I love when a new episode of a show picks up right where the previous episode left off, and that’s what we have here, my friends. Remember, last week in Dexter: Original Sin episode 4, Mad Dog (Joe Pantoliano) awoke on Dexter’s (Patrick Gibson) kill table and managed to break free and escape before getting blindsided by a truck while running down the street, and subsequently killed, leaving Dex in his first real “OH S**T” moment.
In this week’s episode 5 recap, we’ll follow everything that happens in the wake of Dexter’s kill gone wrong, including a major f**k-up on Harry’s (Christian Slater) part in court that ultimately sets a killer free, and equips Dexter with the surge of power he needs to convince Harry to set him free. Spoilers below.
After the kill gone wrong
Episode 5 opens with the blindsiding death of Mad Dog. As the driver slams on his breaks and frantically exits his vehicle to check on the man he just hit, Dex quickly hides, then runs. In narrative voiceover, he recalls the exact amount of time he has to clean up and disappear without getting caught: 7 minutes before police respond, 5 minutes for a neighbor to identify Mad Dog, and 3 minutes to find his house.
Thanks to his toolkit from Miami Metro forensics, Dex is able to clean up perfectly and escape without a trace. At home, Harry is waiting to confront his son about what he’s just heard over the police radio. Dex assures Harry he followed the code, that this was just an accident, but Harry lashes out and grounds Dexter, angrily telling him he should’ve never let him go after Nurse Mary. “You weren’t ready,” he tells Dexter, pointing out that what happened with Mad Dog proves it.
Dexter is thus benched, confined to the house, pulled of out of his search for the only type of prey that soothes his urges and quells his hunger.
Harry makes a huge f**k-up
Let’s take a minute here and look at all the stress Harry has been under since the 1970s. He is riddled with unresolved guilt and trauma surrounding his son’s death, he’s conflicted with guilt over his affair with Laura Moser (Brittany Allen), he works tirelessly as a homicide detective, he is tasked with keeping the secret that his adoptive son has killer urges that he’s helping him tame in ways that protect him and innocent people, he’s grieving his recently deceased wife … I mean, need I go on?
I bring all this up to note that all this bottled-up information has lodged into his being so much, that the pressure has infiltrated his thought process and ultimately leads to what the show calls a major f**k-up.
In episode 1 of Dexter: Original Sin, Miami Metro worked a home invasion murder case that involved the killing of a child. A man named Levi Reed (Jeff Daniel Phillips) was arrested after a partial fingerprint matching his was found, and because he was the only suspect who had a rap sheet indicating his capabilities, and was tall enough to have made the footprints found at the scene.
In episode 2, Reed’s girlfriend Brandi (Carlye Tamaren) is seen talking with Harry at his desk, pleading with him to accept her statement that Reed was with her the night the Shapiro murders occurred. So it couldn’t have been him. To be fair, Brandi was, shall we say, not working with a full deck and was quite disheveled during the time Harry interviewed her. And she didn’t even know what day it was. Because of this, Harry disregarded her alibi and left it out of the case file.
As Reed’s court case gets underway and Harry is questioned on the stand, he’s noticeably frustrated, insistent that they have the right guy because all evidence points to him. Then, the defense turns his world upside down when they bring in a surprise witness, whom Harry doesn’t recognize at first. It’s a made-over version of Brandi, who testifies to the court that Harry disregarded her good faith alibi, to which Harry must admit. In light of this, the judge has no choice but to dismiss the case, and Levi Reed walks free.
Captain Spencer is not pleased, and neither will the mayor be, so Harry makes himself scarce, knowing his job is likely in jeopardy. He heads to the bar.
Deb bonds with Dex and Gio
The more we see of younger Deb (Molly Brown), the more I just love her. We really see how much she misses not just her mother but that other presence of female energy to balance things out in their family. She painfully feels more and more invisible around her father and brother but desperately continues trying to force these family moments. When they don’t happen, of course she explodes and rebels. No one is listening to her any other way, and even the extremes are falling on deaf ears.
On Dexter’s first day grounded at home, he comes to realize it isn’t death who feeds his Dark Passenger; it’s the killing. And after the whole Mad Dog incident, Dex is still hungry. So, he raids the fridge, where he finds a whole tub of delicious brownies Deb has made for her volleyball team. Unbeknownst to Dex, they’re laced with a plethora of pot, and he downs half the tub and settles in on the couch to watch some TV.
When Deb comes home after school and realizes what has happened, Dex freaks out upon learning he is high. He’s worried about not being in control. Will his Dark Passenger take control and be immune to the code now? Dexter is genuinely worried and begs Deb not to leave him alone, so she doesn’t. She proceeds to eat some brownies and catch up to her brother, where the two share some bonding moments that bring them closer together not just as human beings but also as brother and sister.
They reminisce about their mother, which leads to talking about their feelings. And then in a moment that has us holding our breath, Dex comes close to revealing his Dark Passenger to Deb, but it doesn’t stick. They return to focusing on their mother, as it just so happens that the following day—the same day of the Levi Reed case—is the one-year anniversary of Doris Morgan’s death.
