S01.E07: The Big Bad Body Problem

[Snazzy Daisy]

Quote

Dexter searches for a new hiding spot when his dumping ground is exposed.

Harry and LaGuerta present a controversial theory to Spencer while investigating a missing child case.

Deb faces consequences for an outburst during volleyball practise.

Air Date: Jan 24, 2025

 

Edited January 26 by Snazzy Daisy

[Affogato]

Why in the world? Motivation?

i find it hard to believe Dexter feels so deeply for children and only children. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

13 hours ago, Affogato said:

Why in the world? Motivation?

i find it hard to believe Dexter feels so deeply for children and only children. 

To me, it makes sense. On some level he has regret for his own innocence lost as a child and values that highly. Dexter clearly intellectually knows right from wrong, and can appreciate that someone who victimizes children and preys on the innoicent is extra monstrous. 

It also seemed like Dexter seemed to be most "genuine" when he was dealing with children. Like I don't remember him ever narrating having difficulty with dealing with kids, and in this series, he was friendly with the captain's kid and deeply disturbed by whoever went after the judge's son.

[Snazzy Daisy]

The E06 cliffhanger on the discovery of Handsome Tony’s arm is quickly resolved in a non satisfying way. Just feed the arm to the gator again. Done! 🙄

Hey Dex, enough scouting the Florida neighborhoods.

Spoiler

Just take up Camilla’s offer to use her boat.

Laura Moser’s gratuitous nudity is just distasteful. What’s with little Dexter calling Harry “daddy”? What happens to continuity? Anyway, young Hector Estrada is a hottie. Laura should’ve hooked up with him instead of Harry.

So, the child killer is Captain Aaron Spencer. His motives? Did Judge Powell rule against him in the divorce trial? Nicky may not be his biological son as the affair started 14 years ago.

My issue with this killer reveal:

Spoiler

We know Captain Spencer needs to go at some point for Captain Tom Matthews to take over his role.

Scenario 1 — Aaron dies on Dexter’s kill table. Nobody knows the truth. His disappearance remains a mystery.

Scenario 2 — Aaron being arrested, tried and imprisoned.

Scenario 3 — Aaron leaves Miami before getting exposed, before Dexter can get to him. Who knows, he may appear in Dexter: Resurrection. 😆

In any of these scenarios, his name should get mentioned every now and then in OG Dexter, logically. Does his name being put under embargo indefinitely? 🤔

Re the NHI killer… 👀

Spoiler

Could it be Brian Moser experimenting, learning to perfect his craft? 

 

[Affogato]

21 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

To me, it makes sense. On some level he has regret for his own innocence lost as a child and values that highly. Dexter clearly intellectually knows right from wrong, and can appreciate that someone who victimizes children and preys on the innoicent is extra monstrous. 

It also seemed like Dexter seemed to be most "genuine" when he was dealing with children. Like I don't remember him ever narrating having difficulty with dealing with kids, and in this series, he was friendly with the captain's kid and deeply disturbed by whoever went after the judge's son.

Then he is not high on the APD spectrum.

It is inconsistent characterization. In the first show (the couple of seasons I’ve watched) i think we were given to believe he did not have to be as guarded with children and could be himself. His personal experiences might lead him to want to protect kids. Beong overcome with empathy and emotion is inconsistent. 
 

but yes, if you lay aside what he repeatedly tells us about how he operates and most of what he does your explanation makes sense. 
 

of course maybe h is getting a personality redemption arc. But the true interest of the show was making domeone like dex a protagonist. Imo. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

34 minutes ago, Affogato said:

Then he is not high on the APD spectrum.

It is inconsistent characterization. In the first show (the couple of seasons I’ve watched) i think we were given to believe he did not have to be as guarded with children and could be himself. His personal experiences might lead him to want to protect kids. Beong overcome with empathy and emotion is inconsistent. 
 

but yes, if you lay aside what he repeatedly tells us about how he operates and most of what he does your explanation makes sense. 
 

of course maybe h is getting a personality redemption arc. But the true interest of the show was making domeone like dex a protagonist. Imo. 

