First of all, if you haven’t seen Sunday’s season finale of Dexter, you’re on your own from here on out. Come back later, once you’ve seen it. I’ll wait.
Back so soon? Now, with that out of the way, let’s get down to business. I caught Dexter‘s finale Sunday night without my wife, Deb, because we’re cheap-ass bastards and don’t subscribe to Showtime, and I couldn’t wait to see it later … for the benefit of our readers, of course. So, after Deb and I caught it again Monday night, she had a decent idea for a scenario for Dexter‘s fifth season, one that doesn’t include us having to witness more diaper changing by Dex.
In short, the writers should give Dexter the fast-forward treatment.
Think about it. We’re getting to Dexter‘s fifth season here, and we’ve been teased all along that Dexter’s son, Harrison, could possibly show serial killer tendencies when he gets older. With what happened in the final scene of the finale, they’re clearly trying to hit that theme home even more. We’ve gotten the Dexter-as-a-new-dad thing already this season, so we don’t really need yet another season of sleepless nights and diaper changing. So, the only way we’re going to see if little Harrison has been affected by his mother’s death is to bring us forward at least a few years, with a preschool-aged (or possibly older) Harrison.
The fast-forward will help the show in other ways as well. Cody and Astor can be completely written out, as it’s more likely that Rita’s mother (or their other grandparents) would take on the responsibility of taking care of them, than single-dad Dexter. We wouldn’t have to deal with a season full of mourning over Rita’s death. Even if the two older kids aren’t written out, they will have visibly aged by the time the fifth season starts up, meaning a fast-forward makes even more sense. Also, I never cared for them on the show in the first place.
The fast-forward approach would also help clean the slate from what happened to Rita. Already I’m wondering what Miami Metro is going to say about Trinity targeting Dexter, seemingly on his way out of the country, no less. If we fast-forward, I’m just fine with not knowing and just assuming Dex did a nice little tap dance to draw suspicions away from him. Same goes for the surviving Mitchell family, who I can’t imagine would keep their mouths shut about this mystery guy named Kyle.
Going forward in time helps reset things in a way which would allow it to appear believable that high-profile murders are taking place in their district. *IANALEO, but it’s as though Miami sits on a hellmouth with how many killings have gone on in the past four seasons. If we get a fast-forward, at least some time has passed and it can appear fresh to the team. This all assumes, of course — and logically-so, that next season will once again be about Dexter killing local killers. Could it be that the writers will come up with someone just as bad, who’s not an outright murderer? Someone who screws people over monetarily, leaving them destitute and suicidal, perhaps? Would that fit “the code?”
Let me throw one final theory into the mix, one that would clear up the oddities around how Mitchell had time to kill Rita in the first place: Mitchell didn’t kill Rita. We don’t know for sure that he did, do we? Maybe someone out to set up Dexter? Answers the question of how Mitchell knew where Dexter lived, because he didn’t know. Chew on that one for a bit.
Then there’s the matter of the newly-married Batistas. We can get right into how their relationship together over the years has progressed … or deteriorated. And Deb? Well, I wouldn’t put it past the writers to have her wind up with Quinn at some point, so maybe they’re already an item.
Dexter already has season five planned, so it appears it’ll definitely be back. Some people say it should end, that Dexter should finally be brought to justice. Hell, he’s already sporting a jailbird-like crewcut (I barely recognized him in the post-episode interview!) How would you like to see the next season play out?
(*I Am Not A Law Enforcement Officer)
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Dec 15, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
Did no one watch the face to face chat between Lithgow and Hall? Lithgow clearly stated that Trinity killed Rita.
That said I wouldn’t mind a jump, but Dexter will be stuck with Harrison no matter what they do.
I’d rather see someone take Harrison away from Dexter, like maybe the grandparents. Shouldn’t be to hard, he works odd hours(not counting his killings), he was just arrested and with Rita being killed, either suicide or murder, he should be in no condition to be a single parent.
This whole post is full of horrible TV show wrecking ideas. lol
Trinity killed her, that simple.
A jump in time would take away from the effect of the show. As someone posted somewhere how did Trinity know about Dexter being found in a pool of blood? I think the point of the last scene was to connect more with Dexter’s past and close up the season. I don’t think the writers realized it didn’t make sense from a storyline standpoint. I don’t care, it was beautifully shot.
The biggest issue with jumping in time is all the little mistakes that Dexter made and everything he did this season would be wiped out, and that would take away from the amazing season. Dexter kept messing up, and next season has to spend time with people finding out. Dexter planted evidence, met with Trinity’s family, plus he will have to explain where he was when Rita died, and that will be kind of hard to do. All that would be lost if they jumped ahead in time.
Did we ever find out what Masuka kept wanting to talk to Dexter about for a couple episodes there?
I think he was wanting to tell Dexter about Rita kissing the neighbor, Elliot. He eventually did, but Dexter had already found out from Rita herself.
Of course Mitchell knew where Dex lived.
As a previous comment noted, the next season must address the mess Dexter created this season. Skipping forward and ignoring it would take away from everything that this season built. Not to mention, I really don’t give a hoot about Dexter’s child or having to watch a show about Dexter bonding with his little serial killer child.
*POST AUTHOR*
Basically we need to fast-forward because who wants to really see Dexter dealing with what happened this past season? Do you really want to see him deal with the fallout, or do you want to see him on the hunt again? Because if he’s dealing with Rita’s death, her kids and where they will go now, little Harrison, and everything that goes along with all that, how the hell will Dexter have time to go on a hunt? He won’t! It’d make for another season of Law & Order, not Dexter.
“Do you really want to see him deal with the fallout?”
YES!!!!
That’s what makes this season finale so amazing, what it will bring next. This finale should lead to the point where people start questioning Dexter more and more!
Got one word for Dexter. Nanny!
Get one and you will have free run.
Regarding the plethora of slayings, in the first season, Dexter voiceovers that one of the reasons he stayed in Miami to ply his trade was the extremely high unsolved murder rate.
While I wouldn’t want to see it take over the entire season, I do feel that what happened this year is too momentous for us not to see all of the fallout, at least over the first three episodes.
HELL NO TO A FAST FORWARD! I want to see how Dexter deals with this. He’s emotionless, I want to see whether he has any? Whether he feels nothing? Has to pretend? A flash would just prove the writers don’t have the talent to play this out! I wasn’t so happy when Rita was killed, actually I was a little annoyed, but I get it, their making a new chapter of Dexter. If it written well then great! It should take up at least 3 episodes.
I wonder what’s going to happen to Astor and Cody though? Bey Astor will blame Dexter, she’s got attitude!
To bail out and fast forward is as unsustainable and emotionless as….er..ah ABCs Flash Forward. Dexter has hinted he had emotions. Only way to continue is if that point is reiiterrated. He pretends. It’s the single thing that hooked me from the beginning. That and sticking more closely to the code. He didn’t this season. Rita paid. Dexter was sloppy. Shoulda listened to Harry.
Despite the fact I kinda like FlashForward until now (I am at Ep5) I think AG is right.
I am sure, Dexter loved Rita (and the kids) but doesn’t want to admit it to himself. That’s what I love about the character.
Now think of your reaction, if someone would slaughter someone you love and then think about the reaction of a killer. So I guess, Dexter will be all the more eager to kill but he also learned the lesson that not following the code can have horrible consequences. Even if you leave the feelings out of it, Dexter has got a lot of things to deal with.
I can’t wait to see how he will master that. So I vote for no (or not much) skipping.