Rewind to the end of Dexter Season 2

[Joe Washington]

WARNING: SPOILERS

By the end of Season 2, Dexter has got himself out of yet another jam and has realized that his relationships with Deb, Rita, and the kids are more than just camoflague to him. LaGuerta is mourning Doakes' death. Dexter kills Lila. Deb doesn't get to go away with Lundy.

Now imagine Season 3 and Season 4 never happened and that it's up to you to paint the picture of what is to come after the events of the Season 2 finale. What do you do? What would you change?

 

[O'Dib]

Dexter gets possessed by a Canaanite deity.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

You're more evil than Trinity!

I like what they've done with the show so far. S3 demonstrated that they could get along just fine with Killer of the Week plotlines and make only glacial advances of Dexter's characterization and the plot, and be rewarded with healthy Nielsens, but I admire them for not yeilding to the temptation to just do the same old, and instead kick the show in the head with the S4 finale.

The only thing I might change is the characterization of Dexter as someone who could never be a danger to innocent adults around him. I seem to recall in S1 that there was the clear implication that the Dark Passenger could make him a danger to everyone but children (because they represent his own damaged child who is presumably angry at the adults of the world).

Making that conflict more apparent - that not to kill means that Dexter risks becoming a danger to his friends and adult family members - would be risky because it might make him less likeable to the audience. Could be that's where they're going with S5. In recent seasons, it's seemed like the Dark Passenger was just an assumed part of the story, but rarely dramatized anymore. I'd push it more towards the forefront, so that it seemed almost like a character in its own right (which is how Dex talks about it). I want to see it start to scarily take control.

 

[Harvey]

I didn't like that Dexter could get away with murdering Lila in a foreign country so easily. As grating as her character was, it was far too tidy for him to be rid of her at the end of the second year.Looking back, season three made a few missteps. Debra get involves with yet another person wrapped up in the season's serial killer plot, and again he's damaged goods. Papa Morgan is still around for no reason since the flashbacks are gone, other than the producers loving the actor. He serves no purpose other than to minimize Dexter's voice over, which has always been central to the series and well-written. And LaGuerta has a strong connection (both in her personal life and her life as a cop) to a character we've never head of? I bought into it at first, but the season keeps telling us how important the Prado family is to her, and in the end it just doesn't work. The season barely touched on the fall out of Doakes being revealed as the Bay Harbor Butcher. Even LaGuerta barely mentions it. Finally, Quinn is pretty dull, and if the series wanted to replace its most interesting African-American character with a white guy, the least it could do is not have him be a dull white guy. Oh well.

 

[Warp Coil]

I would have ditched season three in its entirety. I wasn't a fan. Season four, however, was just fine the way it played out.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

They should not have had LaGuerta forget that she was convinced Doakes was not the BHB.

 

[Jono]

I'd do a reboot. Dexter would be a young man who is struggling with his dark side. He runs into someone who served with his dad who convinces him to join the police force. While at the academy he nearly gets kicked out for cheating but a serial killer emergency comes about and all the cops are over in another city. Dexter and his band of plucky police cadets are forced into front line duty. Dexter precedes to make his superior officers look incompetent, saves the city, kills the serial killer and is made a captain.

 

[Aaron McGuire]

More Chicky Hines.

Aaron McGuire