Dexter

[jmt225]

Living in a state where more tax dollars get spent on the prison system over education, I am a huge believer in Capital Punishment, so Dexter's method of killing serial killers who slipped through the cracks made it very easy for me to root for him.

That lifestyle will lead to a casualty or two; that's understandable and even to an extent, forgivable (especially when the two main casualties were lonely, miserable fucks). However, choosing his "urge" to kill over the safety of his family at times, that's where you really have to shake your head at Dexter and why the ending would have been perfect if the show actually got there in a more reasonable and exciting way.

 

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

When I was watching it, that was what I was hoping for. Upon reflection though, exile is a far worse punishment and fits in better with the story that was being told.

Why do people think it's worse for a person with arguably no real emotions having free range to start a new life consequence free is worse than death?

 

[Loveless]

Why do people think it's worse for a person with arguably no real emotions having free range to start a new life consequence free is worse than death?

Did it look like he had no emotion or felt consequence free at the end? He was broken.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I don't think Dexter is a good guy, but I don't feel the great urge for him to get his 'comeuppance' that so many others do.

I don't think that he deserves to get his comeuppance but he does not deserve to live happily ever after either. That is why I think the ending is perfect. He gets to live, after all, just not on his own terms.

Why do people think it's worse for a person with arguably no real emotions having free range to start a new life consequence free is worse than death?

Who says he has no emotions? I think he says at one point in the finale that all he wanted was to be human and now that he is, he wants it to stop.

EDIT: What I am hating is the bullshit cop-out by Scott Buck. People who have read his interview would know. He says that the ending is "open to interpretation". That's bullshit, to be honest. He knows what exactly the ending is and most others do. He just does not want to piss of those who don't like it. Man up, Scotty.

 

[HBK-aholic]

I'm personally anti-death penalty anyway, so that kind of explains where I stand regarding his punishment and his actions.
It's OK to like Dexter, but ultimately that doesn't mean he gets a pass. Any civilized society has to condemn him and admit that what he does is simply not acceptable. Just because it's better than killing random people doesn't make it OK, he has to be punished.
If you need evidence, you really only need to look at the devastation he causes to everyone around him. The victims of Dexter aren't restricted solely to the people who end up on his table.

Dead
Rita, Debra, Doakes, Laguerta, Cassie, Vogel, Lundy

Orphaned
Astor, Cody, Harrison

Also, the family of every person he's killed and a handful of "innocent" people.

But which of those is he directly responsible for, of the non-murderers that were killed? We can't be held accountable for what someone else might do because of us. I also don't give a shit about the family of murderers.

You have me on the 'innocent' he killed, though. For that, he should be punished; and it shows that while the law may not be perfect - far from it - it shouldn't be taken into your own hands.

I don't understand some of Dexter's decisions, but ultimately this was a 3 year old who watched his mother be killed, sat in a pool of her blood, and never got the psychological care he needed - and so existed on what his adoptive father taught him.

As for whether he should get a 'pass' - I agree that in a civilized society, we can't say it's okay to kill people if they fit the code and would have to prosecute should the evidence ever be there. But personally and morally, I think there are people who don't deserve to live. People who the system allow out for stupid reasons. In that scenario, while I know it shouldn't be legal to do so, I don't think I'd waste too much time trying to take someone like Dexter off of the streets.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

That lifestyle will lead to a casualty or two; that's understandable and even to an extent, forgivable (especially when the two main casualties were lonely, miserable fucks). However, choosing his "urge" to kill over the safety of his family at times, that's where you really have to shake your head at Dexter and why the ending would have been perfect if the show actually got there in a more reasonable and exciting way.

Do you think he chose his urge? I think he had shaken off his urge after the 11th episode. The show runner has left it open to interpretation but I think the look that MCH gave at the end signified defeat more than anything else.

 

[Coco]

If he'd shaken off his urge, he'd have no reason not to be with Hannah and Harrison as his urge was what caused all the damage to the people around him in the first place.

Boom. Logic.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

It could simply be a mental breakdown. He might believe that he is plain and truly jinxed. The regaining of the urge makes the most sense though.

The show did not do anything to show that he had regained his urge, however. Scott Buck is also remarkably reticent and is asking us to think what we like.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Oh, BTW here is what Sara Colleton, also part of Team Dexter said:

TVLINE | Is the takeaway meant to be that he’s no longer killing, but rather just living his life in solitude?

Executive Producer Sara Colleton- Yes. Anything that was a part of his life that gave it meaning is gone. He’s banished himself as far away from Miami and anyone he’s loved.

Well, at least she committed to something.

 

[Coco]

So the ending was lame. Thanks for the confirmation, Sara.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Talk about polarizing reviews. Here is Entertainment Weekly who rated the finale as one of the most beautiful episodes of the show in years!!!

http://tvrecaps.ew.com/recap/dexter-series-finale-recap/

And obviously, here is the AV Club that shits on the finale in every possible way...

http://www.avclub.com/articles/reme...dium=RSS&utm_campaign=feeds&utm_source=feedly

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Found something that might be interesting. Apparently the writing team wanted to kill off Dexter, but Showtime was reluctant to let them do so. Which led to the lumberjack ending. Seems to me that they want to bring Dexter back again, maybe after a few years.

http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/dexter-writers-werent-allowed-to-kill-dexter.html

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

So, I was just re-watching the whole series, and I just saw Episode 9 of Season 1, Father Knows Best. Its kind of sad knowing Dexter ends up just like his biological father, Joe Driscoll, a lonely man who lived the last 30 years of his life alone, other than the fact that he was into bowling.

I wonder if anyone else remembered it while watching the finale.