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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| NOTE: This page is only for Brian Moser's characterization in the TV franchise, as the original novel counterpart was not approved as Inconsistently Heinous. Therefore, only the TV version's info should be listed here. |
| “ | You can't be a killer and a hero. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY! | „ |
| ~ Brian attempting to convince Dexter to kill his sister Debra |
Brian Moser, also known as the Ice Truck Killer and falsely Rudy Cooper, is the secondary antagonist of the Dexter television franchise.
He is the biological older brother of protagonist Dexter Morgan. Alongside Dexter, he witnessed the live dismemberment of his mother Laura Moser when he was a child. Unlike Dexter, who was adopted by officer Harry Morgan and taught to channel his resulting homicidal tendencies according to a moral code, Brian grew up neglected in the foster care system, leading him to become an unrestrained serial killer.
In the first season of Dexter, Brian methodically commits a series of murders while leaving cryptic clues specifically designed to draw Dexter's attention, ultimately seeking to reconnect with his estranged brother via dating his adoptive sister Debra Morgan; his goal is to convince him to embrace his true nature without the limitations of Harry's code.
He was portrayed by Christian Camargo as an adult, and Brandon Killham and Xander Mateo as a child. In Original Sin, he was portrayed by Roby Attal.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- Even before he witnessed the brutal death of his mother as a child, he had shown some violent tendencies, like ripping the tails from reptiles, showing that he was always sadistic to some extent, even before he experienced his tragedy.
- After Laura’s death, when he was briefly staying at the Morgan household, he tried to suffocate Debra while she was still an infant with a pillow due to being annoyed with her crying. He doesn’t show remorse for this when Harry confronts him about it, holding a deep resentment towards him.
- When he left the mental institution he was placed in, he killed one of his former nurses, Raul Martinez. His reason for doing so was that Raul had pawned off the meds that Brian had been prescribed, with Brian believing that was why he wasn't 'getting better' and would be allowed to see Dexter, as well as believing that Raul had actually cared about him when he'd really been taking advantage of him. He had also previously assaulted Raul for the pawning of his medication.
- During Dexter: Original Sin, Brian became the N.H.I (No Human Involved) killer, having 4 suspected kills, one of which was Martinez and a physician from his time at the mental hospital. His murder of the physician was quite brutal, as he slammed his head into a table as well as a wall multiple times before finishing him off by beating him with a fire poker, and continued to beat the body after the physician was dead. It's indicated that the physician was his first murder. His reasoning for targeting his other victims, aside from Raul Martinez, who he'd come to despise for taking advantage of Brian, was that they 'hadn't been very nice' to him, and that they had all caused him grievances in the past.
- He sadistically dismembered an older woman named Barb to death with a chainsaw with a grin on his face as an act of revenge for separating him from Dexter when they were kids, as well as her repeated insistence that they'd find him a family that was "a better fit", with the result being his abandonment at the mental institute. While it's understandable that Brian holds this anger, Barb didn’t deserve to die like that.
- Before the events of the original Dexter series, he murdered a man named Rudy Cooper and stole his identity.
- He murdered several prostitutes, draining their bodies of blood, dismembering them, and putting their severed body parts into refrigerators.
- He kidnapped Tony Tucci and amputated his left hand, right foot, and right leg so he could lead Dexter to him and try to tempt his brother into killing Tony.
- Manipulated Deb into falling in love with him while plotting to make his brother Dexter kill her in the end.
- He murdered Joe Driscoll, his and Dexter's biological father.
- He murdered an old lady named Irma Hold for recognizing him as a "cable repair man" and being a potential witness to his murder of Joe.
- To give Dexter clues to his past, he recreated the crime scene of their mother's murder, which gave his brother traumatic flashbacks.
- He attempted to kill Angel Batista when he came close to discovering the truth about him, nearly succeeding in doing so.
- He kidnapped Deb after proposing to her and murdered a man called Fred so he could steal his car. He would then keep Fred's corpse in the trunk of the car right next to Debra, which would traumatize her further.
- He tried to get Dexter to abandon his code and kill Deb, even attempting to kill her himself when he refused, which resulted in Brian's death at his brother's hands.
- After his death, Debra would be traumatized by what happened, and people would even harass her because she had almost married a serial killer. Dexter would also adopt him as a thought-form to represent his darkest thoughts and ideas. Even years after Brian's death, Debra was left with the mental scars of what had happened.
- While he has some comedic moments, they aren't particularly detracting to his character.
- Despite Travis Marshall and Jordan Chase being arguably more heinous, Brian stands out for having lower resources than them since the former had a poison gas canister, the help of the Dorsey couple and the Sword of John the Revelator and the latter had wealth and a gang of friends whereas Brian just has himself. Even then, he has a higher kill count and his method is brutal as he slits the throats of women, leaves them to bleed out and dismembers their body parts to put in refrigerators, not to mention he has the unique crime of trying to kill a baby and in a brutal way via suffocation, something no other villain in the series has done except for Travis (who wouldn't have killed Harrison as brutally).
