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

And see also Dexter: New Blood 1.1: Back with a Vengeance ... Dexter: New Blood 1.2: Dark Tendencies ... Dexter: New Blood 1.3: Fathers and Sons ... Dexter: New Blood 1.4: Harrison and Kurt ... Dexter New Blood: 1.5: No Satisfaction for Serial Killers ... Dexter: New Blood 1.6: Breaks and Arm Breaks ... Dexter: New Blood: 1.7: Dexter vs. Kurt ...Dexter: New Blood 1.8: The Hug in the Car ... Dexter: New Blood 1.9 One Down, One To Go ... Dexter: New Blood Finale: Superb, and I Didn't Like It All
And see also Dexter Season 8 Premiere: Mercury in Retrograde, Dexter Incandescent ... Dexter 8.2: The Gift ... Dexter 8.3: The Question and the Confession ... Dexter 8.4: The "Lab Rat" and Harry's Daughter ... Dexter 8.5: Just Like Family ... Dexter 8.6: The Protege ... Dexter 8.7: Two Different Codes? ... Dexter 8.8: "A Great Future" ... Dexter 8.9: The Psycho Son ... Dexter 8.10: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ... Dexter 8.11: "Not the Old Dexter" ... Dexter Series Finale: Solitude, Style, and a Modicum of Hope


And see also Dexter Season 7.1-3: Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 7.4: The Lesson in Speltzer's Smoke ... Dexter 7.5: Terminator Isaac ... Dexter 7.6: "Breaking and Entering" ... Dexter 7.7: Shakespearean Serial Killer Story ... Dexter 7.8: Love and Its Demands ... Dexter 7.9: Two Memorable Scenes and the Ascension of Isaac ... Dexter 7.11: The "Accident" ... Dexter Season 7 Finale: The Surviving Triangle

And see also Dexter Season 6 Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 6.4: Two Numbers and Two Killers Equals? ... Dexter 6.5 and 6.6: Decisive Sam ... Dexter 6.7: The State of Nebraska ... Dexter 6.8: Is Gellar Really Real? .... Dexter 6.9: And Geller Is ... ... Dexter's Take on Videogames in 6.10 ...Dexter and Debra:  Dexter 6.11 ... Dexter Season 6 Finale: Through the Eyes of a Different Love

And see also Dexter Season Five Sneak Preview Review ... Dexter 5.4: Dexter's Conscience ...Dexter 5.8 and Lumen ... Dexter 5.9: He's Getting Healthier ... Dexter 5.10: Monsters -Worse and Better ... Dexter 5.11: Sneak Preview with Spoilers  ... Dexter Season 5 Finale: Behind the Curtain

And see also Dexter Season 4: Sneak Preview Review ... The Family Man on Dexter 4.5 ...Dexter on the Couch in 4.6 ... Dexter 4.7: 'He Can't Kill Bambi' ... Dexter 4.8: Great Mistakes ...4.9: Trinity's Surprising Daughter ... 4.10: More than Trinity ... 4.11: The "Soulless, Anti-Family Schmuck" ... 4.12: Revenges and Recapitulations

And see also reviews of Season 3: Season's Happy Endings? ... Double Surprise ... Psychotic Law vs. Sociopath Science ... The Bright, Elusive Butterfly of Dexter ... The True Nature of Miguel ...Si Se Puede on Dexter ... and Dexter 3: Sneak Preview Review

Reviews of Season 2: Dexter's Back: A Preview and Dexter Meets Heroes and 6. Dexter and De-Lila-h and 7. Best Line About Dexter - from Lila and 8. How Will Dexter Get Out of This? and The Plot Gets Tighter and Sharper and Dex, Doakes, and Harry and Deb's Belief Saves Dex and All's ... Well

See also about Season 1: First Place to Dexter 

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