Dexter: Original Sin Is A Redemption

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I’ve written about Dexter before. The lackluster ending to the original series, and the only very slightly better, but still lackluster ending to the redo in New Blood that the writer’s attempted. Gonna go full-on spoilers here: The OG series was fine, even after the fourth season, until the writers killed off Deb with a blood clot. The OG series was fine, until they had Dexter ride off into a hurricane, and then reappear as a lumberjack in upstate New York.

New Blood was awesome … until they had his son shoot him in the chest with a hunting rifle and leave him to die in the woods, driving off into Manhattan while the credits rolled.

It was artistic. I get it, I got it.

But, up until Original Sin started airing, I’ve always wondered, “Do the writers actually know what the viewers want to see? Are they just spit-balling ideas where Dexter is never known as the serial killer he is, for shits and giggles?”

The thing is, though, is that while Dexter should see the justice system, and that his old cop friends from Miami should find out what he was really doing … in this day and age, it’s really hard to sell it to an audience, that a guy who killed murderers, rapists, and pedophiles, that he was somehow a bad guy. The world is a much different place than it was in 2008.

But … the act of putting his real identity in front of people he knew for years, was something that should have been done in the original series. It’s what everyone was waiting for.

It would have been akin to the moment in Breaking Bad that his entire family finds out what Walter’s been doing with his free time.

It’s that mask-off moment that really would have made the show. But the writer’s didn’t do that. For some reason … they didn’t want to do that. They wanted him to get away, and keep going. And, I think, that’s also probably mostly what the audience also wanted. But, his identity as a killer of killers cannot, in a fictional 21st century, feasibly remain a secret. And it was exactly what should have happened, shortly after his sister found out that he was murdering people.

I don’t want to say that the show jumped the shark, because it’s still a pretty good show, especially in its freshman years.

Flash-forward and its 2025, the whole entire world has pretty much forgotten about Dexter and the two times they did the ending to his story, and somehow also just didn’t get it right. Both times.

Now, here we are, watching a narrated long-cut flashback sequence of his life as a 20 year old (or 19?) in the 90s just as he’s hired by Miami Metro.

I didn’t think it was a good idea, at first. I thought, “This is gonna be pointless. We already know everything that happens.” But, as a matter of fact, you don’t know everything that happens.

Aside from the fact that Original Sin starts with a flash-forward of Dexter surviving the gun shot from New Blood, it opens up a plethora of brand new things you’ve never seen before. Gun fights, screw-ups, relationships, and … Dexter literally taping the captain of the homicide unit to a kill table.

And it’s all done in a way that actually and finally feels like the writers have figured it out. Like the light-bulb flashed on in their heads, and they went, “Oh hey, you know what? I just realized what we should be doing with this character and this story.” And then they did it.

Now, I’m not saying Dexter’s identity is revealed to anyone in the prequel series. That wouldn’t make sense. But I think I can see where this is finally going. I mean, you got a tease of it at the end of New Blood, and then no resolution whatsoever, because they tentatively killed Dexter off.

But, after watching through 9 episodes out of 10 of Original Sin, so far, I think it was a good idea to go, “No, wait. He isn’t dead.”

Here’s hoping they get the ending right, this time.

As far as their plans to release a Trinity Killer side-series … uh, you know, I’m not really sure we need that. But hey, whatever floats the writer’s boats at this point.