Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Dexter: New Blood episode 3, "Smoke Signals."
Books visible in Dexter: New Blood, episode 3, “Smoke Signals” are Easter eggs that set up an Ethan twist. While the revival series has made many references to the original Showtime hit, with the books Unthinkable and Fall From Grace, showrunner Clyde Phillips is leaving a big clue for what is to come in Dexter: New Blood.
New Blood has gradually shown the experience of Lily (Kimmy Anne Dunn) being captured by an unknown serial killer, who keeps her locked in a room with surveillance cameras. In Dexter: New Blood episode 3, the audience gets a better look at the man that is keeping her captive, as well as several of his personal effects before he shoots Lily, seemingly for sport. Sitting on the serial killer’s desk next to his computer with the surveillance footage on it is a pile of four books. Two of these books are written by Clyde Phillips himself and the titles can be clearly read: Unthinkable and Fall From Grace.
Clyde Phillips’ Unthinkable and Fall From Grace are both real books that are the first and fourth installments in his Jane Candiotti series, and their overt presence in this scene is likely more than some easy product placement. The plot of Unthinkable follows a homicide lieutenant, Jane Candiotti, in the wake of a horrific mass shooting that claims the life of her nephew. On the surface, this Easter egg already seems to be teasing a mass shooting for later in the series, with Harrison's new friend Ethan being a likely culprit. Episode 3 has Ethan going from being a meek unpopular kid to Harrison learning that he might be more seriously troubled. The teaser for Dexter: New Blood episode 4 appears to confirm that the show will move on to include a school shooting as well.
The likelihood of an intentional connection between Clyde Phillips’ Unthinkable and the plot of Dexter: New Blood is emphasized by another story beat. In Phillips’ book, Jane Candiotti is pregnant with her first child and has been ordered by her doctor to rest. Both Dexter (Michael C. Hall) and Angela Bishop (Julia Jones) are struggling as parents in different ways and the show has already established an important theme of legacies and what is passed on to your children. Simultaneously, Fall From Grace sees Jane Candiotti drawn towards a relationship with a man who might be the prime suspect of his late wife's murder, a potential indication of Dexter: New Blood’s upcoming complexities between Angela and Dexter.
All of this suggests that the Easter egg of Clyde Phillips’ novels being on the serial killer’s desk might go one step further in giving away the upcoming plot of Dexter: New Blood. In Unthinkable, Jane Candiotti ends up enlisting the help of a dangerous ex-convict to help with finding the shooter and uncovers a connection to an older murder case in the process. Following on from the other connections, it seems logical that Dexter: New Blood will echo other parts of the plot in a similar with Dexter taking the role of the ex-convict helping the police and a likely cold case to be brought up in the process. This might also mean that rather than the show ending with Dexter’s death, he might turn over a new leaf and merely help the police bring the killer in.
Dexter: New Blood releases new episodes Sundays on Showtime