Too much election crap, not enough Dexter. Come on, peeps.

[_MsJack]

I'm wondering why wardrobe decided his hair should always look like he put a little too much gel in it and just woke up from a nap this season. Not just a bed-head look, but with that killer cowlick coming off the back half the time. Not a fan.

It really does look terrible. And does anybody really give a crap about this idiotic subplot involving Quinn and this Ukranian "exotic dancer"? Are we supposed to feel sorry for him because he realized the stripper wasn't going to be the mother of his children?

Also, I'm sick of these Dexter "girlfriend of the season" plots. Yes, we get it, Dexter can't find love. Did the writers forget that this is supposed to be a show about a guy who murders people? Not a romantic tragedy?

This has been a good show, but its expiration date ran out a couple of seasons ago. I can't believe it's got one more season left.

[_honorentheos]

I'm wondering why wardrobe decided his hair should always look like he put a little too much gel in it and just woke up from a nap this season. Not just a bed-head look, but with that killer cowlick coming off the back half the time. Not a fan.

It really does look terrible. And does anybody really give a crap about this idiotic subplot involving Quinn and this Ukranian "exotic dancer"? Are we supposed to feel sorry for him because he realized the stripper wasn't going to be the mother of his children?

Completely agree. I thought Quinn was most interesting very early in the series when he looked like he was going to take Doakes' place as the person who was suspicious of Dexter. After he fell in love with Deb, he stopped being a main-story character and stopped being that interesting. I have no idea what the writers are trying to do with him: vindicate his previous "bad cop" behaviour by making him a dark knight in shining armour? Blech. Can't wait for him to go.

Also, I'm sick of these Dexter "girlfriend of the season" plots. Yes, we get it, Dexter can't find love. Did the writers forget that this is supposed to be a show about a guy who murders people? Not a romantic tragedy?

Again spot on. Rita was pitch perfect in the first two seasons as the foil to Dexter. Outside of that, it seems the writers have struggled to write in a good female character who wasn't a treadmill to move Dexters character development forward a little. After Rita's death, it's gone from cliché (Rita the suburbanite, wants a normal life - but can Dexter be "Normal"?) to ridiculous (girlfriend of the season, finds out about his dark passenger and accepts it...but even with their acceptance can Dexter become "Normal"?)

This has been a good show, but its expiration date ran out a couple of seasons ago. I can't believe it's got one more season left.

Yes.

[_Madison54]

This has been a good show, but its expiration date ran out a couple of seasons ago. I can't believe it's got one more season left.

I completely agree.

We have watched all the past seasons of Dexter hardly being able to wait to watch the next episode....but this season we are a few episodes behind (we tape them) and neither my husband nor I are that anxious to even catch up and watch them.

I think they made a huge mistake allowing Deb to find out about Dexter's dark side and she's been an annoying character this season. Their relationship was always one of the most interesting until now.

Bottom line is that I think we've just stopped caring about any of the characters or what happens to them and the result is we've lost interest in the show. Too bad because it was one of our all time favorites up until this season.

[_MsJack]

So, what did y'all think of the finale? It's a good thing there's only one more season of this show, because I don't think it could stand to see these characters corrupted much further.

[_MsJack]

I found it absolutely unbelievable that Matthews agreed to help LaGuerta salvage her career after she ruined his.

[_honorentheos]

I found it absolutely unbelievable that Matthews agreed to help LaGuerta salvage her career after she ruined his.

Agree.

[_honorentheos]

So, what did y'all think of the finale? It's a good thing there's only one more season of this show, because I don't think it could stand to see these characters corrupted much further.

This season, while promising at times, has been my least favorite to date. In that sense, the finale was fitting.

I can't imagine a worse way to end the season.

- Joey is left spotless and possibly moving in on Angel's sister after that whole deadend Russian storyline?

- LaGuerta's moment of clarity about Dexter consists of essentially two episodes? For all of the backstabbing and buildup behind her character over the series, it's an understatement to say I was disappointed in how they closed that storyline.

- Ded, Deb, Deb....I don't know. The writers were aiming for the same shock-value that Rita's death had. They failed to achieve it. As a character, I felt Deb was sadly deficient in season 1 and honestly wasn't impressed with Carpenter's portrail of her. But I think that was the writing as I really started liking her in season 2 and that increased every season since. Until now. I am not sure what the writers will do, but I don't care.