I think you are overthinking things.

Dexter is by definition an unreliable narrator. 

His actions are the best thing to judge him on, and consistently across the three shows, he has been particularly bothered by violence against children and he has been able to relate best to children. 

13 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

The E06 cliffhanger on the discovery of Handsome Tony’s arm is quickly resolved in a non satisfying way. Just feed the arm to the gator again. Done! 🙄

Hey Dex, enough scouting the Florida neighborhoods.

  Reveal spoiler

Just take up Camilla’s offer to use her boat.

Laura Moser’s gratuitous nudity is just distasteful. What’s with little Dexter calling Harry “daddy”? What happens to continuity? Anyway, young Hector Estrada is a hottie. Laura should’ve hooked up with him instead of Harry.

So, the child killer is Captain Aaron Spencer. His motives? Did Judge Powell rule against him in the divorce trial? Nicky may not be his biological son as the affair started 14 years ago.

My issue with this killer reveal:

  Hide contents

We know Captain Spencer needs to go at some point for Captain Tom Matthews to take over his role.

Scenario 1 — Aaron dies on Dexter’s kill table. Nobody knows the truth. His disappearance remains a mystery.

Scenario 2 — Aaron being arrested, tried and imprisoned.

Scenario 3 — Aaron leaves Miami before getting exposed, before Dexter can get to him. Who knows, he may appear in Dexter: Resurrection. 😆

In any of these scenarios, his name should get mentioned every now and then in OG Dexter, logically. Does his name being put under embargo indefinitely? 🤔

Re the NHI killer… 👀

  Reveal spoiler

Could it be Brian Moser experimenting, learning to perfect his craft? 

 

Alas, high-profile guest star syndrome almost dictated it had to be either Spencer or Tanya, and it seemed clear from what we saw that the kidnapper was male. To be fair, I was more thinking that he was the killer of the NHI's and

Brian was the kidnapper/killer of children. There would be something poetic about taking children to shipping containers like he was taken as a child, and blaming the cartels for his actions.

Possible motives for Spencer:

1. He found out his kid is not his biological kid. He has a lot of anger toward the ex-wife and the homewrecker and wants to punish them, albeit in this roundabout baroque way.

2. He wants to at some point "solve" the case and appear a hero, with all the benefits that come with it -- possible reconciliation with the ex, proving that he's better than Homewrecker, full custody of the son, a promotion, getting his house back. 

3. He is frustrated that there's not enough resources targeting the cartels and so wanted to bring the full weight of Miami Metro on them, and figured the best way was to frame them for two kidnapping/murders. If a little kid or two have to die to make that happen, so be it.

I don't think that it would be necessary to have Spencer's name come up on OG Dexter, assuming that it never comes out that he killed at least one person. 

I don't remember any child kidnapping/murder situations that would draw a comparison. The only way off the top of my head it might make sense for it to have come up is when everyone came to think that the Bay Harbor Butcher was possibly a cop and ultimately thought it was Doakes. It seems to me like when Batista and others were in disbelief that a cop could have been a serial killer, someone should have said, "Well remember Captain Spencer killed that kid?" if it were known.

15 years is a long time. Matthews might only be a front-line police officer, assuming the ranks are officer->sgt->lt.->captain.

I am not clear on the discontinuity with Dexter calling Harry daddy prematurely. Dexter is 3-ish, and so easily confused about who this guy is who has been hanging around all the time might be.  

 

[margol29]

I don't believe that Capt. Aaron Spencer killed the judges child. The hesitation marks on the severed finger makes me believe that he is copycatting the first abduction. What his reasons are for doing this to his own child? I have no idea. A way to get back at the ex and her new boyfriend? To become a hero and solve the case with a poor patsy going to jail? But Dex is on to him so humanity is safe now.

