... The group I was watching with was visibly tense during that scene with Deb confronting Lumen and Dex from behind the plastic, and I felt like they'd have her discover Dex finally (then make it so Lumen took the fall, as others were predicting), planting the seeds for her fully realizing who he is next season, but then it turned out like pretty much every other "Dexter" finale, with everything wrapping up perfectly for him.

As I've said multiple times, I can only imagine Dexter's premise lasting one more season before finally growing completely stale. It's generally a great show (although the season picked up toward the end, this was definitely the weakest so far) but its just about reached the end of its shelf life. I had hopes that the outcome of this season would be starting the path toward the conclusion, but it ended up being pretty much like all the others, where it seems like there will be little bearing on the next one.