Entertainment Weekly
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This episode was really unlike any we’ve seen on the Показать before. How much time and money was put into this час compared to a typical week?
SCOTT BUCK: It was considerably more. There were a lot of visual effects that are very costly and then to go out and shoot in Astoria added to our price tag. But it was our final episode and Showtime was very accommodating. Our normal eight days of production became 10 days.
Before the season started, Ты сказал(-а) the core idea behind this finale has been in the works for years. What was the original concept?
BUCK: The kernel idea were the last few scenes. They were what I pitched a few years ago. The main idea was Декстер is forced to kill Debra. And there are many ways that could happen. But those final scenes were pretty much unchanged.
SARA COLLETON: From the very beginning the paradox was here’s a guy who doesn’t feel he’s a human being, who has to fake it. But in faking it, he’s a better brother, boyfriend, colleague that most real people. People think of him as a monster, but he yearns to be human. We’ve seen him go вперед on this journey every year. Now we found out what the final price was. What sums up the entire journey was the scene on balcony of his apartment before going on the лодка to put Deb down — that’s horrible to say aloud. The voiceover: “For so long all I wanted was to feel like other people … now that I do just want it to stop.” It’s the horrible awareness of what it was to be a human being and how overwhelming that is for him. His punishment is banishment. He sends himself into exile. Killing himself is too easy. When he turns and looks into the camera at the end he’s stripped everything away.
Were there any other versions of the ending that Ты rejected?
BUCK: The only real variation was what he would be doing. I knew he would be in a self-imposed prison that would be as far from Miami as possible. We’d find him working in some solitary environment where even if other people were around he would make no contact and not talk to anyone. We would follow him Главная and he would have no human contact.
In a way that’s his new code — avoiding human contact.
BUCK: Yes. For us, that’s the tragedy. The one thing we felt Декстер wanted еще than anything was human connections. Even in the first season we see him trying to get with Rudy. Now that he’s finally made that journey and he’s almost poised to have a real human life, he has to give all that up to save Harrison and Hannah.
COLLETON: He went into an absolute shutdown. He no longer has even his voiceover.
Why was it important to end the Показать this way?
BUCK: It seemed like the ending that was most justified. In season 1, Ты saw this guy who was so compartmentalized. The last couple seasons have been about breaking down those walls by having his son and his relationship with Hannah and having Deb discover who he is. Still he was able to justify what he did. We felt it took the death of the one person he cared most about to really look at himself. [His fate] wasn’t something that happened to him but his decision. He had to медведь the burden of deciding his own fate.
Deb’s death is interesting choice because, for all intents and purposes, Deb basically “dies” off screen when she has her stroke and goes into a coma.
BUCK: In some ways. But I think we all feel the real moment is when Декстер hits that button. We also did it that way because in some ways it’s a little еще shocking.
COLLETON: In their goodbye neither knows that they’re saying goodbye. I so admired [Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall] because they never let that this was their last scene slip through. They just tossed it off in a wonderful way. I really do think when Dex walks out of her room [viewers are going to] think everything is fine with Deb. But she doesn’t die off screen. When she takes her off life support she’s very much a presence there. I feel that’s what she wants. I would hope if it ever happen to me I’d have a big brother who would take that pain onto himself.
In a way, Deb sort of gets what she’s wanted for most of the season.
BUCK: That’s true in a way. There’s one point where she wanted exactly that. But she makes a turn two-thirds through the season. Things are looking up for her. She was seeing a possibility for happiness. The death she may have wanted at one point was the last thing she wants right now.
It’s also surprising that Miami Metro never realized Dexter’s secret. Everybody expected them to figure things out in the final season.
BUCK: We toyed with that idea, but it felt off-point. The story was ultimately about Dexter’s personal journey. We have one moment in that interrogation room with Quinn and Batista. Watching the tape, Quinn has known all along that there was еще there to Dexter. Батиста is seeing a hint of the darker Dexter. There was a hint in that moment. But we didn’t want to blow it all up and revel he’s a serial killer.
But a Фан gripe was the season had Декстер dispatching new threats like in a typical season rather than a sense of that the Показать was arcing toward a finale with Dex’s world unraveling.
BUCK: It felt like we had done that with LaGuerta last season and with Lundy in season 2. I felt like it ran the risk of feeling repetitious and familiar.
COLLETON: Going that way felt pedestrian to me. I don’t know how else to put it. Years назад it was discussed and tabled as a very predictable non-interesting way to go.