[Affogato]

This is the last episode of the season?  Interesting choice. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

57 minutes ago, Affogato said:

This is the last episode of the season?  Interesting choice. 

Nope, 3 more episodes to go.

[Affogato]

36 minutes ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

Nope, 3 more episodes to go.

My app only lists seven. That is a relief!

[Chicago Redshirt]

2 hours ago, margol29 said:

I don't believe that Capt. Aaron Spencer killed the judges child. The hesitation marks on the severed finger makes me believe that he is copycatting the first abduction. What his reasons are for doing this to his own child? I have no idea. A way to get back at the ex and her new boyfriend? To become a hero and solve the case with a poor patsy going to jail? But Dex is on to him so humanity is safe now.

Time will tell, but I think because of genre/show conventions, it is harder for me to buy that there is a separate killer of the judge's kid to yet be revealed and Spencer decided semi-spontaneously to copy-cat him. I think that if Spencer did not commit a murder and merely kidnapped and maimed his own kid, he probably doesn't fit the Code and can't be killed. And it's hard for me to envision him not ending on Dexter's table at this point. In short, it was Aaron all along, if you'll forgive my WandaVision reference.

The motives you mentioned, plus trying to put heat on the cartel, seem like the best shots for me. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

As to Sofia/Dexter, it's hard for me to follow/believe. 

Yes, I'll buy that he tracked a condom wrapper into the truck. 

But how clueless are we supposed to believe Dexter is about girls and sex? He presumably enjoyed getting the BJ and wants more, so why didn't he call? Why didn't he come up with something better to reassure Sofia than "I must have tracked that in at the crime scene?"

Like at 20, he must have seen enough to know faking being normal would involve saying something like, "Sofia, you're special to me. I would never cheat on you. I don't know how that condom wrapper got in my truck, but I promise you that I'm not seeing anyone else."

And there was probably a way for Deb to have also conveyed the truth that she did -- that there's no chance that Dex has hooked up with another woman because he's socially awkward -- in a way that felt more supportive of Sofia. Like if she had been, "I know it looks bad that he had a condom wrapper in his truck, but I'd fucking know if any other skank was sniffing around Dexter. He's too focused on his stupid job being butt buddies with Dad to have time to be a player." 

[catherinejane]

4 hours ago, margol29 said:

I don't believe that Capt. Aaron Spencer killed the judges child. The hesitation marks on the severed finger makes me believe that he is copycatting the first abduction. What his reasons are for doing this to his own child? I have no idea. A way to get back at the ex and her new boyfriend? To become a hero and solve the case with a poor patsy going to jail? But Dex is on to him so humanity is safe now.

Yes I got the sense it was a copy cat as he hesitated this time.

i was thinking finance did it as they were mentioned on the intro and then with same blood I thought “gosh maybe also kids dad” and a long term affair. But buying the meals seem to go back to Dempsey and maybe for custody reasons? Though didn’t first kid have same meal on the tray? Which means Dempsey did both?

[Snazzy Daisy]

Postmortem | Ep. 107 | The Big Bad Body Problem | Dexter: Original Sin

 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Dexter Accidentally Visits an Active Crime Scene | Dexter: Original Sin

 

[Elizzikra]

Quote

Yes I got the sense it was a copy cat as he hesitated this time.

I completely believed that the hesitation was because it was his own kid and not a stranger, not necessarily that he was a copycat and hadn't cut a finger off before.

Quote

But buying the meals seem to go back to Dempsey and maybe for custody reasons? Though didn’t first kid have same meal on the tray? Which means Dempsey did both?

Maybe I'm making this up, but I thought the cops knew from the autopsy of the judge's kid that the only thing he had been eating while he was missing were the knock-off Lunchables. So Dempsey could have copycatted that aspect of the kidnapping?

[NoReally]

11 hours ago, Elizzikra said:

I completely believed that the hesitation was because it was his own kid and not a stranger, not necessarily that he was a copycat and hadn't cut a finger off before.

