Dexter: Original Sin: Patrick Gibson Breaks Down Finale’s ‘Big Betrayal’ and Dexter’s ‘Major Turning Point’
The following contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Dexter: Original Sin.
Miami’s serial kidnapper has met his match.
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In the season finale of Dexter: Original Sin, Dex follows Captain Spencer to a large container ship located a mere half-mile from the station. After boarding the ship, Spencer fires a flare gun at Dexter’s head (which he narrowly avoids) before the two men engage in fisticuffs. But when Spencer thwacks Dex in the chest with a fire extinguisher, he’s able to sneak away and flood Nicky’s prison cell with water. Rather than chase Spencer down, Dexter dives into the water to free the boy from his chains and ultimately save his life.
But the showdown between Spencer and Dexter doesn’t end there. Dexter catches up with Spencer at his ex-wife’s house just seconds before the guy was able to kill her in a violent rage. Spencer once again wakes up wrapped in plastic, only this time, he and Dexter are on a boat in the middle of the ocean. After a few more acid-tongued words of mutual disgust, Dexter brings a machete blade down on Spencer’s throat, chops him into pieces and dumps the parts into the ocean via weighted garbage bags. (Sound familiar?) The next day at the station, Tanya offers Dexter a promotion to join her team full-time.
Below, TVLine talks to Patrick Gibson to break down Dexter’s huge finale realization, his experience working with the series’ other Patrick (Dempsey) and his hopes for a potential Season 2.
TVLINE | After you first read the scripts, what was your reaction to learning that Captain Spencer was the kidnapper?
PATRICK GIBSON | Honestly, I did not see it coming. I had my suspicions on other people. On the page and just knowing who was going to play him, I fully was not expecting it and was in complete shock. And that was good because I think for the most part, Dexter’s also in the woods with that. He doesn’t suspect it. It’s right under his nose. It’s also a pretty big betrayal. [Spencer] is somebody who Dexter’s grown up with and I think Dexter’s always had the feeling that he can sense the Dark Passenger in other people pretty quickly. Like with Nurse Mary, he picks up on it instinctively. Something about Spencer, which I think also speaks to Spencer’s character probably, is that he’s maybe somebody who was corrupted in his morality rather than born with this Dark Passenger, but I think that’s a big lesson for Dexter as well. So yeah, I was shocked. I’m really curious how people respond to it. My mom guessed it was somebody else and it’s been hard to keep quiet when I know who I had strapped to the table.
TVLINE | You have some intense scenes with Patrick Dempsey, both physically and emotionally. What was it like working with him on this?
Honestly amazing. He brings so much energy to those kinds of scenes. It’s very visceral. There’s a scene where he has the outburst in the cartel house after the shootout and I remember that night when they called “cut,” you could hear a pin drop. The whole crew was like, “Oh s–t, that’s crazy!” He just fully committed. That was really cool to see because I haven’t seen that from him very often. To see this other side of him was really cool.
TVLINE | There’s an important moment in the finale where Dexter puts a child’s life ahead of his own thirst for blood. Harry later commends him for it. Why is that such a big deal for Dexter?
There are so many layers to that. It’s almost like Greek tragedy-level writing. You’ve got Harry, who’s not been able to do that for his own son who died. Then he’s raised this killer because of this sense of injustice in the world. But then for that Frankenstein monster son to subvert his expectations and subvert the morality and take the course of action that is the most virtuous and most surprising, and seems to be against Dexter’s overwhelming urges and instincts, it’s definitely a turning point. It’s that final moment where he becomes the master of his own fate rather than just having Harry mold and shape him.
I think Dexter had a line [in the original series], I can’t remember what season, but he says something like “Harry gave me a code, but now I’m the manifestation of that.” There’s all of that tied up in it. I think subconsciously for Dexter, because his nature comes from the experience he had in the shipping container, he has this deep empathy for children that he doesn’t understand, and it’s more powerful than his urge to kill, which is kind of nuts because nothing seems to be more powerful than that.
TVLINE | Saving a child is huge! Does that make Dexter a hero of sorts? How do you view him?
I think so, yeah, but I think what’s so interesting is that you could answer yes to every question about him. Is he a hero? Is he a villain? Is he morally a virtuous person? Depending on the lens through which you view it, he’s all of those things. I think that’s what’s so interesting about him. I think I would lean more towards hero because he has managed to shape what would be an uncontrollable urge for violence and killing into the best version of that that it can be. But then whether anyone has the right to take another life, I don’t think so. It’s complicated and it’s fascinating. Think how many other people would have died if he didn’t take out these serial killers. He is saving other lives and that’s one of those moral philosophy problems of like, “Can you take a life if you know that you’re going to save 100?” You don’t see a lot of stuff out there nowadays that exists in that gray area.
