Dexter Season 8 Finale Review:
SPOILER ALERT: Watch the finale before reading, spoilers abound…
[rating=3]
Well folks, Dexter is officially over. So was the series finale ‘Remember The Monsters’ a satisfying conclusion to a season that has skidded off the rails, or does it end in the same haphazard fashion?
According to Dexter’s producers, the creators of the show envisioned their ending from the beginning. Perhaps that’s why it all felt a bit incongruous.
But to recap; Dexter’s plans to fly out of Miami with Hanna and Harrison got put on hold for several reasons. The incoming Hurricane, the fact that Elway was casing the airport, and the phone call Dexter got from Miami Metro that Deb was shot by Saxon.
Dexter’s dismay at his sister getting hurt for the one time he tried to play by the rules, ratcheted up his already consuming guilt.
Leaving Hannah and Harrison at a hotel, he went to Deb’s hospital room. In typical Dexter fashion, Deb was battered but not broken. After all she’s been shot before, she’s been attacked before, and she just seemed too contrary to ever die. But Dexter wasn’t there to save her like he used to.
“I screwed up your life,” he says. But she assuaged his guilt saying that she would see him soon; “Your life is waiting on you,” she said. “Now, leave.”
Dexter’s relief for his sister’s well-being was equaled by his fear Saxon would try to kill her again. So he set off to do what he should have done in the first place, and kill him once and for all.
Dexter also had the bright idea to send Hannah and Harrison on evacuation busses that were leaving the city (less stop signs). Assuming no one watches the news that would be a swell plan, but again we are in Dexter world, so why not? Why Hannah never dyed her hair or tried in any way to disguise her appearance is one of life’s great mysteries, or just negligent storytelling.
But I digress; on the bus, she gets cornered by Elway, who plans on hauling her back in. But Hannah, just as quick with a syringe as her boyfriend, dispatches him with a horse tranquilizer.
Dexter tracks Saxon back to the hospital. But before he can stop him, Angel pulls a gun and takes him into custody.
His blood lust still not satisfied, Dexter goes to check on Deb. And the news is not good. Her injuries were worse than anticipated and she is brain-dead. Quinn bursts into tears, clinging to any sense of hope. The Dr says ‘it would take a miracle.’ But Dexter’s sad, slack expression lets us know that there’s no happy ending this time; ‘I don’t believe in miracles’ (and a nod to his failed quest for spirituality in Season 6.)
Michael C. Hall does some of his finest acting in this episode. Dexter is a sociopath, and will always have trouble with being in touch with his emotions. So while he never has a big crying fit, his face has grief written all over it. And the flashbacks to him and Deb during happier times (the birth of Harrison) show the sweeter side of both characters. It also showed how her life had declined once she learned the truth of her brother. In a way, she’d been dying a slow death ever since.
So how can he avenge his sister while Saxon is in police custody? As only Dexter can; he goes to visit him under the auspices of doing police work. When Dexter confronts Saxon, he’s just as angry with himself for Deb’s condition; “I wish I could blame you for everything but it’s my fault, I should have walked away. You forced me to look at myself.”
Saxon grins with wide-eyed lunacy; “What did you see?”
Dexter says flatly; “I see a trail of blood and body parts. Now I’m here to kill you with this pen.”
But he gives Saxon easy access to the writing instrument and he stabs Dexter in the shoulder, from which he promptly removes it and kills Saxon by stabbing him in the neck. Self defense!
Or at least that’s how it looks on the security cameras. And it’s enough for Angel and Quinn to look the other way. Not exactly due process…but this is Miami Metro!
But Dexter still must contend with the enemy within; “I wanted to be like other people, to see what they see, what they felt, but now I do, I just want it to stop.”
Dexter then makes his last kill of the series, but there’s no pleasure in it. He turns off Deb’s life support.
And somehow he’s able to take her body out of the hospital and onto his boat with no one watching (I get that everyone else is distracted by the hurricane, but that’s pushing it).
He calls Hannah, who has managed to leave the country with Harrison. He tells her he’ll be joining them soon and tells Harrison “I want to tell you one last time I love you, Remember that daddy loves you.”
He then tosses the phone into the ocean, sinks Debs body shortly afterwards, and takes his boat straight towards the hurricane: “ I destroy the people I love. I can’t let that happen to Harrison or Hannah.”
Cut to a montage of news reports discussing the hurricane wreckage. Parts of his boat were recovered, but no Dexter. Hannah reads the news on her iPad and fights back a tear. Now she’s stuck making sure Harrison stays away from treadmills the rest of his life. Thanks a lot Dex!
And fade to black. But then…in the very last scene we see a bearded Dexter working in a lumber yard. Somehow he pulled a Dark Knight Rises and cheated certain death.
In the last shot, he sits at a table, looking straight into the camera. His wearied expression a mix of despair, anger, self-pity, and perhaps, the gnawing need to kill again? But there’s no closing voiceover. Dexter is beyond words to express himself. He is a shell of his former self, one that was never fully functioning to begin with.
As far as finales go, it wasn’t bad, but not great either. It felt unfinished. It never gave Miami Metro a chance to know a monster was in their midst. In many ways I would have liked if Season 8 started like it ended, and had Dexter on the run and going town to town like a psychopathic Incredible Hulk. But the tone and feel were interesting. There were no subplots with Masuka’s daughter or other distractions. It was certainly the darkest episode since Rita’s death in Season 4.
But flawed as it may be, it was sad to say goodbye to the Dexter family. In truth, the series peaked with the fourth season Trinity Killer storyline, but it was the characters who kept it vibrant, and Hall’s performance remains a revelation. And Carpenter managed to give Deb a more varied performance this season, making her death all the more tragic.
I would also like to think that any talk of a spinoff of the series, was clear misdirection planted by someone on the staff, making her death even more shocking.
Perhaps we’ll get a Dexter movie or a mini-series one of these days, but until then, this is it! Were you happy with the series finale? Pissed? In between? Tell me your thoughts on ‘Remember The Monsters’ in the comments.