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Get Ready to Freak: Dexter Boss Dishes on Sunday's Mind-Blowing Finale

Michael C. Hall, Dexter Randy Tepper/Showtime

Here's just about the most surprising thing we've heard all week: Dexter boss Clyde Phillips is not pissed with Showtime's promo department for releasing at least one truly spoilery sneak-peek video before this Sunday's highly anticipated and ultrasecret season finale.

"We have nothing to do with what clips are selected," Clyde tells me. "But they do a great job and I can't quibble with them."

Say whaaaa?

I mean, hello, Clyde, they've basically spoiled what has to be one of the biggest reveals of the finale: That Deb is figuring out who Dexter is, and even knows the Ice Truck Killer was his brother! In fact, Jennifer Carpenter (Deb) just played coy with us on that very matter.

Unless…Oh. Dear. God. What if that's only the teensiest tip of the iceberg of what goes down? What if the finale is that huge?

That certainly would explain why the Dexter bosses have employed some extreme tactics to prevent spoilers from leaking.

Here's what Clyde tells us exclusively…

"It's true," Clyde tells us of reports that extra precautions have been taken to guard finale secrets. "No one was allowed on set during the finale. We watermarked the scripts when they left the building and we watermarked the actual DVDs as they left the building." When asked if it's true they also sent out multiple versions of the finale script to throw people off, Clyde simply says, "No comment."

(Clyde also jokes that not even Dexter's biggest fan, Ricky Gervais—who recently outed his pal Clyde as his upcoming-episode supplier—knows what will go down in the finale. It's that hush-hush.)

So why all the secrecy? "The season finale is terrific and will blow your head off," Clyde says. "That's all I'm saying."

Actually, it's something he's said before. And while we assumed he was referring to Trinity's (John Lithgow) illegitimate daughter, Christine (Courtney Ford), shooting herself in the head in the most recent episode, it appears as though the mind-blowing payoff is yet to come. (Gulp.)

Dexter's writers usually wrap up storylines in the season finale with a tidy little bow, but this year fan speculation has it that there might be a season-ending cliff-hanger (a decent theory given that producers knew all season long this time there would be a season five). If so, Lithgow (Trinity) could even be back next year.

"I can't say whether or not things get tied up because then the audience has an expectation of whether or not things are going to get tied up," Clyde explains. Still, he adds that Lithgow has been phenomenal this season and "should have an Emmy already locked up." You hear that, TV Academy? (We should also hear Lithgow's name Tuesday morning for the Golden Globe nomations.)

So what about the money Q: Will Deb ever find out everything about Dexter, including his love of, you know, plastic wrap? "The idea keeps arising," Phillips tells me. "Once we do it it's a huge game-changer for the show, obviously, so I don't know when or which year we would even ever consider it. It's in kind of the groundwater of the writers' thinking, but it could be years from now."

Phillips also says he's been reading a few of "the blogs" this year to see what the fans are saying online…and noticed some discontent over the storyline between Battista (David Zayas) and LaGuerta (Lauren Velez), who just got hitched. "It was actually the network's idea that we take it as far as we do take it," Phillips tells us. "We love those two actors and we love writing for them. I know the blogs have been beating them up a little bit and I don't know where it's going to go next year, but clearly it needs to go someplace edgy and fresh with them. It's not going to be fighting over toaster ovens."

Many of you fans have asked if we'll learn more about Trinity's daughter Christine and where she came from. "We had a lead-in in an earlier episode," Phillips explains. "Trinity said to Dexter that he had had a relationship that didn't work out and then he was finally able to put together the perfect family. So she is a progeny of that prior relationship. We knew she was Trinity's daughter, she knew she was Trinity's daughter and that's why she worked her way into the police department as a police reporter, to find out what the police department knew."

I'll be hitting Showtime's finale party for Dexter on Sunday night, so stand by for more from the cast and follow me @kristinalert for live updates.

Oh, and for the record, if Trinity so much as lays one finger on a single member of Dexter's family—given his obsession with mothers and sisters and sons, my mind can't help but go there—I will have a few choice words for Mr. John Lithgow on Sunday night. (Oh, who am I kidding? I will be scared speechless. That man is fantastically creeptastic.)


So now...Can we share some theories, friends? Do you think Cody, Rita and Astor are safe? Will Trinity stay or go? Will Deb find out everything? Join me in the comments section below to bounce around some guesses, 'cause, you know, none of us Dexter fans are sleeping these days anyway...Damn you, brilliant show. Damn you.


Follow me on Twitter @kristinalert.