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Yesterday, I finished up Season 4 of Dexter. On it, John Lithgow delivers an Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning performance as Arthur Mitchell, the “Trinity Killer.” Arthur Mitchell is a family-man, deacon, and builder of homes for the homeless by day, but he’s the Trinity Killer by night (or when he’s on trips). His wife and kids experience his abuse, however, even though they look like the perfect family to the outside world.
Arthur Mitchell had a traumatic childhood. He startled his sister in the shower when he was ten-years-old, which resulted in her accidental death, as her body smashed against the shower’s glass. In despair, his Mom then killed herself by jumping off a building, leaving Arthur with his drunken, abusive father. Arthur later killed his Dad by bludgeoning him with a hammer. Arthur re-enacts these events at various points in his life. His murders follow a pattern. First, he kills a woman in a bath-tub. Second, he makes a woman jump off a tall building. Third, he bludgeons a man to death. This three-fold pattern of his murders is why he is called the “Trinity Killer.” And yet, we learn in the course of the series that there is an earlier step in his pattern, before he performs the bath-tub murder: he kidnaps a male child, calls the child “Arthur,” and encases him in cement to preserve his innocence.
Dexter has homicidal tendencies, but he channels them into vigilantism, as he puts murderers permanently off the street. Dexter himself had a traumatic childhood experience: he and his brother (who grew up to become the “Ice Truck Killer” of Season 1) witnessed their mother being sliced to death with a chain-saw. As with Arthur, Dexter’s childhood trauma shaped how he performed his murders as an adult: Dexter cuts up his victims with a chain-saw.
Dexter plots to put the Trinity Killer off the street, but he tries to get close to him because he hopes that Arthur can teach him something. Dexter now has a family—his wife Rita, Rita’s two children, and his newborn son with Rita, Harrison. Dexter is not entirely sure how he should act in a family, for he often doesn’t have emotions; as a result—although he can put on a friendly, charming facade before others—he’s not entirely sure what people in his family want from him. Moreover, Dexter wonders how he can balance his family life with his extra-curricular activity, while concealing from his family the nature of that activity. Because Arthur is a serial killer who has a family, Dexter thinks that Arthur can offer him advice.
Dexter approaches Arthur under another name (“Kyle”), posing as a potential congregant at Arthur’s church. Arthur does not know that Dexter works with the police. Dexter gets some helpful tips from Arthur (i.e., encourage your kids to participate in activities, such as sailing), but, as he learns about Arthur’s abuse of his family, Dexter concludes that he does not want to be like Arthur.
Eventually, Arthur learns that “Kyle” is really Dexter Morgan of the Miami Police Department, and Dexter later gets Arthur on his slaughtering table. In a poignant conversation, Arthur says that he prayed repeatedly that God might take away his homicidal tendencies, but God did not do so. Dexter then replies that Arthur did not actively work to keep his tendencies in check, but he passively waited on God. In Arthur’s final minutes, Dexter agrees to play some 50′s music and to run Arthur’s toy train, reminding Arthur of the innocent childhood for which he longed. Then, Dexter puts Arthur to death.
I could not help but feel sorry for Arthur, a person scarred by a childhood trauma, who is trying to recapture his innocence as a little boy. At the same time, Arthur had to be removed from society, for he was killing people’s mothers, sisters, brothers, and fathers. How would I feel if somebody killed one of my friends or loved ones? What could have been done to help Arthur to heal, thereby preventing Arthur from committing murders? Therapy? Authentic community?
Dexter’s conversation with Arthur about God also stood out to me. I can look to God to help me to become a better person, but I am still responsible for my own actions. Even if God does not remove a person’s dark tendencies, that person is still responsible not to act on them.
