Tsach Gilboa explores humanity’s “dark passenger” through the lens of the Dexter series finale.
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As the final credits for Dexter’s last episode “Remember the Monsters?” rolled, I found it hard to remember why I loved the “monster” so much. The finale presented us with a banal ending to an extraordinary series and character that made us question accepted clichés of humanity, morality, right & wrong, good & evil and karma.
A few reactions by devoted fans of the show to the Finale
“I was hooked on Dexter from the first season onward…and it now ends, and I feel I’ve been swindled, tricked into it. A sort of frustration I can only pair up to what it would be like if your parents say they’ll give you an Xbox for Xmas, but when you get there you open the present and realize you’re only getting a pair of socks. Like a cold, relieving hand job a nurse gives to an old paralyzed patient as palliative care.”
“SPOILERS to follow: No, Dexter didn’t die. No, Dexter was not caught. No, Hanna didn’t die. No, Deb didn’t kill Dexter. Instead, Debra died.. (read… killed by Dexter) And our dear Dex became lumberjack…. Reaalllllllyyyy??? Were the writers watching first of the X-men while deciding the fate of Dexter?”
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeSpoiler Alert – This was the most unrealistic and disappointing finale of anything I’ve ever seen. 1. The fact that Hannah McKay didn’t even bother to DYE HER HAIR at least to get through the airport makes no sense. 2. How does she even have custody of Harrison? 3. So you’re telling me that A US MARSHALL hasn’t seen the news about a murderer on the loose??? 4. WHY IS DEB DEAD? 5. Amidst all the commotion of the hurricane, NOBODY saw Dexter take Deb’s body? Nobody wondered where the hell it went when the storm was through? 6. Who the HELL thought of the last scene and why does it exist? Are we supposed to find some comfort in Hannah thinking Dexter is dead and Dexter being a lumberjack?
Let’s be very clear, Dexter is cool. For the uninitiated, the TV show centers around a serial killer who only kills other serial killers, while adhering to a strict code of conduct designed to ensure he only kills the clearly guilty and deserving, while avoiding getting caught at all costs.
Dexter is definitely an acquired taste and quickly accumulated a devoted following. I was hooked from the opening sequence where Dexter elevates his morning routine to an art with raw animal magnetism, savoring his fried breakfast meat, smothering his eggs in blood red hot sauce, which then dissolves into his own blood from a shaving cut, forcing his head through a white T-shirt… I recently rediscovered Dexter (thanks to the magic of Netflix), binge watched it from the beginning again with my son, and found it even better and more satisfying, mostly.
What is it about abhorrent behavior, accidents and disasters that fascinates us so much? Why are we so captivated with people who commit horrible crimes? People who are clearly light years away from accepted “normal” behavior? It must touch a part of us buried deep in our lizard brain. An essential mechanism from times of kill or be killed and eaten, dominate, destroy and spread your seed, or parish.
That primal animal part is still there– fortunately mostly in our deep private thoughts and subconscious fantasies–and accounts for our fascination with events, news, books, shows and movies that explore crimes, disasters and atrocities.
Most fascinating about Dexter Morgan is the clear duality within him. He is a cold serial killer with no conscience or ability to feel emotions (a nature vs. nurture debate the show only partially explains by his childhood trauma of witnessing the brutal murder of his mother), who learned to compensate by faking a wide range of emotions and as a result became more human than most, including thriving in relationships and a cliché marriage to the lovely Rita (Julie Benz), with kids. Dexter is also aided by the fact that those around him, and our culture in general, do not delve too deeply into anything, thus making it easy for him to get away with almost everything.
The brilliance of the show was the pairing of Dexter with worthy adversaries played by great actors to perfection including John Lithgow (The Trinity Killer) , Jimmy Smits (Miguel Prado) Christian Camargo (The Ice Truck Killer), Edward James Olmos (Prof. James Gellar), Erik King (Doakes) as well as a great supporting cast. They are all unique and help Dexter deal with deeper and deeper issues as well as give us further insight into his psyche and “dark passenger” (Dexter’s name for his compulsion to kill).
The great disappointment of the finale is clearly the decision of the writers to end a show that excelled in the extraordinary and unique on a mundane and mediocre note, which could not even be saved by the brilliant Hanna McKay character, a killer herself and perfect match and mate for Dexter, played beautifully by Yvonne Strahovski. This is a show that explored humanity and the extremes we are capable of. A show that did not follow accepted norms of good and evil, right and wrong, morality and meaning and forced us to think and debate these issues as well as why we like Dexter so much in spite of his nature and actions. An ending where Dexter mercy kills his sister and goes on a self imposed exile as a lumberjack to exist in a basic, dismal and lonely life away from it all just does not cut it. It represents the easy, common and accepted way out and does great disservice to the exceptional and brave choices of the show we’ve come to expect.
While thinking about possible ending worthy of the series I could think of two:
- Dexter gets away, joins Hanna and Harrison in Argentina and lives happily ever after
- Dexter gets caught, tried and found guilty and executed.
Option one is satisfying since we like him so much and after all it is a fictional TV show, where fantasy and creative license are permitted if not highly recommended. Option two will satisfy our need to believe that every crime ends with punishment although we know that is not the way it works in real life, mostly.
Sartre, the French philosopher, writes that “an individual person, or being-for-itself, can become cognizant of his own existence only when he sees himself being perceived by another being-for-itself.”
Maybe our fascination with Dexter and his representation of crossing the lines of accepted human behavior and thriving, is our perception of our inability and unwillingness to act upon it and rightly so. Clearly, an exploration through the medium on TV is a safe and healthy release that does no harm while elevating our humanity and ability to contribute to and live in a civilized society.
Photo: Jeremy Headington /Flicker
Photo2: Adrian Vera/Flicker
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Regardless of the Finale the show is worth watching and still one of the best TV shows in a very long time. The written is great, acting superb, great balance between the serial killer side of Dexter and the average Joe facade of Dexter with great supporting characters for both. I highly recommend is and Netflix makes it easy to watch as many back to back episodes as you want or need.
Enjoy
I only watched the first couple seasons.
I was thinking: maybe a vivid dream in which Dexter wakes up on his own table and kills himself, then wakes up on the plane next to Hannah and Harrison, on their way to Argentina.
I fell behind on the show- now I want to catch up and see the finale.
I actually LOVED how they ended the series!! In the last season especially, they really went into the deeper layers of whether Dexter was truly a sociopath or not… as illustrated beautifully in the psychologists cognitive dissonance when hearing that he truly loved the significant others in his life. She couldn’t get her brain around it, because she needed to believe she had done the right thing in teaching Harry (and Dexter) the “code” (essentially: grooming him to be “evolutionary perfection” or whatever she tried to convince herself of) — so the question was, WHO was the sociopath…? Dexter or… Read more »
The ending would have been best if they left it as it was before they tacked on the extra lumberjack scene. Dexter sails into the hurricane and is put down by nature.