Dexter - Remember the Monsters?

So. . . Dexter is over now. And goodness, according to the internet, it was the worst finale ever. In the history of everything, even predating television. I mean, people just have terrible things to say about it.

Well, as usual, I don't know what the fuck other people are thinking. Now, I'll probably have to watch it again before I can decide if I liked it or not. Hell, I have a hard time deciding if I "liked" the show at all. It was gripping, compelling, tense and interesting, but it was also about a monster. I may make a distinction between liking something and being entertained or engaged by it. Like Sons of Anarchy. I pretty much hate everyone on the show. But I still watch it, because I want to see them all get what's coming. Breaking Bad and Dexter are much the same way.

Dexter absolutely did not end the way I thought it was going to end. I thought for sure, like many others, that he would be outed, that everyone would find out who he really was. I even thought it might be Deb that brought him down. I knew it would be a sad episode, not because Dexter was exposed, but because of the effect that exposure would have on the people that thought he was a friend. Deb, Batista, Masuka. The lack of understanding from Harrison, who loves his daddy so very much.

But it did not end in the way I thought it would at all.

That said, what I can say is that the finale, "Remember the Monsters?", absolutely worked for me as the series finale. From episode one, Dexter has told us he's a monster, he's not human, he doesn't feel the things that real people feel. And it was always untrue. He was an unreliable narrator. He thought he wasn't human, but his actions, his responses have always been human. Yes, he's a monster, but he is an all too human monster.

For 8 years, we’ve watched Dexter wrestle with his surfacing humanity. From his “cover” relationship with Rita and her kids, through Rita’s death, to single fatherhood, to falling in love with Hannah McKay. And it was only towards the end, after things with Deb broke and started to get back to normal, after realizing that maybe a life with Hannah and Harrison was possible, when Dexter accepted that maybe he was, in fact, human. That he wasn’t empty.

That he could be something other than a monster.

But Deborah had a stroke and was looking at a life of persistent vegetation. A terrible fate for anyone, but especially such a vibrant young woman on the verge of potential real happiness. As the hurricane approached, Dexter went to the hospital Deb was in. His intentions were clear as soon as we saw him. He was in his killing uniform.

He told her he loved her, and then he killed her. He took her out to sea, and disposed of her as he did his other victims. He told Harrison that he loved him. He tried to do what he perceived at the right thing – removing himself from the lives of those he loved, out of fear of destroying them.

It was a very human thing to do. It was a monstrous thing to do.

Then we find out, hey, Dexter is still alive! Working as a lumberjack. The show ends with Dexter sitting alone, staring at the camera.

Dead inside.

Empty.

For 8 years, we watched Dexter slowly recognize his extant humanity. We saw that maybe, just maybe, he could stop being a monster.

And then in the blink of an eye, we watched it die.

It’s all there in the title:

Remember the Monsters?