How Dexter Should Have Ended — Ali Shukri Amin
First published on my writing site: www.aliamin.info/2026/10/how-dexter-should-have-ended/
By Ali Shukri Amin. I first wrote this as a comment on r/Dexter, in the thread “How would you prefer the conclusion of Dexter for good.”, copied here as written.
Dexter should’ve gotten to go to Argentina with Hannah & Harrison. He demonstrated in Iron Lake that he can go without killing. That should’ve been the ending. The nonsense with Deb and the hurricane was atrocious. The end of Iron Lake with Harrison shooting him was also atrocious.
Dexter is someone who was dealt a horrible hand by criminals & Harry, raised not to deal with his trauma, and his worst impulses exploited. Despite this, he spent his entire life striving to be increasingly more ethical and more fully actualized while having almost no one who could fully support him.
I don’t see why people think Dexter needs to be one-upped or “accept responsibility.” He has a compulsion to kill, funnels it only towards the worst criminals who have beaten the system, and even then is constantly grappling with this.
Whatever ending it is, whether he gets caught or not, he should have full dignity and it should be his choice. Not like the end of the original series or Iron Lake. Yes he won’t have his love story with Hannah, the only person who truly understood him, but he can find acceptance and love in Harrison.
Posted October 5, 2026. Read it on Reddit.
From another thread: “Who are the top 3 best people that came in Dexters life?”
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Deb, supported, loved, & cared for Dexter more or less unconditionally until she found out he was a serial killer but even then came back to him.
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Hannah, the one and only person who saw Dexter for who he is and loved him unconditionally. The only reason she isn’t #1 is how late she comes into his life and how short the relationship is. I really hated Dexter abandoning her and her dying off screen.
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Rita, while she could never understand the Bay Harbor Butcher she loved the parts of Dexter she did know.
Harry may have cared for Dexter in his own way but he’s also a major contributor in turning Dexter into a serial killer. As we see in New Blood, Dexter can actually control his urge to kill more or less entirely (10+ years). In Original Sin he literally tells Dexter that he was born a monster to avoid accepting responsibility for his mother’s death. Harry is very complex and, ultimately, Dexter would never have become a serial killer if his mother hadn’t met Harry.
Harrison would be on the list but they bizarrely had him shoot his dad.
Posted October 1, 2026. Read it on Reddit.
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