Review: Dexter: Original Sin, "Code Blues" | Season 1, Episode 10
The prequel ends as it began: strangely.
Well, that was unusual. For the season finale of Dexter: Original Sin, the series does something that has never been done in the history of Dexter, Dexter: New Blood, or this show up until now: it takes narration duties away from Dexter Morgan. Yes, for the opening sequence of “Code Blues,” our voiceover narration is supplied by Brian Moser, a.k.a. Dexter’s long-lost brother, a.k.a the man who will come to be known as the Ice Truck Killer. It begins in the past, with him holding his brother in the shipping container, telling Dexter the story of the three little pigs to distract him while their mother’s dismembered body lies strewn across the floor in front of them, a horrifying tableau. “That was the first time my brother was taken from me,” he intones, kicking off the parallel tale of his young life after being separated from his sibling.
From there, we trace his development through the years, bouncing from one cruel foster home to the next—giving even worse than he got, to be sure—before ending up at a mental hospital. And then, years later, he arrives at the home of a psychiatrist where he’s seemingly made great progress—only to have the good doctor forbid him from seeing Dexter, at which point Brian smashes the guy’s head in and drives away in his car. Cut to the main plot of Dexter giving chase to Captain Spencer, the otherwise logical starting point of the episode. Why do it? As a framing device, it’s a profound rupture of the entire show and its antecedents; we have always followed along from Dexter’s point of view inside his head, not anyone else.
But as a bold attempt to stake out some original creative territory for this series—and announce that not only is it not going anywhere, but it’s actively sticking around to develop a distinctive identity of its own—it works. To say that the show needed a sharp left turn, artistically speaking, is an understatement, the preceding nine episodes of Dexter Babies feeling sorely like a milquetoast version of the original model. This breaks open the reality of the series, giving it a fresh set of eyes, a new voice, and a way of telling stories that firmly shifts the tone and tenor of what we’re watching. In case it’s not obvious, that’s a very good thing in the long run; if Original Sin intends to keep airing more seasons, which seems to be the case, putting someone else behind the wheel and letting them steer our understanding of events each week is an exciting and daring method of creating its own identity. Imagine tuning in never knowing if you’re going to get Dexter or Brian giving you the narration—or better still, someone else entirely. If the creative team is going to break the mold, why not go even farther? Narration from Harry, or Deb, or hell, even Masuka? It’s an interesting choice, show! Own it! Explore it! There’s so much fertile material there.
If nothing else, it’s a fascinating juxtaposition with the rest of this episode, which otherwise plays like boilerplate Dexter season finale, from the eventual capture of Spencer to the denouement rumination on family (the “only thing that could save me,” Dex muses), all of it familiar material, albeit with a fresh-faced cast. That’s not a big complaint, just an acknowledgement that after shaking things up in so compelling a manner during the opening minutes, it was almost a bummer to return to the status quo—even when our season-long story has hit its crescendo and, to quote another noteworthy villain, the status is not quo.
