Episode 8 of "Dexter: Original Sin" kicks off with Nicky in a perilous predicament, time ticking away like a loaded clock. Captain Spencer, revealed to be the malevolent mastermind behind his captivity, tosses in a vial of water laced with sedatives and a meager meal, drugging Nicky to strip him of his clothes. The motive behind this brutal act will gradually unfold later.
Elsewhere, Dexter is assigned the mission of locating Deb, while Harry sets off on his own trail to pursue leads in the serial killer case alongside Maria. Dexter yearns to join in, but Harry reminds him of the dark beast lurking within him, a darkness that is currently contaminating everyone around him. To mitigate this, Dexter is tasked with the sole responsibility of finding Deb.
Dexter makes his rounds, engaging with Sofia, who now has a new beau. She tries, albeit unsuccessfully, to ignite jealousy in Dexter's heart outside the school gates. However, Sofia does disclose her last name, a piece of information that serves as a stepping stone for Dexter to uncover Gio's address. Unfortunately, Captain Spencer bombards him with mundane tasks, such as analyzing cold case blood spatters, which inadvertently reveals that Spencer is harboring secrets.
Dexter tails Spencer, witnessing him handing over a yellow bag to a mysterious individual, who subsequently visits a suburban home adorned with a whimsical garden gnome. Just as Dexter prepares to delve deeper into the investigation, Harry interrupts with a call. Dexter attempts to convey Spencer's eerie demeanor, but Harry remains deaf to his warnings.
Meanwhile, Gio also displays peculiar behavior. He's ostensibly away on "business," which entails loading a wooden crate onto his yacht and lavishing Debra with glittering trinkets and jewels to divert her attention. When she professes her love to him, he remains stone-faced, revealing that he actually has a fiancée named Ariana.
Gio's true nature is soon unveiled when Debra begins to snoop around. He brutality kicks her off the yacht, stranding her alone on a desolate island. Fortunately, Dexter arrives on the scene and heroically rescues her from her plight.Harry grapples with his own demons as he and Maria pursue a man named Paul Petrie. However, their investigation takes a grim turn when they uncover his untimely demise, the victim of blunt force trauma three weeks prior. The mystery deepens further as they notice that the last few months of his diary have been meticulously torn out, hinting at a possible former patient as the perpetrator. Alas, Petrie's caseload was vast, encompassing over 300 individual patients.
With a mountain of patient files before them, the task of sifting through each and every one to uncover any suspicious activity seemed daunting yet necessary. Harry's keen eye catches a potential breakthrough: Brian Moser, a recently discharged patient and the estranged brother of Laura's other son, Dexter. Brian's knowledge of Harry and Laura's affair had stirred a hornet's nest, as Harry and Doris had only intended to adopt Dexter, leaving Brian out in the cold upon Laura's passing. Harry, torn between loyalty and justice, contemplates concealing the incriminating evidence, but the pieces of the puzzle increasingly suggest that Moser is their elusive serial killer.
Flashbacks paint a vivid picture of Harry and Laura's entangled past, drawing Estrada and his cronies into the fray. They discover Laura's duplicity, her collaboration with the authorities that threatens to dismantle Estrada's operation on the eve of its exposure. Predictably, this revelation does not bode well for Laura.
In a dramatic twist, Estrada and his henchmen descend upon the scene in broad daylight, wielding guns and seizing the children, ushering them to a dock where they are imprisoned in a shipping container. The present converges with the past as Dexter returns Debra to their home, leaving her to weep alone, while he is summoned to work by an anonymous tip implicating Nicky Spencer at a cartel stash house. Forensic experts are eager to scrutinize every item found within the premises.
Intriguingly, this stash house is none other than the one infiltrated by shadowy figures after receiving a bag from Captain Spencer. Inside the bag, Nicky's clothes are discovered, revealing Spencer's meticulous plan to frame the unsuspecting men. The tension culminates in a fiery shootout, leaving cartel members dead and Bobby wounded.
Dexter scrutinizes the crime scene meticulously, his eyes locking onto the familiar yellow bag that Spencer had earlier surrendered, a sudden realization dawning on him that Spencer had orchestrated the entire scheme. As the episode draws to a close, the narrative shifts back to a harrowing flashback featuring Laura and the children. Here, their plight takes a grave turn as Estrada arrives, accompanied by his ruthless henchmen. Armed with a menacing chainsaw, one of Estrada's men brutally dispatches a fellow inmate within the confines of the shipping container, all while Dexter stands by, a silent witness to the grizzly spectacle unfolding before him.
