‘Dexter: Original Sin’ Team on Finale’s Major Murder, ‘Resurrection’ Plans and How Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Character Is ‘Feeding the Beast’

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from “Code Blues,” the Season 1 finale of “Dexter: Original Sin,” now streaming on Paramount+ With Showtime.

Over the course of just a few weeks in 1991, Dexter Morgan came into his own as a serial killer.

At least that’s how he tells it (through voiceover narration by OG Dexter, Michael C. Hall) at the end of the first season of Showtime’s prequel series “Dexter: Original Sin.” In the finale, Dexter (played in his 20s by Patrick Gibson) satisfies the rage of his “dark passenger” by killing his first-ever big bad — Miami Metro Police captain Aaron Spencer (Patrick Dempsey), who, it turns out, was trying to get revenge on his ex-wife by kidnapping and attempting to kill their son, Nicky.

While Dexter has never been the epitome of moral superiority, he has always drawn the line at endangering children. You can thank the traumatized kid who watched his mom be cut to pieces with a chainsaw by drug lords for that admirable hard limit. So when he suspects it is actually Spencer who kidnapped, mutilated and murdered a judge’s son only to mask his real plan to do the same to his own child, Dexter breaks the strict code set by his father Harry (Christian Slater) to kill the captain –– whether Harry believes him or not.

“As we see later in the original series, kids are kind of the one place where Dexter starts to feel human,” Gibson tells Variety. “But I also think it’s important that he goes against his dad’s word when it comes to Spencer. Not for the first time, but definitely when it comes to a kill. It’s always taken Harry’s permission to kill, that’s part of the code, and so this is Dexter kind of flying out of the nest. He made a decision, and it was the right one, and I think it gives him that autonomy and that sense of confidence that he is ready.”

But is Dexter too cocky in his assessment that he’s nearly complete in his evolution just a few weeks after his first kill? “Yeah, this was a big swing, and I’m curious how that sense of confidence that he gets from it may lead him astray down the line,” Gibson adds. “It feels like we are just going into his adolescence as a serial killer with that bravado.”

Realistically, this wasn’t the cleanest kill Dexter ever commits either. He already had Spencer on his table once, only to risk letting him escape so he would lead Dexter to Nicky. Cut to the two men brawling in the bowels of a derelict ship in the Miami port, where Spencer has imprisoned and ultimately attempts to drown his son to evade capture. “He was a good one to spar with,” Gibson says of his fight scene with Dempsey. But eventually, Dexter catches up to the world’s worst dad and finally finds the right place to properly strap Spencer down for the kill –– a boat out in Bay Harbor. It is a major step closer to the Dexter audiences first met in 2006, whose work killing bad people will become known as the Bay Harbor Butcher.

“That scene was so surreal to shoot,” Gibson says. “It was one of the last days, and it felt fitting. It is very Dexter to be on that boat, and that kill felt kind of special. There is something interesting that happens in the kill rooms where there is an air of solemnity about it. It feels sacred because you have all the plastic wrap and everyone is being very quiet, and it has this energy to it with someone strapped down on the table. But then, to bring that out into the dead of night on a boat where you really have limited crew, that was pretty cool.”

Showrunner Clyde Phillips, who served in the same role for Seasons 1-4 of the original series and the 2021 sequel “New Blood,” says Spencer’s importance to elevating Dexter’s maturity as a serial killer with a conscience was crucial to moving toward this “fully formed” being.

“The audience already knows a lot of what is going to happen,” he says. “But we are showing the evolution of it. The origins of it. To us, that is a welcome challenge to write.”

After the bloodletting of Spencer, the finale shifts into something rarely seen in the world of “Dexter” –– a happy ending. Dexter gets hired full time at Miami Metro as a forensic analyst. His sister, Deb (Molly Brown), forgoes a college career playing volleyball to apply to the police academy, following in the footsteps of her dad. And Harry is just happy his serial killer son is satiating his urges in private for the time being. The trio even dance it out in the final scene, which ended up being more coordinated than Phillips initially intended.

“We have already established Dexter doesn’t know how to dance,” he says. “When I wrote that ending, I also had Christian Slater doing the old white guy dance with the thumbs up and the bottom lip curled in. But he came to me and said he knows how to dance, and asked if he could. Molly is also a great dancer, and so they just made that scene even more joyous for the Morgans.”

