Finally, the season finale of Dexter: Original Sin is here, and it does not disappoint. Riddled with tension and blood spatter, episode 10 gives us an in-depth look at Brian’s (Xander Mateo/Roby Attal) life post-Dexter (Patrick Gibson), intense showdowns between Harry (Christian Slater) and Brian as well as Dexter (Patrick Gibson) and Captain Spencer (Patrick Dempsey), and a little resolution that sets us up nicely to glide right on into the events of the original series. Let’s break down the season finale in this week’s recap!
Brian’s life post-Dexter
Episode 10 opens with Brian recounting to his psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Petrie, all the times in his life that Dexter has been taken from him. The first was when Harry took Dexter from Brian’s arms in the shipping container, and we really see how much this impacted Brian, who’d bravely comforted his little brother with the story of the three little pigs while trying with all his might to keep Dexter from reaching their dismembered mother.
The second time was by the Morgans, who kept Dexter but turned Brian over to the state to find a home for him that was “a better fit,” which Brian defines as someone’s “polite way of saying they don’t want you anymore.”
Brian recounts being bullied by other kids at the homes he entered — acts that both triggered and deepened his trauma, scarring him and causing him to act out. After a foster mom found him locked in a closet, Brian bit her, and when a bully stole his food at a group home, Brian stabbed him with a fork. Eventually, he wound up in a mental hospital, where he was again bullied by staff. While there, he was diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder, and by the age of 10, says he’d “lost everything” and his doctors had labeled him a psychopath.
In session, Brian asks Dr. Petrie if he can see Dexter, who says no, because Dexter is a trigger for Brian and will only cause him to spiral. So, this is the third time Brian is kept from his brother. In a moment of rage, questioning what he’s been “doing all this for” if he can’t see his brother, Brian pulls out a knife and slashes his doctor in the face, then beats his head into a fireplace mantle before beating his face in off-screen with a fire poker. It’s a brutal, bloody scene that Brian leaves from anointed in freedom, as he sets out to see his brother, and for his next victim.
Harry and Brian’s showdown
As Harry sits at Bobby’s (Reno Wilson) bedside, he gets called away to work a new homicide: a body dismembered with a chainsaw has been found. It’s Barb (Kathleen Rose Perkins), Brian’s former case worker. Harry is immediately unnerved and rushes to the scene, suspecting Brian is close. And he’s right. Harry spots him watching from atop a nearby building and sneaks off to confront him.
As the two come face to face, Brian confirms he’s the N.H.I. killer, telling Harry that his first victim, Blake Kersten, was the boy who locked him in the closet at his first foster home. The second, Felix Woodard, was the bully who stole his food. The third was the nurse who bullied him, Raul Martinez, his fourth was Dr. Paul Petrie, and his fifth is Barb — all of whom are connected to Brian, just like Harry presumed. He then figures out that Brian has been using these murders as bait to get close to Dexter and watch him work.
As Brian tells Harry how he took Dexter away from him, and Harry tells Brian how he never meant to hurt him, but he just couldn’t be saved, tension escalates when Brian repositions Harry’s gun to his own forehead after hearing how he’ll only bring pain and suffering to Dexter if he makes further contact, and that Harry is going to arrest him. When Harry hesitates to fire, Brian knocks him out and escapes. When he wakes, written on the wall in blood are two words: YOU’RE RIGHT.
Dexter and Captain Spencer’s showdown
After escaping Dexter’s kill table in episode 9, Captain Spencer leads Dexter right to Nicky (London Thatcher), who’s being held captive on a cargo ship not half a mile from the police station. Knowing he won’t get to Nicky before the captain does, Dexter creates a distraction and draws Spencer to him.
The two engage in a serial struggle before Spencer kicks Dexter down and escapes to a lower level, where he does the unthinkable and, in an effort to kill his kid, releases a valve and we watch in horror as water floods Nicky’s cell… and remember, he’s still chained to the floor.
In an epic exchange full of tension, Spencer tells Dexter that Nicky is not his son. Dexter pleads with him that Nicky is just a kid and doesn’t deserve this, which sets Spencer off on a rant that this isn’t about deserve.
“I get it,” Dexter says to him. “I get rage. There are better ways to handle it, I promise. What kind of monster are you?”
“You can come after me or save the kid,” Captain Spencer replies, but before rushing off, he says, “So, the real question is what kind of monster are you?”
Of course, Dexter saves the kid. He might be a vigilante serial killer, but he’s not an animal for God’s sake. With Nicky safe and Spencer on the run, the showdown doesn’t end here. It spills over to Spencer’s former home, where he tries to kill both his ex and her boyfriend, Nicky’s real father. Before he can hurt them, though, Dexter shows up and takes him down, then out on BOAT over open water, where he straps the captain to his kill table and, under the twinkling stars, ends him once and for all with a guillotine-type chop to the neck with a saber.
Captain Spencer’s disposal is the first time we see Dexter’s new plan in action. He chops up the body, disposes of its parts in trash bags, then drops them into the ocean. Enter the new, reformed Dexter Morgan.
Dexter: Origin Sin ends with some resolution
In addition to all the blood and tension, the Dexter: Original Sin season finale brings us our fair share of resolution. Deb makes up with Sophia, and with her father. In fact, the Morgan family is an entirely new unit now, and they are tight, especially now that Deb will be going to the police academy.
As the family celebrates at a local restaurant, though, Brian creepily watches them through a window, so we know that situation isn’t resolved at all. While we get a boatload of answers concerning Brian, none of them provide resolution, but we wouldn’t expect them to since Brian operates as the Ice Truck Killer in Dexter.
Also, in case you were wondering, Bobby survives and is released from the hospital. Likewise, Nicky is rescued and reunited with his parents, Captain Spencer is no more (though the police don’t know this; they, along with the general public, think he’s on the run), and Dexter is officially bumped from intern to full-time employee with Miami Metro P.D.
Season finale review
The Dexter: Original Sin season finale successfully wrapped up some key plot points and purposely left others open so we can glide right on into the events of the original series. The show’s continual theme of loss and abandonment plows right on through until the end and is heavily prevalent in every one of our main characters, who have each experienced some form of loss and/or abandonment. We’ve gotten to see how that shapes who they are and affects who they become.
Key case in point: when Dexter saves Nicky. Dexter’s Dark Passenger has been waiting the entire season to take down the killer targeting children. We can imagine he’s brimming with anticipation. So, for Dexter to exercise control and channel his urges in his decision to save the innocent over taking down the guilty is a sign he has grown and evolved not just as a man but also as a human being with a Dark Passenger. Harry’s code has now become Dexter’s code, and Harry can relax, knowing his son is out there making him proud.
Not only has Original Sin given us an in-depth look into Dexter’s past, but it went a step further and gave us insight into the pasts of other key characters, even serving up some delicious origin stories in subplots that left us salivating. In fact, now that the season is over, I can’t help but wonder if Dexter: Original Sin has also set us up for another spinoff, this one focused on the Ice Truck Killer.
My only complaint with the Original Sin is the age discrepancy of Brian and Dexter between the prequel and the original series, which shows the boys being much younger when their mother died, but in Original Sin, both were older. Why did the creators do this? And did they even notice the discrepancy in the first place?
Nonetheless, we’ve been given a solid foundation with which to move through the Dexter Morgan universe, which continues this summer with Dexter: Resurrection and later with a Trinity Killer spinoff series.
Dexter: Original Sin streams Fridays on Paramount+ with Showtime and airs Sunday nights onShowtime at 10 p.m. ET.