The writers seemed to have a higher opinion of Hannah as a suitable mother for Harrison than the fans. Couldn’t Dex’s criticism of himself — about being toxic everybody around him — be сказал(-а) about Hannah too?
BUCK: I don’t think so. We wanted to believe Harrison would be happy and безопасно, сейф and well taken care of. Декстер judges people on a different level. That Hannah is a killer, Dex understands that. She’s a different kind of killer. She kills for self protection. That protection now applies to Harrison. Декстер believes she will lay her life on the line for Harrison.
Have to ask: How did Dex get from his лодка to the берег in the middle of a hurricane?
BUCK: Hopefully it’s not a Вопрос that will be examined too closely. The Показать has always been a half step away from reality; it’s a hyper-reality. We established there is an emergency life рафт, плот with an outboard motor on the boat. He could have gotten in the рафт, плот and made it safely to shore.
The fade to black after Hannah starts to take Harrison for ice cream before we find out what happened to Декстер — I’m sure that had some Фаны starting to howl at their screens. Was that a deliberate fake out?
BUCK: It was mostly to establish that to the rest of the world everybody thinks Dex is dead. We the audience are the only ones privy to the fact that he’s alive.
The episode felt еще serious, focused and emotional than Декстер normally is. But it made me wonder why the Показать doesn’t normally have that grounded tone.
BUCK: That’s interesting. I’m glad Ты liked it. The Показать started out in such a different place. The first season, the level of reality was еще suspended. We felt like we were gradually making it еще real. Michael always сказал(-а) about the ending, ‘Let’s make it real, let’s deal with it еще realistically.’ I think it was еще a gradual Переместить rather than a sudden turn at the end of the final season.
COLLETON: To me, it feels very much like a Декстер episode. This season led up to this and I feel the last few episodes feel like parts of a whole.
I found the episode compelling partly because there was so little voiceover and no Ghost Harry to explain what Dex was thinking. Was that deliberate to ditch those devices? Should Ты have done that sooner?
BUCK: I don’t know. It’s a little late to ask. It’s certainly a compelling question. We very purposely had Dex say goodbye to Harry in Назад episode and made a conscious decisions to do very little voiceover, particularly in those final scenes. I didn’t want any voiceover to explain things. I didn’t even want any music.
COLLETON: We have slowly this year, very consciously, stripped out a lot of voiceover. Very much so compared to previously years. It was very important to have very little of it at the end and to let the emotion of the moment speak for itself. In episode 10, when Декстер comes in and finds Dr. Vogel dead, what he’s feeling is on his face — normally we’d put voiceover, but we very consciously did not. At this point the audience knows what he’s thinking.
What flipped the switch for Декстер in the penultimate episode in terms of no longer wanting to kill? Is it simply because he loves Hannah?
BUCK: It’s really an accumulation of everything that’s he’s experienced over the years. He finally has a woman who understands him and they’re incredibly physically attracted to each other. And there’s Harrison.
Ghost Harry saying goodbye also felt a bit abrupt; it didn’t feel like there were scenes with Harry that really led up to that decision.
COLLETON: I think there’s a scene coming out of Vogel’s house, about three episodes back, where Harry says Dex is feeling a stronger pull. If Ты really go back he foreshadows that Декстер doesn’t yet recognize that there’s an equal или stronger pull than the dark passenger. The last episode couldn’t be just a series of goodbyes. That moment is Harry realizing he’s no longer needed.
Some Фаны were disappointed by this season. Were Ты happy with the episodes leading up to the finale?
BUCK: Even if i don’t write an episode, I’m still in charge. I take full responsibility. We all work cohesively as a team. If people think the final episode stood out, it’s probably because it’s been sitting in my mind for so long. It’s a difficult Вопрос to answer.
COLLETON: I think some episodes worked better than others. But as a whole the Deb and Vogel story lines worked and we wanted to change it up and have the big bad hide in plain sight. Darri Ingolfsson, who plays Saxon, he’s fabulous once Ты realize [he's the brain surgeon]. The scene where he comes to Dexter’s apartment is a wonderful scene. I try not to read any of the blogs because then I become paralyzed. If they knew how much we agonized internally about everything … if we then tried to factor in an assortment of opinions it would dilute the process.
My suspicion was Ты guys got kind of screwed by having to rush the season to get it ready in time for a premiere дата that was months ahead of schedule in order for Showtime to use the Показать to promote луч, рэй Donovan rather than air in the fall like usual.
