Spoiler alert: Do not read on if you haven't seen "Dexter" Season 8, Episode 10, titled, "Goodbye Miami."
The tenth episode of "Dexter's" final season ended with a shocking, gruesome murder, as Dr. Vogel had her throat slashed by her deranged son Oliver Saxon, aka The Brain Surgeon, as Dexter looked on in horror.
Seeing Dexter cradle Vogel's dead body in his arms, shaking with grief and anger, was one of the most emotional, intense moments of the season. The Vogel storyline has had its faults -- the cheap twist that revealed her connection to the Brain Surgeon, and putting too much of the season's end-game on the shoulders of a new character chief among them -- but this scene was extremely powerful.
All episode Dexter was torn between fleeing to Argentina with Hannah and Harrison and feeling the need to protect his "spiritual mother," who didn't realize how much danger she was in. And his indecision cost him dearly, as both situations imploded. The US Marshal on Hannah's trail caught on to Dexter's plan to resign from Miami Metro and go traveling, and Vogel ended up dead.
That conflict was a manifestation of the duality that has haunted Dexter dating back to Rita's death. As Michael C. Hall described it in an August interview with HuffPost TV, "The real tragedy of it is it's really his appetite for humanity, or to be a 'real boy,' that's gotten the people around him in trouble. It's not the fact that he's a killer. He's wanted to have his cake and kill it, too."
What did you think of this episode of "Dexter"? Share your thoughts and theories in the comments.
"Dexter" airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.
