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Monday, July 11, 2022

'An Unsatisfying Ending to Dexter: New Blood' by Christopher Lindsay [Opinion]

An author shares his opinion about the New Blood finale, here on Dexter Daily.

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It's been six whole months since the ending of Dexter: New Blood aired and once again left fans divided. Christopher Lindsay, author of 'The Donkey King and Other Stories' recently contacted Dexter Daily asking us to share an essay with his thoughts about the way things ended for our favorite fictional serial killer. Read it right below!


An Unsatisfying Ending to Dexter: New Blood

In Sins of the Father, the final episode of Dexter: New Blood, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) kills a police officer, so he can escape from jail and be reunited with his son Harrison (Jack Alcott). This was an emotionally unsatisfying ending for many fans because Officer Logan (Alano Miller) was a good person. We are no longer “with” Dexter now—we are repelled by him.

In the first eight seasons of Dexter, and nine episodes of New Blood, Dexter was a character we cared about. When he killed murderers, he was still a monster, but he saved the lives of future victims, making him a sympathetic anti-hero. 

One reason Dexter was sympathetic is he took careful measures to avoid killing an innocent person. The code given to him by his father Harry only allowed him to kill murderers. 

Even when Dexter made a mistake in following the code, the audience still felt for him. In season four he killed Jonathan Farrow (Greg Ellis) because he thought he was a murderer. It was later revealed the murderer was someone else. However, at this point in the series, Dexter never intentionally killed an innocent person. That core value made him sympathetic to the audience.

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In season five Dexter took an action that would repel viewers. He went outside the code and intentionally killed someone who wasn’t a murderer. Rankin (Brad Carter), who was probably a criminal, insulted Dexter’s dead wife Rita, so Dexter killed him with a hook. He murdered a man who offended him.

In season seven Dexter repelled viewers again by killing a man who wasn’t a murderer. Clint McKay (Jim Beaver) tried to blackmail his daughter Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski) for a murder she committed, so Dexter killed him. Clint wasn’t a good guy—he was a bad father to Hannah—but Dexter didn’t follow the code in killing him. 

Dexter killed Rankin and Clint because he saw them as bad men. By not following the code, Dexter was committing greater acts of evil, yet he never killed someone he believed was good. This core value still made him sympathetic.

Dexter’s moral compass changed in Sins of the Father. Michael C. Hall and the showrunner, Clyde Phillips, wanted Dexter to die, so they made him into a new kind of monster: one who is willing to kill a good person if they prevented him from getting what he wants. This is something Dexter never would have done in any previous episode. 

Sins of the Father is the lowest rated episode of the series on IMDb and for good reason. Instead of an anti-hero, the series ends with Dexter being the villain. 

There was a better way to end the series that wouldn’t have alienated Dexter from the audience. He could have gone to prison or been executed for his crimes. Dexter would have got what he deserved according to the law, and the audience could still feel for him.

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Although the series finale to New Blood isn’t emotionally satisfying, it does send an important message to the audience: Murder is evil, and men who commit murder and get away with it can lose their humanity and become even worse monsters. 

New Blood ends with Dexter having a negative character arc. After realizing what kind of monster he is, he asks Harrison to kill him. This is a sad and tragic ending for a character we hoped would become a better human being.

Ultimately, Dexter became a worse human being by not getting caught for his crimes. Accountable to no one but himself, he strayed further and further outside the code of Harry and became the kind of man he would put on his kill table.

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Christopher Lindsay’s plays have been performed in Canada and the United States. He is the author of The Donkey King and Other Stories. Available on Amazon.com

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