- In addition, while he has to compete with Oliver Saxon and Arthur Mitchell in personal villainy, he still stands out from both of them due to being the most personal enemy of Deb as he almost killed her as an infant, manipulated her into loving him and eventually betrayed her and is responsible for her PTSD after his death. His scale is even equal to Oliver's, meaning he is just as bad as him.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is far too tragic to be NPE, as he was traumatized by watching his mother being cut down and murdered by drug dealers in front of him, and he was older than Dexter, so he remembers it more clearly. He also notes how, while Dexter was too young, making it easier for him to block it out, he himself had never forgotten that traumatic experience. He, like Dexter, was left in a pool of blood of their mother for two days until they were found. While Harry did briefly take Brian in as well, he was more negligent toward him compared to Dexter, which fueled Brian’s anger and hatred for him. Later, he’s forcibly separated from Dexter before being put into the foster care system, where he was abused constantly by his foster families before being moved into a mental facility until he was 22, being lied to that he’ll see his brother. Meanwhile, Raul Martinez (who Brian thought actually cared for him) was pawning off his drugs while making money from a security guard who paid for them. When Brian rightfully confronts Raul about this betrayal, calling him a liar, he was dragged away and put in an empty room, where he sat there alone, staring into the abyss. Brian even mentions to his therapist that all of his 'improvements' over the years were to be able to see his brother again, and he only committed his first murder after he was told by his therapist that Dexter would be a trigger for him, and he couldn't see him. When Harry finds Brian’s medical records after he was discharged, one of the major things listed was that he has ‘Major Depressive Disorder’. Not to mention that these same files mention that Brian knew about Harry’s relationship with Laura, which got her brutally killed in the first place. While it doesn’t justify his actions, it’s still a pretty tragic background, as he even cuts the women the same way. Harry even seemed to have gone out of his way to make sure that Dexter didn't know about Brian's existence, given that he immediately crumpled one of the records, which contained information about Dexter's link to Brian, and refused to tell Dexter more about his past, other than telling him that he'd been found at a crime scene.
- Even though he was shown to be sadistic as a child in Original Sin, this doesn't disqualify him from being tragic as the trauma only made an existing problem in him many times worse to the point that Harry refused to adopt him, which, if he did, his sadistic traits would have likely been at around Dexter's level or less. It also doesn't change how affected he is by his trauma and longing for a family, which is a genuine insecurity in Brian.
- He was so affected by this tragedy that he had serious traumatic flashbacks to the event of his mother's death when he was locked in a closet by one of his foster family members, causing him to react when the mother let him out and bite her because of how traumatized he was from watching her death. This also implies that trying to kill Debra was out of a similar traumatic stimulus (screaming) that caused him to have intrusive flashbacks to his mother's murder via the screams and cries of the victims.
- It's also shown that both of Brian's parents were involved in the cartel and it's possible that he had a terrible relationship with his father, which Harry arrested. If this is true, this makes him even more tragic as it explains the sadistic tendencies that he had before watching his mother's death. It’s also noted that his father wanted nothing to do with him and Dexter, even after Laura died, showing he was a terrible father.
- While not a villain by proxy due to his murders and sadism, meaning he is willingly evil, he would have likely turned out like Dexter if he had been cared for by someone like Harry Morgan, making him a genuinely tragic character.
- To drive this home, all of this is played for great sympathy to where even Dexter feels bad for him, and Harry feels remorse for everything that happened to Brian because of him. His main motive is also very sympathetic and understandable, wanting to finally reunite with his long-lost brother after being separated from him.
- Despite how twisted he turned out to be, he shows genuine care for a couple of people:
- He deeply loves Dexter, comforting him when he injured himself when he was young and being motivated throughout the first season by a desire to connect with him, which is even further expanded on in Original Sin. When the two were left in the shipping container with their mothers' remains and all of the blood, Brian did his best to distract Dexter and keep him focused on the nursery rhymes he would repeat to him. We also see that as soon as Brian was discharged from the mental facility, he tried to connect with Dexter, asking if he could sit with him in Original Sin, hiding his sadness and outrage when he realizes that Dexter doesn't remember or recognize him. He also had chances to kill Dexter, but he couldn’t do it as he truly saw him as a person that he could connect with. He's even shown empathy towards Dexter that he never shows to any other, like when he is going through Joe Driscoll's death (even though he killed Driscoll), he goes with Dexter (the latter not knowing that he was actually Brian) to dump Driscoll's ashes to bring closure to him. When Dexter finally realizes Brian's existence as "Biney", he is pleased to know that his brother finally remembers him. When their reunion doesn't go as planned, he is quite saddened and feels some regret for dosing Dexter with M99, saying "I didn't want to do it this way". When Brian also breaks into Dexter's apartment to kill Debra one last time, he stares at Dexter without any intent on harming him, making sure that he is asleep. They have an emotional last scene where Brian says Dexter needs freeing and shows no anger or hate towards him despite Dexter refusing to kill Debra and preparing to kill him, only sadness as he sheds genuine tears. He is also genuinely affable towards Dexter (even as Rudy), despite being Faux-Affable to almost everyone else.
