Prediction: Showtime Has Had a Super Secret, Super Stupid Plan to Bring Dexter Back All Along

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I’ve had a sneaking feeling that won’t go away ever since Dexter ended, and the finale was cemented in TV history as one of the worst of all time. It was bad, but it was worse than it needed to be because of some unseen force.

The culprit (other than Scott Buck) revealed itself when the producers said Showtime would literally not allow them to kill off Dexter in the finale.

“Showtime was very clear about that. When we told them the arc for the last season, they just said, ‘Just to be clear, he’s going to live.’ ”

Now, we have Michael C. Hall dancing around the idea of a possible Dexter revival, in one form or another.

“I can’t even wrap my mind around that. And it’s all just theoretical until there is some sort of script reflecting somebody’s idea of where it could possibly go. But it’s hard for me to imagine what that would be.”

My theory is this: Dexter, at least in its early years, was the best thing to ever happen to Showtime. The character became an instant national icon, and the show was heralded as brilliant its early seasons, up until around a supposed peak in season four with John Lithgow’s Trinity Killer (though I believe the peak was in season two).

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As the show drew to a close, Showtime simply didn’t want to let go. They may not have known how or why, but Dexter was just too good a character to kill forever, despite the fact that that’s what his arc was obviously building to.

The whole scenario reminded me a lot of how Fox handled (or rather, mishandled) the finale of 24. Though the show obviously should have ended with Jack Bauer finally being forced to make the ultimate sacrifice for his country, he simply scampered off into the ether to live another day. Now, we have his return to television in the form of the new miniseries 24: Live Another Day. Yes, they literally called it that.

I believe this is now Showtime’s secret plan for Dexter. The finale was such bullshit that they really don’t have all that much work to do in order to potentially bring Dexter back from being a lumberjack. Yes, Deb is dead (in the stupidest way possible, a fitting end as she became the stupidest character possible) and Dexter faked his death in a hurricane, tricking both his friends, his love Hannah and his own son.

But I could easily see him returning as some new threat presents itself, going after either his Miami Metro brethren or Hannah and Harrison (preferably Hannah is dead, because she sucks, and Harrison is missing). That’s certainly something that would bring him out of retirement, and they could explain his faked death away by saying that he was just so distraught after Deb’s death, he needed some time alone. In true Dexter form, everyone would be pissed at him for an episode or two, the immediately forget about it.

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Now, in no way am I saying this is what should happen or that it’s a good idea. But I do believe that Showtime IS planning something like this, whether it’s one more bonus season, a miniseries or a movie.

As much as I would love to see Dexter return to be at least partially redeemed for the horrendous finale his character had to endure, I’m just not sure how such a thing would be possible. Poison showrunner Scott Buck would have to be nowhere near the project, as if he was involved somehow he’d only manage to make things worse (Masuka’s daughter is the new Big Bad!). Ideally, if they could throw money at original showrunner Clyde Phillips (responsible for the good years) to return and refashion some sort of redemption for Dexter, that would be nice, but it also might be like prodding a horse with a broken leg to run in the Kentucky Derby. The damage is done, and the nice thing would have been just to shoot it and be done with it.

Dexter is a fundamentally great character, he just had to endure horrible, horrible stories for the last three or four years of his show. As tempted as I would be to see him come back in order to have the epic finale he deserves (you know, one where he might actually be discovered, which was supposed to be the central conflict of the show), it would be too painful to endure if it went poorly.

What do you think? Should Dexter keep chopping wood, or return for one more adventure?

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10 Comments

  1. They absolutely can’t bring Dexter back. Too much B.S. has happened for his return to even matter. How would Dexter know Harrison is missing unless he sees Hannah apprehended on the news or murdered. Chances are if Hannah is caught, the police will automatically think she killed Dexter…since ya know…she has his kid and she just so happens to be a murderer…but that’s just logical.

    Let it die. Let us toast the good years and shun the bad.

  2. Likely scenario: The guys who killed Dexters mom aren’t really dead and something something so Dexter needs to kill a bunch of guys before something.

  3. If they do this,let’s hope that they wrap the plot giving answers about Batista,Quinn andthe stepsons of Dexter.Let’s hope that they give a happy ending for Dexter,the woman that he chose (Hannah) and his son because we are tired of s….y endings. I know that people say that Hannah sucks,that she is a murderer etc….but,she is the only way that Dexter could have some peace’cause she sees in him more than a killer or a vigilante,she sees a whole person in him and loves him like that!

  4. Dexter needs to come back. Though the quality of the seasons was deteriorating, the ending was ideal for so many other future scenarios to happen. Even if it means his son becomes the new Dexter.

  5. I can understand that a person can be distraught over the siblings death however he has his son which she was going to meet up with in Argentina. It didn’t make sense that he would leave his son and then faked his death a parent just doesn’t do that I think they need to bring Dexter back. Obviously to me the last episode showed me the he didn’t fake his death there’s a possibility that he has amnesia and doesn’t know who he is, there’s a lot of ways that they can bring Dexter back, they left the last episode completely open. They did the same thing when charmed hit television and went up to his eighth season, they left. Episode wide open for a comeback as well and as well a lot of people agree that they need to leave Dexter alone there’s a lot of fans out there they were very disappointed on the way the end of it I think they need to figure out a way to make a good ending instead of the way they did it

  6. “Dexter is a fundamentally great character, he just had to endure horrible, horrible stories for the last three or four years of his show.” That is such an inaccurate statement. Season 7 was one of the better seasons. Season 5, 6 & 8 may have been slight downgrades from the other seasons, but they were still good seasons (entertaining to watch). Writing gets difficult in the later seasons especially for a show like Dexter. I liked the storyline a lot for season 8 (except the ending of course), but it didn’t play out very well… it felt very rushed, which I later found out that they did back to back seasons for the first time to promote a new show that was starting up. They clearly had less time per episode, because some of the takes were horrendous (kid treadmill scene, need I say more). Anyways you slice it though, the networks f’d up this ending in a bad way. It seems as though the networks wouldn’t allow an ambiguous ending either, which would have worked for me… if hints were layed out in the final episode that Dexter may have faked his death, but leaving it open. The ending they did makes absolutely no sense and it was counter productive from everything they were building towards all show and particularly all season long. No writing crew would have ever decided on such an ending, it was the network that jacked up the ending.

    1. I wouldn’t say 3 or 4 season were bad….

      Season 1,2,3,4 were great and the one with the doomsday killer.

      I mean the way the last season ended was bad but it doesn’t mean there wasn’t some good episodes. Also if the show comes back the season will look a lot better because that won’t be how it ended.

      The only 2 bad seasons… but they were VERY bad were the one’s with Luman or lumen whatever her name is… flat forehead with that one stressed out expression and even worse was Hannah McKay.

      The show was doing just fine when it was following Jeff Lindsey’s books because well that is in fact Dexter, he’s who created him. It’s like if somebody took Superman and put him on tv but said he can’t fly or has no super powers… It’s not Superman even though they call him that. Jeff Lindsey created Dexter and he created him with no feelings… Not a love story every chapter.

      Rita was great… just when Dexter was starting to feel for her she got killed by Trinity, perfect. Should have been no more love crap after that unless it was for Deb or Harrison.

      There really is a lot of great stuff that they missed in the books… they could make 8 more seasons off of what they missed and it would be great.

      Dexter as a movie star lol

      Also they don’t kill Bryan off as fast in the book and the guy who played him “Rudy” was perfect… They should have kept him around for a couple of seasons… Dexter gets stuck and can’t get away to kill somebody… he calls his brother even though he hates him.

  7. BTW I really liked the Hannah character a lot. As a character and as an actress. I wish they directed her final scene differently. I don’t understand entirely what they were trying to portray in her final scene. a) did she suck back the tears and move on, because she’s a survivalist and tough, which her gardener elaborated on at one point (I don’t think that was it. b) did her intuition/feeling know Dexter likely faked his death. This was likely it or it was likely originally going to be it, but I don’t like how the scene was shot and I don’t like the getting ice cream as a symbol, because it has different potential symbolic meanings that span complete opposites of one another. I think they changed the ambiguous ending at the last second so they went through and picked out a Hannah take that made her look like she was being tough for the benefit of the kid as opposed to knowing he faked his death, which would have to be her natural assumption. c) or was she using Dexter all along (it all depends on what they were trying to symbolize with the ice cream, because it could be a sinister symbol (I lean the other way though). .

    1. You’re f(_)cked…

      No more love from Dexter… He’s a serial killer with no feelings.

      Rita was perfect in everyway… in life and for the story. Just when Dexter finds somebody he actually has feelings for, Trinity kills her. Perfect.

      After that, there should have been no more girlfriends unless it was Deb.

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