There's a long list of people out there complaining about the series finale of Dexter. My parents haven't even watched the last two episodes yet after being so disappointed in the final season.
And even though I knew it was going to disappoint me (I'd already read too many spoilers by that point and I was watching a couple of years after it ended anyway) I still watched the episode.
And I was just as upset as I thought I would be.
Though I would later be just as upset by the ending of The Sopranos despite having different feelings towards Dexter and Tony, I was frustrated by the lack of closure the show presented me with.
Why would Dexter leave his son with Hannah?
Why'd the writers suddenly kill off Debra (Dexter’s sister)? What’s the purpose of that?
What happens to Astor and Cody (Dexter’s step-kids)? In the books, apparently, they become serial killers as well—is that what’s going to happen?
These are just some of the questions I still ask myself about the final episode.
Dexter Morgan, a blood splatter analyst with Miami Metro Homicide by day and a serial killer who kills other serial killers (and other lawbreakers on the side) by night, spent eight seasons working to keep his Dark Passenger (that’s Dexter’s name for his murderous urges which manifest on screen physically as his deceased foster father) hidden from his family.
He’s usually not successful, but he does manage to evade the law.
Dexter wraps up with everyone’s favorite serial killer planning to run away to Argentina with his girlfriend Hannah, another serial killer, and his son Harrison.
However, Dexter has a change of heart and decides not to meet Hannah and his son in Argentina. Instead, he sinks his boat, which had been his way of disposing of his victims, after burying his sister at sea.
He then disappears from Miami and we, the audience, see him in Oregon as a depressed log truck driver.
And that’s where it ends.
Watch the video below to see what Mike Hale, a television critic with The New York Times had to say about the finale: