Spoilers ahead for Dexter: Original Sin season 1 finale
The Dexter prequel series ended its first season run on Valentine's Day with the heart-pounding finale episode "Code Blues," that sees Dexter finalizing his and Harry's "Code" and putting an end to Aaron Spencer (Patrick Dempsey) once and for all.
Apart from Dexter, several other characters are put on their predestined paths to places we know they'll end up later based on the original Showtime series. Inspired by the women she's seen working at the Miami Metro PD like Tanya (played by the sorely underutilized Sarah Michelle Gellar) and a young Maria LaGuerta (Christina Milian), Deb joins the police academy in the hopes of someday working alongside her father and brother.
The tail end of this season has also spent time exploring the serial killer origins of Dexter's psychopathic half-brother Brian Moser (Roby Attal), who eventually goes on to become one of Dexter's main adversaries.
The downfall of Captain Aaron Spencer
Dexter stalks Spencer to a shipyard where he finds him holding Nicky in captivity. Apparently, Nicky isn't actually Aaron's son which is partly why he did what he did. Honestly though, Spencer's motivations for all of this are still pretty murky.
Spencer gives Dexter a choice: kill him or save Nicky, as he fills the holding cell with the little boy with water, leaving the kid to drown. Dexter controls himself long enough to rescue Nicky before going after Spencer again. He does catch up to him, bringing him out on Camilla's boat before killing and dismembering his body. Spencer becomes one of the first bodies that Dexter drops off into the middle of the ocean, the location we know becomes his favorite dumping ground.
Brian Moser's origin story, the beginning of the Ice Truck Killer
I have mixed feelings about how Original Sin has handled the introduction and exploration of Brian. In many ways, the character's involvement felt like a superfluous storyline in a show that is already overstuffed with too many different characters and plots. Considering Brian doesn't properly enter Dexter's life until the first season of the main show, his introduction here feels too soon.
He already did his stint in the mental hospital and now he's going to, what? Hover in the background of Dexter's life for the next however many years? I think it would have worked better to tease Brian's presence at the end of season 1, and maybe lay the groundwork for him in season 2. But now it feels like we've reached a crossroads where Original Sin can't do much with him moving forward without some serious retconning or trying to follow Brian's life along with Dexter, which I can't see being done in any way that feels natural.
The finale provides us with some more context to Brian's start down the serial killer avenue. After acting out as a child, Harry and his wife, Doris, decided Brian was too much for them and he was taken to multiple foster homes, usually resulting in him lashing out violently until finally he's checked into a psychiatric hospital. Upon release, Brian targets the people he blames for separating him from his brother, like the adoption agent Barbara Plimpton whose body he dismembers into pieces with a chainsaw, similar to how his mother was dismembered in front of him.
Harry and Brian come face-to-face in the finale, with Brian ultimately letting Harry go as he escapes. But Harry still covers up Brian's involvement, throwing LaGuerta under the bus, claiming there is no serial killer after all to cover up for Dexter's brother. Because of Brian's early introduction and knowledge that Harry knew about him all along, I guess we have to believe that Harry also let him run around murdering people indiscriminately for the next decade.
The episode ends with Brian continuing to stalk Dexter from afar, spying on him, Deb, and Harry as they spend a night out together at the local bar. What will they do with Brian next? Is this character destined to spend however many seasons of Original Sin lingering in background shots?