14 DAY TRIAL // After 8 long years, fans and critics had to say goodbye to Miami’s blood spatter analyst / serial killer Dexter Morgan on the series finale of “Dexter.” However, far from offering satisfying closure, the final episode, “Remember the Monsters?,” only managed to infuriate.
Fans and critics are now venting their frustrations online, some of them even half-jokingly (we hope) threatening writers with a Dexter-style death if they don’t come up with something to make up for the messy ending.
Because messy it was, and not only in the sense that it felt rushed, crammed with all possible details that would, in theory, tie up all loose ends.
The ending was messy because it didn’t stick, it didn’t feel believable.
*Those who have not seen season 8 / series finale, are encouraged not to read any further, because major spoilers are included.*
It made sense to kill off one major character (at least), even if was painful to see Deb was it. However, it didn’t make sense for Dexter to steal her body from the hospital and dump it in the ocean, when she had died what could have seemed a very natural death.
Having finally become human, Dexter should have realized that Deb might have wanted a proper funeral. You know, and a grave where Quinn could go mourn his loss.
It also didn’t make sense to cut down on production costs and have our favorite serial killer of all times ride off, apparently to die, in a very poorly made GCI storm.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, it also didn’t make sense to transform Dexter into a lumberjack and never really address the big question of what he’s doing with his life these days. Is he still a killer or has he managed to control his urges by channeling them on poor defenseless trees?
These are just some of fans and critics’ biggest gripes with the ending. There is also the one where Dexter deserved to be punished because (obviously!) he had evaded the long arm of the law for far too long but, in the end, this is a matter of taste.
Some fans believe that he got what he deserved (loneliness and self-imposed exile, a punishment more severe than death) but others stress that there was no bigger lesson to be learned from the way his journey ended.
Regardless of that last aspect, the way writers handled the events in the last episode left a lot to be desired. Without citing every angry fan and every disappointed critic out there, suffice it to say that “Dexter” ended on a very disappointing (“lame”) note: a very bad ending for a show that once was so incredibly promising.
Dexter Morgan deserved better.
Do you agree?