Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress

reviewing 3 Body Problem; Black Doves; Bosch; Criminal Minds; Dark Matter; Dexter: Original Sin; Dune: Prophecy; For All Mankind; Foundation; Hijack; House of the Dragon; Luther; Outlander; Presumed Innocent; Prime Target; Reacher; Severance; Silo; Slow Horses; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; Surface; The: Ark, Day of the Jackal, Diplomat, Last of Us, Way Home; You +books, films, music, podcasts, politics

George Santayana had irrational faith in reason - I have irrational faith in TV.

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Dexter: Original Sin 1.9: Brian's Story

Well, the blood-splattered ingenious story in Dexter: Original Sin 1.9 is not just about Dexter's older brother Brian -- the notorious Ice-Truck Killer who played such a crucial role in the very first season of the very first Dexter TV series that began on Showtime nearly 20 years ago -- it's also about Captain Spencer. But I didn't want to overload the title of this review.

[And there will be spoilers ahead ... ]

The two stories are intertwined. Dexter thinks he has a serial killer on the table. We know that this serial killer is not Spencer. He is still a monster who has kidnapped his own son and cut off his finger -- to punish his former wife, the boy's mother, who left Spencer -- not to mention that he killed another boy, Jimmy Powell, to draw any attention away from anyone from Miami-Metro who might suspect he kidnapped his son. But he wasn't at all responsible for the various adults who've turned up murdered in the previous episodes of Original Sin.

That killer, we learn in 1.9, is Brian. Indeed, we see Brian take another victim with a chainsaw, with flashbacks that show him, as a boy, trying to suffocate baby Deb because she was making too much noise crying. With only one episode left to go in the first season of Original Sin -- and (if I remember correctly) with the older Dexter not starting out suspicious of his brother in the first season of the original Dexter series in 2006 -- it's likely we've seen the last of Dexter looking for the not-Spencer serial killer in Original Sin. But you never know.

Meanwhile, we're treated to another example of Dexter's wiley intelligence near the end of the episode. Spencer escapes after Dexter tells him he'll be back. Not because Dexter is still learning his craft as a killer. It's because Dexter realized he couldn't trust Spencer to tell him where his son Nicky was. So, although we don't actually quite see it, he must have cut some of that plastic that was holding Spencer down on the table, allowing Spencer to break loose, and when Spencer speeds away in his car -- he's still able to drive alright with nine fingers -- Dexter pulls out after him. The best way for Dexter to find out where Nicky is.

Not only was that a clever move, Dexter also manages with Spencer on the table to deliver one of his best lines of the season, musing, as he resists the thrill of killing Spencer, that Dexter now knows what "serial killer blue balls" feel like. A memorable line delivered by Michael C. Hall. (Hey, that would have been an even better title for this review than Brian's Story.)

See you back here next week with my review of the first season finale.

See also Dexter: Original Sin 1.1: Activation of the Code ... 1.2-1.3: "The Finger Is Missing" ... 1.4: The Role of Luck in Dexter's Profession and Life ... 1.5: Revelations and Relations ... 1.6: On the Strong, Non-Serial-Killer Parts of the Show ... 1.7: First Big Shocker ... 1.8: Dexter's Discovery