Just my humble opinion. No mean to harm.

Horrid and awful ending, and an overall gratuitous and useless Season 9 within the perimeter of its very same inconsistent story-arc.

I loved the "New Blood" season until this last episode. And the last episode reveals that: there's no higher meaning and no substantial purpose behind "New Blood". It has been just a commercial move to bring back the LOGO and make quick super-cash over the skin of the many fans that didn't "get" the greatness and the power of Season 8 and its ending. So sad and terrible.

SEASON 8 was bleak and brilliant, it was fascinating and full of mystery. It revealed more about the dark origins and nature of Dexter, as well as the psychopaths of his world/universe.
The ending was sublime. At the very end, Dexter has finally turned into a half psychopath, half human anomaly, thus he is truly "feeling" the ENTIRE PAIN for the loss of the love of his life, the woman he always loved... his soulmate... DEBRA. The pain kills him inside.
Eventually, after faking his death, Dexter condamns himself to live an empty life, as a shell of a man - no more a psychopath, no more a human person, just a shadow into the void forever.
He will die as an old man, alone and forgotten.
That's it. Sublime ending.

Also, bringing back the ONLY WOMAN he truly loved in his life, the only HUMAN PERSON he ever truly loved, as an antagonist "ghost" of his psyche is just lame and disrespectful towards the real Debra. That's just the first wrong step of "New Blood".

NEW BLOOD is an alternate universe to me, and one without sense, meaning or purpose.