BUCK: A little bit. It certainly affected us in some ways. We basically did two seasons back to back. Normally what happens is Ты take a longer break and come in filled with ideas. We did absolutely the best we could. Ultimately it was my decisions to do that, as well. [Showtime entertainment president] David Nevins asked if we could do this and I сказал(-а) we could. Hopefully the season didn’t suffer for it.
COLLETON: I think we rose to the challenge. Would we have liked to have еще time? Yes. But we had arced out the two years, so it wasn’t like we had to start at the very beginning. We would have loved to had еще time before we started shooting. But once we did start shooting it was the same schedule.
One point of contention was some of the supporting story lines. Like why spend time with Masuka and his daughter and Quinn taking the sergeants exam in the final season?
BUCK: We wanted to give some indication of where these characters were going. We wanted to give them all a bit of resolution toward the end. Masuka was a very small story, it took up a small amount of screen time. This is probably the most sexist character most of us have ever seen and for him to have his first honest relationship with woman and have that be his daughter felt interesting. As for as Quinn, we’re trying to spend time with characters that have been with us for a long time and we’re never going to see again.
Since Hannah’s a wanted fugitive, couldn’t she have at least put on a ball кепка, колпачок when walking around Miami?
BUCK: We played with the idea of dyeing her hair. In the research we did on fugitives we learned there are countless fugitives out there just walking around that nobody is really looking for. There aren’t funds to hunt down every one of them — particularly Hannah, as she hasn’t been convicted of a crime. She’s not high priority. We put her in sunglasses. Otherwise we didn’t want to call еще attention to it.
So what is the spin-off concept that Nevins has been hinting about?
BUCK: No concept whatsoever.
Really?
BUCK: Absolutely not. I’m going to sit down with Showtime and discuss the possibility. But we haven’t сказал(-а) a single word about it.
The rumor for a while was the spin-off would звезда Deb. Was that ever a possibility?
BUCK: Never any truth to that. But we sort of played with that idea once that rumor was out there because I think it was beneficial for people to think we were going that direction.
Would Michael C. Hall have any involvement in a spin-off?
BUCK: No idea. Who knows what the future of Декстер is?
COLLETON: Right now there’s nothing planned. It couldn’t happen without Michael C. Hall wanting to come back. And I think he’s enjoying this new part of his life.
Scott, Ты referenced that we’ll never see Quinn again. So is it безопасно, сейф to assume any spin-off would not use the current supporting cast?
BUCK: I believe that’s most likely. We won’t see the current cast again.
What’s your plan for when the finale airs? Are Ты going to read viewer reactions?
BUCK: It’s always a little scary, but I think it would be disrespectful to not hear what people are saying.
What would Ты like Dexter’s impact to be?
COLLETON: If Декстер has made anybody really stop and think about their behavior, that would make me very happy.
Tv Line
TVLINE | Was there ever a scenario planned in which Декстер actually dies?
No, and the reason there wasn’t is that it’s not a fitting enough punishment for him. Going into exile away from everything that he knows and has become attached [to] in his whole infrastructure is a еще fitting punishment for what his journey toward being a human being has cost everyone around him. If the central idea from the pilot on was: Here’s a guy who thinks of himself as a monster and yet yearns to be human… We’ve seen him on this journey – he started off as faking it but then became real somewhere along the line – and we’ve seen year-to-year what this journey has cost him. So, in the finale, the final price comes through… If he had listened to the Dark Passenger and stuck to the Code, he would never have left Saxon, he wouldn’t have thought that he didn’t need to kill, that he’s got a stronger pull. Deb, who was his touchstone and soulmate, died — and this was the only fitting punishment. He banishes himself, if Ты will, into exile. When he looks into the camera in the end [of the finale], the rest is silence; there’s not even a voiceover there anymore. It’s just emptiness… Committing suicide is too easy; that’s letting himself off the hook.
TVLINE | It seems as though the writers approached the penultimate episode as Dexter’s happy ending and then the series finale as his realistic ending.
Yes! And that’s the cost of being a human being. Do Ты know how much easier it is to be a sociopath, and not to think and not to have anxiety and not to have hesitation или to love? I’m hoping that in addition to it making sense for Dexter’s specific journey, it is an analysis или a look at how hard it is to be a human being.
TVLINE | Is the takeaway meant to be that he’s no longer killing, but rather just living his life in solitude?
Yes. Anything that was a part of his life that gave it meaning is gone. He’s banished himself as far away from Miami and anyone he’s loved.
TVLINE | What went into having Декстер look directly at the camera in the final shot?
