‘Dexter’ season 8 debate: How should the series end?

Considering that “Dexter” season 7 only ended a matter of a week and a half ago, we have plenty of time still to sit around and speculation just on how Showtime is ultimately going to say goodbye to some of these characters. With that in mind, why not tackle the question that everyone has an opinion on at the moment: should Dexter Morgan live free, die, or spend the rest of his life behind bars? It’s something that the writing team is obviously going to be tackling head-on in the months ahead, and there is no easy answer to the question.

The case for Dexter living free – For whatever demented reason, Dexter has somehow become a character that people root for … even though he does literally spend all of his days running around and killing people (even if they are bad). Some people who are into this sort of “justice” probably hope that he is allowed to go about his business, or at least that he has somehow been set free of his Dark Passenger and allowed to move forward with his life as a seemingly normal human being.

As far as we see it, this seems to be the least likely to actually happen. There have been numerous suggestions over the years that this cannot be a show with a happy ending, and if Dexter does manage to stay alive and out of jail, it is probably going to come at such a price that he wishes he was receiving the blunt end of whatever consequences could be coming his way.

The case for Dexter dying – An eye for an eye. It would be fitting for a man who was “born in blood” to also go out from the world in a similar way, especially considering all of the bodies he has taken down during his lifetime. But if Dexter does die, who is the one to kill him? It would be the ultimate transformation for Deb to actually take her brother down, but there are some other worthy candidates out there including Batista or maybe even Quinn.

If Dexter does die, we do hope that there is some sort of meaning behind it, and not that he is taken out by some new “big bad” that we have never heard of before. This is the most-likely scenario to us, mostly because it is easier to give viewers a sense of finality than it is the ambiguity of sending him to jail, where anything can happen behind the prison gates.

The case for Dexter going to jail – For those who think that death is an easy wait out, this would be a way for him to really suffer. If Deb actually was the one to arrest him, it would also be even more appropriate in that she would take him down by her own “code,” and not the only that Dexter has nearly indoctrinated into her over the course of the past season.

This is the ending that will be the most fun to watch a debate, mostly in seeing if Deb can detach herself enough to put the man in handcuffs, or he will somehow continue to get away with what he is doing while making her continue to suffer in the process. Sure, Batista or someone else could arrest him, but would it have the same impact?

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How do you think that “Dexter” should come to an end? If you want to read some more of our thoughts on what we want to see for the final season, you can do so over here.

Photo: Showtime