‘Dexter’: The ‘Satisfying Conclusion’ 1 Showrunner Imagined for the Main Character
When the original Dexter concluded in 2013 with the titular character relocated to the Pacific Northwest, many viewers didn’t like the way the crime drama ended.
When the series returned eight years later, the final episode was equally as disappointing. If a certain showrunner had had his way, Dexter fans would have been treated to a far more satisfying conclusion, and Dexter: New Blood would not have happened at all.
One showrunner envisioned an alternate ending for ‘Dexter’
Clyde Philips was an experienced executive producer who’d worked on a variety of TV shows and made-for-TV movies. Then, he signed up to orchestrate the day-to-day doings of Dexter. As with other showrunners, Philip’s position involved hiring and managing writers, guiding storylines, and facilitating communications between actors and higher-ups. Showrunners typically receive credit as “executive producers,” explains Studio Binder.
On September 22, 2013, the same day the first Dexter ended, Philips told E! News that he stayed with the show instead of stepping down after the Trinity Killer plot line played out, fans might have seen a decidedly different ending. At the time of this interview, Philips was producing the medical dramedy, Nurse Jackie.
Philip’s final scene would have Dexter Morgan waking up from dream. He’d open his eyes and realize he’s a death row inmate strapped to an execution table in a Florida penitentiary. As deadly drugs course through his veins, the former blood spatter analyst turns his gaze to the observation gallery. There, he sees everyone he ever dispatched, including the Ice Truck Killer, Wiggles the Clown, and the Brain Surgeon.
Although not direct victims, Miami Metro police lieutenant Maria LaGuerta is also in the gallery, along Sgt. James Doakes and Morgan’s late love interest, Rita. (Dexter Fandom explains that Morgan’s foster sister, Debra, shot and killed La Guerta in “Surprise Motherf*cker” in Season 7.) The packed gallery watches as Morgan takes his last breath, and that would have the final curtain for Dexter.
How the first ‘Dexter’ finale actually turned out
In the penultimate episode, “Monkey in a Box,” Morgan is already planning to leave Miami with his young son, Harrison and new girlfriend, Hannah. Debra finds an engagement ring in her former fiancee’s desk, so it seems as if she and Detective Quinn are back together. Morgan tells Quinn he’s OK with that, as he doesn’t want his sister to be lonely.
The next-to-last episode ends in an abandoned hospital after dark where Morgan delays the murder of serial killer, Oliver Saxon, and calls Debra to arrest him, instead. Dexter leaves, and Saxon shoots Debra as soon as she shows up.
The final episode sees Miami bracing for a hurricane and Dexter at the airport with Harrison and Hannah. On the lam and nearly caught, Dexter sets up a bomb scare. This allows Hannah and Harrison to escape on a bus. Dexter makes his way to the hospital where Saxon is arrested before he can kill Debra. A post-surgery stroke nearly accomplishes that, and Dexter’s sister is brain dead.
Dexter gets revenge when he shows up in Saxon’s jail cell and stabs him in the neck with a pen. Dexter convinces his former colleagues he acted in self defense before boating his way to the rear of the hospital as it’s evacuated. In a final favor to his sister, he unplugs Debra’s life support and takes her body to his boat. Dexter delivers Debra’s remains to the sea along with his phone and aims his vessel into the hurricane.
Later notified of boat wreckage, authorities believe him dead and Dexter Morgan’s obituary appears in newspapers. Moments later in TV time, viewers see Dexter in Astoria, Oregon where he is living under an assumed name.
Sara Colleton, executive producer of the finale, later told Entertainment Weekly that filming in Astoria was cost prohibitive. Set in the fictional town of Iron Lake, episodes of Dexter: New Blood were filmed in upstate New York and various small towns in Massachusetts, says Screenrant.
The showrunner returned to help wind up the ‘Dexter’ story in ‘Dexter: A New Blood’
Eight years after Dexter ended with a cliffhanger, former showrunner, Clyde Philips signed on to helm all 10 episodes of Dexter: New Blood. This time around, he had a hand in the ending.
Philips, who jumped ship after Dexter’s highest-rated episode, “The Getaway,” helped write the series finale, and it still didn’t turn out as he wished. Dexter did see ghosts throughout the final season, and he was found out to be the Bay Harbor Butcher. Those parts add up.
Instead of an executioner’s cocktail, however, Dexter holds himself accountable and coaches now-grown Harrison to shoot him in the heart. “Sins of the Father” certainly wrapped things up, but as with the finale of Dexter, fans hated it.
IMDb viewer ratings reveal that “Remember the Monsters” was the lowest-rated episode of Dexter Season 8. All but one episode of Dexter: New Blood ranked near or above nine stars, but IMDB says “Sins of the Father” didn’t even get five.
Noting that the episode “broke the Internet” one viewer left this IMDb review: “Writers obviously have no clue what they are doing. Could be the worst writing ever especially since if they had any clue at all (just think a little bit – see all fans comments) and could have been best show Ever!!”
