Goodbye Miami

In its original American broadcast, "Goodbye Miami" was seen by an estimated 2.34 million household viewers with a 1.1 in the 18–49 demographics. This means that 1.1 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.^[2] This was a slight increase in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by an estimated 2.28 million household viewers with a 1.1 in the 18–49 demographics.^[3]

"Goodbye Miami" received mixed reviews from critics. Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "good" 7.3 out of 10, and wrote, ""Goodbye Miami" spun its wheels a lot before finally landing on the fact that Vogel made a grave error in wanting to try and help Daniel. Her death was somewhat unspectacular, although it was fun to watch her, for the entire episode, act like a nervous wreck. You know, given how calm and cold she was at the beginning of the season. There was a ton of on-the-nose, to-and-fro dialogue between Dexter and Harry, repeating things we've been hearing for a while now about how Dexter can't have it all, or split his life between two worlds. But if anything - and this comes from how surprised Vogel was with Dexter's anomalous feelings - this season has taught us that monsters can have a happy ending if they choose to. But Dexter, as usual, isn't choosing to. The return of Dexter's old kill-room, complete with photos of victims, was a nice touch though. Hopefully it'll get used. Soon."^[4]

Joshua Alston of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "D+" grade and wrote, "Given the myriad of crucial flaws plaguing the final season of Dexter, it's been difficult to pick the superlative among them. But “Goodbye, Miami” solved that problem, making abundantly clear why Dexter missed its opportunity to close strong by such a wide margin. The issue is a complete absence of sensible, or even identifiable character motivations for the actions that are most central to the plot."^[5]

Richard Rys of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Now that he's sure to avenge Vogel's death, he seems poised for the realization that he can't run from who he really is. Good-bye, Argentina; hello, Dark Passenger."^[6] Kevin Fitzpatrick of ScreenCrush wrote, "final hours of Dexter have been positioned toward a final showdown between Dexter and an antagonist we have little regard for, while the new life in Argentina dangles too obviously as a pipe dream even Harry warns (us) might not be in the cards. Of course, nothing beyond Hannah's potential capture suggests that anything else about Dexter's secret life might come to light, placing remarkably low stakes on the climax to an unevenly-plotted season."^[7]

Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Surely all of this will be settled once Dexter gets Oliver tethered to his kill table. If Dexter puts him through the ritual, Dexter is reinforcing Dirty Harry-Vogel Dexter. If Dexter spares him, Dexter is cleaning his slate, choosing to become a new creation of his own design. We shall see. And soon. Only two episodes left."^[8] Cory Barker of TV.com wrote, "Dexter can keep telling us that people like Vogel are important, or trying to convince us that Saxon is a worthy adversary, but by now it's absolutely clear that the show is full of empty BIG moments and toothless characters. The end is very, very near, and thank goodness for that."^[9]

Andrea Reiher of Zap2it wrote, "it isn't actually the choice to go to Vogel that is the heart of the episode. Dexter chooses to leave, once and for all, and start a life with Hannah. He's ready to quit his job, sell his condo and take off for Argentina. We hope that's how it works out."^[10] Alan Danzis of BuddyTV wrote, "At the beginning of this week's episode, we're three episodes out from the final episode of Dexter, so it's only natural that it's an hour chock full of goodbyes. Too bad most of them are for characters that haven't made much of an impression, and many of them feel like half-hearted attempts at emotional moments."^[11]

Nick Harley of Den of Geek gave the episode a 2.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Dr. Vogel's throat was slit in the eleventh hour, which isn't as surprising as it should have been. If anything, I was just waiting to see what the cliffhanger would be, and I sort of guessed that this could have been it. Dexter did seem devastated at her loss, and at least he now has real motivation to make him want to stay and kill Saxon, but like I said earlier, it's just the demise of a character that we've only just met, so it really doesn't mean a whole lot. Maybe I've just lost faith in this show, but can you blame me?"^[12] Miranda Wicker of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Save for a few key scenes, "Goodbye Miami" was a slow-moving, dialogue-heavy hour of television. Come on, Dexter, pick up the pace!"^[13]

Alex Moaba of HuffPost wrote, "The Vogel storyline has had its faults - the cheap twist that revealed her connection to the Brain Surgeon, and putting too much of the season's end-game on the shoulders of a new character chief among them - but this scene was extremely powerful."^[14] Television Without Pity gave the episode a "C" grade.^[15]

• "Goodbye Miami" at IMDb