Kid In A Candy Store – Episode 2 begins with Dexter Morgan’s (Patrick Gibson) first day at Miami Metro, which does not go at all as he intended. Despite his grades and glowing recommendation, Tanya Martin (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is quick to remind him that he’s playing in the big leagues, where one mistake means a killer could go free. He not only gets the VIP tour that takes all of a minute, but he also gets the beeper that will make him reachable at all times. While Dexter awaits the arrival of Vince Masuka (Alex Shimizu), a small boy is dragged against his will on a boat and chained to the floor by a masked assailant.
Captain Aaron Spencer (Patrick Dempsey) and the gang give Sergeant Harry Morgan (Christian Slater) a hard time about his recent health scare before Detective Angel Batista (James Martinez) tells him about Judge Powell’s kid going missing, Jimmy Powell (Brayden Gleave). Detective Bobby Watt (Reno Wilson) is the first to admit that it feels like a kidnapping while Spencer blames the cartel. This new discovery causes Harry to have a flashback to when he and Bobby were assigned leads on the Hector Estrada (Carlo Mendez) Case. Back in the present, Spencer is called away to deal with a phone call just as Dexter joins the scene. There is a bit of teasing and reminiscing before Spencer returns to send the crew, including Dexter, on a drug homicide. Dexter’s first homicide doesn’t go as expected either thanks to Tanya, who sends him across the street with a coffee order.
While Debra Morgan (Molly Brown) gets a brief lesson in finances from her best friend, Sofia (Raquel Justice) at the Sunglass Hut, Dexter returns with Miami PD’s coffee order, only to be tasked with another lowly task. This time, however. Dexter is so excited by his proximity to the body that he unintentionally blocks out Tanya’s rambling. When she does manage to gain his attention, he is so pent up that he immediately begins telling her his hypothesis about how the victim was killed. When he is finished, she makes a big deal of calling over several of the detectives and the captain so Dexter can also tell them his theory. It is only minutes after this that Harry pulls him to the side and explains how and why he is being made a fool of.
After Harry reminds Dexter of one of the most important rules, blending in, he has another flashback to the time he bought cocaine undercover from Joe (John Pope) and then busted him. Not only do they catch him with coke but they catch him with a handgun. It is after this memory that the story briefly returns to show the boy still chained to the floor, sobbing.
After working his first crime scene, Batista treats Dexter to some authentic Cuban at his cousin Alvaro’s (Jerry Hernandez) restaurant. Along with Masuka and Bobby, they also play another trick on him before gifting him his official laminate badge and welcoming him to the team. It is during this outing that Dexter also learns blending in will be much harder than he imagined.
Things only get worse for Dexter later that evening when Deb calls him out on being in a chipper mood for the past several days. He contributes it to a good first day at work but the conversation doesn’t go much further thanks to the arrival of Harry, who is hiding a secret of his own, a cigarette burn on his shirt. With Deb out of the room, Harry asks Dexter about his first day of work. As the evening continues like this, Deb begins to feel left out and things only get much worse when Harry learns she’s made tofu kebabs. Deb ends up in her room on the phone while Harry and Dexter dine alone. Dexter finds himself turning to Nurse Mary’s (Tanya Clarke) earrings when he has a hard time falling asleep that night.
The following morning, Harry wakes to the sound of his alarm and stops at the foot of his bed to admire a family beach photo. This inspires another flashback to the night Joe was brought into the station. It doesn’t take him and Bobby long to realize that Joe isn’t going to cooperate, let alone turn snitch. This leads to Harry going after his girlfriend, Laura Moser (Brittany Allen). Although he’s a bit hesitant at first, Spencer eventually agrees to Harry’s deal.
Later that morning, Harry tries to thank Deb for helping out and apologizes for not including her more. This doesn’t go so well and gets even worse when Harry mentions that they need to move on from the death of her mother. Dexter doesn’t have a much better go of it when he shows up at the station with a veggie platter. At this point, Harry has seen enough and asks Batista to take Dexter under his wing.
Dexter doesn’t even have much better luck with his own people when Tanya sends him to the records department to pull drug-related homicide cases for the past 6 months. Dexter has much better luck with Camilla Figg (Sarah Kinsey) in the records department.
While Dexter combs through all the unsolved homicides, Harry and Spencer go to the courthouse to watch Levi Reed (Jeff Daniel Phillips) plead not guilty before Judge Torres (Al Coronel). Before Harry can leave he is called to the bench by Torres to discuss Judge Powell’s kid. This brief encounter causes Harry to remember coming home during the Estrada case to find that he and Doris Morgan (Jasper Lewis) got another negative pregnancy report.
In the present, Deb tries to take Sofie’s advice but can’t bring herself to sell her mother’s jewelry. Instead, she decides to take Dexter’s tapes, including the one that secretly holds Nurse Mary’s earrings. At the same time, Batista takes Dexter back to his cousin’s bar/restaurant. The place has a completely different vibe at night and it doesn’t take long before Batista finds out that Dexter can’t dance and sets out to change it. When the music stops the entire bar, including Dexter does the traditional Tuesday shot in honor of Rene. Batista also shares Rene’s tragic story with Dexter. As it turns out, Dexter remembers Rene’s mother’s name, Carla Carballo from his time earlier in the record’s room. To make the story even more tragic, Rene committed suicide a week after his mother’s death, and Ferrer was brought to justice because of this.
Another brief scene of Jimmy suggests that someone cuts off his finger. While that takes place, Deb tries to pawn Nurse Mary’s earrings, only to learn they are fake. She, however, gets a generous offer for her mother’s pearl necklace. Dexter suddenly becomes the department’s favorite Morgan when he shows up with glazed donuts after his night out with Batista. When Harry notices Dexter getting along so well with the department he has another flashback to the day he took Laura home. This is where she introduces him to Brian and Dexter while he promises that he will do everything to make sure she stays safe.
Later that day at the station, Dexter happens to see Spencer ask Tanya to test the fingerprints on a severed finger. She links it to Judge Powell’s son, Jimmy. Dexter doesn’t know why he is so moved by the match but given that there isn’t much he can do about it, he heads back to the records department to find someone he can do something about. This is practically how episode 2 ends.
Dexter: Original Sin Review
I thought that episode 2 was an excellent episode. Yes, it did have its annoying moments, but as far as building a backstory for Miami’s iconic good serial killer, the episode was right on par. I knew that Batista and Dexter were close but I didn’t realize how close they were. The only thing I didn’t really like about the episode was the way Tanya rode Dexter. I’m not saying that it couldn’t or wouldn’t happen but it just seems unlikely that a female boss would ride her male coworker so hard. Other than that, I don’t have many complaints. I’d give the episode a 6 out of 10.
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