Masuka's daughter: cute idea, just a bit confused about the length of screentime given. I really thought they were going somewhere with the 'she needs money' angle. I get it, the part about him needing a meaningful relationship with a woman. I just thought it was going to become something profound. Instead it was like most of the characters on this show... slowly moving backwards and behind the curtain. Whatever, I shouldn't complain. This series gave us a lot of closure as compared to countless others that didn't.
Deb kills Dex: I would have totally been up for that. And no, not a halfhearted murder attempt (Deb crashes the car) because the writers needed a more dramatic transition between episodes.
Dex gets Captured:
- I figure Quin would back up Dexter fairly quickly. He's always wanted Dexter's respect and I can picture him saying, 'good for you getting those sons of bitches' etc. Quin would be in.
- Masuka would initially be against it, and would see Dexter as some kind of traitor. But then, upon reflection, he may warm up to the idea.
- Locutus of Bored raises a good point about Angel though, he might not have seen the idealistic hobby of Dexter's as valiant at all, and maybe would have been super pissed about it. And then retired because, could any of these cops go on working knowing what happened?
Maybe the writers avoided that ending because it would have been a bummer... everyone would have lost their jobs, etc. So... maybe LaGuerta finding out was the way that the writers felt effectively dealt with the idea of a captured Dexter. I don't want to rewatch the series but last season might be worth another look to see how LaGuerta pieced it together - at the time I felt dismissive of the storyline because I thought it was building to a huge exposure: I wanted to see a full season of captured Dexter! At first, Dex interrogated. Then Dex's trial. His escape from custody, his kills in the wild. I pictured him swinging through forests, killing evil jungle gang leaders (yes, he ends up traveling though time and on other planets.) What was I talking about? Oh yeah., LaGuerta. Did she have a scene where she privately confronts LaGuerta? He urges her to let it go, right? Did he show her his Dark Passenger?

Sounds dirty!
Okay... I've got to stop thinking about this show for a while. It's clearly giving me brain bubbles.
I think I've decided to disregard that whole final 30 second lumberjack scene. I was enjoying the suicide ending so much more... I seem to recall my grin converting into a facepalm.