It’s that it’s just silence. There’s always been so much that you’ve been able to read into Декстер – twice before in the series, he looked into the camera, but always with a voiceover. And here he’s just got nothing. Nothingness. The rest is silent. Empty.
TVLINE | Was it always the plan for Deb to die?
Well, not from год 1, but certainly two years назад when we mapped this out. Декстер [in the finale] is as close to being a human being as possible – he’s within a plane ride of achieving his happiness — but he hesitates that one moment. And Deb, who is the closest to him of anyone, [suffers].
TVLINE | Were there any other possible scenarios in which Декстер “kills” Deb, other than him taking her off life support?
That was always [planned]. In a completely fully-aware [moment] of love, at his most human, he does something that he’s had to do a million times: to take someone’s life. That’s the irony of that. There is a certain bravery because she’s living as a vegetable – I hope that if that ever happens to me I have a brother who loves me enough to take me off life support. But Dexter’s now aware enough as a human being that the guilt and the punishment of that will last a lifetime.
TVLINE | What, if any, alternate endings were thrown around the writers’ room? Did Ты always envision he’d end up where he ended up the way he ended up there?
[There was] never [an alternate ending]. We felt that it would be really cheating not to have an ending that was specific to what we wanted to say… This is always as we have planned it. I’m sure there will be a great bit of discussion and controversy about it, but for those of us who have been involved with the Показать from the very beginning, it feels — and it felt — right.
TVLINE | Was there any concern that Dexter‘s rabid fanbase might take issue with the lack of any real closure on some of the storylines? For example, the manhunt that would inevitably happen for Harrison and Hannah, или the fallout from Декстер taking Deb from the hospital, etc.
All of those beats were fully discussed
[Showrunner] Scott Buck and [executive producer] Manny Coto, they nailed [the finale] in the first draft… There has to be a certain degree of ambiguity, because we can’t tie up [everything]. There was so much to do in a one-hour episode – I know people will wonder what’s going to happen to Quinn and Harrison and Hannah and everyone, but this has always been Dexter’s story. All of those things will be left to chew over, but we very specifically didn’t feel that those needed to be wrapped up.
TVLINE | Talk about the brilliantly loaded looks Quinn shot Dexter’s way after watching him kill Saxon.
Quinn’s always thought that there’s еще to Декстер than meets the eye and that maybe he’s shaved off a few corners, but I don’t think it’s ever occurred to Quinn the extent of Dexter’s nocturnal journeys – and certainly not that he’s the бухта, залив Harbor Butcher. But those looks are that Quinn completely knew that Декстер went in there with the intention to — and did indeed — kill Saxon. And Quinn absolutely approves. Finally, at this moment where their relationship is over, they have this relationship of mutual respect.
TVLINE | Was your understanding that Hannah believes Декстер is in fact dead?
Oh, I think she believes it. She knows that the hurricane was bearing down. At that moment, she believes that the reason she hasn’t heard from Декстер is because he was Остаться в живых in the storm.
TVLINE | Any significance to Deb’s focus on hiking before she died?
She’s drugged up and coming out of it, so she was having weird thoughts. She’s already thinking about when she comes down to visit them in Argentina because there are mountains there.
TVLINE | Were any Deb/Dex scenes from Назад seasons in contention to use in place of the newly shot flashback?
Nooo, because we wanted it to be about Harrison’s birth in the hospital and about the responsibilities of being a big brother and a father – which inform his decision to [kill Deb]. When he was driven just by the Code and the Dark Passenger, he could have just taken out the life support, but as a fully aware human being, he’s aware of the consequences and what the cost will be. But he loves his sister enough to know that he cannot leave her behind.
TVLINE | So, we now know that a potential spin-off likely won’t center on Deb или Kenny Johnson’s dead U.S. Marshall. Was there ever actual discussion about centering the project on either of those characters?
It was amusing еще than anything. We would hear something about a U.S. Marshall spin-off или a Deb spin-off and we would laugh amongst ourselves, wondering where these ideas were coming from. We just wanted to complete the series; eight years is a long time.
TVLINE | Is there any one thing in this finale that you’re most proud of?
I Любовь Dexter’s sum-up of his eight-year journey, before he goes in and knows he’s got to disconnect Deb’s life support: “As much as I may have pretended otherwise, for so long all I’ve wanted was to be like other people, to feel what they felt… Now that I do, I just want it to stop.” It has such a human feeling, the pain of being alive, and he feels it so acutely. It’s a beautifully written piece of voiceover that sums up the entire series…. To me that’s a very powerful moment where I understand that he understands what all of this has cost, and what he’s giving up.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This episode was really unlike any we’ve seen on the Показать before. How much time and money was put into this час compared to a typical week?
