10 Worst Dexter Episodes

James Doakes was a highlight of the first two seasons of the show. A ruthless, hot-tempered sergeant who didn't play well with others, Doakes was the lone gun who knew something was off about Dexter.

Before his incendiary death, the implication was that Doakes simply had a detective's hunch that nice guy Dexter was not what he seemed. It was a testament both to Doakes' intellect and hubris that he could sniff a bad egg but get everything wrong when trying to expose it.

By season 7, Doakes is a distant, disgraced memory with the public believing he was the Bay Harbour Butcher. The show brings actor Erik King back to reveal he never had a hunch at all. Dexter stupidly gave himself away in a conversation one day that he'd been reading through evidence in the hunt for his next victim.

In the present, Maria LaGuerta's own obsession with outing Dexter reaches its crescendo. While many lauded the shock ending of Debra gunning LaGuerta down, it ultimately derailed the show. Deb's surprise turn to the dark side went against 7 years of character development as a (relatively) straight shooter determined to get things done by the book.

It was bad enough that she'd done nought of interest with the knowledge that her brother was a killer. To make her an accomplice to his crimes by murdering a superior officer was straight up shark-jumping. Between doing a disservice to an earlier, much-loved storyline and awkwardly botching Deb's dynamics with both Dexter and LaGuerta, this episode ultimately has a lot to answer for.