5. Ending The Ice Truck Killer Story
The Ice Truck Killer/Brian Moser storyline in Season 1 remains one of my favourite parts of the entire overarching Dexter storyline. It went on to inform major decisions for Dexter himself, as well as helping to flesh out Dexter's own backstory. The first season's storyline is lifted directly from the first novel, with a big difference being that in the book, LaGuerta is killed off and ITK escapes. In the series, we know Dexter kills his brother Brian knowing that the code cannot allow him to go free. It was a riveting finale to the first season and lets us know that whilst Dexter is capable of having deep connections, he will always put the code first. That all said, killing off ITK was a big mistake. If they had gone the route of the novel (though LaGuerta didn't have to die) they could have kept the ever present threat of Brian looming over Dexter for a while longer, and this could have helped in the latter half of Dexter's run Seasons 5-8) when the writers clearly began to run out of ideas. Bringing back Brian Moser has been done in the books to great success. He works as the devil on Dexter's shoulder, trying to make him forget the code and just give in to his instincts. This would have been great to see post-Season 4. With Rita gone and Dexter's mask slipping, this would have brought in some great tension to the series as well as showing Dexter dealing with the death of Rita in a manner we'd expect from him, rather than having him just jump into bed with Julia Stiles. Having him return for the final season as the 'big bad' would have been a great move too. A nice way to call back to the original season whilst bringing a genuine threat to Dexter and the life he has built for himself.