- The scene where Brian (as Rudy) and Dexter are shown conversing at Miami Metro PD and sharing some laughs is one of the few moments Brian was ever genuinely happy since his mother's death, letting out genuine laughs.
- This also extends to his mother, Laura Moser, as evidenced by how he kept the house she raised him and Dexter in for many decades following her death. He also notes how his mother told him to always look after Dexter, which strengthened his desire to connect with his brother even after their long separation. We even see Brian as a child angrily telling Harry that he misses his mom, blaming him for her death. Even years after her death, Brian never seemed to blame his mother for what had happened: he was quick to blame everything on Harry for forcing Laura to become an informant, as well as the ramifications of her affair with Harry. He also paints the fingernails of his female victims in the same distinct colors that she painted them.
- For both of them combined, he's shown to be protective of them when he defends Dexter and Laura from the cartel when they break into their home to kidnap them. He also tells Barb before killing her that what he needed was his family, proving that his love for his mother and brother never wavered, even into adulthood.
- He deeply loves Dexter, comforting him when he injured himself when he was young and being motivated throughout the first season by a desire to connect with him, which is even further expanded on in Original Sin. When the two were left in the shipping container with their mothers' remains and all of the blood, Brian did his best to distract Dexter and keep him focused on the nursery rhymes he would repeat to him. We also see that as soon as Brian was discharged from the mental facility, he tried to connect with Dexter, asking if he could sit with him in Original Sin, hiding his sadness and outrage when he realizes that Dexter doesn't remember or recognize him. He also had chances to kill Dexter, but he couldn’t do it as he truly saw him as a person that he could connect with. He's even shown empathy towards Dexter that he never shows to any other, like when he is going through Joe Driscoll's death (even though he killed Driscoll), he goes with Dexter (the latter not knowing that he was actually Brian) to dump Driscoll's ashes to bring closure to him. When Dexter finally realizes Brian's existence as "Biney", he is pleased to know that his brother finally remembers him. When their reunion doesn't go as planned, he is quite saddened and feels some regret for dosing Dexter with M99, saying "I didn't want to do it this way". When Brian also breaks into Dexter's apartment to kill Debra one last time, he stares at Dexter without any intent on harming him, making sure that he is asleep. They have an emotional last scene where Brian says Dexter needs freeing and shows no anger or hate towards him despite Dexter refusing to kill Debra and preparing to kill him, only sadness as he sheds genuine tears. He is also genuinely affable towards Dexter (even as Rudy), despite being Faux-Affable to almost everyone else.
- Though he hated Harry for separating him from Dexter and leaving him in the foster care system, he spared his life when he had a chance to kill him. His reason for sparing him was because he realized that Harry actually had been good for Dexter and had allowed his little brother to thrive and live a good life, leaving Harry a message that says “You’re right” when he wakes up, showing some honor, and is possibly a rare Pet-the-Dog moment from him. Even years later, while he expressed anger and distaste to Harry when discussing him with Dexter when Dexter had finally remembered him, he still acknowledged that Harry had tried to help Dexter.
- His death is played for sympathy, as while he was a terrible person who committed vile and disgusting acts, on Dexter's table, he tries to make excuses to Dexter, arguing that since Debra isn’t blood-related, he should be the one having the connection with Dexter instead. Before having his throat slit, he cries a tear when he’s about to die, and even Dexter feels his first ounce of remorse towards one of his victims. Brian even remains in Dexter's head as a thought-form after his death as a sign of his remorse for killing Brian, and when imagining him, Dexter imagines him the same way he'd been in their final meetings: caring for his little brother.
- Resurrection even shows that even more than 10 years after he killed Brian, he still felt a deep sense of guilt for doing so, Dexter remembering Brian's death brings a saddened look on his face when he sees the same kill table he used to kill Brian. Dexter even recalls how much he misses him to Gareth/"Gemini" before killing him.
Trivia[]
- He, Arthur Mitchell and Travis Marshall are the only three Dexter villains to be Inconsistently Heinous. However, Dexter from the novel series could also possibly count.
- Although he is Inconsistently Heinous, his brother Dexter is Inconsistently Admirable, making them each other’s polar opposite.
External Links[]
- Brian Moser on the Villains Wiki
[]
 Inconsistently Heinous
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