SPOILER WARNING! The following contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for the penultimate episode of ‘Dexter: Original Sin’ titled ‘Blood Drive’ - Proceed with caution.
The debut season of Dexter: Original Sin is quickly approaching its conclusion and in classic Dexter fashion, the penultimate episode delivers thrills, chills, and LOTS of blood. While much of the season has been focused on chronicling Dexter’s growing confidence as a killer, the overarching threat of the season has been somewhat of a trickle up until this point.
Last week’s revelations about Captain Spencer shook things up considerably and even shifted the overall tone of the show towards something noticeably darker. While episode nine certainly brings a lot of the season’s concurrent threads into focus, it still feels like many questions remain to be answered. Regardless, ’Blood Drive’ is a captivating episode that sets us up for an exciting (and possibly earth shattering?) finale.
EPISODE RECAP
Before we jump into the analysis, let’s take a look at the most important story developments in the episode:
- Brian Moser stalks and kills Barb, a nice older woman he tracked to a local bingo hall. It is revealed later that she is the case worker who ultimately separated her and Dexter at the request of Harry and Doris.
- Dexter moves forward with his plan to take out Spencer without Harry’s approval but his initial grab is foiled when Harry unexpectedly accompanies Spencer to his home.
- When questioned, Harry gives LaGuerta a series of half-truths about his relationship to Brian Moser. He admits to the affair and to being at fault for her murder but stops just shy of telling her that Dexter and Brian are related.
- Flashback: Harry is demoted after admitting to the affair but the search for Laura at the shipping yard commences. After 3-days of searching, they finally find the grisly aftermath of Laura’s murder along with her two traumatized sons.
- Miami Metro hosts a blood drive to support Bobby who is currently in intensive care following the shootout at the cartel house. Deb jumps at the opportunity to help her godfather which brings her into the heart of the police station for the first time.
- Officer Sanders asks Dexter to help him keep his secret from the department. He reveals that he is awaiting blood test results to determine if he contracted HIV and asks him to help create the illusion that he donated blood. Dexter helps him out by taking a pint of his own blood but is then pressured into giving blood again by Masuka shortly after.
- Dexter is recruited by Tanya to assist with the collection of blood which culminates in a tense but veiled interaction between him and Spencer.
- Flashback: After Harry and Doris agree to take in both Brian and Harry, there is an incident in which Brian tries to smother Deb with a pillow. In the aftermath, Doris and Harry agree that they aren’t equipped to deal with the intense level of trauma that he experienced. The result is a reluctant separation of Dexter and Harry at the hands of their case worker.
- Harry realizes that Brian has been stalking Dexter by showing up at each of the NHI crime scenes. This revelation puts Harry in a tough position because it means that solving the NHI case could put his entire family at risk.
- Dexter sets up a kill room at the arcade that Nick Spencer told him earlier in the season. He then lures Spencer by leaving a blackmail note on his apartment door in which he threatens to tell the world about his plot if he doesn’t deliver a ransom to the arcade.
- When Spencer arrives, Dexter almost fumbles the takedown due to his unintended blood loss at the blood drive. Luckily, he manages to get the upper hand and finally puts Spencer on his table.
- Brian takes Barb to a rooftop where he ruthlessly kills her with a chainsaw.
- On the kill table, Spencer insists that he is innocent but Dexter doesn’t believe him. There is a tense exchange between the two where Dexter eventually relieves Spencer of his pinky finger.
- Dexter sets a trap for Spencer and tricks him into leading him to Nicky. He cuts the plastic wrap slightly and leaves the room; Creating ample opportunity for Spencer to flee and for Dexter to follow him to Nicky’s location.
”Life is full of wants and desires”
With the vicious murder of Barb at the end of this episode, the connective tissue between this prequel and the original series is starting to crystallize. He speaks of wanting to spend his life with his baby brother and the photos that Harry inspects at Miami Metro reveal that he has been stalking Dexter for months. Considering what we already know about Dexter and Brian’s eventual reunion, the obvious question becomes: “What will Harry do to keep their paths from crossing AND what will the consequences of his actions ultimately be?”
