Dexter redeems himself after that despised finale

Warning: Don’t read until you have seen Dexter: New Blood E10 “Sins of the Father.”

Dexter fans finally got an ending worthy of their investment in the hit series with Michael C. Hall.

8 years after viewers lashed out at a disappointing ending to Dexter, the sequel series Dexter: New Blood delivered a satisfying, and poetic, ending.

It may not be the one fans wanted, and it may indeed signal an end to the show’s continuation, but it felt like the right ending.

Dexter (Hall) being shot dead by his son Harrison (Jack Alcott) wrapped up the Father / Son themes put in place by showrunner Clyde Phillips. It wasn’t always a satisfying season but allowing the father to expire, and pay for his sins, so his son could be free was a fitting conclusion.

The Hollywood Reporter has an interview with Phillips in which he addresses the choices and whether he sees any future with Harrison as star.

Here are a few excerpts…

How early in the creation of Dexter: New Blood did you know that Dexter would die? And why did you want this to end with his death?
CP: Very early in the process. In talking with Michael and Showtime and once I hired a writers room, I presented that to them and asked for the best way to do this. We owed it to the audience. After the bad taste in their mouth that a lot of people had at the end of season eight — what we’re calling the “first finale” — we knew that to have Dexter escape and have him continue doing this, the show was done. The storytelling of it was done. The legitimacy, honesty, dignity and integrity of the character of Dexter that we so carefully built up over a almost a decade almost required that we end the show this way. We wanted the viewers to hopefully be sad by this loss and feel satisfied and to understand that this had to happen; that this was inevitable. Hopefully they’re satisfied with the storytelling. … At the end [of the final scene], I remember Michael calling out from 10 yards away, “Thanks for the words, Clyde.” What better feeling can a writer have than that?

Talk me through the decision to have Harrison effectively carry out Dexter’s wishes — “let me die so my son can live,” which is something Dexter wrote to Hannah when he left Harrison with her.
CP: The germ of all of that is that Dexter is making the ultimate sacrifice for his son. Dexter says as he’s urging Harrison to do it, “Remember, you have to take off the safety just like I showed you.” He’s giving Harrison permission and saying there’s no other way. And Harrison says with tears streaming down his face, “For both of us.” They’re trapped in this. When Harrison yells, “Open your eyes and and look at what you’ve done!” and we do the flashback of Lundy (Keith Carradine), Doakes (Erik King), Rita (Julie Benz), Deb and LaGuerta (Lauren Vélez), that’s an Easter Egg. That’s the first thing that Dexter says in the pilot when he’s killing a choir master and he screams at him, “Open your eyes and look at what you’ve done; look at the truth!” It was like bringing back “Hello, Dexter Morgan,” a few times that was left over from the Trinity Killer with John Lithgow.

You’ve said from the get-go that Dexter: New Blood ends Dexter’s story. But Harrison still very much has a story to tell: out on his own, both of his parents now dead and having been let go by the local sheriff. Is there more that you’d like to explore with Harrison? He still knows of The Code and has his own Dark Passenger.
CP: Yes, there’s a lot I’d like to explore. I don’t have permission yet from Showtime to explore it. But if they were to call — much like Gary Levine called to do what became New Blood — and say we want to do Harrison, I’d drop everything and say yes in a minute.

You can read more here.