“This is the Way the World Ends” (Season 6, Episode 12 Season Finale)

WARNING – FULL SPOILERS

Holy crap. Dexter should really learn to lock the door behind him.

After what has been an up and down season, to say the least, we were given a real piece of gold to end with. Debs walking in on Dexter as he plunged the knife into Travis was truly amazing. I was hoping that Deb would figure things out for herself through her counseling sessions but I wasn’t expecting her to get a front row seat, or should I say pew, for Dexter’s theatre of blood. This is going to blow the show wide open for next year, where they will take this is anybody’s guess. Will Dexter play it off as a one-time thing? Will he say that after Rita’s death things have gone a bit sideways? Or will he reveal all about ITK, Trinity, The Bay Harbour Butcher and Jordan Chase & co…so many questions to keep us occupied until next October. It’s going to be a long wait.

Looking back at this finale as a whole, it was pretty decent with only a couple of minor flaws to prevent it from being a complete saving grace for the near-disastrous DDK storyline. Firstly, the Debs “loving” Dexter stuff was beyond cringing to watch, seeing her glancing at Dexter with curious eyes was gross. The scene where she’s in the psychiatrist’s office saying she told Dexter “I Love You” and that he responded the same way was a bit embarrassing to view, it felt like two schoolgirls catching up after their first date…ugh so so wrong. I guess another great thing about the finale is that it should knock any ‘romance’ out of their relationship.

Dexter floating in the water at the start of the episode was a calm intro, obviously a boat had to come along to fish him up. The guy robbing the stowaways was a bit ridiculous but it gave Dexter an excuse to skewer someone and knock this season’s death tally up by another notch. One thing that was beyond stupid was the crime scene at the house where Travis had been staying. When Dexter arrives, Batista says that they haven’t entered the building because they were waiting for him. Since when has this been the protocol? Every other crime scene has had a couple of random uniforms mulling around taking notes and looking busy. But for some reason in this none-descript crime scene they have to wait for Dexter? I don’t buy it. This was just a convenient excuse for Dexter to have a few moments to give Travis’ mural the Picasso treatment.

Other than those few snags the episode played out pretty much as expected. Dexter finally getting Travis on his table had to happen and having him take Harrison from the school was a decent way of building up some tension for the climax.

Besides Debs & Dexter there didn’t seem to be much going on for the rest of the team. Batista requesting that Quinn be transferred was as exciting as it got. It would have been nice to kill off one or two of the regular faces to shake things up for next season. We’ve only seen the addition of Mike Anderson as a new detective this year and there hasn’t been too much going on for him. That’s not forgetting Louis of course who’s been quirky enough over the last couple of episodes to keep us wondering what his game is. It’s a pity nothing happened with the hand that he mailed to Dexter but I’m sure that could add some spice into the seventh season.

Overall, this season hasn’t been one to cherish, certainly not compared to some of the earlier years. The Travis/Gellar situation was a real mess up and hopefully a mistake that the writers can learn from moving forward. Other than this, what has been a key frustration this year is the fact that the characters have been following the story rather than the story following the characters. Too many times has Dexter, or one of his co-workers, done something out of the ordinary just as a shortcut to keep the story moving forward. It’s been a waste for the likes of Batista, Quinn & Masuka as they’ve just been left on the subs bench most of the time. Don’t get me wrong though it’s not all been bad there have been some really good stand alone episodes, Just Let Go in particular was the episode of the season for me and one of the best in recent years. Also, Mos Def’s Brother Sam was great and the religious slant on things was executed, on the most part, pretty well.

As Dexter has been commissioned for a further two seasons it’s possible to assume that the finishing line could be in sight for the series. Having Debs find out the truth about Dexter was such a great move and could really light the fuse for an explosive couple of seasons. Who knows what might happen, one thing is for sure though, things are going to get very interesting.

8/10

Scene of the Episode – The final 10 seconds of the series was pure brilliance. In many ways it had to happen to keep the show heading in the right direction, despite a bad season Dexter is still one of the best shows on TV and this scene shows why it isn’t afraid to shake things up once in a while.

Reviewed by Rich Jepson, cult TV enthusiast and author of 24: Terrorism Through Television.