After this episode, I immediately thought back to the moment in season one when Brian finally met Dexter and of the steps that he took to make that happen. He inserted himself into Deb’s life and even discreetly murdered their shared biological father to make their reunion a reality. When they finally come face-to-face, he says: “I waited a long time to meet you.” As the pieces fall into place now, the connections between these two eras of the show are strengthening and if you ask me, that is the sign of a well constructed prequel.
”I’ll never forget the first time my father lied to my face”
Over the last few episodes especially, it has become more apparent that Dexter’s eagerness to kill has put him at odds with his father; Possibly even changing the dynamic of their relationship for the long haul. Harry scoffed at his theory about Spencer and continuously berated him for continuing to pursue it. It feels like his bond with Deb is growing just as his bond with Harry is starting to show cracks. His own self-doubt turned to vindication at the end of last week’s disastrous shootout with the Cartel and I can only imagine some unintended resentment is beginning to form.
But I would say that the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back came this week when Harry blatantly lied to Dexter’s face about the ongoing NHI serial killer case. While the audience knows that this is a good-faith fib rooted in a father’s instinct to protect his child, Dexter sees it as some form of betrayal. The events of the season have slowly planted the seeds of mistrust in Dexter’s mind that the original show exploits once the “truth” about Harry’s demise is eventually revealed (season 2). But more immediately, it’s pushing him towards his own form of rebellion; Specifically in his willingness to pursue Spencer without approval from Harry.
As Dexter struggles to exert his autonomy as a killer, Harry’s actions in the background are also pushing him away, feeding his narcissism, and darkening his worldview. But what I love about the way these developments are unfolding is that they truly feel organic in nature. On one hand, you have Harry struggling to do right by his adopted son and on the other, you have Dexter who, in the interest of preserving what little light he has, is being kept in the dark about his past. In retrospect, the truth may have been the better policy but it’s at least understandable why both of these characters are on the paths they are on. At the end of the day, the season is ultimately helping to contextualize the choices Dexter goes on to make later in life.
”This is a private matter and I’de prefer to keep it that way”
While episode nine thankfully skips past the truly disturbing details of Laura’s murder, we finally get a more in depth look at the horrifying aftermath. While much of what we already understood about this event remains unaltered, it does provide more context to how the event shaped Brian. As Harry rushes in to scoop up Dexter from the pool of blood, Brian is traumatized yet again as he watches a surrogate father figure rip Dexter from his grasp and leave him behind; A symbolic gesture that lasts mere moments but an image that undeniably haunts Brian well into adulthood.
With that said, the events that unfold immediately after the shipping container incident serve to enrich the story we were told in the original series. It is here that we learn that Harry and Doris made a joint decision to foster both boys at first; While I have largely viewed Harry as a sort of quasi-villain, this was a defining moment for the character that I think has shifted the way I feel about his character.
Harry doesn’t shy away from the truth when explaining the situation to Doris and instead does the hard thing in order to do right by Dexter and Brian. Doris also reveals herself to be a remarkably caring person; Wasting no time tapping into her maternal side and embracing her new role as foster mom. Unfortunately, Brian’s trauma quickly bubbles to the surface when he tries to smother infant Deb with a pillow. It’s an awful situation to be but it’s only made worse by the fact that the two of them are already incredibly attached to Dexter. One thing leads to another and pretty soon, the brothers are separated and Brian is placed back into the foster care system.
