How Dexter Should Have Ended

At the end of season 4.

But let's not be snarky.

I mean you can't spell finale without fail.

(Sorry. My bad.)

Damnit, you spend 8 seasons watching a show, you want a little something of a reward in the finale!

But it's like the writers took it to a kill room, hacked away at it with a spoon, and hoped it would just bleed out. Because there's no way Dexter abandons his child and the love of his life to sail into a hurricane and become a fucking lumberjack.

That would be amazingly awful, right?

See for yourself.

Let's let bygones be bygones. We're at the end of Season 8. The link above IS what happened, but here's what SHOULD have happened.

[Although let's understand that while Dexter was an anti-hero, he was more hero than anti. Ok? And we're not going have him narrating from the dead, as some showrunners have suggested. No need to get that deep and metaphysical, especially within the context of this season's train wreck. Masuka's long lost daughter says what?]

So let's pick it up as Saxon enters Deb's floor...

FADE IN:

Saxon looks up what room Deb's in.

Cut to Dexter walking into the hospital. Understanding the distraction at play, he rushes to Deb's floor.

Cut to Saxon opening the door to Deb's room. Deb sees him.

DEB: What the fuck, motherfucker?

SAXON: Your brother should have taken the deal. You're going to pay for his mistake.

DEB: Fuck you, asshole!

Saxon approaches her bed, he wields a knife, but Dexter opens the door.

DEXTER: Saxon!

Saxon turns around, quickly puts the knife to Deb's throat.

SAXON: I thought you were on an airplane with your girlfriend. And your son.

DEXTER: No, I decided I had one more thing to finish.

SAXON: I see. You know how this finishes, right?

Saxon presses the knife into Deb's throat, we see a drop of blood.

DEXTER: I do. With you dying. Right here, right now.

SAXON: How do you figure?

DEXTER: I'm a monster. And I remember where all the monsters are.

Dexter raises his hands. They are empty. Saxon is confused and stares at Dexter's empty hands. We see Deb's eyes following the hands as well, only she's looking at the shadow of the hands near the wall where there is an instrument tray. The shadow falls over the scissors. She grabs the scissors and stabs Saxon in the groin. He doubles over, but he's pulled the blade. Deb is bleeding. Dexter is wrestling Saxon for the knife. Fighting, wrestling, eventually the knife slides into Saxon. Saxon dies.

Dexter turns his attention to Deb. He quickly bandages her neck.

DEXTER: Ok, I think this will work. I'm not especially good at keeping blood in people.

DEB: Maybe you should learn.

Beat.

DEXTER: You need to hold this. Don't let go. If you let go, you'll die.

DEB: No shit. But I can let go of you, motherfucker. Go!

Dexter hits the alarm in Deb's room. He looks at Deb. Deb nods, waves. Dressed as an orderly, Dexter wheels Saxon's body through the chaos. Doctors pass him on their way to Deb's room. Dexter makes it outside, sheds the uniform, loads Saxon's body onto his boat, takes off to the storm.

We see Dexter on his boat finishing up the bagging of Saxon.

(Dexter calls Hannah, talks to Harrison. Same dialogue.)

Dexter tosses the phone into the ocean. He lifts Saxon and places him on the edge of his boat.

DEXTER (VO): All my life I never felt human, never thought I would know how to feel human. But now that I do, I just want it to stop. I am a monster.

Dexter throws Saxon off the boat.

DEXTER (VO): I destroy everyone I love. I can't let that happen to Hannah, to Harrison. I have to protect them from me, and who I am.

He sails off into the storm.

(And we keep going as they find Dexter's boat, the news, people reacting to Dexter's death, etc, but we cut out the part about Hannah seeing the news on her iPad (seriously?), and pick it up right after - as she talks to Harrison.

HANNAH: C'mon, Harrison. Let's go get some ice cream.

She walks off into the crowd with Harrison.

Cut to Hannah and Harrison (with melted ice cream on his clothes) as they walk into their house. It's modest, but airy and it's near water. We also see and hear neighborhood children playing.

HARRISON: When's Daddy going to get here?

HANNAH: I'm not sure, honey. Soon.

We hear a car pull up. We see the familiar outfit of Dexter getting out of the car, carrying a black bag, walking.

HARRISON: Daddy!

In walks Dexter. He's alive. He kisses Hannah, scoops up Harrison.

DEXTER: Hi buddy!

Dexter is wearing his kill clothes. There's blood on his sleeve. Hannah notices.

HANNAH: What happened?

Dexter looks at the blood, then up at Hannah.

DEXTER: Nothing, just a fender bender. Some guy hit a pedestrian. But he's going to make it. We got there right in time.

Dexter puts his bag down. His ID badge flops out. He's a paramedic in Mar Del Plata.

DEXTER VO: No matter who I am, blood will always be an attraction for me.

DEXTER: Come on, let's go outside. I saw Marco is back. He brought back some...

The voices trail off as they go outside. The camera stays inside, but watches Dexter's family.

DEXTER VO: Maybe it was Deb. Maybe it was Vogel. Maybe it was Saxon. But my dark passenger is gone. I feel free. I feel human.

FADE OUT.


Ok, I'm not saying it's perfect - it's a little puppies and rainbows - but I think it echoes a familiar sentiment.