fine with.
I feel like Oil Tycoon Guy was nothing more than a red herring in a meat suit, cranked out to imply somebody besides Kurt was the town serial killer.
“Like that isn’t just as traumatic?’
It’s almost as if the POINT is that having a parent killed when you are a child doesn’t automatically make you a serial killer.
I mean, for fuck’s sake, the entire existence of the show is predicated on his father NURTURING Dexter’s serial killer side. Do you genuinely think that Harry was a good parent who did a good thing in TRAINING HIS SON TO BE A SERIAL KILLER???
I always thought they’d tie the oil tycoon into Kurt’s little embalming room somehow…like maybe he was making trophies for that guy. But no, he was just pointless.
Given how much Angela looks like Deb, it would have been interesting if he had killed her and they actually called attention to the parallel of Deb dying because of him, and then Angela would have died DIRECTLY by his hand, and maybe it would have been something that made him finally realize what a monster he is.
Deb didn’t die because of Dexter. He turned the killer into police and decided he didn’t need to kill anymore. Meanwhile, the new season basically undid all of Dexter’s character development in the last 10 minutes.
Wait, you mean the oil tycoon never actually comes back?!?!(I…might catch up on the last two episodes if I can’t find anything else on.)
I think the oil tycoon’s part was just to add a bit of mystery, like he could’ve been the killer, until they predictably revealed it to be Kurt. But yeah, in hindsight it seems like a waste of time.
the oil tycoon LOL…that actor was the Wolf from Zero Dark Thirty, one of “those guy” character actors that Dexter has usually done well with, but here he was completely wasted other than (1) to prove Angela’s daughter’s bona fides as a rebellious but thoughtful teenager, and (2) to be a potential villain except they made little effort to conceal that Mr. Krabs was the bad guy.
In my head Season 8 never happened and Deb made the “other decision” in that shipping container at the end of Season7. I decided to give New Blood a chance and to do that I had to let Season8 exist again…only to be disappointed.
At the very least Dexter could have mumlbed “There can be only one” when he killed the Kurgan…er, Kurt.
I was decidedly NOT FINE with the killing off of yet “another black male character.” It was so unnecessary. Couldn’t Logan have lived with just a serious injury?Yes, much more impactful (and surprising) had he killed Angela and had Logan letting Harrison go at the end!
If the oil tycoon was a misdirect, it was pointless because that mystery was solved by like episode 3. My assumption was that either they intended for that potential thread to extend further and/or they were gonna do a thing where we find out he was that girl (Angela’s daughter) biological father.
Yeah, no. The Dexter writers have killed more than enough women to prove Dexter has gone bad. Pretty much all the people’s who’s deaths are proof Dexter has gone bad or done wrong are woman. Rita. LaGuerta. Deb. Molly even.
We don’t need more.
100% agreed. What a waste of energy and this cast.And yes, “killing one’s Dad” is always a healthy move.It was nice seeing Angel and Deb again but to what end? I agree, it would have been great to see Angel and Dexter meet. What an absolute fizzle and a waste of Clancy Brown.
I don’t think this was as bad as the original ending but I def agree with a lot of your points. The whole time I kept wondering why Dexter would ASK his son to kill him? Wouldn’t that mess Harrison up even more??? It would’ve been much more impactful to have Dexter corner Angela and have Harrison choose between her and him. Also, they shouldn’t have teased Batista if he wasn’t going to show up. And yes, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OIL BARON???
I read the last scene a bit differently. Dexter’s not trying to save Harrison from the trauma of a life of killing, necessarily; he’s trying to save him from the trauma of a life of having Dexter as a father. This is spelled out explicitly by both characters in their final scene together.
I don’t quite buy that Harrison would find it so easy to kill the father he’d spent his whole life searching for, but I see what they were going for and I don’t think they missed it by that much.
