"Dexter" Finale: Dexter Pays The Ultimate Shocking Price (Spoilers!)
Dexter Morgan waited too long. We all knew it.
We watched all season long as he tracked, captured and then let slip,
the Trinity Killer. Dexter (Michael C. Hall), a serial killer with a
strict code of ethics, hesitated because he wanted to learn. He wanted
to know how Arthur Mitchell (John Lithgow), aka the Trinity Killer
could be a monstrous serial killer and still maintain a family life.
Unfortunately Dexter chose the wrong teacher.
Turns out Trinity's home life was not the ideal Dexter thought and
because Dexter postponed Arthur's demise, the result was disaster.
In an awesomely executed denouement, we watch as Dexter sends his family to safety. We then watch as Arthur Mitchell heads out of town in his vintage Mustang thinking he's free and clear. Both of them are wrong.
Dexter disables Arthur's prized car and finally gets justice for all the Trinity Killer victims when he uses Trinity's own framing hammer to crack open his skull. But Trinity gets the last word as Dexter comes home to a voicemail from his wife Rita (Julie Benz) saying she had to return home before leaving town. When Dexter calls her cellphone, he's shocked to hear Rita's phone ringing in their house.
Then he hears his baby crying. The sound
leads him to the bathroom where he finds Trinity's last victim: Rita's
lying dead in a bathtub filled with water and blood.
On the floor, sitting in the crimson overflow, is Dexter's infant son.
As Dexter says in his voiceover, both he and his son were "born in blood."
That family Dexter tried so hard to protect has now been destroyed because of his fascination with Arthur Mitchell.
Did I see that coming? Uh, no.
As usual, the acting all season was incredible. Michael C. Hall lives and breathes Dexter, he's that good and John Lithgow was the height of creepiness as Arthur Mitchell.
The two of them together, oh man! Who'll forget that scene at the end of last week's episode when they come face to face in the police precinct and Arthur says, "Hello, Dexter Morgan."?
Plot-wise, the death of Rita makes perfect sense. Rita was played out anyway. Short of her finding out Dexter's secret, there was no where for her to go. Now Dexter will either be raising his kids on his own--I seriously doubt it, those kids are going off to grandma and grandpa--or he'll once again be the lone wolf we met originally. Except this time, having had the experience of a family, will he seek it out again?
After all, that family life and his desperate desire to maintain it caused him to make several crucial errors this season.
First he killed, a repulsive, yet innocent victim, breaking Harry's
(James Remar) code. Then he watched helplessly as Arthur kidnapped a
10-year-old boy; turned out the Trinity Killer didn't kill in 3's
as everyone thought, but in 4's. FBI agent Frank Lundy (Keith
Carradine) was killed and Dexter's sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) was
shot to keep Trinity's identity a secret.
In other plot progressions, Deb found out
that Dexter is really the brother of the Ice Truck Killer. LaGuerta
(Lauren Velez) and Batista (David Zayas) decided to move in together.
Since they got married last week, that only makes sense. Love their
romance, by the way.
A fabulous end to a fabulous season.
