Dexter Season 4 Finale Leaves Viewers All Choked Up

The fourth season of Dexter was nothing short of perfection. It was suspenseful, well written, and arguably the best season of the show's run. John Lithgow really killed it, so to speak, as the Trinity killer. And then came the eagerly awaited finale: the showdown between Dexter and Arthur Mitchell. But fans of the show were left disappointed after seeing Dexter's lovable wife, Rita, dead. But Rita's death was probably the best part about the finale. Because the rest of the episode was a mediocre letdown. After all the awesome build up, the season ended with a whimper.

The episode was really concerned with creating drama around Deb finding out that Dexter's mother was an informant and that he watched her die. In truth, the show has always tried to create drama about this, when there really is nothing dramatic about it. Even if she were to find out about Dexter's traumatic childhood experience, she wouldn't automatically assume he's disturbed or murderous. The show really needs to phase out that pseudo-drama because it's not really working.

Then the big finish: Trinity v. Dexter. After a season of air tight writing, the writers got lazy because the finale was riddled with plot holes. First of all, when the cops raid the Mitchell house, Dexter is in it. And sure, he can get away with telling his co-workers that he arrived at the scene first but are we expected to believe that no one in the family is going to tell anybody about that there was some other guy in the house who is not accounted for?

But bygones, that's minor. You could even call it nitpicking. The biggest issue is Dexter finding Trinity. In the episode, Dexter finds a receipt from an auto shop, so he knows what Trinity will be driving to escape. How do we go from that, to Dexter hiding out in the car until the very right moment? One of two logical conclusions can be drawn from this, and they are both completely ridiculous. Either he beat Arthur to the auto shop and stashed himself in the car before Arthur picked it up, which is crazy because then Dexter would have been in the car when Arthur stopped by his house to kill Rita. Or he miraculously found Arthur after he had begun his getaway, and I suppose, waited for him to pump gas or something to sneak into the car. Both are pretty flimsy and for a show that had spent all season being pretty careful, it comes off as just sloppy.

Finally, the end. After Trinity has been killed and Dexter is home and everything seems okay, we see Rita dead in the bathtub. For all the outrage it has caused, this was actually brilliant for several reasons. Dexter is the kind of show the desensitizes you to death and specifically this season, we had seen tons of other women killed the very same way Rita was. But when it's a character you know and love, it really stings. It brought back the reality of death to the viewers and that was sickening. Aside from that, it totally puts the previous scene in perspective and you resent the fact that Dexter ended up being almost sympathetic with Trinity before he killed him.

The scene and its significance was nothing short of brilliant and yet the writers muddled it all up by throwing in the baby crying in the pool of blood. The throwback to the shipping container scene really just cheapened the whole thing with its contrived symbolism. "Born in blood just like his dad." Can we hold off on the stupid monologue for just a second? Rita is dead! Dexter should have had a stronger reaction to that. The same way the audience was reacting.

Shows kill off characters all the time. That's not that shocking or innovative. For this show in particular, this was an inevitable twist. The phase of Dexter as a family man had run its course. But Rita's death should have been given the respect it deserved. Not just for the audience but for the character.