"Dexter" put out some seriously mind-blowing episodes in its original 96-episode run, but
unfortunately, they can't all be good.
These are the best and worst rated episodes of the entire series, according to IMDb.
The finale of Season 4 remains a shocking hour of television, featuring one of the most
tragic deaths in the entire series.
Season 4 follows Dexter's pursuit of the Trinity Killer, aka Arthur Mitchell, a church deacon
who uses building sites in ritualized murders.
Initially, law enforcement only believes him to have committed three murders.
But in this episode, they discover a fourth victim in a young boy who was kidnapped and
buried alive under the fresh concrete of church housing.
As if that's not enough, Dexter's mishandling of Arthur Mitchell earlier in the season leads
to Trinity murdering Dexter's wife Rita, leaving baby Harrison in her blood.
While Arthur does end up on Dexter's slab, the price isn't worth it.
This is also the episode where Deb discovers that Dexter is the Ice Truck Killer's brother,
which leads to her uncovering her brother's real identity.
It's no wonder this is considered one of the best episodes of the show.
One of the things that makes "Dexter" so powerful is Dexter Morgan's ongoing relationship with
his dead father, Harry, who acts as a ghostly guide in many episodes.
But in "Nebraska," Harry is replaced with Dexter's brother Brian Moser, the Ice Truck
Killer, who encourages Dexter's worst impulses.
It's uncomfortable to watch, and not in a good way.
Dexter discovers the Trinity Killer's daughter, Rebecca, killed herself in a bathtub, and
his wife Sally has been found bludgeoned to death.
Assuming that the Trinity Killer's son, Jonah, has taken up his father's mantle, Dexter drives
from Florida to Nebraska to confront Jonah and kill him.
But when he finds out that Rebecca killed herself because of their mother's abuse and
Jonah beat his mother to death in retaliation, Dexter lets Jonah live.
Add in the convoluted Travis Marshall plot, the entrance of Masuka's creepy Dexter-obsessed
intern Louis Greene, and Deb's odd relationship drama, and this installment is a true flop.
Season 1 of "Dexter" closes with a string of horrifying reveals and events.
In "Born Free," Deb has been kidnapped by the Ice Truck Killer, Brian Moser, who also
happens to be her fiancé, under the name Rudy Cooper.
Dexter finds out that Brian is his brother, and that Brian didn't get adopted alongside
him because Harry Morgan believed Brian would grow up to be dangerously disturbed by his
memory of their mother's dismemberment.
This turns out to be true: Brian has spent a great deal of his life institutionalized,
before learning to hide his issues and start a career in medicine.
Not only is this an incredibly tense episode, as Brian offers Deb to Dexter on a slab, it's
also key to Dexter's character development: He chooses his adopted sister over his blood
brother.
The episode ends with Dexter giving the Ice Truck Killer a dose of his own medicine.
It will surprise absolutely nobody that the worst episodes of "Dexter" come almost entirely
from the final season.
In this entry we get to know Zach Hamilton, a would-be serial killer who murdered his
father's mistress and plans to kill his father next.
Dexter stops him and straps him to his table.
But, as in "Nebraska," Dexter spares the boy and decides to teach him Harry's code.
This choice makes no sense in the show's broader arc, since Zach is killed by the Brain Surgeon
just a few episodes later.
"A Little Reflection" also throws in a number of clashing narrative arcs.
Masuka flirts with his daughter, Deb's life continues to disintegrate after murdering
LaGuerta, and a new neighbor named Cassie tries and fails to date Dexter.
The first episode of Season 7 is a doozy that marks the beginning of the end.
Season 6 ends with Deb discovering Dexter standing over Travis Marshall's body, about
to stab him.
Season 7 picks up in exactly that same moment, as Dexter tries to explain away the grisly
tableau.
Deb doesn't believe him, but helps him set a fire to cover up their involvement in Marshall's
death anyway.
Eagle-eyed LaGuerta has been mildly suspicious of Dexter for some time, and her Spidey-sense
goes haywire when she finds a blood slide at the scene of the crime matching the Bay
Harbor Butcher's MO.
By the end of the episode, Deb finds Dexter's blood slides and asks him point blank,
"Are you a serial killer?"
"Yes."
This is a vital moment in both Deb and Dexter's narrative arcs, one that shapes new tragedies
on the way.
You'd think that if you were an escaped and most-wanted serial killer with a well-known
face, you'd stay away from the place you were apprehended.
If you must go back, you'd probably change your appearance for protection.
That's just common sense, right?
Well, here lies one of the many problems with "Dress Code".
Hannah McKay is back and still wanted by the police, yet she's done absolutely nothing
to disguise herself.
She doesn't even bother to change her hair color!
"Brave of her to be walking around Miami like that."
It's a distractingly stupid detail, among several others that make this convoluted episode
terrible.
Deb gets deep into soap opera territory, as it's clear her boss is in love with her and
acting like a jealous boyfriend.
Meanwhile, Deb's ex Quinn is pulling away from his girlfriend Jamie, who is also Angel's
sister and Dexter's nanny.
This web of relationships is uncomfortably tangled, and only getting worse.
The penultimate episode of Season 4 is a nailbiter, as Arthur Mitchell quietly discovers who Kyle
Butler actually is: A Miami Metro PD blood spatter analyst named Dexter Morgan.
Suspicious that Kyle might not be who he says he is, Arthur seeks out other Kyle Butlers
in town with murderous results.
Eventually, the Trinity Killer casually strolls through Miami Metro, even stopping to admire
the murder board chronicling all his crimes, before coming face-to-face with Dexter and
calling him by his true name.
