Manny Coto is surprised fans were shocked by the events in season 6

Jan 19, 2012 09:57 GMT  ·  By

Fans of Showtime's series “Dexter” had the surprise of their lifetime (and not necessarily the most pleasant either) as the sixth season drew to a close. Executive producer Manny Coto recently spoke to IGN about that particular storyline.

Like with all previous seasons, what happened in season 6 will not go without consequences – of the most life-altering kind, we're to assume.

However, many fans probably did not want to see the story of their favorite serial killer (Michael C. Hall) go down this path. To them, Coto has just one thing to say: it is what it is.

*Fans who have not seen the season 6 finale yet are encouraged not to read any further than this – major spoilers ahead.*

Season 6 ended with two shocking revelations: one, that Deb was in love with her adoptive brother Dexter and two, that Deb finally saw with her own eyes that Dexter was a serial killer, as she walked in on him during one of his ritual kills.

As expected, these two events will play an important part in the upcoming season, Coto tells IGN, though he can't detail yet in what way since writers will only start working on the new season on February 1.

However, he maintains that the controversial storyline of the love between siblings (because, so far, audiences have come to perceive the two as blood siblings) wasn't forced and was definitely not something they came up with for the shock factor.

“Somewhere along this season we began to reflect on Deb and her relationships. And the relationships she's had and how they've all ended in terrible ways. So it led us to question whether there was some underlying psychological bedrock to her choosing people who she was never able to have a successful life with,” Coto says, adding that the entire creative team “lives with” the characters.

“And because she is not a biological sibling to Dexter it occurred to us that maybe she might have some kind of feelings there for her brother. I mean, we know it happens,” the exec says.

“It occurred to us that she sees something in her brother that she's attracted to. Something dark. A reason why she continuously chooses the people who are not available to her. Who are dangerous. All I can say is that we got inside her head and that's where we came out,” he adds.

As for the chance that Dexter might reciprocate Deb's feelings somewhere down the line, Coto can't say for certain because, he claims, they haven't been talking about the next season yet.

He does say, though, that Deb's feelings might change, now that she's seen Dexter kill a man in cold blood – and it's rather unlikely that he can come up with a good excuse for that.

“We have talked about certain possibilities of where we could go though. Don't forget though that the very moment that Deb began to show her feelings she discovered he was a serial killer. So that's going to color her feelings,” Coto says.

In another recent interview, the executive producer also hinted that “Dexter” could make the transition to the big screen sometime in the future, presumably after the 2 seasons it's still supposed to shoot are up.