‘Dexter: Original Sin’ Star James Martinez Unpacks That Finale & Shares Season 2 Hopes

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Dexter: Original Sin‘s Season 1 finale, “Code Blues.”]

The first season of Dexter: Original Sin ended on a joyous note — well, sort of. The season finale picks up where the penultimate episode left off, with Dexter Morgan (Patrick Gibson) giving chase to Aaron Spencer (Patrick Dempsey) after letting him escape his kill table. Dexter follows Aaron to the place where he’s been hiding his kidnapped child, and Aaron forces Dexter to choose between saving the boy from drowning or catching him. Dexter, with all of his aversion to children being harmed, chooses the former and lets Aaron go free.

After Aaron goes to attack his wife and her new fiancé, though, Dexter manages to catch up to him and take him for a fateful ride on that boat. So long, Captain Kid Killer!

Harry (Christian Slater) is left in shock by the fact that his boss, who has had such a benevolent leadership style, especially with him, was capable of such atrocities. And the person who comforts him is Angel Batista (James Martinez), who knows a thing or two about missing the obvious when someone close to him is the culprit — as Dexter fans well know.

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To reflect on the finale and find out what might be next if and when the series is renewed for Season 2, TV Insider caught up with James Martinez.

There is a moment at the end when Angel talks to Harry about him missing Aaron Spencer’s murderous ways, and he talks about being too close to the case. Do you think he was also talking to himself in that moment?  

James Martinez: Absolutely… I think that was a conversation that he was having for himself as well as the rest of the department. Because it wasn’t just Harry’s slip-up; it was all of us. We were all trying to figure out who was doing this. So the fact that none of us saw it brought a lot of guilt for Angel and I imagine the rest of the department. So I think he was also speaking for himself…

The reason we love Angel is because he’s so human, so flawed, even though his heart’s in the right place. And I do think that he also worries about Harry and is worried that Harry might start to question himself after everything is disclosed. So I think it’s very much like Angel to go ahead and try to console Harry and pretty much let him know that it’s not his fault, and he does have a point because Aaron was an incredible actor. He also was too close to him. And when he says that, I think he means that he was so close to Aaron — not only professionally, but personally — that he wouldn’t ever let himself believe that Aaron could ever do something like that, and he wouldn’t want to believe that he was wrong about Aaron. So I think that’s very Angel to kind of make sure that he’s okay, reach out and console and just make him feel like it’s okay.

Now that Debra is going to be coming into the station, do you look forward to having an initiation ritual with her, like what they did with Dexter?

Yeah, I think Angel gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, especially being a Morgan. The relationship between Harry and Angel is so close that … he looks up to him. I keep saying this, but I do believe Angel believes in Harry and really respects what he does and how he does it. So I think he’s willing to welcome any Morgan that’s willing to join the station and try their best, and he’s willing to help, yeah.

If there is a Season 2, is there anything from Angel’s past that you’re really looking forward to digging into?

This first season was very much focused on the Morgan background, Harry’s backstory, which is really crucial to get this series off to the right start. So I would expect in Season 2 — and any other potential future seasons — that they’re going to start diving into the squad and what their backstory is, and I think Angel’s personal life should be very interesting. Given his lifestyle, his profession, I’d like to see how it affects his relationship with his sister, just his personal life, what he’s looking for, just as a human being, a person. Is he looking for love? I know that he had an ugly divorce in the original, so I’d like to see kind of how he met his wife and what is it that he was looking for, or thought he was looking for at the time, because the job’s very time-consuming, and I’m sure the lack of a personal life might be getting to him. So I think it’d be interesting to explore.

Patrick Wymore / Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

David Zayas is returning to his role for Dexter: Resurrection, so Angel will be coming back. What do you hope to see of the character in that, and is there any chance you might have a flashback scene in that show? 

So, I mean, I think I would have gotten a call by now. They’re in production. No, I don’t think so. But David, since I do know him, actually did invite me to set to check it out and just meet everyone and introduce everyone to me, just kind of to get both universes together and see what happens. So I love David. We’re friends, so I think that would be a fun idea. But what I would expect, what I imagine for Angel, at the end of the day, finding out who Dexter really is must be truly heartbreaking for him. And I imagine there’s going to be a lot of self-reflection on Angel’s part, again, just as a person, and how accurate his judge of character is. I think he may be just disappointed with what he ends up finding out, but also very disappointed with himself.

That kind of circles back to that speech we were talking about at the beginning.

Yeah, exactly. It really does, full circle.

In general, was there anything that surprised you as a fan of Dexter with Original Sin?

I would probably say, a lot of Harry’s background. What led up to him finding Dexter in the container, I think that was my favorite part of the season, honestly, was how much they focused on Harry and all the redemption that he was trying to accomplish by taking in Dexter and not repeating mistakes from his past, being a better father than he was the first time. I didn’t see any of that in the original, so to dive that deep into Harry and his intentions and where he actually was coming from when he decided to become Dexter’s dad. Yeah, that was super cool. And I don’t think a lot of the fans were expecting that either.

What are some of your other hopes for the future of Original Sin?

I mean, there’s so much ground to cover, now with Spencer, I think it’s safe to say that he won’t be working at Miami Metro any longer…. So I think it’s that transition of leadership for the Metro. I think also they’re going to have to probably do an overhaul in the department, as far as how they do their job, what needs to change, the amount of trust that they put into their co-workers, and that conflict of interest, not mixing personal relationships with the job site. And, of course, how they find their new captain — how they find Matthews, how he worked, how his relationship with the department starts to evolve. Plus, LaGuerta, how the trust in her starts to grow, because she does still have a lot to prove to become a part of the squad, of the brotherhood. So I think that’s going to be very interesting to watch. And, of course, other characters like James Doakes, what her relationship with him is like, getting more specific with that, and how he potentially ends up joining us, and how everyone adapts to these new people that are coming in.

Dexter: Original Sin, Paramount+ With Showtime