Fridging Angela just to add stakes to Dexter and Harrison’s final showdown would’ve been cheap and probably overkill. The show has never done a great job of committing to the “Dexter is devoid of empathy and human feeling” premise — he has more friends than I do over the course of the series, and he’s literally haunted by the ghost of the sister he sorta killed — so having him suddenly just chopping down his girlfriend without batting an eye doesn’t, really track. It’s kinda better if it’s just some innocent casual acquaintance who has him cornered, as it feels less manipulative and artificial.
I do think the season as a whole was pretty messy, though, and the finale works better in a vacuum than New Blood as a whole does. Harrison starts as an attempted murderer, then is Dexter’s accomplice, then has a strict moral code against hurting innocent people. Going so hard with him at the beginning seems like a mistake, and I think a simple “Harrison overlooks all the warning signs in his desperation to bond with his father until he can’t anymore” would’ve worked better. The show also goes out of its way to point out that up until this point, Dexter only killed bad people. Angela knows this, but as cop, she’s understandably not okay with it. But it seems out of character to then let Harrison go, I guess because the defenseless guy he killed was extra bad and also his dad? And the oil tycoon is a blatant red herring meant to divert suspicion from Kurt early on and served no other purpose. Very clumsy, I agree.
Agreed on all counts. This was an embarrassing and unsatisfying end by any measure. They claimed to want to redeem the series, but all they did with this new finale was insult the original series and spit in the face of the people who loved it.
That actually sounds better than I thought. My problem with Dexter started at the end of season 2, when Dexter stopped being the weirdo murderer and became the “hero” of the show. And more and more as the show went on he became framed as some sort of Batman figure.If this actually fixed that, showed him through the “true” lens instead of the fan lens that was needed to push the show to 8 seasons, I may watch the season. Dexter was never a “good” guy. The show forgot that and was the worse for it.
“I actually wanted more Batista”I’d trade the last like 3 or 4 seasons of Dexter for a Batista show.
Only if Quinn was not involved in any way.
That goes without saying.
I have to admit, for all the shit I’ve talked about Batista, I actually wanted more Batista here. It was less than ideal to tease that interrogation and not deliver it.Yea, that was a lame tie-in just for her to get almost no information other than someone else confirming her suspicions that Dexter is the BHB.
I thoroughly expected to see him in Iron Lake for something.
Horrible. Phillips decides on what coulda been an interesting conclusion and then bumbles and stumbles to concoct a season of narrative holes and finale hurried and inane. Too many to list but, Angela’s many actions of contradictions leaves her as a lazy writer’s plot device, used whenever needed to move the story. The arc of being Dex’s lover to his nemesis might have seemed like synergy to the writers of that of her living alongside Kurt, the serial killer she’s hunted for 25 years but it crumbles in inanness via the magic of google and allowing a podcaster to join the investigation..and waalaa she’s onto Dex like white on rice. But, the final episode really is the problem. Rushed and inept it triples down on the earlier appearance of titanium bolts, a mcguffin of anachronistic proportions, the ghost of Columbo showing up next to Deb would be warranted. So, Dex, medical examiner extraordinaire, who was aware of Matt’s accident and resulting injuries, didn’t think there might be bolts in his body, duh #1. Next, Kurt, having sniffed out Dex as Matt’s murderer, retrieves the mcguffin bolt from Matt’s ashes that somehow Dex didn’t notice in the pyre, and comes up with the plan to burn down Dex’s house, flushing him out to shoot him and plant the incriminating bolt in the resulting ashes (again, more bumbling from the writers attempt at synergy). Think, for a second, the implications if that plan *had* succeeded, duh #2, but it didn’t. Which leads to bolt related duh #3: Angela, of all people, looking down and discovering in 5 seconds the bolt, that a robust team of investigators on the scene for hours had not, but hey thanks for the watch, it was Dex’s father’s. Which leads to Dex’s arrest and the slapdash death of Logan without which the confrontation between Harrison and Dex cannot occur. Angela then silently pops up out of nowhere as if on a hovercraft, and tells Harrison you’re good and off he goes, with visions of Jessie Pinkman dancing in the writers’ heads. The effect is that Hall’s moving voice over of the letter, that would have been a “fitting” contradiction, is left hollow and merit less as is the whole conclusion, instead there is the summing question of the whole dumb affair: why after first reading it does Harrison come looking for Dex in the first damn place.
