Dexter Team Talk Backlash to Finales: "This Is Not Gonna Go Over Well"

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Dexter Team Talk Backlash to Finales: "This Is Not Gonna Go Over Well"

Dexter's Michael C. Hall, Clyde Phillips, Scott Reynolds, and Marcos Siega on backlash to the endings of the original series and "New Blood."

Published Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:37:08 -0500
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary

• Dexter stars Michael C. Hall, Clyde Phillips, Scott Reynolds, and Marcos Siega revisit backlash to both divisive finales.
• Hall says Dexter’s original ending had storytelling integrity, but admits the lumberjack finale failed to resonate with fans.
• Phillips and Reynolds clash on the Dexter finale, with one calling it unsatisfying and the other defending Dexter’s self-punishment.
• New Blood’s ending sparked intense fan fury, death threats for Jack Alcott, and set up Dexter: Resurrection’s shocking return.

Remember that time Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) faked his own death and exiled himself to an Oregon forest, content with living out his life as a lumberjack? Or that time Dexter's now grown-up son Harrison (Jack Alcott) reunited with him in upstate New York, only for Dexter to decide that the only way for Harrison to truly be free of him was to shoot him – which Harrison did. As Dexter lay dying on the ground, Harrison left to start a new future. But to properly paraphrase Mark Twain, the report of Dexter's death was an exaggeration, which brings us to this Friday's Season 2 premiere of Dexter: Resurrection. In honor of the show's return and the franchise's 20th anniversary, Hall, showrunner Clyde Phillips, writer Scott Reynolds, and director-producer Marcos Siega touched on the two shows' respective efforts to bring Dexter's story a sense of closure, how the fans made their feelings known about not being happy about either Dexter series ending, and how "New Blood" gave Dexter a chance to "begin again" in "Resurrection."

Hall on Being on "Both Sides of the Spectrum" Regarding Series Finales: "Everybody hated the end, understandably. I was part of the Six Feet Under finale, which everybody recognizes as one of the best. And I was like, Great, now I have both sides of the spectrum!" Hall noted. "It was a bummer. I stand by the storytelling integrity, but it definitely wasn't executed in a way that resonated how we would've hoped."

Phillips: OG Series Finale "Didn't Do Service to the Audience": "I agree with the people who were not satisfied. It's uncontroversially not the best ending. It didn't do service to the audience. We've asked them to bring a serial killer into their home every Sunday night, and I would've preferred to have had a much stronger, much more powerful ending."

Reynolds Defends OG Series Finale: Dexter Was "Punishing Himself" as a Lumberjack: Noting the connection between Dexter's chosen profession and how his mother was murdered with a chainsaw when he was a boy, Reynolds shared, "I stand by it, in theory. It was going back to Dexter trying to break good. Dexter realized that, Oh my god, I'm the monster here, and he's reminding himself that this is why I can't be this anymore. One of the things we talk about all the time is this idea of Pinocchio and that Dexter really wants to become a real boy— and he became a real boy in that moment. He became a real human, because a real monster would be like, Eh, I lost my sister, but I still got this need; I'm just gonna keep feeding this."

Dexter's Fate in "New Blood" Was Hall's Call; "This Is Not Gonna Go Over Well": Siega: People forget that it was a really good episode of television…until we do the thing that you don't want me to do. I fought to shoot an alternate ending, and Michael was the one who didn't want it, and I have no problem throwing him under the bus. He was like, 'No, that's it, he has to die.' Even though I loved it on the page and I'm proud of the execution, as a fan, there was a part of me that was like, This is not gonna go over well. And then people were like, 'I'm gonna take a shotgun to you.'"

Alcott Paid the Price for Harrison's Actions in "New Blood": While Phillips noted that "the audience is not shy about giving us feedback," Reynolds admitted, "I don't think any of us were ready for what came at us after the end of New Blood." But it was Alcott who was getting a ton of the toxicity from the fandom. "Being the guy that kills everybody's favorite character is a tough pill to swallow. I got death threats for a year, which was deeply upsetting. 'I'm gonna Dexter you on a Dexter table.' Once the chalk settled, there was a realization of, as an actor, it's not my job or goal to necessarily have people like me. I mean, that's definitely preferable to the opposite. But I want to tell stories that affect people, and so the fact that I made people feel very, very strongly, in its own way, is a bit of a compliment," Alcott shared.

Hall Looks Back on How It All Led to "Resurrection": Admitting that their goals with the two endings weren't "appreciated by people who just want the show to continue," Hall took a moment to consider the bigger picture. "In hindsight, I realized that, if the gunshot isn't fatal, it's the only way to begin again, the only way he could get past everything he was lugging around from the time Rita [Julie Benz] was killed. They did some market research and discovered that people found it a lot more plausible that he didn't die than he did, because Dexter can't die. So, why not?"

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