The Dexter Season Finale – A conversation between Cynics

Now that the fourth season is over, and hopefully anyone who’s interested in the show has seen it (I know it took me an extra day to get around to it), we finally decided to have a little classic Steve & Brian analysis, the kind of chat that was the inspiration for this whole “Film Cynics” project. Let this be a warning that this little email chat is riddled with SPOILERS for anyone who is still saving it for later watching.

On 2009-12-15, at 3:10 PM, Steve wrote:

K, so the season finale of Dexter kind of threw me for a loop. I managed to dodge all spoilers so I could go into it clean, and that totally improved my enjoyment of the episode. Even the title “The Getaway” had me squirming to figure out who it was referring to. Would Dexter have to flee? Would Trinity slip through his fingers yet again? The ending completely caught me off guard too, but at the same time, I kinda saw it coming as that part of Dexter’s life had pretty much played itself out in as interesting a way as it could.

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 3:17 PM, brian wrote:

I was like you. I keep clear all of talk of Dexter until I have seen it, so I was pleasantly surprised by the end. I assumed it was going to be another classic Dexter ending, where he chases the bad guy around for an hour, narrowly escaping capture and then at the end, he slices him up per usual. It wasn’t until he got home and got the phone message from Rita that she had to miss the flight that my heart skipped a beat. I actually said “holy fuck” out loud to no one. A lot of people hated the Rita character, I am not one of them. I liked how she balanced Dexter out, but having said that, I also love it when shows off main characters.

On 2009-12-15, at 3:26 PM, Steve wrote:

You know what? When she said that she knew Dexter better than he knew himself – that was when I knew she had to die. They were never going to be closer as a family than they were then, and it was clear that she was never going to get any closer to figuring out who he really was. It was clear that she had stopped evolving beyond anything more than an impediment to his murderousness – she had to go. Regardless, it was sad for Dexter though – the guy totally thought he’d turned a page.
 
What about Debra making the big revelation about Dexter’s true identity but still failing to put the pieces together? And what about Angel and his stupid subplot that never really went anywhere? What a total waste of such a great character.

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 4:17 PM, brian wrote:

I always felt bad for Rita. She was so clueless and in the dark that I am glad that she will never know who the real Dexter is and have to have that regret of not knowing she was living with a serial killer.
I doubt that Deb will make any connection to Dexter being a serial killer, at least not right away. Thats maybe how they are planning on ending the series, but there is no reason to suspect him of anything, since he is so meticulous. She is also a slow learner who was engaged to a serial killer, so she won’t want to accept it even if she does figure it out.
As for the waste of time that was the Batista/LaGuerta love story, ugh. I don’t know what the point of this was. I assume that the writers felt that this was an ensemble show, so they could give these characters other things to do other than chase bad guys. Wrong. Its a show about Dexter, plain and simple. I don’t give a fuck what they do in there private lives as long as they are trying to catch the wrong bad guy and possibly Dexter, that’s all I need.
How did you feel about John Lithgow as the villain? did you wish that maybe Dexter didn’t off him? so he could come back? or was that the right choice?

On 2009-12-15, at 5:22 PM, Steve wrote:

I think that the structure of each season – a complex relationship between Dexter and his nemesis followed by a bloody confrontation at the end, provides the right amount of closure at the end of each season to feel that you’ve come away having accomplished something. I’m not big on cliffhangers – given the amount of time between seasons they’re ineffective (Sons of Anarchy is a good example of this, I doubt I’ll be caring with the intensity they’re hoping for by the time season 3 starts.)
 
Lithgow was definitely a worthy adversary for Dexter, but he was so totally unlikeable that I wouldn’t want to keep him around. You can have a guy killing people off and still think he’s an interesting character, but when they start sharing his twisted homelife and the way he abuses his wife and children, you just don’t want to give him any more attention.
 
So what’s up for next season? Dexter, single father? Terrible! Maybe Angel and LaGuerta can adopt Rita’s kids? Never! Maybe Deb will finally settle down with a new man? Unlikely! Perhaps Dexter will finally kill Quinn? Been done!

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 6:28 PM, brian wrote:

I was very excited to see Lithgow as a villain in this season. It was a great choice and he did a great job. And like most fans of Dexter I would be very disappointed if he didn’t get his man. As for next season? who knows. I am assuming it will be a Dexter as a single dad story, with obvious help from Deb as she gets cast into the role of surrogate mother. I don’t know how exciting its going to be and hopefully they pull the plug on this show soon, before it jumps the shark and gets really stupid. That said, I am looking forward to it and to see what other serial killer he crosses  paths with. Hopefully its a female. That would be great.

‘Nuff said, Brian. ‘Nuff said.