In the present-day, when Harry is confronted by LaGuerta about the file that Harry stole, I was surprised to see Harry be so forthcoming with the truth. He tells her almost all of the important details pertaining to Laura’s murder and the guilt he feels for his role but he stops just short of telling her that Brian wasn’t an only child; A fact that is later substantiated by Camilla’s doctored police reports in the records room. One way or the other, Harry made an important decision by choosing to cover up the truth while also giving LaGuerta just enough information to satiate her curiosity. We know that 16+ years later, Maria will have no memory of Brian Moser’s name or identity so the episode left me wondering how successful Harry actually is with this coverup. Add that to the list of questions I expect to be answered after next week’s finale.
”They’re f***ing evil animals”
The centerpiece of this episode is of course the blood drive hosted by Miami Metro to help Bobby after his brush with death. It’s an event with serious gravitational pull that manages to bring together many of the seasons’ ongoing story threads. Deb considers an alternate future when she ventures into the heart of the department for the first time, Officer Sanders entrusts Dexter to help him keep his secret life a secret, and Dexter gets a tense one-on-one encounter with Spencer as he oversees the blood withdrawal.
Dexter carelessly inserts and removes the needle into Spencer’s arm and describes this underhanded aggression as mere “foreplay” ahead of their fated reunion in the kill room. This was just one of many little moments and dialogue choices that added a welcome layer of “classic Dexter” to the encounter. It gave me flashbacks to his many veiled threats against foes from the past (future?).
This was such an important and far-reaching scene that highlights the unexpected humanity at the heart of this show. Dexter’s blind aversion to harming children and his willingness to help a friend speaks to the unforeseen twists and turns that our lives can take and emphasizes the compassion hidden deep within Dexter in spite of his overwhelming darkness. On top of that, it was just great fun to watch. Especially when Dexter faces the unforeseen consequences of covering for Officer Sanders;
”The world became an even darker place”
With ninety percent of the season in the rearview mirror, Spencer’s true endgame as the child kidnapper still feels like it hasn’t fully formed. In this episode, we see him reveal his face to Nicky (which honestly doesn’t bode well for his fate) while at the same time declaring his innocence to Dexter when he is on the kill table. In most other seasons of Dexter, the villain’s motivations and ultimate goals would be well documented at this point; Suggesting (to me at least) that some aspect of this mystery is being held back for the finale.
The climax of the episode delivers some of the sharpest writing of the season thus far; Coupling Dexter’s knack for theatricality with one of the most captivating kill-room scenes of the season (if not the entire show). Everything from Dexter’s near fumbling of the takedown to the bright neon backdrop of the arcade made the moment of Spencer’s awakening on the table that much more impactful.
In the heat of the exchange that follows, Spencer hints that the grievance he has with his ex-wife is to blame for his actions but if you ask me, something about this whole scene feels intentionally misleading (in fact, I wrote about one potential theory here). Spencer insists that Dexter has made a mistake and Dexter pushes forward, confident in his conclusion. When Spencer refuses to disclose Nicky’s location, Dexter makes a symbolic gesture by cutting off his pinky finger and intentionally cutting just enough of the plastic wrap to give him an opportunity to escape. This was a bold and brilliant ploy by Dexter and once that again felt very reminiscent of something the character would have done later in life. It also happened to be cleverly framed in such a way that it had audiences losing their mind before they realized it was a calculated move.
’Blood Drive’ was another incredibly strong episode written by Executive Producer, Scott Reynolds (following in the footsteps of the incredibly popular episode that he wrote in Dexter: New Blood titled ‘The Family Business’). With Spencer fleeing the arcade with unseen intentions (and one less finger) and Dexter in close pursuit, the stakes leading into the season finale feel appropriately high.
With Harry on a collision course with Brian, Dexter is left to operate on his own and the decisions made by both of these characters in the final episode will undoubtedly have far-reaching consequences. Additionally, it still feels like there are more truths waiting to be revealed so I think it is safe to say that this finale will be the most anticipated episode of the season. Whether it sticks the landing is yet to be seen but all signs thus far give me confidence that we are in for a treat.
Score:
Next Week: “Code Blues” (Season Finale)