Glad I skipped this season and only followed the recaps. Dexter is outed to the world? OK? Everyone in the world that we knew and cared about is dead or not present, save Bautista it sounds like, so why do we care? It would be impactful if the characters that mattered were seen and had a reaction. Deb, LaGeurta, Rita, Quinn, Masuka, etc sound like they were dead or not around.
It is a shame they teased a face-to-face between Batista and Dexter and never showed it.
I’m disappointed they didn’t bring back John Lithgow as Harrison’s Dark Passenger. One of the best Big Bads in TV history and there was so much potential for him advising Harrison unseen while Deb advises Dexter unseen. I realize he wasn’t the focus of the season but Kurt Caldwell didn’t do much for me as the baddie.
Has this guy really always been this awful?
Yes?I’m reminded of people who thought we were supposed to root for Walt as Breaking Bad went along, when we’re supposed to be rooting for those around him to survive.Which is why that finale was such a release. He doesn’t survive, he takes down most everybody with him, and he gets an earful from the people who’s lives he ruined.
At first, I thought Dexter killing Logan was just a flash and it go back to him just sitting in the cell. I guess not.I was expecting Harrison to shoot Dexter in the leg so he couldn’t run off. Then we’d see him get arrested.
I just couldn’t disagree more. I wish it had ended with Dexter turning himself in, instead of turning his son into a murderer, and either showing a confrontation between a jailed Dex, and Angel, or setting it up so that we get that in a Season 2, as Dexter stands trial back in Miami. I would have liked to see the OG cast’s reactions to this. Although, I guess Dexter left so much death in his wake, there aren’t many left. Angel, Quinn, and Masuka. Anyway, I just didn’t care for this.
Absolutely agreed, so many wasted opportunities.
Well, I wouldn’t call it *entirely* definitive given the show runner has already said he has ideas for a new season and would “drop everything” to work on it if Showtime wants to (focusing on Harrison). But given I can’t imagine people watching Dexter without Dexter, I have to imagine MCH would become the “ghost” for Harrison. That wouldn’t eat too much into his schedule, but would at least keep him around.
This. MCH would have to be involved. Alcott seems like he might be able to eventually carry the series, but I’d imagine only a fraction of the viewers would show up to watch his nascent Harrison, no matter how good the writing it. MCH’s Dexter is the draw.The question then becomes if he’d be willing to AGAIN go back and do Dexter.
Your last point is the important one: with Dexter’s story compete, would he actually want to come back again? Plus, isn’t there a Six Feet Under reboot/follow up/something in the works? He might wind up being busy with that (I haven’t read whether the original cast is expected to be involved or not).
Fake News. Its going to be called Seven Feet Under.HAW HAW HAW
I had to take the whole series with a grain of salt and suspend disbelief. First off, Angela would have NOTHING to do with the investigation or the arrest of Dexter because she was boffing him. Recusal would be like obligatory. Any significant enforcement actions in this series including the arrest of Kurt would have been done after total complete discussion was conducted with the prosectuor so the thing with arresting Kurt and then releasing him really would not have happened. Again, Angela would be nowhere near the Kurt investigation because she was close to the victim. At a more basic level, small or medium sized police departments do conduct homicide investigations. The state police would be conducting the homicide investigation and with assistance from the FBI if it involved a serial killings or federal laws were also violated. Small town sheriffs primarily maintain order, traffic enforcement, code enforcement, misdemeanors and non-major felonies. They do not do homicides especially like first degree murder.
Fans seem to hate this finale as much as the original’s. They have similar IMDB ratings.
I think people’s view of the original Lumberjack disaster has softened over time, but I cannot for the life of me think that somebody who didn’t like the OG series finale would somehow think this one is WORSE.
