Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Dexter: Original Sin episode “The Joy Of Killing.” Stream it with a Paramount+ subscription and read at your own risk!
Dexter: Original Sin is a delight to watch as a longtime fan of the original series, and that’s thanks in part to the easter eggs littered throughout Season 1. Sure, learning more about the bigger mysteries, like why Harry never tried to stop his son, is cool, but I also can’t get over all the nods to the future, like that spot-on reference to the Ice Truck Killer.
For readers who might’ve missed it, the easter egg for the O.G. series’ first killer popped up during “The Joy Of Killing,” in which Patrick Gibson’s Dexter Morgan was stalking Levi Reed. During one scene, a Miami Chills ice truck passes by in the background, and despite knowing that the company would exist and have trucks rolling around the city, it was still a moment worthy of hollering at my TV while wagging a pointer finger at the screen.
Even though it’s very likely not the exact same vehicle used by the Ice Truck Killer, who began life as Dexter’s biological brother Brian Moser, it wasn’t meant to be that kind of connective tissue. Even if it did pass in front of Dexter without him clocking it at all.
Creator Clyde Phillips wanted it to be a fun easter egg for eagle-eyed viewers to see, and confirmed to THR that the shot was intentional, saying:
We just threw that away! We didn’t do a close-up or anything. It looks like it’s the same ice truck, too…This season’s a whole Easter egg hunt.
While Phillips didn’t touch on other specific moments in the latest interview, fans believe this isn’t the first time Dexter: Original Sin referenced the Ice Truck Killer. In “Kid In A Candy Store,” Morgan is approached by a man dressed very similar to how Brian Moser was in Season 1, and the stranger has a brief exchange with Dexter while the latter waits on Masuka, Batista, and Watt.
Whether that was coincidental or not is anyone’s guess, but given the subtlety of the ice truck easter egg, I don’t think it’s wild to think Dexter: Original Sin will continue to reference his serial killer brother, though we don’t know to what extent. Dexter was oblivious to the fact one of the show’s most awful killers was brother before the reveal in Season 1, and changing that in the prequel would be a pretty massive retcon of the original story.
Clyde Phillips talked more about how excited he and the creative team were to fill the series with references to both the O.G series as well as the multiple timelines that are shown. As he put it:
There’s a lot of chatter on the internet already about what we’re putting in here and why. It’s also just so fun because this season is a period piece within a period piece. We have all of this great imagery we get to use from the ’90s, but also from the ’70s, with Harry’s storyline. We get to lay in all these wonderful wall phones, the first car phone, whatever it is. We’re having so much fun watching people watch out for all of that.
If it’s all nothing more than easter eggs for fans of the original Dexter to enjoy while watching this story, I’m ok with that. Presumably, if Dexter: Original Sin wants to create more parallels between shows, it can do so with the upcoming Resurrection continuation of New Blood‘s first season. I don’t mind the prequel series reshaping moments or giving context to stuff that happened in the original show, but I’d rather not see events being changed entirely.
Catch new episodes of Dexter: Original Sin on Paramount+ With Showtime on Fridays or on Showtime on Sundays at 10:00 p.m. ET. For those already watching and needing more to check out, there’s no shortage of Dexter-adjacent programs to check out for anyone interested!
