Episode two of Dexter: Original Sin has our anti-hero starting his new job at Miami Metro. The “tiny but mighty” Sarah Michelle Gellar is a joy to watch as she engages in pranking Dexter. I loved the hilarious scene where he attempts (and fails) to impress others with his acumen. We also find out that Batista worked closely with Harry Morgan, so much so that Harry asks Angel to take Dex under his wing. Curious—because in TOS (that’s right, Dexter has that now) Batista doesn’t talk about Harry at all.
The terrified kidnapped boy we meet turns out to be the son of a judge. But when the episode ends, he’s still held captive. Well, most of him is. One finger was released to the police. Yikes! Also though, what was that weird boxed meal full of fresh fruit? It looked like a giant lunchable except there was actual fruit.
If anyone ever wondered if Deb was exaggerating about being ignored at home—she wasn’t. Pro tip for Harry: If you’re an adult who didn’t shop and didn’t cook, you don’t get to complain about what’s for dinner. Pretty sure Debra will regret hocking her mom’s pearls though. That was a clear act of sorrow and anger and not “moving on” as she sarcastically put it.
The scene where Dexter is saving seats for the guys was...weird. The guy asking for the seat seemed low-key ominous and aggressively generic. Was he just so NPC that we weren’t supposed to notice him? The restaurant wasn’t full, so why did he want a seat at Dex’s table anyway? Maybe it was nothing, but maybe not.
Laura Moser. She’s no longer the soft-focus, hippy-dippy, lovely young woman happily raising two young sons. This is a grittier portrayal of a beaten-down woman struggling with inappropriate men. We know that Joe Driscoll is the father of Dex and Brian Moser and that he does indeed, go to jail for a long time. Before he’s murdered by his own son way, way later. I couldn’t help but notice that Harry was already giving little Brian the side-eye the very first time they met. Not cool. At this point, Laura seems too damaged to engage in a consensual relationship with Harry. I don’t think I’m gonna like it when we finally see them progress to that level.
I wondered why, in the first ep, they showed us a murder we’d already seen in TOS. It seems that this murder of the deadly nurse might loom larger in Dexter’s psyche than we realized. Plus the earrings being kept and going from Dexter to Debra to Debra’s friend is unnerving even if nothing comes of it. This may become the reason Dexter switches trophies from jewelry to blood slides.
Other highlights this week include Camilla, absolutely nailing Margo Martindale’s original portrayal. Dexter’s decision to replace crudité with donuts was fun even though we saw it coming. I didn’t know that Miami was the murder capital of the US in the 80s. So I learned something, which is always cool. I’m not sure why Deb thought she was going to get $30 each hocking VHS tapes. That wasn’t even true back then. The phrase “spatter matters” is also well worth remembering.
Dexter is indeed, a kid in a candy store as he’s surrounded by dead bodies, blood, and puzzles to solve. I enjoy these longer villain arcs to the ‘killer of the week’ style the series sometimes employs. This week, Dex is handed another potential victim in the form of “Handsome” Tony Ferrer. How long will we lament the unavenged René before he finally ends up on a slide?
See you’s next week!