Former Dexter Showrunner on How He Would Have Ended the Series

Warning, if you haven't seen the Dexter series finale, do not read any further - spoilers do follow...

Not that Dexter has come to a close after eight seasons, the postmortem on how it perhaps should have, or could have concluded have gone full throttle - as have the continuing spinoff speculations.

Clyde Phillips, who was an executive producer and showrunner on Dexter in the early years and exited at the close of the Trinity Killer season, recently weighed-in on how he would have said good-bye to Dexter, had he still been a part of the series.

Phillips told E!'s Kristin Dos Santos the following in a recent interview.

I haven't shared this with anyone, And I can tell you that this is what I personally would have done should I have stayed with the show. I chose not to stay with the show, and so everybody did what they did, and I had no problem with that…and I think they did a good job with the final episode. But here is what I personally would have pitched:

In the very last scene of the series, Dexter wakes up. And everybody is going to think, 'Oh, it was a dream.' And then the camera pulls back and back and back and then we realize, 'No, it's not a dream.' Dexter's opening his eyes and he's on the execution table at the Florida Penitentiary. They're just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery.

And in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed—including the Trinity Killer and the Ice Truck Killer (his brother Rudy), LaGuerta who he was responsible killing, Doakes who he's arguably responsible for, Rita, who he's arguably responsible for, Lila. All the big deaths, and also whoever the weekly episodic kills were. They are all there.

That's what I envisioned for the ending of Dexter. That everything we've seen over the past eight seasons has happened in the several seconds from the time they start Dexter's execution to the time they finish the execution and he dies.  Literally, his life flashed before his eyes as he was about to die. I think it would have been a great, epic, very satisfying conclusion.

The producer doesn't mention how he would have arrived at that point, but he does reveal that he was inspired by Ambrose Pierce's 1890 short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which features a twist ending.

There's no way to say how Dexter would have gone if Phillips, who is now an executive producer on Showtime's Nurse Betty, would have stayed on board. Now all that's left to do is look ahead, as Dexter producers and Showtime executives continue to send some very mixed messages about the oft-discussed, possible, spinoff series.

In a post-finale chat with The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Scott Buck said, once again, that, "there have been no discussions yet on what a spinoff might be. Whether there is some other version coming out of the show in the future, it's always a possibility but there have been no talks about it at this point. We're just now finishing up Dexter."

Yet when asked specifically if they'd discussed the Hannah/Harrison storyline as a possible launch for a spinoff series, Buck replied,"Absolutely. I love Yvonne Strahovski, she's a terrific actor and has brought so much to the series. Who knows? We may see her again in the future."

Showtime president of entertainment David Nevins has repeatedly said that Dexter is to Showtime what Batman is to Warner Bros.. In other words, they want to stay in the Dexter business and "keep the show alive." The network is being relatively slow to pull the trigger on a specific spinoff, though. Perhaps they are awaiting the response to the finale to see which direction they'd like to go.

Did you enjoy the Dexter finale? Do you like Phillips' concept for a series closer? If there is a spinoff, what would you like it to be?

Leave your comments below.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com