Arthur Mitchell (Dexter)
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Arthur Mitchell, often referred to as the "Trinity Killer", is a fictional character in the Showtime TV Series Dexter. The character is portrayed by John Lithgow, who won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his performance. He is the main antagonist in season four.
Character overview
Arthur Mitchell is an unassuming suburbanite and family man — who for 30 years has been living a double life as a serial killer. Frank Lundy dubs him the "Trinity Killer" because of a recurring pattern of three killings. First, Mitchell would kill a young woman in a bathtub by slicing her femoral artery with a straight razor while putting her in a choke hold, and holding up a small mirror so that he can see her face as she dies. His second victim is a married mother of two, whom he kidnaps and forces to jump to her death from an abandoned building. His third victim is a father of two, whom he bludgeons to death with a hammer. At each site he places a small sample of his sister's ashes, and arranges the victim's arm to point at the ash. He has repeated this cycle in different cities all over the United States.
At first, Dexter Morgan is fascinated by Mitchell's efficient killing methods and apparent ability to balance his familial responsibilities with his secret life as a serial killer.
Mitchell is married and has a son and daughter by his wife. He has another, older daughter by a previous relationship, who witnessed one of his murders as a child. He treats her like a shameful secret, forbidding her from contacting him and keeping her existence hidden from his other family. She tries unsuccessfully to win his love, going so far as to commit murder for him; in "Dex Takes a Holiday", she kills Lundy and wounds Dexter's foster sister Debra to protect her father from the police. In the episode "Hello, Dexter Morgan", Mitchell renounces all ties to her, angrily telling her he wishes she had never been born; she commits suicide shortly afterward.
In "Road Kill", it is revealed that members of his family died in the same way as his victims: his sister died in a bathtub in 1959, his mother jumped to her death in 1961, and his father was bludgeoned to death in 1962 (presumably by him). In the episode "Lost Boys", it is revealed that he does not kill three victims but four: The first victim of his cycle is a young boy whom Mitchell kidnaps, drugs, and then buries alive in concrete. As the bodies of these children were never found, they were considered to be cases of kidnapping rather than murder, so Lundy never made the connection. With this new information, Dexter concludes that each of Mitchell's victims represents one of his family members, with the boy representing Mitchell himself.
Story progression
In season four, Mitchell begins the cycle again, killing his victims at the original murder sites. After killing the woman in the bathtub, Mitchell takes a shower in scalding hot water and, after forcing a mother to fall to her death, he provokes a drunken man into beating him up ("Living the Dream").
FBI agent Frank Lundy comes out of retirement to hunt Trinity down, but is shot and killed just as he begins to close in on him ("Dex Takes a Holiday"). Lundy had theorized that Trinity was a loner who had no life outside killing. When Dexter goes to kill Trinity, he discovers that Trinity is a husband and father, as well as a prominent figure in a charitable Christian homebuilding organization. He uses this organization to travel around the country to cover for his murder spree, and as a dump site for the first victim in his cycle.
Dexter is conflicted over whether to kill Mitchell or learn how he made his family life work. Dexter, under the alias of Kyle Butler, befriends Mitchell and soon learns that, unlike Dexter, Mitchell has no problem being himself with his family or expressing affection. He also witnesses Mitchell's strange, unpredictable personality; the same man who murders people with uncommon brutality is distraught to the point of tears when he and Dexter hit a deer, and is appalled at the idea of putting it out of its misery ("Slack Tide").
As Mitchell plans a trip to Tampa to build a house, Dexter concocts a plan to go to a meteorological convention to establish an alibi so he has a reason to be in Tampa as well ("Road Kill"). Mitchell reluctantly allows Dexter to tag along when Dexter claims he's done something terrible that only Mitchell can help him recover from. Dexter, hoping to redeem his murder of the innocent man, plans to murder the decidedly guilty Mitchell along the way. During their road trip, however, Mitchell pushes Dexter to admit his terrible deed, and Dexter claims to have killed someone in a hunting accident. This admission greatly affects Mitchell, who sees it as a sign of kinship. He takes Dexter to his old home and tells him that when he was 10, he startled his sister while spying on her in the shower; she fell and broke the glass door, slicing her femoral artery and bleeding to death. His mother later committed suicide by leaping off a building, leaving him in the care of his abusive father; Dexter theorizes that Mitchell bludgeoned his father to death, accounting for the third victim.
For the remainder of the trip Mitchell exhibits sudden mood swings and irrational behavior; he keeps telling random people about his family members' deaths and stresses the need for confession, to the point that Dexter is actually worried about maintaining Mitchell telling people about Dexter's previously mentioned murder. One morning, Dexter sneaks into Mitchell's room, intent on killing him, only to find Mitchell gone. Dexter tracks him to a construction site where Mitchell attempts to commit suicide. Dexter reluctantly stops him, wanting to kill Mitchell himself. Dexter contemplates letting Mitchell fall to his death, but as he's about to let go, workers at the site come to help Dexter save him. Mitchell has a newfound zest for life, believing God sent Dexter to save him.
As Dexter gets to know Mitchell, he learns that he is not the loving family man he appears to be; he is in fact abusive, dominating his wife, beating his son and keeping his daughter virtually imprisoned up in her room. During Thanksgiving, Mitchell's son, Jonah, lashes out at his father, destroying his homebuilder's plaques and smashing his sister's urn. In a fit of rage, Mitchell almost strangles Jonah, but Dexter interferes, dragging him into the kitchen. Just as Dexter has Mitchell at his mercy, however, Mitchell's wife and daughter rush in to stop him ("Hungry Man"). In "Lost Boys", Dexter witnesses Mitchell kidnap a child, but is unable to stop him. Eventually Dexter tracks him down as he's about to bury the boy alive in drying concrete. Dexter saves the boy, but Mitchell escapes. After Mitchell learns from a news report that the boy is alive, and that Dexter didn't turn Mitchell in, he begins to become suspicious of Dexter. As he tries to find Dexter he kills a man named Kyle Butler, and ultimately follows Dexter to the police station he works for and discovers Dexter's real name ("Hello, Dexter Morgan").
In the last episode of the season, "The Getaway", Dexter kills Mitchell in the room where he had held the kidnapped child. Mitchell believes Dexter was sent by God to kill him, and claims that he had tried and failed several times to stop killing, before finally realizing that he could not control his violent urges; he then predicts a similar fate for Dexter. It is revealed in the final scene of the episode that Mitchell killed Dexter's wife, Rita, in the bathtub of Dexter's house, and that he left Dexter's son Harrison in her blood, mirroring the childhood trauma that turned Dexter into a sociopath.
