Well, it's par for the course. Anyone expecting the quality of any show to be consistent is misguided and really hasn't learned much of a lesson through experience of watching good TV shows. They all dip at one stage, and it's usually towards the end when you can tell the writers just rush stuff to tie it all off for a grand finale. Dexter is no different. You can sit and nitpick stuff all day, but it was still entertaining to watch. I spotted the drop in quality about 4 episodes into this season, but I still continued to watch it because at the end of the day, it's all about the overall story and not one season. If Dexter continued on being the meticulous and flawless killer he was, then how the fuck could he ever get eventually found out, which is something that just has to happen eventually.