Eh, I’m grading on a curve but I liked the finale. On a Finale
scale of 1-10 (1 being the previous Dexter, House, 13 Reasons Why; 10 being
Breaking Bad, Hannibal, Six Feet Under), I’d put it near a 7. The only wish I
had was making it more drawn out over several episodes, with Dexter being extradited
back to Miami, with Harrison in toe, him having to face his former
colleagues, maybe Rita’s kids, and then the episode largely following the same
format (instead of Logan, Dexter could kill Quinn which I think we all would agree
would be incredibly cathartic). Maybe
even ape it off of aforementioned Hannibal’s season 3 a bit, where the first half
would revolve around Kurt and Dexter getting arrested at the end, and the
second half dealing with the fallout.But that could never go down due to budget reasons/COVID/getting
cast members back for glorified cameos. But I think what we got was a pretty
decent substitute- Dexter is exposed and dies, which is what we were all
waiting on during the original show’s run. With respect, I think some people
here are expecting a little too much out of this show. Not counting Seasons 1,2
4 it was always a Bmovie-level crime pulp affair, a hair or two above American Horror Story.
There was never going to be a deep and hard hitting finale, because the show
itself was never deep and hard hitting. The characters were always one dimensional
dimwits, the plot always relied on contrivance, the story always required the MST3K
mantra.
The only ending that show (and Harrison) deserved was Dexter accepting responsibility for his actions, spilling everything (The Code, etc), and Batista hauling his ass back to Miami.
You know, if they actually wanted to make the statement they were trying to make about breaking the cycle.
I loved this finale. It was so great to finally see dexter get the karma he has had coming for so long. I love the character and rooted for him even through most of this episode, but he is a monster. I have to really credit the show for making that turn so beautiful in the confrontation with Harrison at the end. In that moment, they perfectly let Dexter’s actions show how truly horrible he is, how selfish he has been in refusing to ever answer for his sins. I thought Harrison being with his dad made so much sense and even seeing him as great. They perfectly set up how Harrison would instantly see the horror of his father once he realized he killed his coach, and the code’s gaps mean that he can be terrible. Even how dexter made his son shoot him, which, is his last selfish act he imposes on Harrison. I hated how Angela just sent him off, when Harrison is a kid and did the right thing. That was the only thing that bummed me out really. I wish Batista got to confront dexter, it would have been worth it to have him help angela interrogate Dexter – letting the old show have their justice in that way. It was awesome and loved this season. Glad they did it.
While the original ending of the Series was a mess. This “New Blood” ending was a mess too. Perhaps worse, as every “Fan” had put Dexter in the rearview mirror…Only to be disappointed again!If Miami Metro and the FBI could not figure out Dexter in 7 seasons….AGAIN there is no way a small time Sheriff (Angela) would tie Jim to Dexter, to Miami, to the Bay Harbor Butcher. ESPECIALLY if she had a Serial Killer living in her 2000 people town for 25 years killing over 30 women and she literally had no leads…but yeah, she instantly solves a crime form Miami 1000 miles away! Also, since she only saw “Jim” as a lover and sweet human being for 3 years before. in a weeks time she turns on him? Completely unbelievable.Also, HUGE production gaffaw! Dexter you used M99 in Miami. In Iron Lake, he used Ketamine. So no correlation? Just a needle mark? That is like saying, well in Los Angeles, a serial killer used to shoot people in the head…and here in Iron Lake, the killer also shot them in the head? Ridiculous attempt at tying them in!Why was Angel in even the finale? Waste! I think they wanted to show that Dexter finally learned what love was? However, Dexter already knew that, when he sent Harrison and Hannah way 10 years prior…and the letter explaining it! As an aside, does that not F-up your Son worse if you make him kill you? Kill yourself!So funny, how us Fans are angry all over again and they blew it!
👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻Perfectly said. What a drag.
