'Dexter' Final Season Recap - A Beautiful Day

Well, here we are.

After 8 long years and many wondering how America's favorite fictitious serial killer, Dexter Morgan, will meet his demise, we have finally arrived at the last season.

It's funny how the other day I was talking to someone who started watching the show from the very beginning (I myself got hooked during the winter heading into Season 6) and she stated something that I have long thought of as well: the show has gone downhill since the Season 4 finale.

However, she brought up a good point that I had never thought of before.  The great fascination with Dexter from the start was him trying to balance his life as a normal family man by day while being a serial killer by night.  It's what made the first four seasons so great because even though this guy was going around killing people, you wanted to see him grow to have a normal life at the same time.  Obviously, when the Trinity killer murdered Rita, it proved to Dexter that he could never have a normal life because of the monster he is.  It's where I think the series should have just ended because it would have wrapped up the core story of Dexter Morgan perfectly: a serial killer trying to live a normal life, but the consequences of his 'other' life won't allow it.

Anyway, enough with my rant about what should have been.  Let's get to the recap (and if you haven't caught up yet, stop reading now and go finish Season 7).

We find Dexter following the events of last season seemingly doing just fine.  He's coaching Harrison's soccer team, playing the dating field again, and doing a great job as always with work.

We learn soon enough though that this is all a facade.  Deb has left the police force after tragically shooting and killing LaGuerta and has pretty much gone off the deep end.  Doing drugs, popping pills, and banging lowlife scumbags who use to be on Entourage (you know what I mean).  Dexter hasn't heard from Deb in weeks, and has everyone at work under the impression that she's doing great following her sudden departure.

Besides this, we also come to find that Batista has returned to the force after flirting with idea of owning a restaurant (LaGuerta's death obviously brought him back), though it's not clear if he's the new Lieutenant.  Also, Quinn is now banging Jamie which is presented in a pretty, shall we say, sensual fashion, and Tom Matthews is back on the force too, now as a Deputy Chief.

The one thing I picked up on from the start is how stale this show has seemingly become.  Maybe it was just my perception, but it seemed like so many of the characters were just going through the motions.  And this is in no way saying the cast and crew on the show aren't giving their all as I'm sure they are with this being the last season, it just seems like we've seen this same song and dance before.  Dexter no longer being in control, Quinn hiding his new girl toy, Batista dealing with 'stuff', Masuka being, well, Masuka.

The only fresh point about this episode is Deb's complete downward spiral into hell as she admits to Dexter that she should have shot him that night (played wonderfully by the way by Jennifer Carpenter who I'm shocked has never won and Emmy for her work on this show).  Dexter takes issue to this, and ends up killing the scumbag druggie Deb's been sleeping with after learning her life might be in danger by staying with him.

Finally, there's the fresh face to this season in the form of Dr. Evelyn Vogel, played by Charlotte Rampling.  At first, she's brought on by Chief Matthews to consult with a new case being worked on.  It's learned soon enough though that there's more to this woman than meets the eye as she practically interrogates Dexter during an initial one-on-one conversation, then leads to a big reveal in the episode's closing moments (which I will not spoil for you).

Overall, I didn't feel this episode was bad nor did I feel it was good.  It was kind of right in the middle of just...average,  which is basically what Dexter has been teetering on since Season 5 (4 great seasons, followed by 3 mediocre ones).

Hopefully - though I'm not counting on it - the writers are able to pick things up next week and at least start giving this show the great ending it deserves.

Grade: C+