How “Dexter: Original Sin” finale sets up the rest of the killer franchise

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Dexter: Original Sin season 1 finale, "Code Blues."

Dexter's (Patrick Gibson) Dark Passenger wasn't the only origin story that came to fruition in the Dexter: Original Sin finale.

The Dexter prequel series finished its first season on Friday by setting up the rest of the killer franchise. Not only did Dexter perfect his killing ritual, but we also saw his sister Deb (Molly Brown) start her career as a cop at Miami Metro and his older brother Brian Moser, a.k.a. the Ice Truck Killer (Roby Attal), become a serial killer while watching Dexter from afar.

Related: Dexter: Original Sin showrunner explains why he brought Dexter back from the dead

The season finale, "Code Blues," actually began with Brian's story, as he narrated the events that took place after he and Dexter watched their mother Laura (Brittany Allen) get chainsawed into bloody pieces by cartel kingpin Hector Estrada (Carlo Mendez). Since he was a few years older, the trauma impacted him immediately, manifesting in violent tendencies and a lack of empathy, so Dexter's adoptive parents Doris (Jasper Lewis) and Harry (Christian Slater) sent him back into the system while keeping Dexter as their son. Brian bounced from foster home to foster home, ultimately landing in a mental hospital.

In the present (well, at least the prequel's present-day storyline), Brian got revenge on all the cruel foster siblings and neglectful adults who wronged him throughout his childhood and kept him apart from Dexter. He killed them in various ways — revealing that he was the serial killer Harry and Maria (Christina Milian) had been investigating all season.

Related: Hear Michael C. Hall return as voice of Dexter in first teaser for Dexter: Original Sin

Harry figured it out, but hid the truth from Maria. He ultimately confronted Brian at his latest crime scene, convincing him that Dexter had repressed all memories of his older brother and their mother's death. Harry told Brian that he would only drag Dexter back into the darkness if he reunited with him. Brian attacked Harry in anger, but left this message written in Harry's blood: "You're right."

It's the prequel's attempt to explain why Brian didn't try to contact Dexter for 15 years until the first season of Dexter, when the Ice Truck Killer (Christian Camargo) ingratiated himself into Dexter's life by seducing Deb (Jennifer Carpenter). The original franchise implied that Brian only recently discovered his younger brother (and his Dark Passenger activities), but the prequel retconned that throughout the season, revealing that Brian remembered his short time with the Morgans and always knew where Dexter was (although it's still hard to believe he'd wait 15 years to finally reunite when that was his entire life's purpose ... or that Harry would just let a serial killer run free).

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Elsewhere in the finale, Deb decided to give up her goal of attending Florida State University on a volleyball scholarship to become a police officer instead, setting her on the path towards becoming a detective and, later, Lieutenant. She was inspired by seeing all the women at Miami Metro — Tanya (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Maria, and Camilla (Sarah Kinsey) — and liked the idea of a woman getting to boss around her brother, who was hired full time in the forensics department. (Dexter even did his iconic chair spin and wink to celebrate the promotion.)

The finale ended on a hopeful note, as the Morgans went out to eat and dance together (and Brian watched Dexter longingly from outside the cafe). Harry told Dexter he was proud of him for choosing to save Nicky's (London Thatcher) life rather than killing Aaron (Patrick Dempsey) immediately. Dexter still got his kill eventually, but he controlled his urges long enough to save an entire family from the serial killer first. And he finished it all by chopping Aaron's body up into pieces and dropping the garbage bags of body parts into the ocean — finally figuring out the perfect way to dispose of his victims.

Now, all that's missing is his army green henley and cargo pants, but the Bay Harbor Butcher is officially born.

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