NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
Fans went crazy over the new Dexter: Original Sin teaser as soon as the trailer was released. Despite the usual cast of characters, one long-time staple of the early seasons was missing from the Miami Metro Police Department, Sergeant James Doakes.
Doakes was such a presence in the early days of Dexter that it almost seems negligent to leave him out. Other than he became one of the most popular vine/memes to date, not much was known about the character himself, which throws his timeline out of whack when it comes to the new spin-off series.
What we do know is, that he was formerly a member of the United States Army Rangers, he has a close connection with Maria LaGuerta due to their two-year partnership, became friends with Deb, and he doesn’t trust Dexter as far as he can throw him. He was married once but later divorced, that’s it.
With so little known about James Doakes, it makes it very interesting to go a few ways with his backstory. In Dexter: Original Sin we already have a character who takes the lead at crime scenes, Tanya Martin played by Sarah Michelle Gellar. With that being said, his role is filled for the time being. This means they can write a very interesting backstory that follows the connection to one or more of these characters along the way.
He was in the military, he joined the police force, he got a divorce, and he and his wife separated, right? I’m no showrunner, but this story could easily write itself. What if there’s a character who ended up dead because shows like these always want the shock value of losing a main cast member? Say Mrs. Martin was the wife of a former military buddy of Doakes and she ends up murdered, not at the hands of Dexter, but he’s somehow involved in her death.
Now, Doakes is invested so he joins the police department to get an inside scoop on investigating her death. He becomes so invested to the point of obsession. In his obsessive spiral, his wife starts to wonder why he’s spending so much time on it, wondering if there’s more to it than paying a debt to a friend and it causes friction between the two.
Then because Dexter is so mysterious to him and somehow was involved in the case she was working on, Doakes never buys into the “nice guy” routine that Dexter portrays. Something about it seems off with Doakes but his squeaky clean persona keeps Dexter from being a suspect. Maybe LaGuerta steers Doakes away from Dexter as well. In the early days of the original series, LaGuerta has a schoolgirl crush on Dexter and since she was once partners with Doakes, she convinces him that Dexter is nothing to worry about despite his constant mistrust.
None of this backstory can exist without first establishing the cast of characters we have now. It more than likely won’t be the origin of James Doakes in the series, but they’re definitely setting him for him to come enter in later seasons. Maybe we can get one more good “Surprise, motherf–er” out of it.