- Angel, I actually liked what they were doing with him this season. I suspect that the events in the finale could mean he's not retiring, either to become the new LT with the promotions that will have to follow, or perhaps as the Avenger of Maria. God, I hope it's not the later.

- Hanna, I kind of liked up until last night. If I could have chosen to save LaGuerta over Hanna for next season, though, I would.

- Better alternative ending: LaGuerta ends up shooting Deb, Dex kills LaGuerta, Deb dying leaves him with the guilt of knowing her death is completely his fault. No one else to blame...that would be a novel concept for this show where Dex always has a scapegoat that the viewer can buy into.

ETA: that said, I think the next season would be ok if they somehow use Deb's actions in the finale to accomplish the same thing as if Deb was killed and it was Dex's fault. Her corruption could be even more destructive to Dexter if written well. We'll see.

[_MsJack]

Good thoughts, honorentheos.

I think it was probably time for someone from the original cast to die. The only original main cast members who have ever died before this were Doakes (season 2) and Rita (season 4). The motley crew that is Miami Metro Homicide has remained largely intact over the years.

I agree that LaGuerta needed a better exit. I always wanted to see LaGuerta get some kind of comeuppance for her political conniving and backbiting, but this wasn't it. What Dexter initially did to LaGuerta (making it look like she'd tried to frame him, therefore ruining her career) was exactly the kind of comeuppance I wanted her to get, but then they had to go and kill her off. And I wish someone had pointed out the irony of Dexter deciding to kill LaGuerta to protect himself, when that was EXACTLY why Miguel Prado had resolved to kill her in Season 3. I remember Dexter even had a picture of Maria in Miguel's kill room along with Ellen Wolf's picture. There's no longer any real difference between Dexter and the people he has hunted, and that's kind of the show's point, but I wonder how they will recover from that. An audience likes to see its heroes "go bad" for a while, but it also likes to see them return to what they really are and rediscover themselves. But when the "going bad" involves the cold-blooded murder of innocents who are just doing their jobs, is there any real coming back from that?

Overall, I liked Hannah McKay, even if I remain annoyed by these "girlfriend of the season" plots. She was an interesting foil to both Dexter and Debra, calling out some of the bullcrap each had surrounded himself/herself with (Dexter's "dark passenger" excuse, Debra's faux righteousness). I'm skeptical that she'll return next season. She'll probably go the way of Lumen.

Deb has always kind of been the foul-mouthed Clarice Starling of this series. While cops like Quinn and LaGuerta have repeatedly done morally questionable things, Deb has been stalwart and immovable in her commitment to justice and the law. The worst things she has done were a relationship with her CI (which she agonized over) and letting the "vigilante killers" go in season 5. When the film Hannibal was in pre-production, Jodie Foster declined to return unless they re-wrote the novel's ending to revert Clarice Starling's corruption. While the final product still had a lot of problems (and Foster wound up not returning due to moving on to other commitments), I think Foster's instincts were right. Ending with the corruption of Starling and a full-fledged romance between her and Lecter would have been disastrous. I'm not sure how well Dexter will do now that it has corrupted its own Clarice Starling character. Angel Batista is just about the only real "good guy" left in the cast.

Final "unbelievable" moment: LaGuerta went to help Hector Estrada all by herself? And Dexter knew she would be showing up without back-up? Come on.

(I'm also seeing some fans complaining that Deb shows up in the final scenes in her sequined party dress with no blood on it, in spite of having been hugging the bleeding corpse of LaGuerta in the previous scene. I'm wondering if this is a continuity error though, because I heard that Jennifer Carpenter improvised the corpse-hugging on the spot. They may have filmed the party scenes first, then filmed the LaGuerta death scene, then forgotten about the blood.)

[_madeleine]

I found it absolutely unbelievable that Matthews agreed to help LaGuerta salvage her career after she ruined his.

Eh, who knows if he really was going to help, or what his idea of "help" was going to be. It will be interesting to see what his character does now. Nothing screams "you were right" like disappearing while the entire police force is having a party, and the suspect (Dexter) wasn't there.

[_ldsfaqs]

Dexter has been a great show, and looking forward to the rest.

At the end I was actually expecting the poisoning of Deb to have been actually done by Deb herself to get Dexter away from the crazy girl. But, that's okay.

I'm looking forward to "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead".