The mixed response from viewers who watched season 6 of Dexter hinted that the show's finale would be disappointing. Dexter was instantly one of the most popular series on television when it debuted on Showtime in 2006. It continued to have an impressive run of five outstanding seasons full of rich storytelling, thoughtful backstory, and mysterious serial killers which Dexter was determined to take down.
The original Dexter series lasted from 2006 to 2013. The story of a serial killer, Dexter cultivated a strong following and was well-received for the vast majority of its run. But like many celebrated shows with long lifetimes, Dexter featured an ending that unfortunately failed to match the warm reception of its previous seasons.
Dexter Season 6's Problems Hinted The Finale Would Be Bad
Dexter season 6 notably included many out-of-character moments and unusual creative choices that deterred from the overall quality of the series. The writing was more careless with Dexter's story than in other seasons, having him make half-baked decisions that lacked the methodical approach that Dexter had exhibited previously. Season 6's antagonist was Trevor Marshall, also known as the Doomsday Killer (Colin Hanks), and is considered one of the less compelling and most predictable villains throughout Dexter's entire eight-season run.
Furthermore, the reveal at the end of season 6 that Debra was in love with Dexter was strange and unnecessary. It created future ambiguity around the character that hinted that Deb might not have a clear character arc, which is what ended up being the case in season 8. She got back together with Quinn and got over murdering LaGuerta rather quickly, only to be lazily killed off in the series finale. Plus, Dexter season 6 also explored religious ideas, which was very far off from its typical themes and felt largely out of place. All this poked holes in the quality of Dexter and proved that its creative team could be running out of interesting angles to tell Dexter's story.
Dexter's Finale Problems Were Bigger Than Just Season 6
Negative critical and audience reception to Dexter season 6 was enough to turn the fate of the series around for one season. Season 7 offered some redemption for the series with Dexter's former boss Maria LaGuerta intensely investigating Dexter while he dealt with a quality antagonist in Issak Sirko. The reintroduction of the half-sibling romance between Dexter and Debra brought it back into an undesired territory, although Deb provided one of the best season finale cliffhangers of the series when she killed LaGuerta to protect Dexter.
Dexter season 8 was a disappointing end to the series, especially with the powerful setup it had built from its previous season. Instead of picking up where season 7 left off, season 8 began six months later with Deb as a miserable addict and Dexter better than ever. There's no real aftermath from LaGuerta's death and many of the subplots introduced in season 8 wound up going nowhere. What's worse is that the brain surgeon antagonist came across as weak and unmotivated. Most of all, Dexter faking his death by sailing into a hurricane and surviving only to become a lumberjack hardly felt like the right ending for the character. Curiously, the finale not living up to expectations was hinted at as early as season 6, which didn't get the ending it deserved either.