Dexter's Finale

I was offended by the series finale of Dexter. It’s taken me quite some time to fully process my thoughts on it, but I was certainly bothered by it. Not in the same way that most people are whining about on social media of “Boohoo it was terrible!” or “How could they kill Deb?!” But I was, in a way, personally bothered by the way things turned out.

However, I recently read an interview with a couple of the main producers behind the TV Show, and they explained a lot of their reasoning and decision-making for Dexter’s finale. (You can read it HERE)This brought me some peace. While nothing changes what actually happened in the show, hearing that the episode fully conveyed what the producers wanted the end of the series to be helped me come to terms with it. Everything was done for a reason. Everything makes sense with the story they wanted to tell, the message they wanted to give, and so I can be okay with it.

A quote from that interview that stuck out for me came after the producers were asked what they wanted viewers to take away from the show on the whole. “INSERT QUOTE HERE”

That really stuck with me, and that’s part of why I was so attached to Dexter and why I was so bothered by the ending.

I’ve always felt a connection between myself and the character Dexter. No, I don’t want to kill a bunch of people and dumped their chopped-up-bodies in the ocean. Hell, I don’t even want to live in Miami, either. But I still felt a connection.

Dexter’s first season opened up with this character that was perfectly compartmentalized. He was trying to live multiple lives at once, be someone new to different people, and dedicate himself to very different things. Despite how fake some of these aspects of his life may have been, through his compartmentalization he was able to be perfect at everything he did. He was the perfect boyfriend, the perfect employee, the perfect brother.

I’m by no means going to say I’m near perfect at anything, but I’ve spent a large portion of my life trying to compartmentalize. I want to do so much with my life, be involved in many different things, and I often don’t feel like a crossing over is possible between some of the “lives” I’m shooting for.

Family, work, relationships, and myself. I’ve almost always felt like I was, and had to be a different person for each situation. This, as it did for Dexter, causes some conflict between my different areas of function, but I do my best to make it work.

More recently, these walls have begun to break down. As I become more confident and comfortable with who I am overall, and with who I am in each situation, I become more comfortable allowing the different parts of my life to become involved. This is a theme that has slowly developed throughout the series in Dexter. Dexter went from being completely compartmentalized to almost all of his walls being broken down.