SCOTT BUCK: It was considerably more. There were a lot of visual effects that are very costly and then to go out and shoot in Astoria added to our price tag. But it was our final episode and Showtime was very accommodating. Our normal eight days of production became 10 days.
Before the season started, Ты сказал(-а) the core idea behind this finale has been in the works for years. What was the original concept?
BUCK: The kernel idea were the last few scenes. They were what I pitched a few years ago. The main idea was Декстер is forced to kill Debra. And there are many ways that could happen. But those final scenes were pretty much unchanged.
SARA COLLETON: From the very beginning the paradox was here’s a guy who doesn’t feel he’s a human being, who has to fake it. But in faking it, he’s a better brother, boyfriend, colleague that most real people. People think of him as a monster, but he yearns to be human. We’ve seen him go вперед on this journey every year. Now we found out what the final price was. What sums up the entire journey was the scene on balcony of his apartment before going on the лодка to put Deb down — that’s horrible to say aloud. The voiceover: “For so long all I wanted was to feel like other people … now that I do just want it to stop.” It’s the horrible awareness of what it was to be a human being and how overwhelming that is for him. His punishment is banishment. He sends himself into exile. Killing himself is too easy. When he turns and looks into the camera at the end he’s stripped everything away.
Were there any other versions of the ending that Ты rejected?
BUCK: The only real variation was what he would be doing. I knew he would be in a self-imposed prison that would be as far from Miami as possible. We’d find him working in some solitary environment where even if other people were around he would make no contact and not talk to anyone. We would follow him Главная and he would have no human contact.
In a way that’s his new code — avoiding human contact.
BUCK: Yes. For us, that’s the tragedy. The one thing we felt Декстер wanted еще than anything was human connections. Even in the first season we see him trying to get with Rudy. Now that he’s finally made that journey and he’s almost poised to have a real human life, he has to give all that up to save Harrison and Hannah.
COLLETON: He went into an absolute shutdown. He no longer has even his voiceover.
Why was it important to end the Показать this way?
BUCK: It seemed like the ending that was most justified. In season 1, Ты saw this guy who was so compartmentalized. The last couple seasons have been about breaking down those walls by having his son and his relationship with Hannah and having Deb discover who he is. Still he was able to justify what he did. We felt it took the death of the one person he cared most about to really look at himself. [His fate] wasn’t something that happened to him but his decision. He had to медведь the burden of deciding his own fate.
Deb’s death is interesting choice because, for all intents and purposes, Deb basically “dies” off screen when she has her stroke and goes into a coma.
BUCK: In some ways. But I think we all feel the real moment is when Декстер hits that button. We also did it that way because in some ways it’s a little еще shocking.
COLLETON: In their goodbye neither knows that they’re saying goodbye. I so admired [Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall] because they never let that this was their last scene slip through. They just tossed it off in a wonderful way. I really do think when Dex walks out of her room [viewers are going to] think everything is fine with Deb. But she doesn’t die off screen. When she takes her off life support she’s very much a presence there. I feel that’s what she wants. I would hope if it ever happen to me I’d have a big brother who would take that pain onto himself.
In a way, Deb sort of gets what she’s wanted for most of the season.
BUCK: That’s true in a way. There’s one point where she wanted exactly that. But she makes a turn two-thirds through the season. Things are looking up for her. She was seeing a possibility for happiness. The death she may have wanted at one point was the last thing she wants right now.
It’s also surprising that Miami Metro never realized Dexter’s secret. Everybody expected them to figure things out in the final season.
BUCK: We toyed with that idea, but it felt off-point. The story was ultimately about Dexter’s personal journey. We have one moment in that interrogation room with Quinn and Batista. Watching the tape, Quinn has known all along that there was еще there to Dexter. Батиста is seeing a hint of the darker Dexter. There was a hint in that moment. But we didn’t want to blow it all up and revel he’s a serial killer.
But a Фан gripe was the season had Декстер dispatching new threats like in a typical season rather than a sense of that the Показать was arcing toward a finale with Dex’s world unraveling.
BUCK: It felt like we had done that with LaGuerta last season and with Lundy in season 2. I felt like it ran the risk of feeling repetitious and familiar.
COLLETON: Going that way felt pedestrian to me. I don’t know how else to put it. Years назад it was discussed and tabled as a very predictable non-interesting way to go.
