Tonight, another series I have watched since the first episode ends. Unlike LOST, there seems a better consensus among viewers that it will end terribly. As in bad. As in terribly bad. As in “not much hope since Season Five, Seasons Six and Seven were horrible and Season Eight has been up but mostly down” bad. Certainly, awful dialogue, character stupidity and idiotic plotholes in the latest episodes leading up to this series finale definitely heighten the anticipation of disappointment. Oddly, if not sadly, from a series that was so masterful at storytelling and character development in its first few seasons.
That said, here are ways Dexter should, but probably will not, end:
#1 – “The ‘Happy’ Ending”
Dexter doesn’t leave Miami in order to continue his “work” as an anti-hero serial killer. Thanks to the events of this season, though – which not so subtly have pointed to this outcome – he no longer feels the overall desire to kill as before, having found balance with his “Dark Passenger.” Hannah McKay either ends up captured or leaving Miami without him, and the Miami Metro police continue being aloof and inept as ever before. The End.
#2 – “The Expected Ending”
Dexter finally is caught as the “Bay Harbor Butcher.” Hannah, still angry with Dexter for turning her in to authorities last season, is caught, but turns evidence against Dexter as the BHB to save herself. [Yet, with the ineptitude of the detectives who have investigated him who either stopped (Quinn) or ended up dead (Doakes; LaGuerta), this is not likely.] Debra, discovering Dexter has been charged as the BHB thanks to Hannah, leaves the hospital (from being shot the previous episode), kills her and disposes of her body a la Dexter…continuing his “work.” [See #3]
#3 – “The Twist Ending”
Dexter, and maybe Hannah, ends up on the table of another serial killer, possibly another disciple of Dr. Evelyn Vogel who also follows “The Code” – and who has been hunting Dexter for his serial killing from day one! Dexter either is killed or ends up killing said fellow disciple, deciding to stay in Miami because he still has “work” to do. [See #1]
#4 – “The Wild Things Ending”
Hannah and Jacob Elway have been working together in a long con for the reward money for her capture. She screws over Dexter, meeting up with Elway in Argentina. At some point, Hannah and Niki Walters (Masuka’s “daughter”) – who is in on the con as well – have a steamy sex scene in a pool. Miami Metro police, as usual, yet again are dumbfounded in their aloof ineptitude at solving any of it.
#5 – “The Scooby-Doo Ending”
Niki Walters, Astor Bennett, Cody Bennett, Harrison Morgan and Harrison’s stuffed dog toy (the bloodied one Dexter said had been “lost”) cruise Miami in Dexter’s SUV, solving the entire series. Turns out, it was “Old Man” Deputy Chief Tom Matthews who really was doing all the serial killing in disguise…and he would have gotten away with it too if not for those meddling kids!
©2013 Steve Sagarra
The United States was, is and can continue to be a great nation. The issue, however, is not the measure of past, current or future greatness, but the ability to perform at a level of greatness at any given time. That problem stems from leadership, and the current administration, as well as the subsequent growing bureaucracy from it, is no less a prime example of that failure; it is not much different as regards the other two branches of government either. Partly because voters have elected, and continue to re-elect, weak and ineffective individuals into positions for which they are not and never were innately suited or properly vetted. In essence, “We, the People…” are to blame for this failure in leadership by not holding accountable and taking to task the individuals chosen to lead us.
In any human endeavor, there will always be disagreement over the direction to take, the path to do so and the people needed to do it. Again, this is not the problem; in discourse, disagreement is good if only for alternative viewpoints. If you can muster a coherent sentence and a valid argument for your stance, whether agreeable or not, from that cauliflower-like mush called a brain, you will be fine. However, if you open your pie-encrusted blowhole to say how much you love pie right before casting a vote, please stay home in the obliviousness called your pathetic, unnecessary existence. Voter IDs? Honestly, that does not go far enough; we need to bring back education tests. (Whoa…before you go screaming and ranting about racism and Jim Crow, just keep your piehole shut.) It would be simple: you go to your election place, they show you a clear piece of plastic and ask what color is it. If your answer is anything other than a variation of “there is no color,” you do not get to vote…because, people, “CLEAR” ISN’T A @#$% COLOR! Even colorblind people could pass the test! (Obviously, the test needs tweaking for actual blind people.) With the likes of “People of Walmart” et al, how can it be any other way though??? My head aches thinking about – or heaven forbid, have to interact with – some of “my fellow Americans.” I say let the immigrants in, legal or otherwise…the gene pool could use some freshening!
As much as the situation is our fault, it is our responsibility to correct it. How do we do it? Change in leadership, not to mention the aforementioned citizenry makeup, would be a start; more so, a change in focus back to the principles and ideals that have worked toward greatness, casting off that which has distracted and deterred. For all their disagreements, even George Washington and Thomas Jefferson could agree that the Tree of Liberty needs the constant attention of vigilant patriots against the forces whose sole purpose is to tear it down. They saw it as every citizen’s duty, either through civic service or in ultimate sacrifice. It is simply a matter of finding once again the right elements and factors, even if at first they may not seem a good mixture.
©2013 Steve Sagarra
As the jury deliberates on the fate of George Zimmerman, accused of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, let us face facts. From testimony offered throughout the trial, the prosecution attempted to paint Zimmerman as a paranoid creeper wannabe as the defense mounted an attack against the second-degree murder charge on the legal basis of self-defense in performance of his neighborhood watch duties. On the other hand, Martin came across as an archetypical pot-smoking teenager – who may or may not have been a “f*ckin’ punk” with attitude – but someone who did not deserve to be senselessly killed simply for appearing suspicious and/or racially profiled. Some observers have looked to male gender roles in present-day society as a catalyst for the behavior of both perpetrator and victim – in a case that neither description is necessarily clear as to whom it fits. Whatever the root cause or your stance on the case – whether Martin deserves justice for his needless alleged murder or if Zimmerman deserves vindication for his critical, if questionable, actions in the face of an alleged hostile threat – no one will be satisfied with the verdict. Undoubtedly, riots will ensue from a Zimmerman acquittal.
And therein lies the rub; rioting because one disagrees with a verdict is not civil justice, but rather just uncivil.
Let us face another fact too: any rioting will be erroneously racially motivated. Another crime wrongfully committed in the name of social justice because a so-called “white Hispanic” was acquitted for the wrongful death of a black teen. To be clear, as someone who is part Hispanic, George Zimmerman is not a “white Hispanic”; he is simply Hispanic, a growing minority of the U.S. population and one increasingly coveted by politicians in recent years. When the media began portraying Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic,” the stage was set for escalating “black vs. white” racial tensions that never should have been developed, or better yet exploited, in the first place. The case and subsequent trial always should have been about a man, who happens to be Hispanic, who shot and killed a teen, who happened to be black. End of that part of the story. Yet, the media from the beginning played up and sensationalized the racial aspects of the case, because without it there apparently is nothing noteworthy about minority-on-minority violence in the greater national debate.
How can there be any justice when bias – from the media, from the judge, even from viewers – takes away the supreme guarantee of “innocent until proven guilty” and convicts a person for their alleged crime before any verdict is reached? The world and our legal systems can be an unjust one, where criminals go free on a technicality and innocent citizens go to jail for months, years or even decades. We should not be so carefree on either outcome in this case as well, because it is not as black and white as most would make it. What matters is that justice is served – for either Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman – by the blind collective rule of law and not by a biased collective social conscious.
©2013 Steve Sagarra
