Dexter’s New Bay Harbor Butcher Origin Reveal Foreshadows The Most Devastating Part Of The Season 8 Finale

WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Dexter: Original Sin season 1, episode 8!Toward Dexter: Original Sin season 1, episode 8’s ending, Dexter Morgan’s boat ride with Deb helps him decide on where he’ll bury his victims’ bodies from now on, with the duo’s sibling bonding moment carrying some tragic foreshadowing. While Harry and LaGuerta are following leads on the NHI killer in Dexter: Original Sin season 1, episode 8, Dexter and Deb’s story becomes connected when he takes Camilla’s boat to bring her back from Bimini after being abandoned by Gio. Not only does this reveal the origin of Dexter’s boat, but it also explains the inspiration for his dumping ground.

Throughout the original Dexter series, it wasn’t explained exactly where Dexter got the idea to bury his victims at the bottom of the ocean. For over 15 years, Dexter Morgan would kill his victims, dismember them, put their body parts in bags, weigh them down, and dump their bodies into the same general location in the ocean without getting caught. That came to an end when divers stumbled upon his underwater graveyard in Dexter season 2, earning him his serial killer nickname, “The Bay Harbor Butcher.” Oddly enough, Original Sin reveals it was actually Deb who inspired his burial ground.

Dexter: Original Sin Season 1 Episode 8 Reveals Why Dexter Chose To Bury Victims In The Ocean

Dexter Decided On The Spot After Deb Threw A Bracelet Into The Ocean

At some point during Deb and Dexter’s boat ride back home to Miami in Original Sin season 1, episode 8, Deb decides to stop and throw the diamond bracelet Gio gave her into the deep waters below. As she watches the bracelet sink, however, she has a moment of regret when realizing that she should have just pawned it and taken the money instead. However, the bracelet can no longer be retrieved after how deep it has already sunk. In that moment, Dexter reflects, “Once it’s in the ocean, it’s gone forever,” which he’ll soon apply to his killing process.

After his burial spot in Alligator Alley was compromised due to Tony Ferrer’s arm being recovered by police, Dexter needed a much vaster graveyard where the odds of finding the bodies would be nearly impossible. Dexter seeing Deb’s bracelet quickly sink beyond vision indicated the ocean would be a much better body of water to bury his victims in, but it meant he would need a boat instead of his truck. Thankfully, Camilla told Dexter he could use her boat whenever he wanted, allowing him the transportation he needs to get the bodies far enough from the shore.

Dexter's Victims In Original Sin (So Far)
Victim	Death Episode #
Nurse Mary	1
Tony Ferrer	3
Levi Reed	6

Now that Dexter has put the pieces together that Captain Aaron Spencer is Nicky’s kidnapper and Jimmy Powell’s killer, it seems likely that he’ll end up being put on Dexter’s table by the end of Original Sin season 1. If so, then Aaron Spencer would also presumably become the first victim to be disposed of in Dexter’s burial ground, officially inciting his Bay Harbor Butcher moniker. While Aaron Spencer’s body seemingly wasn’t listed among the victims recovered there in Dexter season 2, it would be ironically fitting for the corrupt captain of Miami Metro Homicide to debut the location.

Deb Being The One To Inspire Dexter's Ocean Burial Technique Has A Tragic Irony

Deb Is The Last Victim Who Dexter Gives An Ocean Burial On His Boat

It’s ironic that Deb throwing a bracelet off the boat is the first “burial” on Dexter’s boat, as she herself is also the last ocean burial that Dexter gives on the Slice of Life before he fakes his death. In Dexter’s original series finale, Deb becomes brain-dead after complications with the surgery on her gunshot wound. Knowing that Deb had once said she would rather have the plug pulled on her life support than be brain-dead in a hospital, Dexter does exactly that for his sister.

Deb was one of Dexter’s only mercy kills throughout the entire main series, but he still felt responsible for and guilty about her death.

Dexter then carries her body onto the Slice of Life and carefully lowers her into the ocean as he watches Deb slowly sink into the depths of the waters below, giving his sister a final goodbye before he drives the boat straight into a hurricane. Deb was one of Dexter’s only mercy kills throughout the entire main series, but he still felt responsible for and guilty about her death, leading him to give her the same ocean burial he gave to so many of his victims beforehand. Driving into the hurricane, Dexter seemingly intended to give himself Deb’s same fate.

However, Dexter ended up surviving the hurricane, then faked his death and became a lumberjack in Oregon. Dexter would stop killing for another decade after mercy-killing Deb, but would get back into it when facing killers who evaded justice in Iron Lake. Since he lost the Slice of Life and didn’t have a similar boat or easy ocean access in Dexter: New Blood, he didn’t dispose of his victims in the same way as his old MO. Therefore, Deb is still the last person Dexter gave an ocean burial to – at least ahead of Dexter: Resurrection’s sequel series.

Dexter Giving Deb An Ocean Burial Reveals A Harsh Reality After The Original Series' Ending

Everyone Else Who Loved Deb Didn't Get Real Closure About Her Death

Dexter holding a match as Deb looks at him

While Dexter burying Deb in the ocean symbolized his guilt and attempt to bury his Dark Passenger for good – and has a deeper parallel after Dexter: Original Sin’s reveal – leaving her where her body would become lost forever was selfish for others who loved Deb. People like Batista and Quinn would still be able to grieve Deb without her body being found, but the exact context of her death and closure about her fate were lost with her body in the ocean. They likely assumed her body was carried away in the hurricane, but that certainty will never be there.

New episodes of Dexter: Original Sin season 1 release Fridays on Paramount+ with Showtime.