Updated 9/23 at 10:32am
Dexter, Episode 812: "Remember the Monsters?"
Original airdate: September 22, 2013 on Showtime
Spoiler warning: This page contains descriptions of events in this and previous episodes.
Congrats to all those of you who had "Dexter becomes a lumberjack" selected in your Dexter finale pools at work. What did critics think of the concluding seconds and the minutes that came before them in Dexter's series finale? We sample their responses below. Note that if a publication provides a grade or score for the individual episode, it is noted below (converted to our 0-100 scale).
Extremely positive reviews
"The series finale was the best Dexter episode in years. ... It was also one of the strangest episodes in the show's history ... It's like watching a different series, one that was more compelling than the show it served to close."
— James Hibberd / Entertainment Weekly
84 "Sure, there were elements to 'Remember the Monsters?' that smacked of hackiness. ... But about halfway into this finale, the gears switched and the stakes shot up exponentially."
— Matt Fowler / IGN
90 "Dexter's season finale delivered drama and excitement not found in other episodes this season. Or last season. And maybe even the season before that. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it wasn't a complete disappointment."
— Miranda Wicker / TV Fanatic
Positive reviews
"The finale was not without its faults. There were some enormous plot holes ... But the final episode got the big strokes right -- a darkness that the show needed for its ending."
— Andrea Reiher / Zap2it
Mixed/so-so reviews
"I wish the season had taken a different direction earlier on so that tonight's finale could have felt like the event it should have been, instead of the conclusion of another weak season."
— Kelly West / Cinema Blend
"The action unfolds with all manner of finale-absurd nonsense, including a hurricane a'brewin' off the coast of Florida and a very worrisome parceling out of Dexter's young son, Harrison, into the hands of another, albeit apparently former, serial killer, Hannah (Yvonne Strahovski). It ends with Dexter faking his death and fleeing to the Pacific Northwest where, presumably, bad guys had better watch their backs. But the parting scenes between Dexter and Deb, possibly the most powerful sibling bond television has ever seen, gave the show the send-off it deserved."
— Mary McNamara / Los Angeles Times
"So much of the show's swan song was so boring and devoid of urgency, and this finale was mostly the same, with a slight uptick in quality. It was entirely mediocre: typically dumb in spots, but not Season 6 levels of dumb, or even as bad as last week's penultimate episode. People won't be angrily tweeting about it in five years, because it just didn't have any impact at all."
— Cory Barker / TV.com
Negative reviews
"The lamest series finale since 'Seinfeld.'"
— Frazier Moore / Associated Press
0 "It's a feat for a finale to make you regret having watched a single moment of the series, but 'Remember The Monsters' made it look easy."
— Joshua Alston / A.V. Club
"A bizarre series finale that will undoubtedly prove polarizing to the show's substantial fan base. ... In some ways, [it] felt like a cop-out."
— Chuck Barney / Contra Costa Times
"Remember the Monsters? was a final figurative nail in the coffin of this once great creative endeavour."
— Billy Grifter / Den of Geek
"Of all the possible endings, the writers created one of the most boring ones imaginable."
— Nick Harley / Den of Geek (U.S.)
"Would I have preferred for 'Dexter' to close out its run with Dexter's identity exposed and/or with the show admitting that we've been rooting for a villain (albeit someone dealing with even worse villains) all these years? Probably. But at this point I would have settled for anything dramatically interesting on any level."
— Alan Sepinwall / HitFix
"It was all horribly heavy handed, an attempt to inject deep feeling into a show that thrived on playful shallowness."
— Tom Gliatto / People
"It wasn't a great final season for Dexter, and tonight's last episode muffed its chance at a fully satisfying conclusion by falling into the trap of one twist too many."
— Mitch Salem / ShowBuzzDaily
"The final season of Dexter has been problematic, to say the least. ... But nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for the absolute swing and miss that was the final scene of 'Remember The Monsters?'"
— James Queally / Star-Ledger
"None of this rang true for me. I can't think of any reason why Dexter joining them in Argentina wouldn't have been the better choice, as everybody would have been much happier and much safer."
— Luke Gelineau / TV Equals
"'Dexter' had been running on creative fumes the past few seasons, and Sunday night's series finale — despite its emotional flourishes — merely underscored that this was a series well past its expiration date."
— Brian Lowry / Variety
"As the closing scene faded from my television screen, my reaction wasn't shock or sadness. It was anger. This is not a violent anger. It's more fueled by outrage than actual rage. It's the kind of anger you feel after investing so much time into a show that you once loved, only to watch it fizzle out in the most unsatisfying of ways."
— Richard Rys / Vulture
What do you think?
What did you think of last night's finale of Dexter? Are you satisfied with the way the series ended? Let us know in the comments section below.