TVLINE | We saw Debra struggle to find her place this season. How would you describe the siblings’ relationship by the season’s end, and how do you think that’ll change once Deb enters her dad and brother’s working world?
When she makes the call to work at Miami Metro, I think that’s a scary thing for Dexter at first, just logistically. Someone else in his turf where he’s trying to sneak around and get away with things. But I think Dexter’s seen enough. He should by now, just logically if not emotionally, know that her being left out is causing a lot of problems for her and for the whole family. So I actually do think there’s some relief in this idea that she’s actually going to take the same path that they have and I think they’re proud of her. It’s a really nice thing.
They’ve had quite a few experiences over the course of the show where Dexter’s learned that Debra has needs as a sister and he’s starting to, even though he doesn’t have feelings about anyone, if he could have feelings, he’d have them for Deb, which is what he says in the first episode. He’s learned that there are certain things that she needs in order for her to be happy and he’s starting to get a handle on what those things are. It doesn’t mean he’s not gonna f—k it up all the time, but it’s getting better.
TVLINE | Did you have a favorite scene from this season that felt most rewarding to you as an actor, or maybe one where you felt everything was clicking into place?
It’s really hard to gauge how something feels on the day versus what it becomes. But it is really nice when you remember a day having a certain energy and then you watch the scene and it does feel like that was maintained, because it’s weird. So many people will say like, “That day felt amazing,” and you watch it and it sucks. [Laughs] Or you’re like, “Oh, this is the worst thing I’ve ever done. I should never act again,” and it’s the scene everyone loves.
It’s hard to gauge, but the kill scenes were always really fun. I enjoyed the scene in the arcade with Patrick [Dempsey]. I always had fun working with Molly [Brown] and Christian [Slater]. Particularly, there was a scene sitting on the sofa with Christian, I can’t remember what episode, but it was basically after Jimmy Powell was hung from the bridge and seeing that it really affected Dexter, and he is asking Harry’s permission to go after whoever did this. The emotional manipulation. I really enjoyed the times when Dexter would appeal to other people’s emotions, knowing that he can get what he wants out of them that way.
TVLINE | What was the biggest challenge you had stepping into this role?
I think the obvious one, that I was playing a character that’s already established and making sure that there’s continuity between the physicality and the voice and all of that stuff, because it [wasn’t] a reboot where you could fully do your own thing. It is the same guy. Then the challenge of playing a character who has no empathy and has no feelings, and still having that resonate with an audience and not just feel like, “Well, why do I care about this person? They’re just empty inside.”
TVLINE | Were you in touch with Michael C. Hall before you filmed?
Yeah, we spoke. We met for the first time at the table read, but I was just on Zoom. Then we emailed back and forth, and he shared a lot of insight into the character, which was really cool because I was definitely nervous to take it on. I knew how much the fans loved him and I didn’t want to do anything that didn’t support or would contradict what he’d already done, or his vision for the character. He was really generous and was like, “This is your iteration. Do what you feel is right,” but he did share the wonderful and odd contradictions that can be in there, and the parts that he found most relatable and that were things to pay attention to in order for an audience not to feel alienated by it.
I actually went to the set in New York recently and just saw them shooting Resurrection, which was pretty cool. I worked hard not to get in the background of a shot. That might confuse viewers a bit. [Laughs] But he’s amazing. It was so cool to watch him work. It was very surreal having forensically watched and studied him and listening to this voice and stuff in the show, to then see him just in between when they call “cut” and stuff like that. It was really bizarre, like pulling the curtain aside.
TVLINE | Do you have any hopes for Season 2 as to where you want to bring the character?
By the end of the show, it starts to feel a little bit closer to the Dexter that we know. Dexter gains a certain amount of confidence from his experiences in Season 1, and yet with that confidence comes harder lessons and bigger mistakes to make. Although it feels like he’s kind of setting off on his “adolescent phase” of his serial killer life, that will come with much bigger problems for him, and I think Dexter’s at his best when he’s really struggling to get out of a fix.
TVLINE | Guess he’s gonna have to get his own boat now, huh?
He might just have to! He does enjoy being on that boat. I’m very curious to see how much we kept of all that boat stuff because that was a pretty gruesome night. That was actually our last night filming too. It was a good way to end it. It felt fitting.
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