The writers seemed to have a higher opinion of Hannah as a suitable mother for Harrison than the fans. Couldn’t Dex’s criticism of himself — about being toxic everybody around him — be сказал(-а) about Hannah too?
BUCK: I don’t think so. We wanted to believe Harrison would be happy and безопасно, сейф and well taken care of. Декстер judges people on a different level. That Hannah is a killer, Dex understands that. She’s a different kind of killer. She kills for self protection. That protection now applies to Harrison. Декстер believes she will lay her life on the line for Harrison.
Have to ask: How did Dex get from his лодка to the берег in the middle of a hurricane?
BUCK: Hopefully it’s not a Вопрос that will be examined too closely. The Показать has always been a half step away from reality; it’s a hyper-reality. We established there is an emergency life рафт, плот with an outboard motor on the boat. He could have gotten in the рафт, плот and made it safely to shore.
The fade to black after Hannah starts to take Harrison for ice cream before we find out what happened to Декстер — I’m sure that had some Фаны starting to howl at their screens. Was that a deliberate fake out?
BUCK: It was mostly to establish that to the rest of the world everybody thinks Dex is dead. We the audience are the only ones privy to the fact that he’s alive.
The episode felt еще serious, focused and emotional than Декстер normally is. But it made me wonder why the Показать doesn’t normally have that grounded tone.
BUCK: That’s interesting. I’m glad Ты liked it. The Показать started out in such a different place. The first season, the level of reality was еще suspended. We felt like we were gradually making it еще real. Michael always сказал(-а) about the ending, ‘Let’s make it real, let’s deal with it еще realistically.’ I think it was еще a gradual Переместить rather than a sudden turn at the end of the final season.
COLLETON: To me, it feels very much like a Декстер episode. This season led up to this and I feel the last few episodes feel like parts of a whole.
I found the episode compelling partly because there was so little voiceover and no Ghost Harry to explain what Dex was thinking. Was that deliberate to ditch those devices? Should Ты have done that sooner?
BUCK: I don’t know. It’s a little late to ask. It’s certainly a compelling question. We very purposely had Dex say goodbye to Harry in Назад episode and made a conscious decisions to do very little voiceover, particularly in those final scenes. I didn’t want any voiceover to explain things. I didn’t even want any music.
COLLETON: We have slowly this year, very consciously, stripped out a lot of voiceover. Very much so compared to previously years. It was very important to have very little of it at the end and to let the emotion of the moment speak for itself. In episode 10, when Декстер comes in and finds Dr. Vogel dead, what he’s feeling is on his face — normally we’d put voiceover, but we very consciously did not. At this point the audience knows what he’s thinking.
What flipped the switch for Декстер in the penultimate episode in terms of no longer wanting to kill? Is it simply because he loves Hannah?
BUCK: It’s really an accumulation of everything that’s he’s experienced over the years. He finally has a woman who understands him and they’re incredibly physically attracted to each other. And there’s Harrison.
Ghost Harry saying goodbye also felt a bit abrupt; it didn’t feel like there were scenes with Harry that really led up to that decision.
COLLETON: I think there’s a scene coming out of Vogel’s house, about three episodes back, where Harry says Dex is feeling a stronger pull. If Ты really go back he foreshadows that Декстер doesn’t yet recognize that there’s an equal или stronger pull than the dark passenger. The last episode couldn’t be just a series of goodbyes. That moment is Harry realizing he’s no longer needed.
Some Фаны were disappointed by this season. Were Ты happy with the episodes leading up to the finale?
BUCK: Even if i don’t write an episode, I’m still in charge. I take full responsibility. We all work cohesively as a team. If people think the final episode stood out, it’s probably because it’s been sitting in my mind for so long. It’s a difficult Вопрос to answer.
COLLETON: I think some episodes worked better than others. But as a whole the Deb and Vogel story lines worked and we wanted to change it up and have the big bad hide in plain sight. Darri Ingolfsson, who plays Saxon, he’s fabulous once Ты realize [he's the brain surgeon]. The scene where he comes to Dexter’s apartment is a wonderful scene. I try not to read any of the blogs because then I become paralyzed. If they knew how much we agonized internally about everything … if we then tried to factor in an assortment of opinions it would dilute the process.
My suspicion was Ты guys got kind of screwed by having to rush the season to get it ready in time for a premiere дата that was months ahead of schedule in order for Showtime to use the Показать to promote луч, рэй Donovan rather than air in the fall like usual.
