MORE BLOOD: A LETTER TO SHOWTIME

Dear Showtime,

               We appreciate you giving us more Dexter, but it is with bluntness, & with love, that we must tell you, that ending was not it, Fam. You’ve ruined it for us twice now & that ending seriously broke Dexter as a character. From what we have seen, in the show, the code didn’t just control Dexter’s urges, but it molded Dexter into a hero. He was selfish and had those urges, but he would never kill an innocent on purpose. Any time he did kill an innocent, which was only like three times, two were accidents, and the other was him at his darkest, when Rita died, his only one really dark and impulsive kill.

               He made it clear that the reason he chose Iron Lake is because it’s filled with good people, people he wouldn’t be tempted to kill because they aren’t bad. He’s truly a hero on hiatus at this point in his life and has controlled his urges for ten years. If he was a villain, he’d have given into his urges and killed so many innocents in Iron Lake by now, but nope. He’s not that guy. It’s only when evil strikes again with Matt that he begins his heroic duties again, though they may be dark and slightly immoral. He’s the Dark Defender though. That’s the point. He’s out of line, but his actions are heroic, even if a lot of times he messes up. 

               He grew. Despite his urges and underlying darkness, he grew. He grew into an almost normal person that he once faked being entirely. He learned to have genuine emotions, even though he was confused by them at times, even flat-out denying them here and there, but he was human, not a monster, like he thought. That’s why people love Dexter and root for him. That's the whole appeal of the show. A serial killer that kills serial killers…a dark person, with addiction, but one who was transformed into a hero, using his addiction for good, that kills the truly evil people of the world. Someone we can relate to, but at the same time be conflicted about, but ultimately root for because he is being a hero.

               Rooting for Dexter is not rooting for the wrong things. He only kills bad people. Laguerta. Liddy, etc…though these few are not killers and do not fit the code, these are very corrupt people, 100 percent. People can try to argue their “innocence” all day, and they indeed have some good intent, but they were still corrupt people that felt no remorse for their corrupt acts otherwise. Dexter took his own corruption like theirs and channeled it into good. He also felt remorse when he killed innocents or got others killed, especially the ones he loved, because yes, he did love and feel love, truly. It was not just Harrison that made him feel love for the first time. That’s wrong & it’s just Dexter confusing himself again.

                He made a few mistakes here and there, albeit big ones, but still, it’s never his intent to let innocents get hurt. He wouldn’t kill innocents on purpose. Logan absolutely was not a corrupt person. He was innocent. Dexter wouldn’t have killed him unless maybe it was absolutely necessary, but it wasn’t necessary at all. He could’ve easily knocked him out in multiple ways right there in that character-ruining scene.

               That’s what ruined it for us. The last 20 minutes just felt super contrived due to that one decision. Dexter finally accepted his hero status in stride with his son, and then both flip-flopped their morals based on one poor writing decision, at least in our eyes as fans.

               Also, Angela dropping everything with Kurt, based on his shitty lie, then letting him go, whilst then going hellbent against Dexter, not believing his more reasonable lies, and then keeping him with a fury was just off to us, and how smug she was made it worse. The actress is great, but the character is the worst.

               The whole agenda of “this was inevitable” and that “Dexter needed to die” has just never sat well with us at all. That makes no sense in regards to the character or why people love Dexter. Let the hero have a happy ending. It’s just forced to us when everyone is like that with him and even Spider-Man. “PETER PARKER MUST SUFFER FOR HIS ACTIONS.” But…why? Learn lessons, maybe a few consequences, for sure, but good god, again, let the hero have a happy ending. We also wanted more seasons of what was beginning to be a great show again, so we’re salty about that too, and the waste of Batista. Lol. Just a lot of wasted potential

Hopefully you see this & consider the following words in their entirety. Here are the perfect ideas for Seasons 2 & 3 of Dexter: New Blood, basically Seasons 10 & 11 of Dexter, straight from the true fans of the show.

Season 2 (Season 10): Dexter survives. This is not much of a stretch, considering you already jumped the shark & ruined his character by making him kill Logan. Dexter, while healing up in the hospital, regrets what he did to the innocent Logan. However contrived it may be now to try & fix Dexter’s character, fix it you must, to keep Dexter remaining the hero that he is. He is a hero, that knows love, & felt it long before this season. After confrontation with Angela/Batista in the hospital room about his code & how it relates to Kurt/Matt/Laguerta/Doakes/etc…., they choose to pursue Dexter anyway, but he escapes the hospital. They end up siding with him later on in the season due to finally seeing the full benefit of the code after much drama throughout the season, with even a fight between Batista and Dexter at some point. Dexter VS Batista? Sign us up, with the caveat that they make up afterwards though. Dexter escapes the hospital & his main mission is trying to find Harrison. You go the “Dexter vs. Harrison” route. There is also the “Dexter ultimately leaves Harrison alone in the end to live a blissfully unaware life free of Dexter” route, but Harrison isn’t normal & kind of needs to be taken care of honestly. He isn’t going to be fine after what he did, much worse. Sucks for the kid, but it’s better than New Blood’s disgusting ending.

          While we’re at it, at the end of the season 2(10), Dexter can reluctantly return to Miami with Batista, who gives him a place to stay, where you also throw in the finale episode that involves Masuka's wedding that we know is going to happen, with the return of him, his daughter Niki, Quinn, Batista's sister Jamie, Matthews, etc. Dexter settles back into Miami life, without working for Miami Metro, but maintaining all his close & old friendships, while Angela stays in Iron lake, she, Audrey, & the other cops keeping Dexter’s secret for the good of his heroic work that they all come to terms with. Then, we move on to the final Season 3, The Dark Defender.

               Season 3(Season 11): After Dexter is able to settle back into Florida life with his old friends, now having become a pizzeria shop guy, it would be fascinating if, in Dexter’s misadventures, he were to learn that Harry wasn't driven to suicide, but that Matthews killed him instead. Let’s be real. Matthew’s was always shady, & it never sat well with us that Harry killed himself. You can reveal that Harry truly believed in Dexter’s heroics, & for whatever reason, it was thought that he killed himself & Dexter was to blame, but that’s not the case. While disturbed by what he saw, he did not condemn Dexter’s heroic acts. Matthews killed him & covered it up to stop Harry from revealing something Matthews had done that was far worse than anything we’d seen of Matthews so far, thus, giving us a great reveal & final main antagonist for a third season in Matthews, with huge stakes, & Dexter not having to work alone in the end, his old crew/new allies helping him take down Matthews.

Also, this would mark the return of Harry guiding Dexter in one final season before avenging Harry’s death. This inner-Harry would argue with the Debra side we saw in New Blood, & it’d be like fun family therapy with the three of them almost in Dexter’s mind, although we do like to believe these are actually spirits of the dead, lol. Head-canon, guilty! Hahaha. Dexter though, whether alone or not romantically in the end, has his friends, & in his head, his family, & can live a semi-normal life by day, while being the Dark Defender at night, with Harry & Deb by his side in his head as his Dark Passengers against evil, always. No dark-and-depressing ending. Many characters can return & be involved in this final season, whether protagonists or antagonists from all the prior seasons. Example: Jimmy Sensio, the blind poison killer that Dexter let go due to performance anxiety after killing his brother. That could be a fun mistake that Dexter ends up fixing by killing him once and for all. Maybe we see Astor and Cody again. The possibilities are endless. Don’t waste that potential. This would be a great final two seasons to fix what you’ve done to us twice now. I mean, we'd love even more seasons after that too, but if you must end it, that's the best route. Thank you for your time, & we the fans, hope you consider these ideas. 

 Sincerely,          

The Dexter Fanbase