The next morning, Deb, Harry, and Dexter agree to meet at home at 5 p.m. so they can all go visit Doris’s grave together. Five o’clock comes and goes, and when neither Harry nor Dexter show up, Deb makes a decision and calls Gio (Isaac Gonzalez Rossi), who takes her to her mother’s grave, supports her in her grief, respects her in her actions and decisions, then sits back and watches as his seduction of her takes hold and Deb bonds with him in her entirety.
Dexter’s power surge
After reveling in the fact that he almost got caught but ultimately escaped the kill gone wrong, Dexter settles in for his punishment from Harry. He knows the only way to prove his worth to Harry is by showing him how technically sound he is and prove his power.
On the day of the Levi Reed case, Harry allows Dexter to go to work, except today he won’t be confined to his lab, he’ll be working on his fingerprinting skills. Harry leads him to an interrogation room, where the man who hit Mad Dog sits in a panic, answering questions about the incident at hand. It’s Dex’s chance to find out what the man knows, which is nothing. And at one point, he even finds himself jealous that he didn’t get to kill Mad Dog and this other guy did.
As he watches this driver break down in his chair, Dexter narrates in voiceover that we are not our mistakes, and our mistakes do not define us. Our mistakes are here to teach us, to guide us, to refine us, and Dex knows if he wants to kill again, he has to learn from the mistakes he made with Mad Dog, so he gets to work not just refining himself but also his techniques and his power.
Long story short, Dex learns of a drug called ETORPHINE HYDROCHLORIDE and sets out to procure some, which he does. Upon returning to the station and looking for Harry, Dex learns from Angel (James Martinez) that Levi Reed is a free man because Harry messed up. Harry is M.I.A., and Dexter thinks he might know where to find him. And he does. After leaving the bar and visiting Doris’s grave, Harry goes to Reed's house, where he plans to kill him. Before he can pull the trigger in his drunken haze, though, Dexter injects Harry from behind, and Harry passes out.
When he awakens, he is stripped down to his boxers, strapped to his own dining room table. To Dexter’s kill table. A panicked Harry notices how the walls, the floors, the ceiling, the furniture, everything is adorned in plastic. He struggles to get free but cannot. Dexter leans in and tells Harry he was right, Dex did make a mistake with Mad Dog. “But we all make mistakes. You made a mistake in court, and you were about to make an even bigger one tonight.”
"I followed you to the bar. I wanted to show you how careful I can be," Dexter continues, then tells him that while bad things happen, they don’t have to define us.
“What matters is what we do next,” Dex says as he turns to show Harry how he learned from his mistake. He picks up the sedative and syringe and says it’ll knock someone out for hours. “No more shrapnel." Harry says he’s made his point, to cut him loose. Dex tells Harry he can’t stop this anymore.
“I’ve been thinking about mom today,” he says. “She always saw the best in people … she saw a chance for goodness in me. But you, you never tried to change me,” he says to Harry. “You trained me. You shouldn’t have been the one going after Levi tonight. That’s what you made me for. Let me be me.”
Harry knows he’s right. Dexter’s power surge has proved to Harry he’s not only capable of following the code but he’s also capable of every technical aspect this kind of life requires and the constant, ever-changing levels of awareness and progression it demands. It’s a beautifully haunting moment where Dexter, feeling this surge in his power, fully exposes himself, and Harry comes to truly see who his son has become.
Harry acquiesces and tells Dexter to use smelling salts with Reed to wake him up faster. Then Dexter hears the three words he’s been dying to hear this entire episode: TAKE HIM OUT. It’s safe to say the next victim to be strapped to Dexter’s kill table will be Levi Reed. Stay tuned, kids. This vigilante serial killer's power surge is just amping up.
Dexter: Original Sin episode 5 review
Episode 5's title "F is for F**k-Up" couldn't be more apt, as we have them everywhere. Dex messed up in his acquisition of Mad Dog, Harry messed up in ignoring Brandi's alibi for Levi, and Deb messes up by getting herself deeper in the web of whom I'm certain will turn out to be a big, bad spider.
I really like the evolution in Dexter's awareness in this episode, as he comes to understand that mistakes aren't albatrosses to string around our necks and bear in shame. Mistakes are clues and teachers. Guides. Mistakes are what refine us. It's a really synchronous moment when Dexter comes to realize this in relationship to himself and his Dark Passenger.
He even comes to identify a truth that has remained hidden from him until now/ That killing is what satiates his hunger, not death. Even though Dexter has begun his killing processes in previous episodes, it's here in episode 5 that he grows as a being with a Dark Passenger, as a vigilante serial killer, and in understanding of who he really is. He finds his power here.
The scene where Dexter proves his abilities to Harry is full of tension and done really well. Dex is in full kill-mode, but instead of being desperate to kill, he's desperate to prove himself capable of not making mistakes. And I think for the first time, Harry comes face to face with Dex's Dark Passenger on a level he hasn't before now.
The only thing I didn't like in episode 5 were the flashbacks. Every episode of the season has been full of them, for good reason. With episode 5, they felt a little forced. Our main action is happening in present-day past. We should've stayed focused on the court case and those affects instead of interjecting them with flashbacks to when Harry and Laura continued their intimacy. Sure, it showed Harry's deepening connection with Dexter, but overall, they could've been saved for a later episode.
Dexter: Original Sin streams Fridays on Paramount+ with Showtime and airs Sunday nights onShowtime at 10 p.m. ET.