{"id":289749,"date":"2025-01-26T17:11:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T22:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvobsessive.com\/?p=289749"},"modified":"2026-08-14T03:33:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:33:27","slug":"dexter-original-sin-episode-7-the-one-with-the-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/?p=289749","title":{"rendered":"Dexter: Original Sin Episode 7 (The One with the Reveal)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dexter: Original Sin<\/strong> Episode 7 is currently streaming on Paramount + and will air on Showtime in its normal Sunday night time slot. If you haven\u2019t already seen the episode, proceed with caution. We\u2019re about to get into major spoiler territory. The episode was written by Katrina Mathewson & Tanner Bean and directed by Monica Raymund.
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While my reviews<\/a> of this prequel season have been mostly positive, Dexter: Original Sin<\/em> Episode 7 was largely pointless. Every plot point this week seemed to be on autopilot—acknowledged but not really moved forward. It very much felt like an argument for a nine episode season instead of a 10 episode one. This show has been mostly good, but besides the last five minutes here, nothing happened.<\/p>\n

We saw Dexter continue to \u201cdodge bullets,\u201d as Harry called it, by throwing the severed arm in for an alligator to eat. He talked Angel out of continuing to pursue the case of the discovered body and refocus on Nicky Spencer, who is still missing. He dumped his last victim in a trash bin and even got out of his quasi-relationship with Sofia because of an empty condom wrapper.<\/p>\n

Dexter spent most of the hour researching how other serial killers disposed of their victims’ bodies, which included a scene where he was visited by John Wayne Gacy, Ed Gein and even the Son of Sam. In an episode that already felt light, a silly gag with deceased serial killers talking to Dexter just didn\u2019t land.<\/p>\n

Deb and Sofia fell out over Dexter, which led to Sofia telling the popular girl on the volleyball team what Deb and her boyfriend did to the girl\u2019s car. Deb wound up punching the girl, getting suspended and kicked off the team, which means she\u2019s likely losing her scholarship offer from FSU. We then had a brief scene where Deb\u2019s boyfriend picked her up and he waved at Dexter.<\/p>\n

Again, this felt like wasted time. We know Deb is a troubled kid. The story with her boyfriend is what seems to be the most compelling. Watching Deb self-destruct even more wasn\u2019t needed when we already know how damaged she is. Get to the story we want to see, which is whether her boyfriend is a good guy or a bad guy. He has secrets and that\u2019s what we\u2019re all ready to see.<\/p>\n

Back in 1970 something, we see Harry try to reconcile with his wife. She knows he cheated. He swears it\u2019s over. He wants to be a good dad. She is hesitant to believe him. Yet over at Laura Moser\u2019s house, she\u2019s telling Harry point blank that she wants out of this undercover operation. She knows it\u2019s dangerous. But Harry isn\u2019t letting her go, even though he\u2019s broken off the affair. In one of the more cringey moments of the season, young Dexter called Harry \u201cDaddy\u201d before Laura corrected him. If Harry\u2019s been over there, every night for over a year, why would Dexter just now start calling him that? Can\u2019t young Brian do anything except stare from doorways? There\u2019s an opportunity here to develop Brian as a character, knowing that he will be important to the narrative later on. Feels like a wasted opportunity.<\/p>\n

Laura finally gets to meet the leader of the cartel—but has to do so nude, of course. Sure, there\u2019s probably some realism to that, but again, in an episode that\u2019s light on plot, it feels like a cop-out to insert nudity. \u201cHey, this episode is kind of boring, but look, a naked woman!\u201d One of the other cringey moments of Dexter: Original Sin<\/em> Episode 7 was when Estrada, the leader of the cartel, specifically mentions Dexter by name but not Brian. Why is he singling out one child? Is he clairvoyant and knows that Dexter will grow up to be a vigilante? It would be much more natural to say something like, \u201cYes, I know you have two sons,\u201d instead of saying, \u201cYes I know about your kid Dexter.\u201d Weird, sloppy writing.<\/p>\n

Of course, the most noteworthy part of Dexter: Original Sin<\/em> Episode 7 was the reveal that Captain Aaron Spencer is the \u201cbig bad\u201d of the season, like myself and most critics have been saying all along. Dexter puts it all together when Nicky\u2019s finger comes back with a hesitation cut, which was different than the cut from Jimmy\u2019s finger. It implied that the assailant knew Nicky. The blood type was also another clue towards Captain Spencer, and then, of course, the Captain is sporting a large bandage himself. The final moments of the show are of the good Captain buying the same boxed lunch the kids keep getting fed.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve said in previous recaps, you shouldn\u2019t expect large plot twists from this franchise. The killer is usually obvious and that\u2019s fine. The final few moments of this episode did serve as a saving grace of sorts, with Patrick Dempsey being particularly delightful. I am excited about how these stories will conclude and the impact this will have on all the characters. Will the serial killer Maria is chasing tie into this somehow? Is it Brian? How will Dexter tell Harry that Captain Spencer is a kid killer? There are things to look forward to but this episode was a major step back quality wise. Perhaps that\u2019s a note for the network. Not every season needs to be 10 episodes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dexter: Original Sin Episode 7 is currently streaming on Paramount + and will air on Showtime in its normal Sunday night time slot. If you haven\u2019t already seen the episode, proceed with caution. We\u2019re about to get into major spoiler territory. The episode was written by Katrina Mathewson & Tanner Bean and directed by Monica […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":289755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[283],"tags":[295,97,39],"class_list":["post-289749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-recaps","tag-dexter","tag-paramount","tag-showtime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=289749"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298902,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289749\/revisions\/298902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/289755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=289749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=289749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=289749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}