Dexter ‘s final season kicks off in just two weeks (airing June 30), but behind the scenes the cast is inching toward the finish line. In fact, they’ve just completed the table read for the drama’s penultimate (!) episode. And according to Showtime boss David Nevins — who likens the impending finale to that of Friday Night Lights‘ send-off — things on and off-screen are “getting increasingly emotional.”

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“I really wanted Dexter to have an emotionally satisfying and emotionally wrenching ending,” he shared with TVLine at the saga’s premiere party Saturday night. “As [the season] develops, you can feel that temperature rising… This week, there were some sniffles from some actors and some sniffles from some producers at the table read. You wouldn’t think that a show about a psychopath — who has for eight seasons been relatively devoid of human emotion — would be that way, but it really is.”

Noting that while “you can never promise all things to all fans,” Nevins is confident in “great care being taken” to wrap up Dexter‘s eight-season journey.

“The [writers and producers] are harvesting seeds that were planted many years ago and that’s how you get to a good ending,” the exec explained. “We had a similar thing on Friday Night Lights when I was a producer; we had an ending that we’d planned two years in advance, and I thought that show ended beautifully… Dexter should be on the same path.”

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As for recent Dexter spin-off buzz, Nevins maintained that he plans to “let the dust settle” following the potential mothership series’ swan song before making any development moves. “I do think this is a vital franchise to Showtime,” he noted, further fueling the offshoot talk. “It put Showtime on the map in original programming and it has remained lively to the very end.”