BUCK: A little bit. It certainly affected us in some ways. We basically did two seasons back to back. Normally what happens is Ты take a longer break and come in filled with ideas. We did absolutely the best we could. Ultimately it was my decisions to do that, as well. [Showtime entertainment president] David Nevins asked if we could do this and I сказал(-а) we could. Hopefully the season didn’t suffer for it.
COLLETON: I think we rose to the challenge. Would we have liked to have еще time? Yes. But we had arced out the two years, so it wasn’t like we had to start at the very beginning. We would have loved to had еще time before we started shooting. But once we did start shooting it was the same schedule.
One point of contention was some of the supporting story lines. Like why spend time with Masuka and his daughter and Quinn taking the sergeants exam in the final season?
BUCK: We wanted to give some indication of where these characters were going. We wanted to give them all a bit of resolution toward the end. Masuka was a very small story, it took up a small amount of screen time. This is probably the most sexist character most of us have ever seen and for him to have his first honest relationship with woman and have that be his daughter felt interesting. As for as Quinn, we’re trying to spend time with characters that have been with us for a long time and we’re never going to see again.
Since Hannah’s a wanted fugitive, couldn’t she have at least put on a ball кепка, колпачок when walking around Miami?
BUCK: We played with the idea of dyeing her hair. In the research we did on fugitives we learned there are countless fugitives out there just walking around that nobody is really looking for. There aren’t funds to hunt down every one of them — particularly Hannah, as she hasn’t been convicted of a crime. She’s not high priority. We put her in sunglasses. Otherwise we didn’t want to call еще attention to it.
So what is the spin-off concept that Nevins has been hinting about?
BUCK: No concept whatsoever.
Really?
BUCK: Absolutely not. I’m going to sit down with Showtime and discuss the possibility. But we haven’t сказал(-а) a single word about it.
The rumor for a while was the spin-off would звезда Deb. Was that ever a possibility?
BUCK: Never any truth to that. But we sort of played with that idea once that rumor was out there because I think it was beneficial for people to think we were going that direction.
Would Michael C. Hall have any involvement in a spin-off?
BUCK: No idea. Who knows what the future of Декстер is?
COLLETON: Right now there’s nothing planned. It couldn’t happen without Michael C. Hall wanting to come back. And I think he’s enjoying this new part of his life.
Scott, Ты referenced that we’ll never see Quinn again. So is it безопасно, сейф to assume any spin-off would not use the current supporting cast?
BUCK: I believe that’s most likely. We won’t see the current cast again.
What’s your plan for when the finale airs? Are Ты going to read viewer reactions?
BUCK: It’s always a little scary, but I think it would be disrespectful to not hear what people are saying.
What would Ты like Dexter’s impact to be?
COLLETON: If Декстер has made anybody really stop and think about their behavior, that would make me very happy.
Tv Line
TVLINE | Was there ever a scenario planned in which Декстер actually dies?
No, and the reason there wasn’t is that it’s not a fitting enough punishment for him. Going into exile away from everything that he knows and has become attached [to] in his whole infrastructure is a еще fitting punishment for what his journey toward being a human being has cost everyone around him. If the central idea from the pilot on was: Here’s a guy who thinks of himself as a monster and yet yearns to be human… We’ve seen him on this journey – he started off as faking it but then became real somewhere along the line – and we’ve seen year-to-year what this journey has cost him. So, in the finale, the final price comes through… If he had listened to the Dark Passenger and stuck to the Code, he would never have left Saxon, he wouldn’t have thought that he didn’t need to kill, that he’s got a stronger pull. Deb, who was his touchstone and soulmate, died — and this was the only fitting punishment. He banishes himself, if Ты will, into exile. When he looks into the camera in the end [of the finale], the rest is silence; there’s not even a voiceover there anymore. It’s just emptiness… Committing suicide is too easy; that’s letting himself off the hook.
TVLINE | It seems as though the writers approached the penultimate episode as Dexter’s happy ending and then the series finale as his realistic ending.
Yes! And that’s the cost of being a human being. Do Ты know how much easier it is to be a sociopath, and not to think and not to have anxiety and not to have hesitation или to love? I’m hoping that in addition to it making sense for Dexter’s specific journey, it is an analysis или a look at how hard it is to be a human being.
TVLINE | Is the takeaway meant to be that he’s no longer killing, but rather just living his life in solitude?
Yes. Anything that was a part of his life that gave it meaning is gone. He’s banished himself as far away from Miami and anyone he’s loved.
TVLINE | What went into having Декстер look directly at the camera in the final shot?
