What ending would you feel was appropriate?

I'm sure the final season plays better binged, but, it's still pretty bad! Less time of anticipation/buildup leads to less expectations. And also, Dexter's final season was airing at about the same time as Breaking Bad's final season, which was doing EVERTYHING that Dexter didn't.

So, first of all, the whole final season was super disappointing to me because it just seemed like a regular run-of-the-mill season. There was no sense that the story was coming to a close at all. If you chop off the last two episodes, you could squeeze it in between Seasons 5 and 6 or something, and it would all fit. In addition, what was happening in Season 8 was mostly retread storylines. Dexter finds love, Dexter gets an apprentice, etc. The stuff with Vogel was interesting at first, but that pivoted into a more standard Dexter vs. serial killer storyline.

I could not believe that Miami Metro never found out that Dexter was the Bay Harbor Butcher. Dexter gets caught, Dexter escapes after a manhunt, I don't care how it shakes out, but how do the writers not play that card at all - that's what they've been sitting on this whole time? That would have been incredible to see play out.

So, now, the actual ENDING, I had a couple of big problems:

-Debra was a great character, some would say the best character on the show as Dexter became more wishy-washy and less depraved serial killer over the years. If you are gonna kill off Debra, you can NOT do her like that. That was totally lame. She basically died because of that doofus U.S. Marshall. That was not a satisfying end to her character at all from a dramatic standpoint.

-Dexter and his choice to go full lumberjack. Didn't we spend this whole season establishing that Dexter, I guess because of Hannah, wasn't compelled to kill randoms anymore? So what is precluding him from being Harrison's father? Abandoning your son is a HORRIBLE thing to do; you better have a damn good reason for doing so. Usually Dexter (the series) over-explained things. if anything. This is one case where they totally under-explained because I don't have a damn clue why Dexter did what he did.

/r/Dexter Thread