Dexter: Original Sin just threw viewers for a huge loop in its latest episode with a twist that no one saw coming. In Episode 7, titled “The Big Bad Body Problem,” Dexter (Patrick Gibson) is dealing with the fallout of Tony Ferrer’s (Roberto Sanchez) severed arm floating above the water in Alligator Alley. But that case is small potatoes compared to a bigger one that Miami Metro PD is dealing with.
Following the abduction of one young boy of a prominent figure in the city, Captain Aaron Spencer’s (Patrick Dempsey) son has been abducted in the same fashion. The clock is ticking on the investigation, and new details suggest that the kidnapper and potential killer may have just been revealed. And it’s the last person fans ever imagined.
Dexter: Original Sin
Release Date
December 15, 2024
Network
Paramount+ with Showtime
Cast
-
Patrick Gibson
Dexter Morgan
What Happened With Aaron Spencer’s Son in ‘Dexter: Original Sin’?
The first episodes of Dexter: Original Sin follow the case of a young boy named Jimmy (Brayden Gleave), the son of a prominent judge, who is abducted one day after school. He is chained in a dark basement room and fed the same thing every day: Sunny Smiles boxed meals. The abductor is only ever seen in a full black bodysuit, complete with a black face mask.
After a few days, the man cuts Jimmy’s finger off with pruning shears and sends the appendage to the police, who run DNA tests to determine that it indeed belongs to Jimmy. While the investigation continues, sadly, it’s too late. Jimmy’s body is discovered hanging from a bridge overpass days later in one of the most horrific scenes of the entire franchise. The police suspect that the abduction and murder was gang-related, perhaps in retaliation against the judge who might have been involved in a case that sent one (or more) of their members to jail. But there’s no proof and no leads.
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Not long after, Captain Aaron Spencer’s son Nicky (London Thatcher) is abducted in the same manner. His mother is knocked out while the same man grabs Nicky and takes him away. She doesn’t realize he’s gone until she comes to and is horrified that her son is missing. Nicky is later seen in what appears to be the same dark basement room, chained up the same way Jimmy was. He tries to fashion a weapon out of a metal object he removes from a lamp, using the ground to sharpen its tip. When the man tries to pass the Sunny Smiles meal through a slot in the door, Nicky yells that he’ll need to come and hand it to him if he wants him to eat it.
The man does, and Nicky tries to attack, slashing the man’s wrist in the process. But he’s not strong enough to subdue him. The man grabs Nicky’s arm, pulls out pruning shears, and cuts off his finger. He sends this in a similar box to the police, just as they received Jimmy’s finger. Now, panic sets in because if this killer is doing the same thing, it means Nicky only has days to live before he’s killed. Naturally, Spencer is horrified but tries to keep it together for the sake of his staff and allow them to do their jobs and find this killer before it’s too late.
How and Who Figures Out the Killer’s Possible Identity in ‘Original Sin’?
After receiving the box with the severed finger, Tanya (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her team swiftly get to work to look for clues and confirm that it indeed belongs to Nicky. While examining the evidence, Dexter (Patrick Gibson) spots a drop of blood on the side of the box. It’s a long shot, but it’s possible the kidnapper was injured, and this could be their blood. Tanya praises his keen eye and tells him to run the sample.
Meanwhile, the finger is confirmed to belong to Nicky based on school records that noted his blood type. Tanya is reluctant to tell Spencer all the gruesome details she discovered, but he insists she does. She tells him it was cut using pruning shears, and based on the blood, they can confirm that Nicky was alive at the time. After hours, once everyone has gone home, Dexter re-examines the finger and notices, when taking a second look, that there’s a clear indication of a moment of hesitation during the cut that didn’t exist with Jimmy’s finger. It looks like the killer was reconsidering doing it before he pushed down fully on the shears to slice the finger off. It wasn’t a clean cut like it was with Jimmy.
Dexter finds Spencer at his desk in the morning, looking over the blood report results. He’s defeated because it shows the same blood type, suggesting that the drop of blood Dexter found was Nicky’s and not the killer’s. Dexter tries to reassure him, telling him that lots of people have the same blood type, so it’s still entirely possible the blood belonged to someone else.
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Dexter further reveals his findings about the hesitation in the cut. His theory is that the kidnapper was either an inexperienced, new gang member who wasn’t as comfortable with what he was doing as the person who sliced Jimmy’s finger off was or someone who somehow had a personal connection to Nicky and thus hesitated before performing the act.
In this moment, Dexter notices a bandage around Spencer’s wrist. Spencer comments that that’s what he gets for trying to fix an air conditioner at home himself. But Dexter isn’t buying it. He picks up the blood slide when Spencer leaves, asking himself how he didn’t see this before. It’s evident that Dexter plans to run the blood sample against Spencer’s DNA and expects that he might find a match. Did Spencer abduct his own son? And did he also abduct Jimmy, sever his finger, and kill him as well? The scene switches to a grocery store where a man in a suit is at the checkout buying two Sunny Smiles meals. The cashier examines them and asks if they’re any good. The camera pans to the man, and it’s Spencer who declares that his son seems to love them.
What Does This All Mean for ‘Dexter: Original Sin’?
While it isn’t outright confirmed, it’s likely that Spencer is the perpetrator in his son’s abduction and quite possibly abducted Jimmy as well. Is he the most heinous serial killer of them all? Or did he just abduct his son in a copycat case to get back at his ex-wife Becca (Amanda Brooks), who cheated on him and broke up their family? If Spencer is indeed the kidnapper and killer, this would have widespread implications at Miami Metro PD. It would explain why Spencer no longer works there several years down the line when the story picks up in Dexter. (Granted, he’s also older than the others and could very well have just retired.)
It may also explain yet another reason that Harry Morgan (Christian Slater) reached the end of his rope and decided to die by suicide. Spencer was not only a mentor but also a good friend to Harry. He went to bat for Harry on more than one occasion. He saved his job when Harry’s mistake led to the killer Levi Reed (Jeff Daniel Phillips) going free. Learning that your best friend is a serial killer and one with no empathy nor conscience who would harm children would be more than devastating.
Spencer also stood by Dexter and Debra (Molly Brown) after Harry’s heart attack and welcomed Dexter with open arms into Miami Metro PD. It seems the only person who recognized that something was off about Spencer was Maria LaGuerta (Christina Milian), one of the returning characters from the original, who butted heads with him from the start.
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It would be an epic season finale if Spencer makes his way to Dexter’s table should the vigilante killer confirm his guilt. Will Harry be by his side to speak his mind? Is this the body Harry finds Dexter chopping up that finally drives him to do what he did? With no confirmation yet of a second season, fans expect to see at least some loose ends tied up before the season is over. One other major one is the gruesome death of Laura Moser (Brittany Allen) in flashback scenes that fans of the original know is coming.
If this knowledge leads Dexter to kill Spencer and Harry to see him, it could mean that Slater will not return to the show should it be renewed, aside from in potential flashbacks. And this is very likely. It’s revealed in Dexter that Harry died when Dexter was 20 years old. He is indeed 20 in this series, which means Harry’s death is imminent. And it would make total sense that what drove Harry to die by suicide was not only catching Dexter in the act of dismembering a body but seeing the body of someone he knows and once loved as the victim.
That’s all speculation, of course. The entire Spencer storyline could be a red herring designed to intentionally mislead viewers. But all signs point to Spencer having a dark side and arguably being the most awful villain ever in the show’s history. It also suggests not only that Dexter missed a killer right under his nose but that Harry’s own life was surrounded by more dark and ominous people than he realized. Stream Dexter: Original Sin on Paramount+.
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