I came late to the finale thread and can’t seem to get anyone to explain/opine on the New Code for next season.
I guess the old code was to kill criminals who were clearly threats to society as a whole.
Is the new code that he’s going to focus on those who are more a threat to the people he cares for??
It’s not clear to me how he defines his “new code,” but here are the changes I’ve seen in his character over the first two series. Where he once saw himself as an emotionless sociopath with good motives, but no ability to relate meaningfully with ordinary people, now he realizes he can, and does, care for some people, like Rita and the kids. And his sister, of course. But he still feels compelled to kill bad people.
Frankly, I’ve grown to like Dexter and the show less as time has gone on. I liked the sociopath Dexter because it provided an excuse of sorts for his murdering. If now he’s an ordinary person with feelings and an urge to kill, he’s just a vigilante. And I’m against vigilantes generally.
Well, look at it like this–emotional vigilantism is an extremely human thing. It’s an ugly side of humanity, the desire for vengeance, the desire to kill those who have done bad things, but human it is. Dexter was basically “not human” before, and even referred to other people as “humans” as though he wasn’t one.
Before, Dexter had no emotional attachment to the people who were victimized by his prey. He had a desire to kill, he just chose bad people because he was raised to live by that code. He didn’t truly care about anyone, even when it came to his foster father he said, “If I could love anyone, how I would have loved Harry.”
My point is, maybe we can view this as Dexter “getting better” over time. He once asked Harry as a teenager something like, “do you think I’ll ever stop having to fake it” in reference to having emotions and et cetera (or something like that) and Harry says, “I hope so.” Maybe Dexter is finally getting to the point where he doesn’t have to put on this “mask of humanity” for society. Sure, Dex is still killing people, but maybe as he becomes more human he’ll get that under control, too.
FWIW, in the books Dexter is much less human than he is even in season one of the television show.
I agree completely: Dexter is getting more human.
That’s what I don’t like! 
I agree – much, much less human. I’ve found myself liking the TV Dexter a lot more than I like the guy in the books, just because he seems more like an ordinary person who just happens to have the overwhelming urge to kill people and manages to channel it into doing some good (or at least less bad) by only taking out people who torture and/or kill others. Whereas the guy in the books, all the way through the end of the third book, is more like a robot or an alien, which I guess isn’t surprising given the … peculiar contents of the third book.