It wouldn’t be “Dexter” without the looming specter of doom though, and this time it came from a familiar face. Over the final episodes, Harry and LaGuerta (Christina Milian) are investigating a possible serial killer that he deduces is actually Brian Moser (Roby Attal), Dexter’s older brother who Harry and his wife kicked out of their house for behavioral issues after they tried to adopt both him and Dexter following their mother’s murder. Brian will, of course, return in Season 2 of the original “Dexter” series to face off with his brother as the Ice Truck Killer. But here, he is a lonely, disturbed boy looking to lure his brother out by leaving him a grotesque trail of bodies tied to their fraught adoption.

Although Brian’s story will really pay off in the OG “Dexter,” Phillips says they wanted to revisit it now to remind audiences that just as Dexter was refining his skills, so too was Brian. Dexter isn’t the only one with an original sin, and Brian didn’t have the benefit of Harry’s code to keep him in check as he evolved.

“Don’t forget, Brian was in that shipping container too,” Phillips says. “Harry is partially responsible for Brian going on to becoming who he is because they couldn’t accommodate both kids and they had to separate them a second time. We have that scene in the facility where we watch Brian morph from age 8 to age 18, and you realize this kid has had a really shitty 10 years. He’s already damaged, and now he is basically destroyed.”

Dexter and Brian only briefly cross paths this season, but it’s Harry who comes face to face with him and manages to talk Brian into leaving Dexter alone –– for now. However, he is watching from the window as the Morgans dance their cares away in the final scene.

One person who –– somewhat surprisingly ––made it out alive this season was Sarah Michelle Gellar, as Dexter’s forensics boss Tanya, whose “Special Guest Star” billing left some fans worried she might be collateral damage in Dexter’s messy evolution since the character isn’t in the original series. While it is Harry who is trying desperately to contain Dexter’s hunger for killing, Gibson says there’s a beautiful irony that Tanya is one unknowingly molding Dexter’s skills of evasion.

“I love how Dexter is a really enthusiastic student, but not just so he can become good at his job, which I think he wants to be,” Gibson says. “But also because she is teaching him the tips and tricks of how to get away with murder. It’s funny because she thinks she is leading him down one path, but she is also feeding the beast at the same time.”

Both Clyde and Gibson want to do more seasons of “Original Sin,” and if they get their wish, Phillips says they want Gellar back to continue to mentor Dexter –– if it all works with her possible return as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” “Dexter needs to learn his forensics, and she is such a joy to work with,” Phillips says. “If we can work out some kind of arrangement with her other show, we definitely want her back.”

So what is happening elsewhere in the world of “Dexter?” Phillips is currently in New York with Hall shooting “Dexter: Resurrection,” the continuation of the serial killer’s story following “New Blood.” The series will give Dexter his starriest cast yet with the likes of Uma Thurman and Peter Dinklage signing on. Gibson actually visited the set recently and got to watch the other Dexter in action for the first time. “Getting to see Michael working live was unbelievable,” he says. “Just so, so cool. I’m ready, bring it on!”

He also praised the shift to a New York setting, which he says has “an energy to it that is different, but has that vibrancy to it like Miami did.” Phillips, on the other hand, is a veritable Fort Knox when it comes to what fans can expect from the show, noting only that “it keeps the theme of father and son alive in a big way.”

But where does that leave “Original Sin?” If Phillips and Gibson have their way, this is just the beginning of, well, Dexter’s beginning.

“I would love to do more,” Phillips says. “The show premiered as the highest streaming premiere in the history of Paramount and Showtime. We know they are loving it over there, we are just waiting for the phone call.”

If they do get to delve deeper into young Dexter’s world, both men have their own wish list for what questions they would like answered.

“Something I was thinking about in the first season is that Dexter has certain bonds with characters from the original,” he says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if secrets bound him to those characters. He’s someone who knows that an alliance is very valuable, and he can use people to his advantage. I would just love to know if there were things we didn’t hear about in the original because they were secrets that were never mentioned.”

Phillips, meanwhile, wants to hammer out the finer details of what makes Dexter who he is. “We want him to continue to learn how to blend in,” Phillips says. “You know, eventually he will meet Rita. But before that, he will learn how to date, maybe get that apartment when he starts making money. When did he start wearing henleys? When will he get a boat? It’s all there to explore.”