This was my take on it, as well.

[margol29]

19 hours ago, catherinejane said:

 

19 hours ago, catherinejane said:

Yes I got the sense it was a copy cat as he hesitated this time.

i was thinking finance did it as they were mentioned on the intro and then with same blood I thought “gosh maybe also kids dad” and a long term affair. But buying the meals seem to go back to Dempsey and maybe for custody reasons? Though didn’t first kid have same meal on the tray? Which means Dempsey did both?

Sorry about the double post!

You could be right because I don't think that the cops located the crime scene where the child was being held in a shipping container, therefore finding the tray meal boxes. They only found the body of the judges child when it was hanging off the bridge. That was a rough sentence to type out. 😞 

[AstridM]

On 1/27/2025 at 5:49 PM, catherinejane said:

Yes I got the sense it was a copy cat as he hesitated this time.

i was thinking finance did it as they were mentioned on the intro and then with same blood I thought “gosh maybe also kids dad” and a long term affair. But buying the meals seem to go back to Dempsey and maybe for custody reasons? Though didn’t first kid have same meal on the tray? Which means Dempsey did both?

Yes, both kids got the same meals.

[leighdear]

Wow, they couldn't even give Debra a single shred of common sense.  Punching the other girl, getting kicked off the team & probably losing any chance at a scholarship as a result just blew right out of that toxic, toddler brain of hers.   Original series Debra wasn't a rocket scientist, but she managed to exercise enough self control to make it through the police academy.  I know a high schooler & a mid-20's woman have very different maturity levels, but teen Debra isn't even close to being a functional almost-adult.  

And yep, we all saw McDreamy eventually emerging as the big bad, in at least one case.  I've put him on the copy-cat train too, wanting to be a hero and get his family back.  I don't think he'll be a guest on Dexter's table for killing though, as it's presumably Aaron's "first offense" and he's doing it to be reunited with his son.  I think Dexter would let him live, but make him pay in a painful way.  Like cutting off one of his fingers then turning him loose....   

[Affogato]

1 hour ago, leighdear said:

Wow, they couldn't even give Debra a single shred of common sense.  Punching the other girl, getting kicked off the team & probably losing any chance at a scholarship as a result just blew right out of that toxic, toddler brain of hers.   Original series Debra wasn't a rocket scientist, but she managed to exercise enough self control to make it through the police academy.  I know a high schooler & a mid-20's woman have very different maturity levels, but teen Debra isn't even close to being a functional almost-adult.  

And yep, we all saw McDreamy eventually emerging as the big bad, in at least one case.  I've put him on the copy-cat train too, wanting to be a hero and get his family back.  I don't think he'll be a guest on Dexter's table for killing though, as it's presumably Aaron's "first offense" and he's doing it to be reunited with his son.  I think Dexter would let him live, but make him pay in a painful way.  Like cutting off one of his fingers then turning him loose....   

we are leaning into Harry being a narcissist. Debra is the scapegoat. The fighting isn’t immaturity or stupidity, it’s being triggered. It is also why she lets all these guys use her.  In The first show Harry is dead and she can possibly heal a little. 

[leighdear]

This Debra didn't just appear overnight.  Yes, she's dealt with a sick mother, then her death in the past year, but Harry's dismissal of her is nothing new.  She grew up compensating for it.

As a skilled enough athlete to be scholarship worthy, she should have learned to think strategically and realize the best path to a life of her own is leaving Miami, moving to Tallahassee and making her mark at FSU.  Away from her father & brother.  That's what she was planning. Her father definitely seemed proud of her in advance. 

But her lack of impulse control just trashed all of that.  I was really hoping the writers would allow her to go, and if there was a next season, she'd just be an occasional drop-in visitor.  For me she adds nothing but annoyance.  It's DEXTER'S story, not hers. 

[Affogato]

1 hour ago, leighdear said:

This Debra didn't just appear overnight.  Yes, she's dealt with a sick mother, then her death in the past year, but Harry's dismissal of her is nothing new.  She grew up compensating for it.

