Spoilers

“Code Blues”

I have been up and down with this new prequel version of Dexter during its run on Amazon Prime. Leading up to the tenth episode, I had mixed emotions for this show. The tone had been all over the place and there were times when it felt as if the show wanted to be more comedic than it should have been.

Thankfully, I feel as if the finale of the season delivered a reasonably solid episode, in particular in connection with the kidnapping of Nicky. However, the show left a giant dangling plot in Dexter’s serial killer brother unresolved and feeling like a huge time bomb ready to go off. Will that ever be dealt with? Will there be another season of this version of Dexter? I’m not sure the answers to any of those questions, but looking just at this finale, I thought it was pretty good. (I guess Dexter deals with Brian in season one of the original series, which I did not remember.)

It did not hurt that most of the flashbacks were over and were just used to further the backstory of Brian, which was better than the stuff with Dexter’s birth mom.

The material with Captain Spencer was much better. I have to say that I was critical about the manner in which Dexter allowed Spencer to escape his table last episode. I thought that was an unnecessary risk. Of course, it worked out well, and Dexter was able to save Nicky from a watery grave after Spencer tried to drown the boy. Dexter was able to do it without revealing his identity to Nicky too. Win-Win.

He also was able to catch Spencer and kill him on the boat. Lots of blood involved there, which had to be a problematic plot hole.

Having Dexter, Harry and Deb dancing at the end of the episode was a fun way to show how positive everyone was feeling, even though a darkness lurked around a corner in Brian.

Overall, Dexter: original Sin finished strong, but perhaps not strong enough for me to dismiss the erratic tone taken by the series through the first two-thirds of the season. Some moments were very strong and engaging while other moments just did not work. All of the recasts were big hits though and the show definitely ended on a high note.