Dexter: Original Sin’s Weirdest Scene So Far Is A Harsh Reminder About Dexter Morgan's Real Identity

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Dexter: Original Sin episode 7.

This article discusses real-life serial killers and their crimes, including sexual assault.

Dexter: Original Sin episode 7 included one of the weirdest scenes in the entire show so far, and it was a harsh wake-up call about Dexter Morgan's (Patrick Gibson) real identity. Part of the reason why Dexter has been so popular for almost 20 years is because Dexter Morgan the character is popular. There are millions of people who loved watching Michael C. Hall get into weird and tense situations, and now think Patrick Gibson's Dexter is the best character in Original Sin. Unfortunately, one weird scene from Original Sin made it harder to sympathize with Dexter.

Dexter: Original Sin has quite a few moments that Dexter fans have come to appreciate about the character. From Dexter's ham-fisted relationship with Sofia (Raquel Justice) to his dorky but earnest support of Debra (Molly Brown), most of the episode continued to make Dexter a lovable anti-hero. It even included Dexter's embarrassing inner monologue to make him even more endearing. One scene in Dexter: Original Sin episode 7, however, pulled back the illusion that Dexter is just a dorky vigilante and reminded audiences about how dark and disturbing he really is.

Dexter: Original Sin Episode 7’s Vision Of Real Killers Was Very Strange

Original Sin Portrayed Some Truly Awful Serial Killers In A Very Playful Light

In Dexter: Original Sin episode 7, Dexter struggled with finding a new place to dump the bodies of his victims, and he tried to find inspiration from history. While looking through old newspapers, Dexter had imaginary visits from Ed Gein, aka the Butcher of Plainfield, David Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam, and John Wayne Gacy, aka the Killer Clown of Chicago. It wasn't the first time Original Sin referenced real killers, as Dexter idolized Ted Bundy in the premiere, but episode 7's serial killers were much stranger than that, and not in a good way.

Several other shows have a morbid fascination with serial killers, but they rarely treat them as lighthearted cameos like Original Sin did.

The killers Original Sin episode 7 chose to include were all truly awful monsters. Son of Sam gunned down six innocent people, Ed Gein turned corpses into furniture, and John Wayne Gacy raped, tortured, and killed at least 33 children and young men. Despite the heinousness of their crimes, Original Sin portrayed all of its real serial killers in a disturbingly playful manner. Dexter even told Gacy a joke about how Harry Morgan would kill him if he buried victims in his crawl space. Several other shows have a morbid fascination with serial killers, but they rarely treat them as lighthearted cameos like Original Sin did.

Original Sin Including Real Serial Killers Makes Dexter Harder To Sympathize With

Original Sin Removed Dexter's Layer Of Disbelief By Comparing Him To Real Monsters

Dexter Morgan is, at the end of the day, a serial killer, and Original Sin's decision to include real-life serial killers made that fact harder to ignore. One of the reasons Dexter comes across as a lovable goofball who serves vigilante justice is because his shows always had the veneer of fiction to remove him from reality. It was easy to suspend disbelief and think of Dexter as a character because Dexter never got too real, but Original Sin just changed that. By bringing in actual monsters from the real world, Original Sin made it harder to think of Dexter as just an endearing dweeb.

By having Dexter converse with actual serial killers, Original Sin opened him up to comparison to those real-life monsters. Seeing John Wayne Gacy and remembering just how horrid his crimes were serves as a wake-up call that Dexter isn't much better than them. He may target criminals, but it's hard to go back to sympathizing with Dexter and rooting for him to escape capture after reminding audiences about some of the most heinous serial killers in history. It also serves as a reminder that Dexter: Original Sin is basically portraying Dexter as a goofball instead of the monster he should be viewed as.