"Hello, Dexter Morgan"
This is also the episode when Deb discovers Quinn's girlfriend is actually Trinity's estranged
daughter, and the one who killed Deb's boss and lover, Special Agent Frank Lundy.
It's one of the most tense episodes of the series, and that's why it's one of the best.
The introduction of Dr. Evelyn Vogel in the show's final season undoes much of what we
thought we knew about Dexter and Harry Morgan.
We find out that Dr. Vogel knew Harry and helped him develop the code that shapes Dexter,
making Dr. Vogel Dexter's spiritual mother.
The episode goes on to reveal that the Brain Surgeon is actually Dr. Vogel's son, who faked
his own death as a teenager and has been living under the name Oliver Saxon.
When Dexter pulls a fast one and tries to trap the Brain Surgeon, Saxon gets away.
By the end of the episode, we learn that Dr. Vogel might've been working with Saxon all
along, a double cross that doesn't make sense.
This is one of the show's weakest episodes, when it should be one of the strongest.
John Lithgow's tour-de-force performance as
the Trinity Killer hits several high notes in this episode.
In order to figure out just how such a prolific serial killer could also be an exceptional
family man, Dexter stalks Arthur Mitchell.
In the process, Dexter finds out that Arthur is violent and abusive toward his family behind
closed doors.
Dexter begins to regret saving Arthur when he tries to kill himself.
Little does Dexter know, he'll regret a whole lot more before this season is up.
"Hungry Man" features a key Thanksgiving dinner where Rita ends up kissing their neighbor,
Elliot, which turns into its own drama.
While Rita is kissing Elliot, Dexter is pretending to be Kyle Butler at Arthur Mitchell's house.
He gets into a confrontation with Arthur as he tries to protect the Mitchells after Arthur
breaks his son's finger for damaging his car.
It's a harrowing, tightly-written episode that hints at the devastation the season's
finale will bring.
The penultimate episode of "Dexter" is a shocker, but not in a good way.
Calling back to the show's popular Trinity Killer arc, Dexter attempts to double cross
Oliver Saxon by pretending to be on his side.
It almost works, but what does Dexter do instead of killing the man he's been hunting this
entire season?
He leaves him alive and calls Deb to arrest him instead.
Saxon manages to stab Clayton the bounty hunter, steal his gun, then shoot Deb square in the
stomach.
It's a terrible way to end the story of Debra Morgan, one of the show's most fascinating
and three-dimensional characters.
From the very beginning, the one person who suspects Dexter Morgan is hiding a terrible
secret under his personable veneer is Sergeant James Doakes.
By Episode 9 of Season 2, Doakes finally figures it all out: Dexter Morgan is the Bay Harbor
Butcher.
But, like almost everyone who figures out the truth about Dexter, Doakes leaves just
enough evidence behind for Dexter to spin.
In this case, Dexter's trophy blood slides in the trunk of Doakes' car makes room for
Miami Metro to suspect Doakes.
While Doakes proves to be one of the most brilliant characters on the show, being the
first to ID Dexter, this hour marks the beginning of Doakes' untimely end.
The tension between Dexter and Doakes is extraordinary by this point, and the plot twists are orchestrated
for maximum effect.
The Vogel and Saxon drama continues in this episode, as Dr. Vogel tries to rein in her
psychopathic son.
The traumas that turned young Daniel Vogel into the Brain Surgeon are revealed, which
land oddly when counterbalanced by Dexter planning to move to Argentina with Hannah
and Harrison.
Things get especially weird when Hannah, who still looks exactly the same as her wanted
poster, is recognized by a receptionist at a hospital.
Yes, this increases the tension, but in an annoying way that makes you shake your head,
rather than feel nervous for Dexter and his family.
In the meantime, the Deb-and-Quinn drama continues as Quinn breaks up with Jamie, who verbally
assaults Deb right in the middle of Miami Metro.
It's embarrassing to watch.
Sergeant Doakes may have died at the end of Season 2, but his ghost remains very much
present, especially once LaGuerta's suspicions about Dexter start to bear fruit.
Doakes died with people believing he was the Bay Harbor Butcher, and LaGuerta sees a much-desired
opportunity to clear his name when Dexter goes after Hector Estrada, another key player
in his mother's murder.
Dexter concocts an elaborate plan to frame Estrada for LaGuerta's murder.
In this heart-pounding finale, Deb figures out Dexter's plan and arrives just in time
for LaGuerta to wake up from the sedative.
She begs Deb to kill Dexter, or arrest him.
But since Deb's feelings for Dexter have been revealed to be much more complicated than
a sister's simple love for her adopted brother, she instead saves Dexter and murders innocent
LaGuerta in cold blood.
"Who is Deb now?
Who am I?
Is this a new beginning, or the beginning of the end?"
The series finale is consistently listed as one of the worst endings of all time.
Instead of being able to say a proper goodbye to "Dexter," we spend this last hour watching
Deb die.
After trying to kill Deb once more in the hospital, Saxon is arrested, and Dexter proceeds
to kill him in the police station with a pen.
Dexter sends Hannah off with his son to Buenos Aires, where he insists he will meet them.
All the while, a huge hurricane approaches Miami, prompting Dexter to take Deb off life
support and dump her body where he used to unload his kills before riding into the storm.
Absolutely none of this makes sense.
The last we see of Dexter finds him living as a lumberjack in Oregon.
It's a dreadful and unsatisfying ending for everyone's favorite antihero.
But then again, should serial killers get happy endings?
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