It’s that it’s just silence. There’s always been so much that you’ve been able to read into Декстер – twice before in the series, he looked into the camera, but always with a voiceover. And here he’s just got nothing. Nothingness. The rest is silent. Empty.
TVLINE | Was it always the plan for Deb to die?
Well, not from год 1, but certainly two years назад when we mapped this out. Декстер [in the finale] is as close to being a human being as possible – he’s within a plane ride of achieving his happiness — but he hesitates that one moment. And Deb, who is the closest to him of anyone, [suffers].
TVLINE | Were there any other possible scenarios in which Декстер “kills” Deb, other than him taking her off life support?
That was always [planned]. In a completely fully-aware [moment] of love, at his most human, he does something that he’s had to do a million times: to take someone’s life. That’s the irony of that. There is a certain bravery because she’s living as a vegetable – I hope that if that ever happens to me I have a brother who loves me enough to take me off life support. But Dexter’s now aware enough as a human being that the guilt and the punishment of that will last a lifetime.
TVLINE | What, if any, alternate endings were thrown around the writers’ room? Did Ты always envision he’d end up where he ended up the way he ended up there?
[There was] never [an alternate ending]. We felt that it would be really cheating not to have an ending that was specific to what we wanted to say… This is always as we have planned it. I’m sure there will be a great bit of discussion and controversy about it, but for those of us who have been involved with the Показать from the very beginning, it feels — and it felt — right.
TVLINE | Was there any concern that Dexter‘s rabid fanbase might take issue with the lack of any real closure on some of the storylines? For example, the manhunt that would inevitably happen for Harrison and Hannah, или the fallout from Декстер taking Deb from the hospital, etc.
All of those beats were fully discussed
[Showrunner] Scott Buck and [executive producer] Manny Coto, they nailed [the finale] in the first draft… There has to be a certain degree of ambiguity, because we can’t tie up [everything]. There was so much to do in a one-hour episode – I know people will wonder what’s going to happen to Quinn and Harrison and Hannah and everyone, but this has always been Dexter’s story. All of those things will be left to chew over, but we very specifically didn’t feel that those needed to be wrapped up.
TVLINE | Talk about the brilliantly loaded looks Quinn shot Dexter’s way after watching him kill Saxon.
Quinn’s always thought that there’s еще to Декстер than meets the eye and that maybe he’s shaved off a few corners, but I don’t think it’s ever occurred to Quinn the extent of Dexter’s nocturnal journeys – and certainly not that he’s the бухта, залив Harbor Butcher. But those looks are that Quinn completely knew that Декстер went in there with the intention to — and did indeed — kill Saxon. And Quinn absolutely approves. Finally, at this moment where their relationship is over, they have this relationship of mutual respect.
TVLINE | Was your understanding that Hannah believes Декстер is in fact dead?
Oh, I think she believes it. She knows that the hurricane was bearing down. At that moment, she believes that the reason she hasn’t heard from Декстер is because he was Остаться в живых in the storm.
TVLINE | Any significance to Deb’s focus on hiking before she died?
She’s drugged up and coming out of it, so she was having weird thoughts. She’s already thinking about when she comes down to visit them in Argentina because there are mountains there.
TVLINE | Were any Deb/Dex scenes from Назад seasons in contention to use in place of the newly shot flashback?
Nooo, because we wanted it to be about Harrison’s birth in the hospital and about the responsibilities of being a big brother and a father – which inform his decision to [kill Deb]. When he was driven just by the Code and the Dark Passenger, he could have just taken out the life support, but as a fully aware human being, he’s aware of the consequences and what the cost will be. But he loves his sister enough to know that he cannot leave her behind.
TVLINE | So, we now know that a potential spin-off likely won’t center on Deb или Kenny Johnson’s dead U.S. Marshall. Was there ever actual discussion about centering the project on either of those characters?
It was amusing еще than anything. We would hear something about a U.S. Marshall spin-off или a Deb spin-off and we would laugh amongst ourselves, wondering where these ideas were coming from. We just wanted to complete the series; eight years is a long time.
TVLINE | Is there any one thing in this finale that you’re most proud of?
I Любовь Dexter’s sum-up of his eight-year journey, before he goes in and knows he’s got to disconnect Deb’s life support: “As much as I may have pretended otherwise, for so long all I’ve wanted was to be like other people, to feel what they felt… Now that I do, I just want it to stop.” It has such a human feeling, the pain of being alive, and he feels it so acutely. It’s a beautifully written piece of voiceover that sums up the entire series…. To me that’s a very powerful moment where I understand that he understands what all of this has cost, and what he’s giving up.