I may have to stew on this more. The end itself, with Dexter letting Harrison kill him because Dexter himself would fit “The Code” is fine to me, it’s probably the best ending to his story I could come up with. But the steps to get him there weren’t great. Looking back, I’m not sure why Angela was so gung ho on catching him specifically. If this wasn’t the last episode of the season I’m sure the case she had built up against him wouldn’t have flown, if Kurt was able to walk away from DNA evidence. The titanium screw thing was super terrible, they had already determined that arson was the cause of the fire at Dexter’s house, and someone who had access to at least one of the screws mailed it to Angela. So obviously it wouldn’t be a smoking gun. Also, I think I need to listen to the contents of the letter Harrison got again. Depending on what Dexter had written, it might recontextualize Harrison’s whole reason for seeking him out. Dexter killing Logan was also a thing that was probably added just to make Dexter more irredeemable. After getting the cop out of not killing Doakes in S2, the show made a concerted effort to make sure that even as a serial killer, Dexter remained sympathetic by only killing other killers. Going back to an earlier point, if he simply gave up the info on Kurt and let the circumstantial evidence fall apart under scrutiny, he would have been home free to just bail. I guess you could argue he was concerned about Batista and the info LaGuerta had but still seemed sorta flimsy.Also, I don’t know where else I’d put this, but Dexter and Harrison’s final confrontation made me think that if Dexter had lived and went to prison they could have a similar dynamic to the father-son duo of the short-lived TV series “Prodigal Son,” as show I only caught a few episodes of because I was hanging out with a friend while they watched.
Yes!! I would have LOVED to watch a show that was a combination courtroom drama (with Dexter on trial) and Prodigal Son -type show (where Harrison visits Dexter in prison)! P.s. I miss Lou Diamond Phillips and Michael Sheen — they were great on Prodigal Son!
I think this was essentially the original planned ending with Debs swapped out for Harrison.
It was a little too predictable to be satisfying but a logical ending done well, in contrast to the logical ending done badly.
‘Debs’, aww, I miss those first few books. (Just the first few)
I assumed from the way that S8 ended and the fact that this was called the “series” finale that it would end with Dexter dying. I thought he might cause Harrison’s death directly or indirectly somehow prior and that he would have a true kill-or-be-killed showdown with Angela as Dexter the killer. I do have a hard time believing that Harrison could’ve just shot and killed him or anyone the way he did, especially after hearing him say how he wasn’t actually like his father upon realizing what Dexter really is. I definitely knew Harrison wasn’t going to flee with him but I don’t see how he really brings himself to pull the trigger (at least not without a lot more consternation and tears) and more likely just leaves Dexter to go alone. I have to say I was satisfied with the reboot overall. Some other random thoughts:There’s no way Dexter wouldn’t have thought to look for that that screw after the fire—especially given the context (it having survived a fire) and the trigger of the metal watch being sifted out (if it worked as foreshadowing for us, it sure as hell would’ve for him). More likely would’ve been him trying to plant it somehow after the fact to actually establish how he was being “framed.”
Echoing others’ questions/complaints about the pointless oil tycoon. I could’ve used a bit more build-up to the reveal of Kurt. It just led to so many, “come on on now” moments over too many episodes when the stakes were so high (like the way in which Dexter intervened with he and Molly that gave away that Dexter knew about him).
The Batista and Molly plots could’ve been much better. Molly was like a Riverdale character and the coincidental conference introduction of Batista was pretty bad. I like the device of the wheel marks and Ketamine leading Angela down a path to his real identity but it should’ve started there somehow, not validated some crazy idea. It might have even added more drama to her asking for his forensic help if she was investigating him vs. just having found his prior identity. If he’s coming back, I do think it was a let down to not have Batista and Dexter meet face-to-face somehow after it was dangled.
Also echoing others’ questions about Angela’s behavior. I can understand her racing out to the farm alone (it was in character) but the way that she let Harrison go was confusing. I think she would’ve either found a way to cover it up and let him stay to give him a better life or figured out more of a plan with him as she is the one who starts the clock by calling for support (while he’s still fricking still there). And then he’s driving by the police station in his father’s truck, which seemed all sorts of precarious (at some point after her call with Teddy wouldn’t they have put out an APB for Dexter, which would’ve probably included people paying attention to his truck rolling by)?“I Should Live In Salt” was a great ending (tonally and lyrically).
Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. Fit the season and better than the last.
As for the “A” grade, I think I’ll have to ignore these grades from now on. They just don’t make sense to me.
Bleh. It’s so boring ‘bad’ characters always need to face consequences… I really hoped Dexter would get away again, start somewhere fresh and then Dexter a reboot every 6/7 years or so.
Would have been the world’s awesomest trolling if the episode ended with Dexter faking his death and becoming a bearded lumberjack up north.
“Mock me for 8 years, huh? Well, take THIS!” — Clyde Phillips
I kind of wanted Dexter to not die so we could get a season of a Prodigal Son-like show where Dexter goes through a giant trial (with lots of courtroom drama) and Harrison can visit him in jail.
P.s. I miss Prodigal Son! Michael Sheen and Lou Diamond Phillips are treasures.
Supposedly the finale did ridiculously good ratings for Showtime, and did very, very well overall for its run. Given that, how on earth would they NOT try to create some kind of spinoff if you’re the program director for Showtime?Clyde Phillips says there are no plans to create “Harrison”, but I’m sorry, I can’t imagine that with the numbers New Blood drew that the head honchos hadn’t broached the idea weeks ago, and certainly now with the viewership numbers.
I don’t get how anyone could think that the titanium screws were the final nails in Dexter’s coffin. It could easily be argued that the first one was mailed to Angela by Kurt to cast suspicion on Dexter and that the second one was planted by Kurt when he was burning down Dexter’’s house, knowing it would be found in the aftermath and be seen as evidence against Dexter. So why would Dexter be so concerned about them?And I can’t remember, but Batista never had anything on Dexter as far as his killings are concerned, did he? The fact that he decided to disappear and start a new life isn’t necessarily a crime, so other than being awkward I don’t see why Dexter would be so freaked out about seeing Batista again—freaked out enough to attack a LEO and become an actual fugitive.
This ending was as bad or worse than the last one. It’s weird to see media reviews pretending it’s anything else. Dexter’s death was utterly predictable. Clyde Phillips has said for years it was how he wanted to end the show. Fans voted on the worst, most clichéd possible ending to New Blood on the reddit as the series was airing and they literally voted on the exact “Harrison kills Dexter” ending that we actually got. It’s like a bad joke. Even if we accept that Dexter “had to die”, which is arguable but obviously the vision Phillips had, this was a poor execution of that endpoint. The whole investigation by Angela revolving around absurd coincidences, circumstantial evidence, and a couple Google searches, was groan inducing. She couldn’t solve 30 murders in an 80 person town even after collecting DNA evidence that identified the killer. But a metal screw and a Google search and she’s solved the most notorious serial killer case in history beyond a shadow of a doubt? And let’s breeze past the fact that Dexter never used ketamine on his previous victims in the first place, he used an entirely different drug (M99). And neither drug was ever established by the investigation as being part of his M.O. Harrison’s sudden 180 degree turn was also unbelievable. He goes from Gung-ho murder vigilante to pulling a gun on his dad for trying to escape the law and then killing him without a second thought in the span of 60 seconds. How is the solution to this kid’s problems murdering his own father in cold blood? Not to mention the fact that Angela letting him go makes them both just as bad as Dexter, trashing the moral lesson that Clyde Phillips somehow thought he was presenting here. Harrison is a serial killer-killer, just like his father. Except worse, because Dex never hunted innocents the way his own victims did. And Angela is utterly compromised. By letting Harrison go she is now an accessory to murder. Why is Dexter killing monsters the most heinous act imaginable while Harrison doing it is good and just? Not to mention that ballistics and crime scene investigation in general will poke holes all through whatever story she concocts about the shooting. And let’s not ask how the hell she even found them out there. The series had been mostly enjoyable up until the finale. But that ending was unforgivable. Dexter now holds the record for most consecutive terrible series finales. Maybe when the 10-20 years later GoT revival comes, they’ll take heed from the failures of the last few years (GoT, Dexter x2, Veronica Mars, etc.) and make the bold, courageous choice to give the audience something it actually wants.