Andrew Grevas
The following article contains massive spoilers for Dexter: Original Sin Episode 1, “And in the Beginning…” (written by Clyde Phillips & directed by Michael Lehman), as well as Dexter: New Blood. Both are now streaming on Paramount + if you haven’t seen them and wish to avoid spoilers. Proceed with caution.
I was nervous for more Dexter. My inner dialogue in the moments leading up to watching Dexter: Original Sin Episode 1 told me to lower my expectations. I was one of the seemingly few who enjoyed the ending of Dexter: New Blood. To me, the story of the Bay Harbor Butcher was wrapped up. It was as neat and tidy as this sometime great, sometimes frustrating, franchise would get. I personally had said goodbye to the characters, Miami Metro and The Code. But here we are, traveling back in time to 1991 to see how Dexter Morgan became the serial killer we would know him to be.
My apprehension admittedly got worse when the opening moments of the prequel series effectively overturned the ending I enjoyed, telling us that Dexter was indeed alive. He survived his son’s attempt to kill him. We see Dexter in a hospital being saved and our faithful narrator Michael C. Hall informed us that Dexter’s near death experience had him reflecting on his past. As an audience, we’re reliving Dexter’s life with him.
As soon as Dexter: Original Sin Episode 1 left present day and settled into Dexter’s origin story, I found myself hooked. First and foremost, the casting is spectacular. Patrick Gibson has the unenviable task of playing a role that Michael C. Hall made iconic, but he managed to make the transition between actors feel seamless. Gibson deserves his flowers for studying the quirks and mannerisms of both the character and Hall. It certainly wasn’t an easy feat, but I bought him as Dexter Morgan quickly.
We learned that Dexter was originally a promising pre-med student who appeared to have a bright future as a surgeon. This was a plan Harry created, hoping that cutting into people would relieve some of Dexter’s urges, which it clearly did not. It was fascinating to see the different ways that Harry was trying to steer Dexter, though, in an effort to prevent him from having to kill.
Perhaps the best casting of all is Molly Brown as young Deb. The portrayal of Deb felt incredibly authentic. Between her swearing, insults, mood swings and competitive personality, they nailed a teenage Deb. There were a lot of laugh out loud moments in this premiere and most of those moments included Deb.
Christian Slater and Patrick Dempsey brought an air of legitimacy to the show. They both have commanding presences onscreen that subliminally tell audiences that this show is important. Slater is stepping into the role of Harry Morgan, previously played by James Remar, and Dempsey is playing Captain Spencer, a character not known in the narrative before. Dempsey comes across as a good guy, albeit impulsive and perhaps willing to cut a corner or two. Given that his character isn’t referenced in the original series, I can’t help but wonder if he’s a future victim for Dexter. Police captain with a secret? Only time will tell, but I don’t like his long term outlook.
Slater serves as the anchor for this premiere episode. We learn that in the early 1970s, Harry Morgan was home alone with his young biological son. Harry was drinking and the child drowned. This was new information revealed for the first time and helps us understand the Harry character more. He’s already lost one child due to his choices. Him going out of his way to create a code for his adopted son Dexter in an effort to not lose a second child makes more sense.
In many ways, New Blood came down hard on Harry. Why give your son a code at all? Family cycles were at the core of that series, but here in Dexter: Original Sin Episode 1, Harry is being humanized more. Perhaps he was less incompetent and more broken. Harry would suffer a heart attack while hunting with Dexter and listening to him talk about his desire to take a human life, which further adds to the redemption of Harry. Spending most of the episode in a hospital bed, Harry was the victim of a nurse who slowly killed her patients via medication.
This nurse was known in Dexter lore but they did make her seem like she had killed more people here than previously assumed. Watching young Dexter fumble his way through his first kill room and sloppily attack his soon to be first victim was a nice touch, as it was both funny and also reminded us how much of a professional he would eventually be. There was a scene where Dexter hid newspaper clippings of famous serial killers inside a pornographic magazine. While the audience largely looked at Dexter as some time of vigilante, this scene served as reminder that his heroes and influences were the worst of the worst and that with the amount of murders he would go on to commit later, he would arguably be the most prolific serial killer of all time. I was personally glad for that scene, as it served as both funny, as well as a reminder of who Dexter really is. Sometimes we need that reminder.
Burning Questions
Coming out of Dexter: Original Sin Episode 1, I find myself left with several burning questions:
- Will we get to see Harry’s relationship with Dexter’s birth mother and, if so, are there any twists there? What else will we learn about Harry Morgan?
- Is Captain Spencer a good cop or connected to the Big Bad of the season?
- I know Clyde Phillips wants to have multiple seasons of this prequel, but will the narrative allow for it?
- Do any of the cops we’re currently seeing younger versions of have any skeletons in their closets that will change the way we not only look at them here, but also retroactively in the main series?
Final Thoughts
This felt like a Dexter episode. The pacing, the humor, the story structure—everything felt right. The nostalgia was heavy handed at times but never in a way that felt distracting or like it was compensating for lack of story. While Dexter: Original Sin could have been merely a throwaway limited series in an attempt to keep the growing franchise moving, that doesn’t appear to be the case at all. The first episode showed that a lot of attention has been paid to detail and that this show is ambitious. Can’t wait to see where they go next week.
