Dexter’s season 8 finale remains a divisive conclusion, but the original plan for the series’ ending was very different. Debuting in 2006, Showtime’s Dexter follows the titular serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) as he tracks down known murderers who have evaded the justice system while also trying to maintain a “normal” daily appearance. When not moonlighting as the Bay Harbor Butcher, Dexter Morgan is a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department, where he tries to hide his hobby from his coworkers and adoptive sister, detective Debra Morgan.
After eight years of seeing Dexter Morgan capture menacing serial killers, lose many of the innocent people he loves, and earnestly try to adhere to the killing code that his adoptive father Harry laid out for him, the series finale was bound to incite division among audiences. One of the core questions throughout Dexter was whether he was actually a hero cleaning up the streets of Miami or just as monstrous as his victims, with much debate over whether he should have been celebrated or held accountable for his murders. This dilemma was once again revived in 2021’s Dexter: New Blood, Showtime’s limited reboot series that sought to resolve the errors of the show’s original ending, though ultimately produced an even more controversial conclusion.
In Dexter’s 2013 season 8 finale, Dexter Morgan abandoned his young son Harrison, pulled the life support on his sister Deb, and drove his boat directly into a hurricane, hoping to put an end to the misery that he, directly and indirectly, brought onto his loved ones. However, the last scene of Dexter’s original series revealed that he had survived the storm and faked his death to become a lumberjack in Oregon, where he left his days as the Bay Harbor Butcher behind. Dexter’s season 8 ending has a reputation as one of the most controversial TV finales of all time, but original showrunner Clyde Phillips initially had a different plan for how to conclude the serial killer’s story by having him actually be uncovered as the Bay Harbor Butcher and face some consequences for his crimes. Understandably, such a finale would have had a dramatic effect on Dexter and may even have dispelled much of the controversy around its original end.
The Dark Original Plan For Dexter’s Finale Explained
While Clyde Phillips departed after Dexter season 4, the series’ first showrunner revealed that he had a very different plan for the serial killer had he stuck around until the finale. In his pitch for Dexter’s ending, the character would have been found out and arrested as the Bay Harbor Butcher, a plotline that never occurred in the course of the actual series. Following Dexter’s arrest, the ending would have seen him laying on the execution table at Florida Penitentiary, preparing for the drugs to enter his system and execute him for his crimes. As Dexter Morgan lay on the table, Michael C. Hall’s character would envision every person he ever killed (even the episodic victims) or inadvertently caused the death of. In his final death dream, some of the characters that Dexter would see in the execution observation gallery would include his wife Rita Morgan, The Trinity Killer, The Ice Truck Killer, and Sergeant James Doakes.
Rather than letting Dexter Morgan survive and live a “normal” life, the original Dexter ending would have punished the character for his many crimes. The set-up for Dexter’s alternate ending had his life flash before his eyes as he died, which Phillips felt would have been a satisfying pay-off for the series’ events. Leaving Dexter alive but isolated as a lumberjack in the ambiguous season 8 finale was felt by some fans to be a cop-out by the series, as it completely avoided addressing the question of whether he should have paid for his crimes. Clyde Phillips’ dark original Dexter ending idea, however, would have given closure to the title character while also asserting that the only way to end the story was with Dexter Morgan’s capture and death.
How The Original Finale Plan Compares To Dexter: New Blood’s Ending
Clyde Phillips returned to helm Showtime’s Dexter: New Blood, but chose to go yet another route for the series’ second official ending. In Dexter: New Blood’s finale, Iron Lake Police Chief Angela deduced that Jim Linday, a.k.a Dexter Morgan, was actually Miami’s Bay Harbor Butcher. The manner in which she concluded this has been subject to much scrutiny, particularly due to her use of Google as confirmation and the fact that New Blood retconned Dexter’s original M99 drug to be ketamine. In order to escape Iron Lake’s holding cell, Dexter murdered the innocent Sergeant Logan, who was also the kind wrestling coach of Dexter’s teenage son Harrison Morgan. Dexter attempted to rendezvous with Harrison so they could flee to the West Coast, but upon realizing that his father killed Logan, Harrison turned a gun on him. Harrison recalled how many innocent lives were cost by Dexter’s choices, how he had abandoned him, and that it was ultimately time for Dexter to be put down. Dexter heartbreakingly gave Harrison permission to shoot and kill him, whereafter Angela allowed Harrison to leave Iron Lake without punishment.
While Dexter: New Blood’s ending has arguably now received even more backlash than the season 8 finale, the reboot’s finale changes are much closer to Clyde Phillips’ original vision. Both versions end with Dexter’s death and the confirmation by authorities that he was the Bay Harbor Butcher, but the means to this conclusion are where the differences lay. Dexter does still have visions of the innocent people whose deaths he caused before he’s killed in Dexter: New Blood’s ending, but the reboot’s finale sees him permit his death rather than having no way to escape it. Making Harrison the character to kill Dexter is also quite a controversial choice, as he had just been praising his father for being a “superhero” only an episode before. Poor pacing may have been the biggest obstacle for Dexter: New Blood’s ending, but it certainly wasn’t the widely satisfying finale that Phillips desired for the original series.
Would Dexter’s Original Ending Have Been Less Controversial?
The majority of the arguments suggest that Dexter’s ending should have seen him killed in a sacrifice, executed by the authorities after being arrested as the Bay Harbor Butcher, or alive while still maintaining his murderous hobby. However, it’s unclear if any Dexter series ending would have been widely satisfying and thus not controversial, as the reasons for the backlash of both finales for season 8 and New Blood tend to cite contradicting issues. The plan for Dexter’s original dark ending may not have been taking as much of a creative risk as season 8 or Dexter: New Blood, but it perhaps would have been a much cleaner and less divisive way to conclude the serial killer’s story. At least in Clyde Phillips’ different idea for Dexter‘s ending, the character died in a thematically fitting manner without unearned plot points that contradicted his arc throughout the entire series.
