Dexter had a series finale so infamous that its last moments are well known even to people who didn't watch the show. After eight seasons of following the serial killer with a code, fans who stuck with the series got to see Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) reinvent himself as a lumberjack in the show's final frames.
Eight years later, the lumberjack reveal may be the only thing that fans remember about Dexter's finale. Fans stuck with a bad taste in their mouth will be glad that Dexter: New Blood isn't Season 9 of the original series. Nevertheless, it's worth remembering how Dexter ended to understand why the finale casts such a long shadow.
Dexter's final season opened in the aftermath of Dexter's adoptive sister Debra Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter), a Miami Metro Police Officer, killing another officer to protect Dexter's secret life. Wracked with guilt about Lieutenant Maria LaGuerta's (Lauren Vélez) death, Debra quit the force and became a private detective. She developed a drug habit to cope with her trauma and growing hatred of Dexter, whom she blamed for ruining her life. His deteriorating relationship with Debra caused Dexter to act erratically, nearly breaking his code in a bout of road rage.
In addition to his falling out with Debra, one of his only human connections, Dexter had to deal with the return of two women from his past. Dexter's relationship with fellow killer Hannah McKay (Yvonne Strahovski) ended with him giving Debra incriminating evidence that led to her arrest. She announced her reappearance in Miami by poisoning the Morgan siblings, leading them to believe she wanted revenge.
Although he'd never met her, Dr. Evelyn Vogel (Charlotte Rampling) played a key role in shaping Dexter's life. Alongside his adoptive father Harry (James Remar), Vogel helped create the code Dexter lived (and killed) by. Vogel set Dexter against the season's main serial killer antagonist, the Brain Surgeon, who earned his nickname by taking scoops of his victims' brain tissue as a trophy. She also helped Dexter and Debra reconcile, even if she questioned what Dexter's attachment to his sister meant about his psychopathy.
Despite the grudge she could have held, Hannah and Dexter reconnected in a fittingly macabre way. After Hannah murdered her abusive husband Miles (Julian Sands), Dexter helped her dump the body. Dexter planned on moving to Argentina with Hannah and his son Harrison after he tied up the loose end of the Brain Surgeon. During his hunt for the killer, it was revealed that he was Vogel's son Daniel (Darri Ingólfsson), who faked his death and took on the identity of the deceased Oliver Saxon.
Vogel welcomed her son back into her life and attempted to make him a functioning psychopath like Dexter. She turned against him after watching footage of him murdering one of her patients, leading to her murder at his hands. When Dexter finally had Daniel at his mercy, he decided to hand him over to Debra and the police instead of killing him. That wound up costing Debra, as she was shot while attempting to arrest him.
Leaving Hannah and Harrison at the airport, Dexter stopped Daniel from finishing Debra off in the hospital. Unfortunately, complications from surgery left her brain dead. Following a final confrontation with Daniel, where Dexter killed him in police custody, Dexter decided to euthanize Debra. In a scene that defied what little credulity the show had left, Dexter took Debra off life support and carried her corpse out of the hospital in a sheet and onto his boat, The Slice of Life.
After dumping Debra's body, like he did so many others throughout the show, Dexter drove his boat into a looming hurricane. Now in Buenos Aires with Harrison, Hannah learned of Dexter's apparent death via the front page of a Miami newspaper, setting up the infamous lumberjack reveal in the episode's closing scene.
After peaking with Season 4, Dexter limped to its conclusion. While no one was expecting the show to return to form, fans at least hoped for a finale that wouldn't make them regret ever watching. Unfortunately, "Remember The Monsters?" did just that for many. It took the show's biggest flaw, Dexter never facing the consequences of his actions, to absurd lengths.
As much as it might annoy creators like The Sopranos' David Chase, seeing anti-heroes pay for their crimes is a big appeal of the genre. Dexter went to great lengths to ensure that never happened throughout eight seasons. It saved its worst trick for last, leaving fans to hope that New Blood learns from its mistakes.