Dexter released its first season way back in 2006 and yet, it's still a very popular show. The first couple of seasons earned a lot of plaudits but the series' last two seasons left a lot to be desired.
Thankfully, Dexter never lost its nature to surprise everyone at any turn. Throughout the show's 8 seasons long journey, there were a lot of unpredictable plots and scenes. So, let's rank some of the best of them.
Dexter Frames Paul
When Rita's abusive drug addict husband Paul returns from jail, Dexter feels some danger around him and his family. Paul keeps on paying visits to his children, even when Rita (who has the custody) doesn't like it.
One day, Paul starts talking in a bad way to Dexter while in Rita's house and for the first time in a long while, Dexter reacts impulsively. He acts on his emotion and strikes Paul on the head, leaving him unconscious. Dexter then takes Paul to his home, where he doses him with some drugs and calls the police.
Miguel Turns Out To Be A Liar
Dexter cannot have friends helping him and accepting him in his line of expertise. This is what Dexter's foster father Harry predicted and most of the occasions, it turned out to be true. Miguel Prado was one such occasion.
When Dexter thinks he finally has a friend (Miguel) who accepts him, he finds out that Miguel has always been a monster and a liar - just like him. Dexter realizes that Miguel has been using him to learn how to kill people and get away with it. Of course, Dexter takes care of him, in the end, but it's heartbreaking to see Dexter being used like that.
Debra Catches Dexter And Lumen In The Act
This is where Harry gets it wrong. Dexter found company in Lumen and for a brief period, they did some killings together. They murdered people who raped Lumen and got away with it. So, when Dexter and Lumen were about to leave the scene after killing their last victim, Debra suddenly shows up and catches them in the act.
But, quite unbelievably, she hints at them to get away from the crime scene as the cops might take an hour or so to get here. Debra thought that it was right for Lumen (a rape victim) to kill her rapists and get away with it.
Lila Blows Up Doakes
Lila is one character that is full of surprises. Dexter has Sergeant Doakes locked up in a cage as he doesn't want his superior officer to reveal the truth about him (that he is the Bay Harbour Butcher). Lila is obsessed with Dexter and when she sees him slipping away to Rita, she steals Dexter's car's GPS tracker and uses it to reach the place where Doakes is locked up.
Then, instead of freeing Doakes, she starts a gas leak, which ends up blowing the whole place. And along with that, Doakes (the only man, at that time, who knew all about Dexter).
Lundy and Debra Shot
The "Trinity Killer" storyline is still recognized as one of the best in any crime series. That's just because it threw many unexpected surprises. One of them was this - Debra and Lundy (former lovers) reignited feelings for each other and they had already started working on the Trinity case.
It's 5 am in the morning when Debra is about to leave Lundy's place. But before that happens, first, Debra is shot from behind before Lundy is killed by two gunshots. It's one of the saddest scenes in Dexter.
The Blood Bath
The first glimpse of Dexter's past is a scene where he goes to a particular crime scene, decorated only for him, with the thing he loves - blood. It's a hotel room, which is drenched in blood and as soon as Dexter sees it, he gets uneasy and falls down on the floor.
That particular crime scene had uncanny similarities to the one where Dexter saw his mom get murdered. Imagine the surprise when someone like Dexter (who loves blood and ires killers) feels overwhelmed by a crime scene.
Debra Finds Out About Dexter
After getting away from him on a couple of occasions and trying to kill his son Harrison, Dexter finally gets his hands on Travis Marshall. He sets him up in an abandoned church, in his typical style, with the images of his victims and plastic. Like always, he has a little pep talk with his victim and as soon as he strikes the knife in Travis' chest, Debra appears in the church and sees Dexter kill someone.
She is utterly shocked by that and so is Dexter, but he improvises on the spot and tells Debra that emotions got the better of him. Both of them then try to figure out a way to get out of this mess, which Dexter and the fans might have found very weird.
Debra Kills LaGuerta
Another incredibly tense scene in the series features the protagonist about to take an innocent life - Maria LaGuerta. Dexter hasn't done that before or at least, he hasn't planned something like this.
And when he is about to take LaGuerta's life and there, she pops up again - Debra. Now, she has a choice and of course, she chooses Dexter. But what she does is incredibly unlike her. She kills LaGuerta with a gunshot when she could have easily left it in the hands of Dexter. Instead, Debra got her hands dirty and not many saw that coming.
Rudy Turns Out To Be Dexter's Brother
Dexter's family story is complete when he chases Rudy (The Ice Truck Killer), who has taken Debra's life in his hands by kidnapping her. And when he reaches the location (his childhood home), everything comes back to him. He re his mother and also, that he had a brother named Brian.
Turns out, Rudy is, in fact, his brother and when Dexter realizes that, he feels a little bit at ease. Then, Rudy provokes him to kill Debra (who has been set up just the way Dexter likes his victims) but he doesn't and Debra wakes up. That meant, Rudy had to flee the scene.
Rita's Death
After, finally, killing Trinity, Dexter thinks it's time for him to spend some quality time with his family and for his "Dark enger" to take some rest. But when he reaches home, he finds Harrison on the bathroom floor crying, drenched in Rita's blood coming from the bathtub.
It was Trinity who did it and it is one of the very rare scenes in the series where you actually feel that it is good for Dexter to not have feelings like other human beings. If only Dexter could have ended there, it would have been recognized as one of the best TV shows of all time.