As a skilled enough athlete to be scholarship worthy, she should have learned to think strategically and realize the best path to a life of her own is leaving Miami, moving to Tallahassee and making her mark at FSU.  Away from her father & brother.  That's what she was planning. Her father definitely seemed proud of her in advance. 

But her lack of impulse control just trashed all of that.  I was really hoping the writers would allow her to go, and if there was a next season, she'd just be an occasional drop-in visitor.  For me she adds nothing but annoyance.  It's DEXTER'S story, not hers. 

I think that shows are enriched by well developed characters. Dex’s family informs each other. n any case, Deborah is emotionally deregulated. Yes. Abuse has a profound effect on people, a lifelong effect. It just isn’t that simple. Her attempts to get Harry’s approval likely leads to her becoming a cop, but the trauma bond would blind her to other options. 
 

i like her and find her actions realistic. That is all. 

[AstridM]

8 hours ago, leighdear said:

Wow, they couldn't even give Debra a single shred of common sense.  Punching the other girl, getting kicked off the team & probably losing any chance at a scholarship as a result just blew right out of that toxic, toddler brain of hers.   Original series Debra wasn't a rocket scientist, but she managed to exercise enough self control to make it through the police academy.  I know a high schooler & a mid-20's woman have very different maturity levels, but teen Debra isn't even close to being a functional almost-adult.  

And yep, we all saw McDreamy eventually emerging as the big bad, in at least one case.  I've put him on the copy-cat train too, wanting to be a hero and get his family back.  I don't think he'll be a guest on Dexter's table for killing though, as it's presumably Aaron's "first offense" and he's doing it to be reunited with his son.  I think Dexter would let him live, but make him pay in a painful way.  Like cutting off one of his fingers then turning him loose....   

I’m rewatching OG Dexter now, and in seasons 7/8, he is in his early 40s. So Deb would be mid to late 30s when we meet her, much older than a teen.

[Chicago Redshirt]

5 hours ago, AstridM said:

I’m rewatching OG Dexter now, and in seasons 7/8, he is in his early 40s. So Deb would be mid to late 30s when we meet her, much older than a teen.

Deb is presumably 16-18 now as a high school senior in 1991, and OG Dexter starts 15 years later in 2006, so more early 30s.

[Elizzikra]

Quote

But her lack of impulse control just trashed all of that.  I was really hoping the writers would allow her to go, and if there was a next season, she'd just be an occasional drop-in visitor.  For me she adds nothing but annoyance.  It's DEXTER'S story, not hers. 

I have always liked Deb and I have a lot of sympathy for teenaged Deb. I don't think we know if she knows it but she was a replacement baby for junior. Then her mom got sick and died and her father barely has time for her. On top of all that, she is a teenaged girl. No offense to teenaged girls - I was one and I mothered one - but impulse control and emotional regulation are not part of the stereotype. Despite Harry's neglect, she clearly loves him and Dexter and she does a lot to care for them as best she can.

I think she is a key part of Dexter's story and is an important character. One of the few lines I remember from OG Dexter - the pilot, I think, is Dexter saying "if I could love anyone, I would love Deb." He doesn't mean that in the sleeve way that the final season tried to make the Dexter/Deb relationship. He means it as Deb being a good and loving sister to him, albeit in her own potty mouthed sort of way. She tries to bring good things into his life (a girlfriend in this series and Rita in the OG) but it never really goes well because she doesn't know that he isn't capable of romantic love. 

[leighdear]

Deb became a police officer in 2001, at the age of 22 according to Dexter-Wiki.  I use that as a reference as I haven't committed every fact of every character to memory. A legal adult, but still incredibly immature. 

But I still can't stand her and her "enrichment" of this show is less than minimal for me.  She bores me and I'm done wasting time with her. 

I prefer to focus on his co-workers, Harry and the victims.  THEY are why I'm still watching.